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Celebrated jumping frogs: For top hops, scientists look to Calaveras pros

By Guest PostOctober 21, 2013Sciencebiologist, brown university, bullfrog, calaveras county, calaveras pros, celebrated jumping frogs, frog jockeys, georgia tech university, guinness book, henry astley, jumping frog jubilee, justin bookey, muscle, rhode island, richard marsh, rosie the ribiter, technique, tendon, thomas roberts, trial and error, world records

The Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee has entered the scientific record via a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Experienced bullfrog ‘jockeys’ at the event routinely get their frogs to jump much farther than researchers had ever measured in the lab. How? Decades of refined technique, uncommonly motivated humans and herps, and good old-fashioned large sample size.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — One day, amid his decades-long study of how animals move, including how frogs jump, Brown University biologist Thomas Roberts found himself and colleague Richard Marsh puzzling over the Guinness Book of World Records. A bullfrog named Rosie the Ribiter reportedly had jumped more than 2.1 meters in a single hop at the Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee in 1986, but scientific studies had never reported a bullfrog jump beyond 1.3 meters. (more…)

IBM and Libelium Launch Internet of Things Starter Kit

By Guest PostOctober 21, 2013Technology6lowpan, bluetooth, david gascon, ibm, internet, Java, libelium, mote runner software, nfc, object oriented language, things starter kit, thorsten kramp, waspmote platform, Wi-Fi, wireless sensor networks, wsn, zigbee

New platform offers IPv6 connectivity for any single sensor

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., ZARAGOZA and ZURICH – 21 Oct 2013: IBM and Libelium, a wireless sensor network hardware provider, today released an Internet of Things Starter Kit to enable dozens of sensor applications ranging from monitoring parking spaces or air pollution to providing assistance for the elderly.

Created by IBM scientists and Libelium engineers to ease application development, testing, and scalability of wireless sensor networks (WSN), the new Internet of Things Starter Kit integrates Libelium’s Waspmote wireless sensor platform with IBM’s Mote Runner software and 6LoWPAN, which allows every single sensor and device to connect directly to the Internet using the new IPv6 protocol. (more…)

Women, STEM and stereotypes

By Guest PostOctober 21, 2013Scienceamerican psychological association, chad forbes, genetic markers, good at math, math problem, negative feedback, rising star, self fulfilling prophecy, stem, stereotype, university of delaware, women

UD researcher gets to the root of why women leave STEM fields

Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Women who are the most invested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM) are also the ones who are most likely to leave them.

Part of it may have to do with a well-studied phenomenon called stereotype threat. But the University of Delaware’s Chad Forbes is trying to help change that. (more…)

‘Zeitarbeitsfirma’ (temporary employment agency): The ‘other side’ of Germany’s labour market

By Guest PostOctober 20, 2013Economy, General, Jobs, Media, Politicsaaron, anonymous, central storage facility, construction works, der Spiegel, desert, euro, European Union, everyday life, exploitation, fictional, german authorities, german government, Germany, international labor organisation, justice, kuendigung machen, labour market, landsberg, leased worker, leipzig, leipzig airport, lieharbeiter, lost, manuel, mariam, nightshift, poland, polish colleagues, rail lines, rossmann, temporary employment agency, the mirror, zeitarbeiter, zeitarbeitsfirma, zentrallager

There are hundreds of ‘Zeitarbeitsfirma’ or ‘temporary employment agency’ dominating the current German labour market. These agencies lease workers mostly on short-term basis to different industries, supermarkets and other business enterprises. Leased workers (In German: Lieharbeiter or Zeitarbeiter) are normally low-paid and forced to do the heaviest works at their work places. Often they have to accept or bow down to inhuman demands of the ‘Zeitarbeitsfirma’.

Summarized here are few cases from different sources who experienced the hardship under the so-called ‘Zeitarbeitsfirma’: (more…)

Extinct ‘Mega Claw’ Creature Had Spider-Like Brain

By Guest PostOctober 20, 2013Scienceancestors of chelicerates, fossilized brain, fossilized remains, mega claw creature, neuroanatomical features

UA Regents’ Professor Nicholas Strausfeld and an international team of researchers have discovered the earliest known complete nervous system exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.

A team of researchers led by University of Arizona Regents’ Professor Nick Strausfeld and London Natural History Museum’s Greg Edgecombe have discovered the earliest known complete nervous system, exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.
(more…)

‘Heart of a Soldier’ author recalls how New Yorker article became prize-winning book

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2013Cultureauthor, christopher theofanidis, heart of soldier, james b stewart, new yorker article, opera, prize winning book, pulitzer prize winning, rick rescorla, san francisco, world trade center, yale

James B. Stewart, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and reporter for the New Yorker, talked on campus on Oct. 4 about the inspiration for and process behind “Heart of a Soldier,” his 2002 book about Rick Rescorla, a security guard at the World Trade Center who lost his life on 9/11. Stewart’s talk was sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale.

Tasked with reporting on the impact of the World Trade Center attacks on business, Stewart discovered — by chance — the heroic tale of Rick Rescorla and realized that his was a story worth telling. “If you have a character, anything becomes a story,” Stewart explained. (more…)

Seeing in the Dark

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2013Natureaquatic habitat, aran mooney, baiji river dolphin, China, chinese academy, chinese radiologist, computed tomography, ct scans, darlene ketten, dolphin, hydrobiology in wuhan, marine mammal, noisy environment, porpoise, representative species, sciences, seeing in dark, three gorges dam, toothed whales, whoi, yangtze finless porpoise

New research sheds light on how porpoises hear in one of the world’s busiest rivers

The Yangtze finless porpoise, which inhabits the high-traffic waters near the Three Gorges Dam in China, is highly endangered, with only about 1,000 animals alive today. Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their Chinese colleagues are using medical technology to shed new light on this species’ critical sense of hearing in a waterway punctuated by constant shipping, dredging, and underwater construction.

“We want to understand how they may be impacted by noise,” said Aran Mooney, a biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a lead author on the study published online this week in the Journal of Experimental Biology. (more…)

Klimaschutz und Energiewende in Koalitionsverhandlungen priorisieren

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2013Environment, Politicsbruessel, deutschland, energiewende, eu ambitionierte ziele, ganz europa, germanwatch, Greenpeace, internationale klimapolitik, klaus milke, klaus seitz, klimaschutz, koalitionsverhandlung, martin kaiser, misereor, oekosysteme, regine guenther, vereinten nationen, welt, weltklima, wwf

Umwelt- und Entwicklungsverbände fordern Klimaschutzgesetz, höhere EU-Klimaziele und zukunftsweisende Investitionen

Die fünf Entwicklungs- und Umweltverbände Brot für die Welt, Germanwatch, Greenpeace, MISEREOR und WWF rufen dazu auf, die Koalitionsverhandlungen nicht allein auf Mindestlohn und Steuern zu verengen. Alle Parteien müssten sich daran messen lassen, ob sie jetzt die richtigen Weichenstellungen vornehmen, um Deutschland für die Bewältigung der globalen Zukunftsfragen aufzustellen.

Die Menschen wollten wissen, welche konkreten Antworten die künftige Regierung auf den Klimawandel mit seinen dramatischen Folgen für die menschliche Entwicklung, die Überwindung der Armut sowie die planetaren Ökosysteme gibt. Die nachhaltige Befriedigung der wachsenden globalen Nachfrage nach Energie, Nahrungsmitteln und Ressourcen stehe auf dem Spiel. (more…)

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