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Isotope Fingerprints

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2013Sciencealgae blooms, chemical elements, chesapeake bay, conflow, deb jaisi, DNA, ebl, ecological problems, eutrophication, irms, isotope fingerprints, isotope ratio, isotopic composition, mass spectrometer, mid atlantic, non terrestrial, oxygen deficiency, phosphate, phosphate oxygen isotopes, phosphorus, phosphorus backbone, phosphorus fraction, phosphorus rich fertilizer, phosphorus sources, rna, sediments, stable isotope facility, synchronizing unit, university of delaware, usda, water quality

Jaisi laboratory tracks chemicals in water, farmland throughout Mid-Atlantic

University of Delaware researcher Deb Jaisi is using his newly established stable isotope facility in the Environmental Biogeochemistry Laboratory (EBL) to find the fingerprints of isotopes in chemical elements — specifically phosphorus — in order to track sources of nutrients in the environmentally-sensitive Chesapeake Bay, other bodies of water and farmland throughout the Mid-Atlantic.

Jaisi, assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, explained that he and his research team are currently working on many projects in the EBL, including two that are funded through seed grants, one focusing on terrestrial phosphorus sources and the other on marine phosphorus sources in the Chesapeake. One of those grants is from the UD Research Foundation (UDRF) and is titled “Role of Non-terrestrial Phosphorus Sources in Eutrophication in the Chesapeake Bay.” (more…)

Flip of a Single Molecular Switch Makes an Old Brain Young

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2013Healthadolescent brains, adult brain, brain injuries, levels of plasticity, molecular switch, neuronal connections

The flip of a single molecular switch helps create the mature neuronal connections that allow the brain to bridge the gap between adolescent impressionability and adult stability. Now Yale School of Medicine researchers have reversed the process, recreating a youthful brain that facilitated both learning and healing in the adult mouse. (more…)

The Making of Antarctica’s Hidden Fjords

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2013Environmentantarctic ice sheet, Antarctica, antarctica topography, columbia university, cooling age, east antarctica, erosion rate, fjords, geologists, george e gehrels, geoscientist, geoscientists, glaciers, global climate, hidden fjords, ice sheet growth, lambert glacier, marine technician, mountains, national science foundation, ocean drilling program, pattern, peter w reiners, prydz bay, rock, rocks, sample, sea level change, sea-level rise, sediments, sidney r hemming, stuart n thomson, ty cobb, university of arizona

Antarctica’s topography began changing from flat to fjord-filled starting about 34 million years ago, according to a new report from a University of Arizona-led team of geoscientists.

Knowing when Antarctica’s topography started shifting from a flat landscape to one with glaciers, fjords and mountains is important for modeling how the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate and sea-level rise. (more…)

‘Classed In’ Brings Private Social Networks to Schools

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2013Technologyasp, ceo, classed in, cloud based, cloud computing platform, columbia university, dnevnik, educational social network, gabriel levi, k 12 schools, microsoft bizspark startup, microsoft sql server, new york, north american market, private social networks, russia, russian educational processes, schools, software platform, st. petersburg, windows azure

Microsoft BizSpark startup improves communication and provides easy access to administrative resources combined with an educational social network.

REDMOND, Wash. — March 7, 2013 — During a trip to his home town in St. Petersburg, Russia, Gabriel Levi noticed that his local school system could modernize its services for educators and students by streamlining communication and reducing manual tasks. Using his entrepreneurial instincts, he saw a need and created a solution. Now Levi is CEO and founder of Classed In, where he has turned his mission into a thriving business with a comprehensive educational social network that connects teachers, students, administrators and parents at approximately 27,000 K–12 schools in Russia — more than half the country’s schools.

Levi attended college at Columbia University in New York and studied economics and computer science, while he dreamed of starting a business. When a work assignment took him back to St. Petersburg a few years later, he was struck by how Russian schools were still relying on completely manual processes for everything from registration and grade reporting to class assignments and homework. His point of reference was personal: Levi’s mother was a university instructor, and his younger brother was in middle school at the time. (more…)

Plastic Surgery to Improve Your Looks — and Your Sight

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2013Healthblepharoplasty, botox injections, improve your looks, oculoplastic surgery, plastic surgery, puffy eyelids, visor effect

Oculoplastic surgeons at the Yale Eye Center perform a range of procedures, from Botox injections to fix wrinkles, to lifesaving surgeries to help treat cancers near the eye.

(March 2013) Gail Chiasson’s “puffy eyelids” had gotten so heavy she felt as if they’d become permanently half-shut. Not only did she look sleepy, she felt sleepy. She couldn’t read a book for long and grew especially concerned when a doctor trying to perform an eye test had to tape her lids out of the way. (more…)

UW Nautilus Expedition May Have Spied New Species

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2013Naturechambered nautilus, living fossil, nautilus expedition, samoan nautiluses

A University of Washington research team has captured color photographs of what could be a previously undocumented species of chambered nautilus, a cephalopod mollusk often classified as a “living fossil,” in the waters off American Samoa in the South Pacific. (more…)

Newt Gingrich talks politics with Axelrod, meets with UChicago students

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2013Politics2012 election, amateur paleontologist, budget challenges, budget cuts, callista, campaign in america, cheerful persistence, college republicans, congress, david axelrod, democrats, election day, exit polls, former speaker, gingrich predictions, harris school, house of representatives, mandel hall, newt gingrich, non partisan institute, political fights, Politics, president bill clinton, President Obama, republican presidential candidate, republican states, the sequester, united states today, university of chicago, us demographics, voting returns, zhe xi luo

Newt Gingrich described for the audience at a recent University of Chicago Institute of Politics event the shock he felt when he realized last Election Day that President Obama would win re-election, confounding Gingrich’s predictions and hopes.

Gingrich said he and his wife Callista stared at each other in disbelief as they took in exit polls and then voting returns that showed a loss beyond anything he had feared, especially among Senate races in traditionally Republican states. It led Gingrich to take a hard look at the tactical and technological gap that may have contributed to his party’s loss. (more…)

Comet to Make Close Flyby of Red Planet in October 2014

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2013Scienceapproach to mars, binoculars, california institute, comet 2013 a1, deimos, distant oort cloud, earth, magnitude, mars impact, near earth object, neo program, observatory in australia, outermost moon, pasadena, program, red planet, rob mcnaught, siding spring, solar system, spaceguard, surface, Technology, telescopes, trajectory of comet

Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will make a very close approach to Mars in October 2014.

The latest trajectory of comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) generated by the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., indicates the comet will pass within 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) of Mars and there is a strong possibility that it might pass much closer. The NEO Program Office’s current estimate based on observations through March 1, 2013, has it passing about 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) from the Red Planet’s surface. That distance is about two-and-a-half times that of the orbit of outermost moon, Deimos.

Scientists generated the trajectory for comet Siding Spring based on the data obtained by observations since October 2012. Further refinement to its orbit is expected as more observational data is obtained. At present, Mars lies within the range of possible paths for the comet and the possibility of an impact cannot be excluded. However, since the impact probability is currently less than one in 600, future observations are expected to provide data that will completely rule out a Mars impact. (more…)

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