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NASA’s HyspIRI Sees the Forest for the Trees and More

By Guest PostApril 28, 2013Environment, Scienceairborne campaign, algal blooms, aviris, california, droughts, dryden aircraft, dynamics, ecosystems, environmental changes, er 2, forest, high altitude aircraft, hyperspectral infrared imager, hyspiri, imaging spectroscopy, methane emissions, NASA, operations facility, palmdale, petya campbell, quantitative assessments, robert green, season, simon hook, stephen ungar, surface of earth, surface phenomena, tree, volcanoes, wildfires

To Robert Green, light contains more than meets the eye: it contains fingerprints of materials that can be detected by sensors that capture the unique set of reflected wavelengths. Scientists have used the technique, called imaging spectroscopy, to learn about water on the moon, minerals on Mars and the composition of exoplanets. Green’s favorite place to apply the technique, however, is right here on the chemically rich Earth, which is just what he and colleagues achieved this spring during NASA’s Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) airborne campaign.

“We have ideas about what makes up Earth’s ecosystems and how they function,” said Green, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who is principal investigator of the campaign’s Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) instrument. “But a comprehensive understanding requires us to directly measure these things and how they change over landscapes and from season to season.” (more…)

Mapping American life

By Guest PostApril 28, 2013Culture18th century studies, american experience, book prize, county lines magazine, early american culture, early american fascination, handkerchiefs, jigsaw puzzles, louis gottschalk, mapping american life, martin brueckner, university of delaware, winterthur museum

Winterthur exhibit showcases UD professor’s research on maps and culture

A new exhibit at Winterthur Museum highlights the research conducted by University of Delaware faculty member Martin Brückner, focusing on the important part that maps played in everyday American life from the 1750s to the 1870s.

“Common Destinations: Maps in the American Experience” opened Saturday, April 20, and will run through Jan. 5. Brückner, associate professor of English and of material culture studies at UD, was exploring what seemed to be an early American fascination with maps when he discovered that Winterthur’s collections included numerous examples of maps being used in daily life. He developed the idea for an exhibition from that discovery and his additional research. (more…)

What a difference a 3-D makes

By Guest PostApril 28, 2013Healthfractured pelvis, multiple pelvic fractures, spinal problem

3-D CT scans give the U a leg up in spotting veterinary injuries

When Gauge fell from a rooftop a few months ago, he had two strikes against him:

• The ground was five stories down

• He was a dog, not a cat (more…)

Despite free health care, household income affects chronic disease control in kids

By Guest PostApril 28, 2013Healthblindness in adulthood, diabetes, diabetic children, health outcome, household income

Researchers at the University of Montreal have found that the glycated hemoglobin levels of children with type 1 diabetes followed at its affiliated Sainte-Justine Mother and Child University Hospital (CHU Sainte-Justine) is correlated linearly and negatively with household income. Glycated hemoglobin is the binding of sugar to blood molecules – over time, high blood sugar levels lead to high levels of glycated hemoglobin, which means that it can be used to assess whether a patient properly controls his or her blood glucose level. “Our study highlights a marked disparity between the rich and the poor in an important health outcome for children with type 1 diabetes, despite free access to health care”, explained Dr. Johnny Deladoëy, who led the study. (more…)

Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars

By Guest PostApril 27, 2013Science3d computer simulation, aeronautics, anthony pancotti, astronautics, christopher pihl, david kirtley, expedition to mars, fusion reactions, fusion state, george votroubek, high voltage battery, humans to mars, hydrogen bomb, john slough, lithium metal rings, magnetic field, michael pfaff, microsecond, msnw, NASA, nuclear fusion, plasma, plasma dynamics laboratory, powered by, redmond, researcher, rocket, rocket fuel, space programs, university of washington, uw

Human travel to Mars has long been the unachievable dangling carrot for space programs. Now, astronauts could be a step closer to our nearest planetary neighbor through a unique manipulation of nuclear fusion, the same energy that powers the sun and stars.

University of Washington researchers and scientists at a Redmond-based space-propulsion company are building components of a fusion-powered rocket aimed to clear many of the hurdles that block deep space travel, including long times in transit, exorbitant costs and health risks. (more…)

Carbon’s role in atmosphere formation

By Guest PostApril 27, 2013Sciencealberto saal, atmosphere, atmosphere formation, atmospheric evolution, brown, brown university, carbon, carbon monoxide, carnegie institution, diane wetzel, erik hauri, evolution of planet, greenhouse conditions, high greenhouse potential, iron carbonyl, liquid water, magma, malcolm rutherford, mars, mars history, methane, methane gas, northwestern university, oxygen fugacity, role, steven jacobsen, subsurface carbon, volcanism, Washington

A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the way carbon moves from within a planet to the surface plays a big role in the evolution of a planet’s atmosphere. If Mars released much of its carbon as methane, for example, it might have been warm enough to support liquid water.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new study of how carbon is trapped and released by iron-rich volcanic magma offers clues about the early atmospheric evolution on Mars and other terrestrial bodies. (more…)

Bugs produce diesel on demand

By Guest PostApril 27, 2013Environmentbiofuel, bugs produce diesel, carbon dioxide emissions, cell membranes, diesel fuel, drop ins, e coli bacteria, global oil price, global requirement, oil molecules, professor john love, rob lee, shell, shell research ltd, synthetic fuel, Technology, transport fuel, university of exeter

It sounds like science fiction but a team from the University of Exeter, with support from Shell, has developed a method to make bacteria produce diesel on demand.

While the technology still faces many significant commercialisation challenges, the diesel, produced by special strains of E. coli bacteria, is almost identical to conventional diesel fuel.

This means that it does not need to be blended with petroleum products as is often required by biodiesels derived from plant oils. It also means that the diesel can be used with current supplies in existing infrastructure because engines, pipelines and tankers do not need to be modified. Biofuels with these characteristics are being termed ‘drop-ins’. (more…)

Psychopaths are not neurally equipped to have concern for others

By Guest PostApril 26, 2013Healthcorrectional facility, empathy deficits, individuals with psychopathy, lack of empathy, prisoners, psychopaths, repetitive crime

Prisoners who are psychopaths lack the basic neurophysiological “hardwiring” that enables them to care for others, according to a new study by neuroscientists at the University of Chicago and the University of New Mexico. (more…)

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