Author Archives: Guest Post

CU-led Mountain Forest Study Shows Vulnerability to Climate Change

A new University of Colorado Boulder-led study that ties forest “greenness” in the western United States to fluctuating year-to-year snowpack indicates mid-elevation mountain ecosystems are most sensitive to rising temperatures and changes in precipitation and snowmelt.

Led by CU-Boulder researcher Ernesto Trujillo and Assistant Professor Noah Molotch, the study team used the data — including satellite images and ground measurements — to identify the threshold where mid-level forests sustained primarily by moisture change to higher-elevation forests sustained primarily by sunlight and temperature. Being able to identify this “tipping point” is important because it is in the mid-level forests — at altitudes from roughly 6,500 to 8,000 feet — where many people live and play in the West and which are associated with increasing wildfires, beetle outbreaks and increased tree mortality, said Molotch. (more…)

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5 Reasons to Guest Post for Other Bloggers

Whether you’re a new blogger trying to gain some recognition for your blog or a seasoned veteran looking for something new to do, guest posting for other bloggers is one of the best things you can do to both expand your blog and improve your writing. It can be a little intimidating at first, trying to reach out to other bloggers and pitch topic ideas or submit articles, however there’s a lot to be gained from doing so.

1.  Exposure: Writing for other blogs, big or small, exposes your writing to an entirely new audience. This is one of the major factors in helping your blog grow, because when someone reads your guest post and appreciates your writing style or the information you shared they will almost always click over to your blog to see what else you have to offer.

2.  Links: Backlinks on other websites are what every blogger works so hard to gain because they offer another way for people to find your blog. Since most bloggers will allow their guest posters to put a link in the byline to their blog, it’s the perfect way for you to obtain a new link on the web. (more…)

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New Website Invites Public to Help Identify Seafloor Life and Habitats

The public is invited to help identify objects they see in images of the seafloor through a new interactive website called “Seafloor Explorer.” The result of a unique collaboration between oceanographers studying seafloor habitats, Web programmers and social scientists, Seafloor Explorer (www.seafloorexplorer.org) launches September 13.

The team has more than 40 million images, but are launching the site with a preliminary set of 100,000 – all of them taken by HabCam, a habitat mapping underwater vehicle. HabCam was developed and built by the HabCam group, which comprises marine biologists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as well as fishermen and other scientists. The Seafloor Explorer interactive website was funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and built in collaboration with the HabCam Group by the Citizen Science Alliance (CSA), the developers behind interactive sites found on Zooniverse.org. (more…)

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UMD Study Shows Exercise May Protect Against Future Emotional Stress

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Moderate exercise may help people cope with anxiety and stress for an extended period of time post-workout, according to a study by kinesiology researchers in the University of Maryland School of Public Health published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

“While it is well-known that exercise improves mood, among other benefits, not as much is known about the potency of exercise’s impact on emotional state and whether these positive effects endure when we’re faced with everyday stressors once we leave the gym,” explains J. Carson Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology. “We found that exercise helps to buffer the effects of emotional exposure. If you exercise, you’ll not only reduce your anxiety, but you’ll be better able to maintain that reduced anxiety when confronted with emotional events.” (more…)

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Surviving Without Ice

Arctic crustaceans use currents, deep-water migration to survive sea ice melts

With sea ice in the Arctic melting to record lows in summer months, marine animals living there face dramatic changes to their environment. Yet some crustaceans, previously thought to spend their entire lives on the underside of sea ice, were recently discovered to migrate deep underwater and follow ocean currents back to colder areas when ice disappears.

“Our findings provide a basic new understanding of the adaptations and biology of the ice-associated organisms within the Arctic Ocean,” said Mark Moline, director of the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and Policy in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. “They also may ultimately change the perception of ice fauna as imminently threatened by the predicted disappearance of perennial sea ice.” (more…)

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Hospitals that Make Longer Attempts at Resuscitation Have Higher Survival Rates

Hospitals that continue CPR longer have better survival rates from cardiac arrests, according to a study published online Sept. 5 in The Lancet. The findings challenge the assumption that, if a pulse is not restored soon, continuing resuscitation efforts is futile.

The results also showed that patients who recovered after an extended CPR effort were no more likely to suffer brain damage than are patients revived after a shorter effort. (more…)

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IBM Scientists First to Distinguish Individual Molecular Bonds

Atomic force microscopy helps scientists to reveal the bond order and length of bonds within molecules

Technique can be used to study future devices made from graphene

Zurich, Switzerland – 14 Sep 2012: IBM scientists have been able to differentiate the chemical bonds in individual molecules for the first time using a technique known as noncontact atomic force microscopy (AFM).

The results push the exploration of using molecules and atoms at the smallest scale and could be important for studying graphene devices, which are currently being explored by both industry and academia for applications including high-bandwidth wireless communication and electronic displays. (more…)

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