Since the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts in in the Earth’s upper atmosphere in 1958, space scientists have believed that these belts consisted of two doughnut-shaped rings of highly charged particles — an inner ring of high-energy electrons and energetic positive ions, and an outer ring of high-energy electrons.
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Active and former military among those most opposed to autonomous weaponry
AMHERST, Mass. – The results of a new survey by the University of Massachusetts Amherst show that a majority of Americans across the political spectrum oppose the outsourcing of lethal military and defense targeting decisions to machines. The opposition to autonomous weaponry is bipartisan, with the strongest opposition on the far left and far right, and among active and former members of the military.
A random sample of 1,000 Americans was asked how they felt about military technology that could take humans out of the loop altogether, dubbed “killer robots” by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an international coalition of non-governmental organizations launched in April that is working to ban-fully autonomous weapons. The survey was posted today at the website Duck of Minerva, an international affairs blog. (more…)
UD scientists pioneer inexpensive catalyst to drive synthetic fuel production
University of Delaware chemist Joel Rosenthal is driven to succeed in the renewable energy arena. (more…)
At the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab scientists join an international team to control spin orientation in magnetic nanodisks
“We spent 15 percent of home energy on gadgets in 2009, and we’re buying more gadgets all the time,” says Peter Fischer of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Fischer lets you know right away that while it’s scientific curiosity that inspires his research at the Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), he intends it to help solve pressing problems.
“What we’re working on now could make these gadgets perform hundreds of times better and also be a hundred times more energy efficient,” says Fischer, a staff scientist in the Materials Sciences Division. As a principal investigator at the Center for X-Ray Optics, he leads ALS beamline 6.1.2, where he specializes in studies of magnetism. (more…)
AUSTIN, Texas — Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have built a tabletop particle accelerator that can generate energies and speeds previously reached only by major facilities that are hundreds of meters long and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build.
“We have accelerated about half a billion electrons to 2 gigaelectronvolts over a distance of about 1 inch,” said Mike Downer, professor of physics in the College of Natural Sciences. “Until now that degree of energy and focus has required a conventional accelerator that stretches more than the length of two football fields. It’s a downsizing of a factor of approximately 10,000.” (more…)
UA researcher Joseph Bonito is investigating the communication habits of decision-making groups, including North American Quitline staff members and youth involved in Lego robotics teams, to advance what is known about small group communication.
It is likely a daily occurrence: People hold well-intentioned meetings that ultimately turn out to be ineffective.
Why? The list of variables can be astonishingly long, said Joseph Bonito, a University of Arizona communication professor who specializes in small group communication. (more…)
Dawn triggers basic biological changes in the waking human body. As the sun rises, so does heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. The liver, the kidneys and many natural processes also begin shifting from idle into high gear. Then as daylight wanes and darkness descends, these processes likewise begin to subside, returning to their lowest levels again as we sleep.
These internal biological patterns are tightly linked to an external cosmic pattern: the earth’s rotation around the sun once every 24 hours. This endless loop of light and darkness and the corresponding synchrony of internal and external clocks, are called circadian rhythms, from “circa diem,” Latin for “approximately a day.” Circadian rhythms influence almost all living organisms, from bacteria to algae, insects, birds and, as is increasingly understood by science, humans beings. (more…)
Microsoft BizSpark startup combines an inspired gaming premise, rigorous execution and progressive business choices to rise above competition.
REDMOND, Wash. — June 20, 2013 — Mobile users can choose from a vast array of games, so how can game makers stand out in the saturated competitive market?
Typically, success comes either from spending a fortune on marketing or from simply getting lucky, according to QONQR CEO Scott Davis. QONQR (pronounced “conquer”) has crafted a third path: Making a number of contrarian choices that helped lift the startup to profitability and gain a growing base of rabidly enthusiastic customers. (more…)
