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Big is not bad: Scientists call for preservation of large carnivores

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2014Naturefight climate change, large carnivores, olive baboons, predators in coexistence, risk of extinction, sustainable pasture lands

The world is losing its large carnivores, their ranges are collapsing and many species are at risk of extinction.

“Promoting tolerance and coexistence with large carnivores is a crucial societal challenge that will ultimately determine the fate of Earth’s largest carnivores and all that depends upon them, including humans,” write the co-authors of a review article, in the Jan. 10 issue of Science, about the largest carnivore species on Earth. (more…)

A Norwegian defense

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2014Education, Science19th century, atlantic, brain cancer, characterization, christopher columbus, deni galileo, egil johnson, finland, glioblastoma cells, glioblastoma multiforme, iver langmoen, joel glover, juha jaaskelainen, kuopio university, mrinal joel, newark, norway, norwegian capital, norwegian defense, norwegians discovered america, oslo, ph d defense, small viking ships, stem cell, university of delaware, viking ship museum, xenotypic tissue environments

Brain cancer researcher travels to Oslo for dissertation defense

As winter weather hit Newark, Del., on Sunday, Dec. 8, a University of Delaware brain cancer researcher escaped the storm by traveling to Oslo, Norway, of all places.

The Norwegian capital also received its first snow of the season that day, but it only accumulated to about three inches, according to Deni Galileo, associate professor of biological sciences at UD. He traveled to Oslo to take part in the Ph.D. defense of Mrinal Joel, a University of Oslo doctoral student who, like Galileo, is working on the most lethal type of brain cancer, Glioblastoma multiforme. (more…)

A rare crash at the Milky Way’s core: U-Michigan astronomers could be the first to see it

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2014Scienceconstellation, core, g2, galactic center, galaxy by spring, gaseous g2 object, mark reynolds, Milky Way, mysterious gas cloud, NASA, nathalie degenaar, rare collision, sagittarius, scorpius, supermassive black hole, swift telescope, u michigan astronomers, university of michigan, xray wavelengths

ANN ARBOR — University of Michigan astronomers could be the first to witness a rare collision expected to happen at the center of the galaxy by spring.

With NASA’s orbiting Swift telescope, the U-M team is taking daily images of a mysterious gas cloud about three times the mass of Earth that’s spiraling toward the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s core. From our vantage point, the core lies more than 25,000 light years away in the southern summer sky near the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. (more…)

Also daher weht der Wind!

By Guest PostJanuary 9, 2014Environmentadria, alpen, an winde, balkan, bora, christian, dagmar, deutscher wetterdienst, deutschland, gebirge, griechenland, italien, lexikon des dwd, magdalena bertelmann, mittelmeer, passat, planetarischen zirkulation, sahara, scirocco, spanien, sturmtief, vento, xaver

Woran denken Sie, wenn Sie “Passat”, “Scirocco”, “Bora” oder “Vento”
lesen? Richtig: An Winde!

Wind war in Deutschland in den letzten Wochen ein häufiges Thema:
Nach den Sturmtiefs CHRISTIAN und XAVER brachten noch einige andere
Tiefausläufer windiges und zum Teil stürmisches Wetter mit sich. Auch
aktuell haben wir es wieder mit viel Wind zu tun – derzeit ist es das
Tief DAGMAR, das uns im Norden der Bundesrepublik eine frische Brise
um die Nase weht. (more…)

Quantum mechanics explains efficiency of photosynthesis

By Guest PostJanuary 9, 2014Sciencealexandra olaya castro, chromophore vibrations, classical physics, clover leaf, efficiency of photosynthesis, energy transfer, light gathering macromolecules, molecular vibrations, non classical explanation, quantum, quantum mechanics, quantum of energy, quantum physics, quantum states, scott robinson, theoretical evidence, vibrational degrees

Light-gathering macromolecules in plant cells transfer energy by taking advantage of molecular vibrations whose physical descriptions have no equivalents in classical physics, according to the first unambiguous theoretical evidence of quantum effects in photosynthesis published today in the journal Nature Communications.

