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‘Tiger stripes’ underneath Antarctic glaciers slow the flow

By Guest PostNovember 30, 2013Environmentantarctic glaciers, antarctic ice, bed of rock, british antarctic survey, climate change, douglas macayeal, Europe, flow of glaciers, friction zones, massive antarctic glaciers, mathematical modeling, North America, olga sergienko, pattern, pine island glacier, princeton university, richard hindmarsh, satellite measurements, sea-level rise, sediment, thwaites glacier, tiger stripes, university of chicago, warming climate, west antarctica

Narrow stripes of dirt and rock beneath massive Antarctic glaciers create friction zones that slow the flow of ice toward the sea, researchers at Princeton University and the British Antarctic Survey have found. Understanding how these high-friction regions form and subside could help researchers understand how the flow of these glaciers responds to a warming climate.

Just as no-slip strips on flooring prevent people from slipping on a wet floor, these ribs or “tiger stripes” — named in reference to Princeton’s tiger mascot — provide friction that hinders the glaciers from slipping along the underlying bed of rock and sediment, the researchers report online in the journal Science. (more…)

Bereits 95.000 Petitionsteilnehmer!

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2013Natureaegypten, aegyptische regierung, aewa, afrikanisch eurasischen, birdlife international, deutschland, grill, laila iskandar, nabu, nce, petition, regierung in kairo, un, vogelmord

Kampf gegen Vogelmord in Ägypten erreicht die Zielgerade

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29. November 2013 – Im November flaut der Herbstzug der Vögel durch Ägypten langsam wieder ab. Die Zugvögel, die es bis in ihre Winterquartiere südlich der Sahara geschafft haben, können sich glücklich schätzen. Leider müssen wir davon ausgehen, dass auch in diesem Herbst Millionen von Vögeln, darunter seltene und gefährdete Arten, in den Fangnetzen entlang der gesamten ägyptischen Mittelmeerküste verendet und auf dem Grill gelandet sind. (more…)

Is There Really a Giant Island of Plastic in the Pacific Ocean?

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2013Environmentfloating garbage pools, islands of debris, north pacific, pacific garbage patch, plastic garbage, plastic waste

Make no mistake about it: plastic waste is a huge problem and one that has been posing a very serious threat to our oceans for decades. What’s worse is that there hasn’t been any real strides made into solving the problem; while recycling and better waste disposal are on the up, so is our rate of plastic consumption. Around the world, we still only recycle around 1% of our unwanted plastic – an alarming amount of the remained ends up in landfill, and a depressing 10% of it ends up in the world’s oceans. (more…)

Do Black Holes Come in Size Medium?

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2013Scienceblack holes, circinus spiral galaxy, dominic walton, exotic phenomenon, galactic landscape, hearts of galaxies, high energy xrays, immense gravity, Japan, largest black holes, matteo bachetti, NASA, nustar, open issue, size medium, suzaku satellite, topsy turvy galaxy, ulxs, xrays

Black holes can be petite, with masses only about 10 times that of our sun — or monstrous, boasting the equivalent in mass up to 10 billion suns. Do black holes also come in size medium? NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is busy scrutinizing a class of black holes that may fall into the proposed medium-sized category.

“Exactly how intermediate-sized black holes would form remains an open issue,” said Dominic Walton of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. “Some theories suggest they could form in rich, dense clusters of stars through repeated mergers, but there are a lot of questions left to be answered.” (more…)

FDA-approved immune-modulating drug unexpectedly benefits mice with fatal mitochondrial defect

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2013Healthanti rejection drug, leigh syndrome, median lifespan, mitochondrial defect, mitochondrial diseases, mitochondrial dysfunction, mtor

The transplant anti-rejection drug rapamycin showed unexpected benefits in a mouse model of a fatal defect in the energy powerhouses of cells, the mitochondria. Children with the condition, Leigh syndrome, show progressive brain damage, muscle weakness, lack of coordination or muscle control, and weight loss, and usually succumb to respiratory failure. (more…)

Riesige Freude über Nationalpark Schwarzwald

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2013Environment, Naturealexander bonde, auftrag von greenpeace, baden-wuerttemberg, bund, cdu fraktionschef, co2 speichern, danke, deutschland, erfolgsprojekt, flechten, Greenpeace, insekten, luis scheuermann, mensch, nabu, nationalpark schwarzwald, natur, peter hauk, pilze, rheinland pfalz, riesige freude, waldexperte, winfried kretschmann, wwf

Zahlreiche Umweltschützer in Baden-Württemberg atmen heute auf: Der erste Nationalpark im Land ist beschlossen. Greenpeace-Aktivisten sammelten sich gemeinsam mit anderen Umweltverbänden am Tag der Entscheidung vor dem Parlament in Stuttgart, um aus vollem Herzen „Danke“ zu sagen.

„Mensch und Natur sagen DANKE“ – mit diesem sechs Meter breitem Banner empfangen die Umweltverbände „Freundeskreis Nationalpark Schwarzwald“, NABU, BUND, Greenpeace und WWF vor dem Landtagsgebäude die Parlamentarier. Mit dabei: Ministerpräsident Winfried Kretschmann und Naturschutzminister Alexander Bonde. Der Dank gilt allen Umweltschützern, Menschen in den Gemeinden, in der Verwaltung und im Landesparlament, die sich für den Nationalpark eingesetzt hatten – aller Gegenwehr zum Trotz. (more…)

A decline in creativity? It depends on how you look

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2013Scienceagreed upon criteria, decline in creativity, donna dibartolomeo, dynamics of creativity, emily weinstein, everyday life, greater complexity, harvard university, howard gardner, intelligence, iq tests, katie davis, naturalistic setting, student visual art, subjective as creativity, university of washington, young americans, zachary clark

Research in recent years has suggested that young Americans might be less creative now than in decades past, even while their intelligence — as measured by IQ tests — continues to rise.

But new research from the University of Washington Information School and Harvard University, closely studying 20 years of student creative writing and visual artworks, hints that the dynamics of creativity may not break down as simply as that. (more…)

‘Hackathon’ teaches Chicago high school students the social power of Big Data

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2013Education, Scienceanonymity, big data, campaign, Chicago, chicago data portal, city, commuting patterns, complex data, creative use, data, data scientist, Eric Schmidt, google chairman, high school hackathon, kenwood academy, nina henderson, obama for america, public policy, rayid ghani, shaz rasul, statistics, tom plagge, university of chicago, urban problems, william woods

Like urban bike-sharing programs everywhere, Chicago’s Divvy must contend with a key problem: due to commuting patterns, some bike stations empty out fast while others fill up quickly, leaving no space for more drop-offs.

But such urban problems can be addressed with socially minded computer science, as a group of 50 Chicago high school students learned recently during a daylong conference at the University of Chicago. (more…)

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