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ANALYSIS: small is beautiful when it comes to flood protection

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2014Environmentcounter flooding, flood defences, flood protection, flood technologies, surface water flooding

As a series of unprecedented storms continue to wreak havoc on the country, Dr Angela Connelly, from The University of Manchester who has just completed research into innovative new flood technologies, argues we can no longer rely on large scale flood defences

“The appalling storms battering Britain are bringing flood misery to people living in many parts of the country. But when the clean-up really does start, those people so badly affected will want to know if there is more that can be done to deal with future threats. Long term actions may be some way off, but these are important questions which should be raised now, particularly in light of David Cameron’s commitment to offer 5, 800 households up to £5000 to make their homes more resilient. (more…)

Satellite tracking identifies Atlantic Ocean risk zones for leatherback turtles

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2014Natureatlantic ocean, equatorial atlantic, exclusive economic zones, iconic species, leatherback turtles, matthew witt, penryn campus, phil doherty, professor brendan godley, risk zone, sabrina fossette, satellite tracking, seaturtle, swansea university, university of exeter, website

The last large populations of the leatherback turtle are at risk because their migratory routes in the Atlantic Ocean clash with the locations of industrial fisheries, a new study shows.

Researchers used data from satellite transmitters attached to the turtles to track their movements across the Atlantic Ocean. These movements were then overlapped with information on high pressure fishing areas to identify where the turtles are most susceptible to becoming entangled and where they may drown. (more…)

Personal Performance Coaching to Help You Reach Your Career Goals

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2014Jobs, Small Businessperformance coaching, positive goals, working with conflicts

Performance coaching isn’t just for businesses to help them increase their bottom dollar. Individual coaching is available to anyone that wants to further their career and reach their ultimate goals. Whether you are fresh out of college, starting a new job or a seasoned professional, performance coaching can take you to the next level in your career and give it the jumpstart it needs to get to the right track. (more…)

Black holes do not exist as we thought they did

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2014Scienceblack holes, microscopic world, quantum mechanics, theory of gravity

On January 24, the journal Nature published an article entitled “There are no black holes.” 1 It doesn’t take much to spark controversy in the world of physics…But what does this really mean? In a brief article published on arXiv, a scientific preprint server, Stephen Hawking proposed a theory of black holes that could reconcile the principles of general relativity and quantum physics. (more…)

Understanding the basic biology of bipolar disorder

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2014Health3d image, basic biology, biological pathway, bipolar disorder, brain, carrie bearden, clinical symptoms, cognitive function, genetic causes, genetic component, human behavior, illness, nelson freimer, ucla

Scientists from UCLA, UC San Francisco, Costa Rica and Colombia take steps to identify genetic component to mental illness

Scientists know there is a strong genetic component to bipolar disorder, but they have had an extremely difficult time identifying the genes that cause it. So, in an effort to better understand the illness’s genetic causes, researchers at UCLA tried a new approach. (more…)

“Blue Dot” – die Erde mit Alexander Gersts Augen sehen

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2014Sciencealexander gerst, astronaut reid wiseman, blue dot, die erde, die reise, dlr, esa astronaut, internationalen raumstation, iss, maxim surajew, NASA

Die Uhr tickt: In 100 Tagen wird der deutsche ESA-Astronaut Alexander Gerst zur Internationalen Raumstation ISS starten – gemeinsam mit seinen Kollegen, dem NASA-Astronaut Reid Wiseman und dem russischen Kosmonauten Maxim Surajew.

An Bord einer Sojus-Trägerrakete werden 274 Tonnen Treibstoff sie auf 28.000 Stundenkilometer beschleunigen. Damit werden Sie den orbitalen Außenposten der Menschheit in weniger als sieben Stunden erreichen. Der für den 28. Mai 2014 geplante Start ist der Beginn von Alexanders sechsmonatiger Mission “Blue Dot” als Teil der ISS Expedition 40/41. (more…)

Fruit flies – fermented-fruit connoisseurs – are relentless party crashers

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2014Sciencealgorithm, controlling robotic systems, dickinson lab, fermented fruit connoisseurs, floris van breugel, fruit flies, genus drosophila, glass of cabernet, mental map, michael dickinson, neurons, robot, university of washington, visual exploration

That fruit fly joining you just moments after you poured that first glass of cabernet, has just used its poppy-seed-sized brain to conduct a finely-choreographed search, one that’s been described for the first time by researchers at the University of Washington.

The search mission is another example of fruit flies executing complex behaviors with very little “computational” power, their brains having 100,000 neurons compared to house flies with 300,000 neurons and humans with 100 billion. (more…)

Feinstaub und Stickstoffdioxid belasten auch 2013 weiter die Gesundheit

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2014Environmentdeutschland, eu grenzwerte, europa, feinstaub, gesundheit, gesundheit in deutschland, luftqualitaet, mikrogramm, no2, ozonbelastung im sommer, stickstoffdioxid, thomas holzmann, uba, umweltbundesamt

Jährlich rund 47.000 vorzeitige Todesfälle durch schlechte Luft

Vor allem Stickstoffdioxid und Feinstaub beeinträchtigten auch im Jahr 2013 die Luftqualität und damit die menschliche Gesundheit in Deutschland. Das zeigen vorläufige Messdaten der Länder und des Umweltbundesamtes (UBA). Beim Stickstoffdioxid war die Belastung im Vergleich zu den Vorjahren nahezu unverändert hoch. Mehr als die Hälfte der städtisch verkehrsnahen Stationen überschritten den zulässigen Jahresmittelwert von 40 Mikrogramm (μg) Stickstoffdioxid (NO2) pro Kubikmeter (m3) Luft. Auch beim Feinstaub gab es anhaltende Grenzwertüberschreitungen. Verglichen mit den Vorjahren war 2013 allerdings eines der am geringsten belasteten Jahre. Entwarnung ist aber nicht angezeigt, sagte Thomas Holzmann, Vizepräsident des UBA: „Der Feinstaub-Grenzwert wurde zwar nur an rund drei Prozent aller Messstationen überschritten. Das scheint gering, spiegelt aber die tatsächliche Gesundheitsbelastung der Bevölkerung durch Feinstaub nicht wider, gerade wenn man an die deutlich strengeren Empfehlungen der Weltgesundheitsorganisation WHO denkt.“ (more…)

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