The majority of light-gathering macromolecules are composed of chromophores (responsible for the colour of molecules) attached to proteins, which carry out the first step of photosynthesis, capturing sunlight and transferring the associated energy highly efficiently. Previous experiments suggest that energy is transferred in a wave-like manner, exploiting quantum phenomena, but crucially, a non-classical explanation could not be conclusively proved as the phenomena identified could equally be described using classical physics. (more…)

IBM Forms New Watson Group to Meet Growing Demand for Cognitive Innovations

By Guest PostJanuary 9, 2014Technologyanalytics, big data, cloud delivered, cognitive applications, cognitive innovations, ibm, ibm clients, ibm founder, information technology, md buyline, michael rhodin, new watson group, new york city, research firm gartner, silicon alley, thomas j watson

Headquartered in NYC’s “Silicon Alley,” New IBM Watson Group to Include Watson Innovation Hub, Fueling New Products and Start-ups
Watson Group Introduces New Cloud Solutions to Accelerate Research, Visualize Big Data and Enable Analytics Exploration

ARMONK, N.Y. – 09 Jan 2014: IBM today announced it will establish the IBM Watson Group, a new business unit dedicated to the development and commercialization of cloud-delivered cognitive innovations. The move signifies a strategic shift by IBM to accelerate into the marketplace a new class of software, services and apps that think, improve by learning, and discover answers and insights to complex questions from massive amounts of Big Data. (more…)

Weißrussland: Opposition und Zensur in einer Diktatur

By Guest PostJanuary 9, 2014Politicsaktuelle situation, alexander lukaschenko, blogs, denis friedrich, exil, Facebook, guido westerwelle, internet, internet cafe, irena sargsyan, lettland, letzte diktatur europas, litauen, osteuropa experte, pka, polen, reporter ohne grenzen, rog, russland, ukraine, website, weissrussland

Weißrussland gilt als letzte Diktatur Europas. Eine mögliche Öffnung in Richtung Europa liegt in weiter Ferne, und auch um die Meinungsfreiheit im Internet ist es in der ehemaligen Sowjetrepublik schlecht bestellt. Seit einer Gesetzesänderung im Januar 2012 haben viele Regimekritiker sich aus dem Netz zurückgezogen. Ein Überblick über die aktuelle Situation.

Während die Opposition in Russland das Internet aktiv für die politische Meinungsbildung nutzt und sich dieser Trend auch in der Ukraine rasant entwickelt, fehlt es in der ehemaligen Sowjetrepublik Weißrussland an einem organisierten Widerstand. Wer sich gegen die Regierung stellt, muss mit großen Schwierigkeiten rechnen, so der Osteuropa-Experte Denis Friedrich von der Freien Universität Berlin. Der Politikwissenschaftler stammt selbst aus der ehemaligen Sowjetrepublik und ist Mitglied der Deutsch-belarussischen Gesellschaft sowie des gemeinnützigen Vereins Menschenrechte in Belarus e.V., der sich für die Menschenrechte in seiner Heimat einsetzt. (more…)

Ancient sharks reared young in prehistoric river-delta nursery

By Guest PostJanuary 9, 2014Nature, Scienceadult bandringa, ancient, ancient sharks, bandringa fossils, bandringa sharks, electroreceptors, fossilized egg, freshwater, hawaii, illinois state museum, journal, lauren sallan, long snouted, marine, mazon creek, mechanoreceptors, michael coates, ohio, paddlefish, paleontologist, Pennsylvania, prehistoric, river delta nursery, river delta system, saltwater shark migration, sawfish, sensory organs, shark migration, shark nurseries, tiger sharks, university of chicago, university of michigan, upper midwest, vertebrate paleontology

ANN ARBOR — Like salmon in reverse, long-snouted Bandringa sharks migrated downstream from freshwater swamps to a tropical coastline to spawn 310 million years ago, leaving behind fossil evidence of one of the earliest known shark nurseries.

That’s the surprising conclusion of University of Michigan paleontologist Lauren Sallan and a University of Chicago colleague, who reanalyzed all known specimens of Bandringa, a bottom-feeding predator that lived in an ancient river delta system that spanned what is today the Upper Midwest. (more…)

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