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Scanning the Brain for Impending Error

By Guest PostApril 22, 2012Scienceactivity, adaptation, algebra, animal watch, brain wave, canada, carole beal, cognitive, computer science, data, dissertation, earner, eeg, electroencephalography, english language, fatigue, federico cirett, july, Mexico, mistake, montreal, new technology, personalization, san diego, sat exam, sista, stress, ua, university of arizona, user modeling

UA computer science doctoral student Federico Cirett is using new technology to predict, in advance, when people will make a mistake. He’s been testing subjects taking the SAT exam in math.

Our bodies and brains tend to give us good cues about when we are becoming stressed, fatigued or overwhelmed.

But what if, with near exact precision, you could predict when heightened levels of fatigue were about to cause you to make a mistake?

University of Arizona doctoral student Federico Cirett believes he’s found a way – and with about 80 percent accuracy. (more…)

Distinct “God Spot” in the Brain Does Not Exist, MU Researcher Says

By Guest PostApril 21, 2012Healthbrain function, brain injury, frontal lobe, god spot, higher power, human brain, spiritual experiences, spirituality

Study shows religious participation and spirituality processed in different cerebral regions

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Scientists have speculated that the human brain features a “God spot,” one distinct area of the brain responsible for spirituality. Now, University of Missouri researchers have completed research that indicates spirituality is a complex phenomenon, and multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of spiritual experiences. (more…)

Earth in 20 Years

By Guest PostApril 21, 2012Environmentenvironmental challenges, environmental crisis, environmental justice, environmental movement

The world will face many challenges over the coming decades, not least among them environmental challenges. On the heels of Earth Day, we asked three leading researchers at the U to answer three questions for us in their specialties of sustainable agriculture, environmental justice, and economics and ecology. (more…)

Amateur Astronomers to ‘Target Asteroids!’

By Guest PostApril 21, 2012Science1999 rq36, amateur astronomer, asteroid, carl hergenrother, catalina sky survey, ccd camera, colorado plateau, dante lauretta, dolores hill, earth orbit, ed beshore, image, meteor crater, meteorites, northern arizona, nubian desert, osiris rex, primitive asteroid, rotation rate, solar system, space mission, sudan, target asteroids, tim hunter

Researchers on NASA’s robotic asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, are turning to amateur astronomers for new data on near-Earth asteroids in a citizen science observing campaign called Target Asteroids!

Amateur astronomers are about to make observations that will affect current and future space missions to asteroids.

Some will use custom-made, often automated telescopes equipped with CCD cameras in their backyards. Others will use home computers to make remote observations with more powerful telescopes states or continents away. Many belong to leading national and international amateur astronomy organizations with members ranging from retirees to school kids. (more…)

Study Amplifies Understanding of Hearing in Baleen Whales

By Guest PostApril 21, 2012Nature, Science3d visualization, anatomy, auditory system, baleen whale, boston, computerized tomography, csi, ct, darlene ketten, dolphins, evolutionary origin, julie arruda, magnetic resonance imaging, massachusetts, maya yamato, minke whale, mri, scott cramer, sound wave, toothed whale, whoi, zooplankton

For decades, scientists have known that dolphins and other toothed whales have specialized fats associated with their jaws, which efficiently convey sound waves from the ocean to their ears. But until now, the hearing systems of their toothless grazing cousins, baleen whales, remained a mystery.

Unlike toothed whales, baleen whales do not have enlarged canals in their jaws where specialized fats sit. While toothed whales use echolocation to find prey, baleen whales generally graze on zooplankton, and so some scientists have speculated that baleen whales may not need such a sophisticated auditory system. But a new study by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), published April 10, 2012, in The Anatomical Record, has shown that some baleen whales also have fats leading to their ears. (more…)

CU Research Shows Warming Climate Threatens Ecology at Mountain Research Site West of Boulder

By Guest PostApril 20, 2012Environmentamerican pika, amy miller, andrew fountain, Antarctica, boulder, changes in climate, climate station, colorado, continental divide, ecological change, ecosystem, forest, glacial lake, human dimension, island of moorea, john marr, katie suding, lter, mark williams, meteorological station, mountain, mountain range, nevada, niwot ridge site, North America, puerto rico, subalpine forest, tahiti, talus slopes, threshold, tundra, united states, university of colorado, warming temperature, wetland

A series of papers published this month on ecological changes at 26 global research sites — including one administered by the University of Colorado Boulder in the high mountains west of the city — indicates that ecosystems dependent on seasonal snow and ice are the most sensitive to changes in climate.

The six papers appeared in the April issue of the journal BioScience. The papers were tied to data gathered at sites in North America, Puerto Rico, the island of Moorea near Tahiti, and Antarctica, which are known as Long-Term Ecological Research, or LTER, sites and are funded by the National Science Foundation. CU-Boulder’s Niwot Ridge site, one of the five original LTER sites designated by NSF in 1980, encompasses several thousand acres of subalpine forest, tundra, talus slopes, glacial lakes and wetlands stretching up to more than 13,000 feet on top of the Continental Divide. (more…)

Cassini Finds Titan Lake is Like a Namibia Mudflat

By Guest PostApril 20, 2012Scienceatmosphere, bonnie buratti, cassini spacecraft, earth, ethane, etosha salt pan, geological feature, groundwater level, hydrocarbon cycle, lake, liquid hydrocarbon, methane, moon, mudflats, NASA, ontario lacus, propane, rainy season, saturated sand, saturn, south polar, thomas cornet, titan

A new study analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggests that the lake, known as Ontario Lacus, behaves most similarly to what we call a salt pan on Earth.

A group led by Thomas Cornet of the Université de Nantes, France, a Cassini associate, found evidence for long-standing channels etched into the lake bed within the southern boundary of the depression. This suggests that Ontario Lacus, previously thought to be completely filled with liquid hydrocarbons, could actually be a depression that drains and refills from below, exposing liquid areas ringed by materials like saturated sand or mudflats. (more…)

Yale Anthropologist Unlocks Real Story of The Chimpanzee

By Guest PostApril 20, 2012Sciencechimp behavior, chimpanzee, david watts, disney movie, ngogo forest, poachers, ugandan jungle, university of michigan, yale anthropologist

Deep in the Ugandan jungle, David Watts, Yale anthropologist and consultant for new Disney movie “Chimpanzee,” has studied the behavior of humanity’s closest relative. The Ngogo forest boasts one of the largest chimpanzee populations in the world, which not only makes it a great location to film movies, but an unparalleled place to explore chimp […]

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