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Health in conflict: A public health student undertakes a challenging internship in Lebanon

By Guest PostJune 29, 2013General, Healthamelia reese masterson, analysis, arabic, bashar al assad, bireh, civil war, damascus, data collection, health in conflict, homeland, homs, internship in lebanon, killed in syria, military checkpoints, northern lebanese town, ob gyn services, rafik hariri foundation, reproductive health issues, syria, syrian women, syrians, unfpa, united nations, ysph

“In Syria it is a fast death; here it is a slow death,” a woman lamented as she described her situation as a refugee in Lebanon escaping an escalating civil war in her homeland.

Each woman’s story was different, but they were all sad, grim. Another refugee had five children and a husband who is detained somewhere back home. “When a father is present you might be able to afford some of the children’s needs, but if he’s not, from whom do you seek help?” she asked. (more…)

New Explanation for Slow Earthquakes on San Andreas

By Guest PostJune 28, 2013Environmentcalifornia, continental plate, creep events, fault, fault creep, fault movement, fraction, frictional behavior, geologic hazards, jeff mcguire, matt wei, new explanation, new model, new zealand, per year, post seismic deformation, san andreas, shallower source, short seconds, silent earthquake, slow earthquake, slow slip events, solar powered creepmeter, stable zone, strike slip faults, subduction zone faults, superstition hills, total slip

New Zealand’s geologic hazards agency reported this week an ongoing, “silent” earthquake that began in January is still going strong. Though it is releasing the energy equivalent of a 7.0 earthquake, New Zealanders can’t feel it because its energy is being released over a long period of time, therefore slow, rather than a few short seconds.

These so-called “slow slip events” are common at subduction zone faults – where an oceanic plate meets a continental plate and dives beneath it. They also occur on continents along strike-slip faults like California’s San Andreas, where two plates move horizontally in opposite directions. Occurring close to the surface, in the upper 3-5 kilometers (km) of the fault, this slow, silent movement is referred to as “creep events.” (more…)

Spiral galaxies like Milky Way bigger than thought, says CU-Boulder study

By Guest PostJune 28, 2013Scienceboulder, brian keeney, casa, charles danforth, circumgalactic gas, cos, cos on hubble, cosmic origins spectrograph, diameter, galaxy evolution, higgs centre, Hubble Space Telescope, intergalactic interactions, james green, john stocke, light year, michael shull, Milky Way, missing link, scotland, spiral galaxy, supermassive black holes, theoretical physics, university of colorado, university of edinburgh

Let’s all fist bump: Spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way appear to be much larger and more massive than previously believed, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study by researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope.

CU-Boulder Professor John Stocke, study leader, said new observations with Hubble’s $70 million Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, or COS, designed by CU-Boulder show that normal spiral galaxies are surrounded by halos of gas that can extend to over 1 million light-years in diameter. The current estimated diameter of the Milky Way, for example, is about 100,000 light-years. One light-year is roughly 6 trillion miles. (more…)

More Fresh Air in Classrooms Means Fewer Absences

By Guest PostJune 28, 2013Healthclassroom ventilation rates, classrooms in california, poor ventilation, ventilation rates, ventilation standards

Berkeley Lab study finds correlation between higher illness absences and lower ventilation rates in California elementary schools.

If you suspect that opening windows to let in fresh air might be good for you, a new study by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has confirmed your hunch. Analyzing extensive data on ventilation rates collected from more than 150 classrooms in California over two years, the researchers found that bringing classroom ventilation rates up to the state-mandated standard may reduce student absences due to illness by approximately 3.4 percent. (more…)

All for One: What Makes an Individual

By Guest PostJune 27, 2013Scienceall for one, arizona, bacterial colony, chromosomes in cells, david shahnooshi, deborah shelton, environmental stress, erik hanschen, evolutionary process, genes in chromosomes, genomes, germ cells, hierarchy of life, individual, individual organism, Japan, Johannesburg, michods lab, molecular biology, morphology, multicellular colonies, NASA, patrick ferris, pierre durand, primate colony, rega like genes, richard michod, rick michod, somatic cell functions, somatic cells, South Africa, south america, university of arizona, university of the witwatersrand, volvocine algae, zachariah grochau wright

Life as we know it has certain properties that are consistent regardless whether you’re looking at a bacterial colony in a petri dish or a primate colony in South America. Rick Michod, UA professor and department head of ecology and evolutionary biology, has received $1.3 million from NASA to investigate what properties of biology define an individual organism.

Many things in life are not fair. But some things are at least consistent.

For example, all life as we know it has certain universal properties, which presumably define how life would be organized anywhere it evolved in the universe, said Richard Michod, professor and head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. (more…)

‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of Chemistry)’

By Guest PostJune 27, 2013Education, Sciencechemistry jock, made of chemistry, original Eurhythmics lyrics, rhyme for ozonolysis, solving retrosynthesis problems, sweet dreams, sweet sorrow

Professor Neil Garg’s students turn organic chemistry reactions into song

When Eurythmics recorded their hit song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” in 1983, they somehow neglected to include chemical equations. Thirty years later, UCLA undergraduates Jessica Lee, Emily Chuang and Christine Nguyen have corrected the omission.
(more…)

Older males make better fathers says new research on beetles

By Guest PostJune 27, 2013Sciencebeetles, birds, blackbirds, hypothesis, infidelity, megan head, nerc, offspring, older males, paternal care, paternity, perception of paternity, robins, species, university of exeter, younger males

Researchers at the University of Exeter found that older male burying beetles make better fathers than their younger counterparts.

The study found that mature males, who had little chance of reproducing again, invested more effort in both mating and in parental care than younger males.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London – B, considered how the likelihood of paternity influenced the way that males cared for young. Older males were good fathers and looked after the young even when they were unsure whether the offspring were theirs. Younger males, who had a higher chance of reproducing again, tended to care less for offspring, particularly when they were uncertain of their paternity. (more…)

Step into an anechoic chamber where sounds go to die

By Guest PostJune 26, 2013Technologyanechoic chamber, editor pamela woon, isolated space, Microsoft, microsoft tick, new film series, on the whiteboard, sounds, Technology, walking on springs, whiteboard

Microsoft’s new film series “On the Whiteboard” explores topics at the intersection of technology and culture, and introduces people, places and things behind the products.

REDMOND, WASH. – June 24, 2013 – In the second episode of Microsoft’s new film series “On the Whiteboard,” Editor Pamela Woon exposes an anechoic chamber of secrets. It’s an isolated space where you can actually hear blood pumping through your veins – because in here, there’s no echo. In this heavily padded room built on top of springs, sounds don’t bounce back, they’re absorbed. (But your body might, since you’re walking on springs.)

Researchers study the sounds of silence here, including testing and analyzing Surface to make sure that click you hear when you snap the kickstand shut is pleasing and robust to the average ear. (more…)

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