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Scientists solve a 14,000-year-old ocean mystery

By Guest PostJuly 30, 2013Environmentabundance of isotopes, amoeba like foraminifera, bering sea, carbon dioxide, chaetoceros diatom, China, climate change, element, fossil record, ggc 37, iron hypothesis, kamchatka peninsula, ken buesseler, last ice age, loess plateau, melting glaciers, neodymium, north pacific ocean, norway, ocean mystery, ocean with iron, pacific, perfect storm, phoebe lam, phytoplankton, post ice age, russia, sediment cores, spore, strontium, university of bergen, university of bristol, whoi

At the end of the last Ice Age, as the world began to warm, a swath of the North Pacific Ocean came to life. During a brief pulse of biological productivity 14,000 years ago, this stretch of the sea teemed with phytoplankton, amoeba-like foraminifera and other tiny creatures, who thrived in large numbers until the productivity ended—as mysteriously as it began—just a few hundred years later.

Researchers have hypothesized that iron sparked this surge of ocean life, but a new study led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and colleagues at the University of Bristol (UK), the University of Bergen (Norway), Williams College and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University suggests iron may not have played an important role after all, at least in some settings. The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, determines that a different mechanism—a transient “perfect storm” of nutrients and light—spurred life in the post-Ice Age Pacific. Its findings resolve conflicting ideas about the relationship between iron and biological productivity during this time period in the North Pacific—with potential implications for geo-engineering efforts to curb climate change by seeding the ocean with iron. (more…)

How Mars’ atmosphere got so thin: New insights from Curiosity

By Guest PostJuly 29, 2013Scienceadditional neutron, carbon 12, carbon 13, carbon isotope, curiosity rover, heavier stable isotope, insights from curiosity, isotopes, lighter isotopes, mahli, mars atmosphere, martian air, NASA, sam, samples, solar system, sushil atreya, thin, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — New findings from NASA’s Curiosity rover provide clues to how Mars lost its original atmosphere, which scientists believe was much thicker than the one left today.

“The beauty of these measurements lies in the fact that these are the first really high-precision measurements of the composition of Mars’ atmosphere,” said Sushil Atreya, professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan. (more…)

A constitutional right to health care

By Guest PostJuly 29, 2013Health, Politicsaccountability, adele cassolab, affordable care act, amy raub, canada, canada foundation, congress, constitutional right, global public health, global recognition, half empty, half full, health care, health protection, innovation, jody heymann, latvia, lipi mishrab, mcgill university, medical care, moral right, senegal, transparency, ucla, united nations, united states, uruguay, us supreme court

UCLA-led study shows that many countries have it, but not the U.S.

Uruguay has it. So does Latvia, and Senegal. In fact, more than half of the world’s countries have some degree of a guaranteed, specific right to public health and medical care for their citizens written into their national constitutions.

The United States is one of 86 countries whose constitutions do not guarantee their citizens any kind of health protection. That’s the finding of a new study from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health that examined the level and scope of constitutional protection of specific rights to public health and medical care, as well as the broad right to health. (more…)

Amazon Book Editors Announce the Big Fall Books Preview

By Guest PostJuly 29, 2013Literature, Technologyamazon books editors, books preview, fall books preview, season for books

Amazon customers can get an early look at fall’s most anticipated reads, as well as editors’ picks for great under-the-radar releases (more…)

NASA’s WISE Finds Mysterious Centaurs May Be Comets

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2013Sciencecelestial bodies, cometary origins, comets, mysterious centaurs, outgassing comets

PASADENA, Calf. — The true identity of centaurs, the small celestial bodies orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune, is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Are they asteroids or comets? A new study of observations from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) finds most centaurs are comets. (more…)

SMART scholar

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2013Education, Environmentaccretion, brandon boyd, christopher sommerfield, coastal marshes, department of defense, doctoral work, dod, dredging operations data, drone, factors, lake pontchartrain, lidar, louisiana state university, map making technology, new orleans, oceanography graduate student, plant growth, rising sea level, sediment flow, sedimentation, shore erosion, smart scholar, sophisticated, university of delaware, vicksburg, way of life, wetland research

Oceanography graduate student lands scholarship supporting wetland research

Growing up along Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Brandon Boyd spent a lot of time hunting for waterfowl and fishing for speckled trout in marshes and swamps. There, wetlands are a way of life.

“Ever since I was in high school, I knew I really wanted to do something to help protect wetlands,” said Boyd, a graduate student in oceanography in the School of Marine Science and Policy within the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. (more…)

Global study stresses importance of public Internet access

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2013Technologyaraba sey, Bangladesh, bogota, botswana, brazil, Chile, chris coward, Colombia, computer users, computers and internet, ghana, global study, information school, learning internet skills, lithuania, mobile phones, Philippines, public computer, public internet access, source of internet, South Africa, technology skills, university of washington

Millions of people in low-income countries still depend on public computer and Internet access venues despite the global proliferation of mobile phones and home computers. However, interest in providing such public access has waned in recent years, especially among development agencies, as new technologies become available.

But a five-year, eight-country study recently concluded by the Technology & Social Change Group at the University of Washington Information School has found that community access to computer and Internet technology remains a crucial resource for connecting people to the information and skills they need in an increasingly digital world. (more…)

From art book to iPad app: Josef Albers’ classic work undergoes a ‘magical’ transformation

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2013Sciencealbers methodology, color app, color philosophy, interaction of color, josef albers, teaching methods

“Interaction of Color” — Josef Albers’ iconic book that taught legions of students and professionals alike how to think creatively about color — has been given a modern makeover as an iPad app, just in time for the 50th anniversary of its publication by Yale University Press. (more…)

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