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Space Life

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Scienceask magazine, astrobiology, biology, c elegans, chandran sabanayagam, cubesat projects, dbi, desg, DNA, does life exist, earth, Environment, evolution, microbes, microscopic worms, NASA, physicist, proteins, space life, space research, telemetry, trl3, universe, zero gravity

NASA funds astrobiology research by Delaware Biotechnology Institute scientist

Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? That’s the type of broad but poignant question NASA likes to ask, according to Chandran Sabanayagam, associate scientist in the Bioimaging Center at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI). And he would know, because he’s preparing to help answer it.

NASA will receive $100 billion from the federal government over the next five years to assure America is number one in space exploration, according to Astrobiology.com. As part of its push to seek new partnerships and broaden its vision, NASA is offering grants to people conducting transformational science. With this opportunity, Sabanayagam is merging his love of physics and biology. (more…)

‘Fiscal cliff’ challenge explored in ‘Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving’

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Politicscongressional scholarship, fiscal cliff, partisan conflict, problem solving perspective

John Wilkerson, University of Washington professor of political science, is the co-author with E. Scott Adler of the University of Colorado of a new book titled “Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving,” published in December by Cambridge University Press. Wilkerson answered a few questions about the book for UW Today. (more…)

Why Older Adults Become Fraud Victims More Often

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Scienceanterior insula, brain, brain mechanism, brain scan, dishonest, early warning, elizabeth castle, face, financial exploitation, financial scam, financial swindles, fmri, fraud, functional, ian boggero, imaging, magnetic, mark grinblatt, money, naomi eisenberger, older people, photograph, region, resonance, shelley e taylor, signal, ucla study, untrustworthy face, victim, vulnerable

Brain shows diminished response to untrustworthiness, UCLA scientists report

Why are older people especially vulnerable to becoming victims of fraud? A new UCLA study indicates that an important clue may lie in a particular region of the brain that influences the ability to discern who is honest and who is trying to deceive us.

Older people, more than younger adults, may fail to interpret an untrustworthy face as potentially dishonest, the study shows. The reason for this, the UCLA life scientists found, seems to be that a brain region called the anterior insula, which is linked to disgust and is important for discerning untrustworthy faces, is less active in older adults. (more…)

MobileBits Makes It Easy to Deploy Games on Multiple Devices and Platforms

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Technologybenjamin nitschke, cloud, delta engine, exdream, german, karsten wysk, Microsoft, microsoft bizspark, mobile game, mobile platforms, mobilebits, multiplayer games, nvidia, one startup, silicon valley, soulcraft game, windows, windows azure, windows phones, xbox 360, xna programming

Microsoft BizSpark One startup streamlines mobile game development while removing barriers for multiplayer games.

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 6, 2012 — Multiplayer games thrive when as many gamers as possible can participate. The longtime friends and game developers who founded German-based MobileBits were determined to make it easier for mobile game enthusiasts to immerse themselves in virtual worlds and compete with players globally, without worrying about compatibility issues.

Today, the burgeoning array of device types, versions and platforms in the mobile game market forces developers to create different iterations of their games for laptops, tablets and smartphones running on various operating systems. (more…)

Commentary: Fiery Cushman: Morality of the NY Post subway photo

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Media49th street, brown university, catastrophe bond, category 3, david pizarro, ethical constellation, fiery cushman, financial transaction, freelance photographer, hurricane, ki suck han, misfortune, moral judgment, moral question, natural disaster, new orleans, new york, new york post, newspapers, people, photo, profit, psychologist, psychology, q train, subway tracks, tragedy, twitterati, uncomfortable, yoel inbar

A freelance photographer happened to be on the scene in New York when one man pushed another onto the subway tracks. The New York Post ultimately ran a photo on its front page, sparking widespread outrage. Based on his research, Brown University psychologist Fiery Cushman suggests that what makes people uncomfortable about the photo may be the idea of profiting from tragedy.

When tragedy occurs, who may profit? Newspapers around the country announced the tragic death of Ki-Suck Han, the man pushed in front of a New York subway car on Monday. Quickly, however, attention turned to an element of the news reporting itself. On the controversial front cover of the New York Post on Tuesday, a full-page photo showed the train hurtling toward Han. Dramatically captured by a freelance photographer while events unfolded, the photograph ran under the headline: “Pushed onto the subway track, this man is about to die.” (more…)

Next Scientific Fashion Could be Designer Nanocrystals

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Sciencedesigner atoms, electronic glue, keck project, nanocrystalline arrays, nanocrystals, quantum phenomena

Three University of Chicago chemistry professors hope that their separate research trajectories will converge to create a new way of assembling what they call “designer atoms” into materials with a broad array of potentially useful properties and functions. (more…)

Grand Canyon as Old as the Dinosaurs, Suggests New Study Led by CU-Boulder

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Scienceapatite, apatite crystals, arizona, atom, bottom, caltech, colorado boulder, colorado river, detect, earth, evolution, grand canyon, helium atom, hydrology, kenneth farley, landscape, mineral grains, phosphate mineral, radioactive decay, rebecca flowers, surface, tectonics, thermal structure, thorium, topography, university, uranium, variation, western

An analysis of mineral grains from the bottom of the western Grand Canyon indicates it was largely carved out by about 70 million years ago — a time when dinosaurs were around and may have even peeked over the rim, says a study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The new research pushes back the conventionally accepted date for the formation of the Grand Canyon in Arizona by more than 60 million years, said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Rebecca Flowers. The team used a dating method that exploits the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium atoms to helium atoms in a phosphate mineral known as apatite, said Flowers, a faculty member in CU-Boulder’s geological sciences department. (more…)

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