In a study that pushed quantum mechanical theory and research capabilities to the limit, UA researchers have found a way to see the molecule that likely made the universe – or at least the hot and fiery bits of it.
Lurking in the vast, chilly regions between stars, the unassuming molecule known as a triatomic hydrogen ion, or H3+, may hold secrets of the formation of the first stars after the Big Bang. (more…)
U launches groundbreaking new Ojibwe-English ‘talking’ dictionary.
Eugene Stillday was born in Ponemah on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, where he grew up speaking Ojibwe. That is, until his public school teachers forbade him from the practice and punished him and his classmates for speaking the only language they knew.
“[So] we developed a system,” Stillday says. “We’d be talking to each other in Ojibwe, and when the teacher came nearby we’d just naturally swing into English, and when she left, you know, right back to Ojibwe.” (more…)
Cybersecurity expert Hathaway discusses risks of modern digital world
The near future of digital technology could allow citizens to turn on their toaster ovens via the Internet from just about anywhere, but these developments could pose serious threats to individuals’ safety, according to a cybersecurity expert.
Melissa Hathaway, a former senior director for cyberspace in the National Security Council, highlighted examples of the threats the Internet has created for both national and personal security during a University of Delaware Global Agenda speaker series presentation on Wednesday night, April 11, in Mitchell Hall. (more…)
Bat wings are like hands: meaty, bony and full of joints. A new Brown University study finds that bats take advantage of their flexibility by folding in their wings on the upstroke to save inertial energy. The research suggests that engineers looking at flapping flight should account for wing mass and consider a folding design.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Whether people are building a flying machine or nature is evolving one, there is pressure to optimize efficiency. A new analysis by biologists, physicists, and engineers at Brown University reveals the subtle but important degree to which that pressure has literally shaped the flapping wings of bats.
The team’s observations and calculations show that by flexing their wings inward to their bodies on the upstroke, bats use only 65 percent of the inertial energy they would expend if they kept their wings fully outstretched. Unlike insects, bats have heavy, muscular wings with hand-like bendable joints. The study suggests that they use their flexibility to compensate for that mass. (more…)
*AICTE adopts cloud to improve technical education and prepare students for the workforce of tomorrow.*
NEW DELHI and REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) announced today that AICTE is deploying Microsoft Live@edu over the next three months to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. The cloud deployment will expand students’ access to high-quality technical education and collaboration.
Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers email, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage to AICTE’s more than 7 million students and nearly 500,000 faculty members, for a total reach of 7.5 million users — roughly double the size of the Los Angeles population — making AICTE Microsoft’s largest cloud customer ever. Live@edu is the first step in AICTE’s deployment of Microsoft cloud computing for education. AICTE also plans to deploy Microsoft Office 365 for education when it becomes available later this year, providing access to Microsoft Exchange Online email and calendar, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and Microsoft Office Professional as the technical infrastructure to support member colleges and institutes. (more…)
UCLA anthropologists asked hundreds of Americans to guess the size and muscularity of four men based solely on photographs of their hands holding a range of easily recognizable objects, including handguns. (more…)
Some of the most valuable “real estate” for humans isn’t on Earth at all but rather above the planet’s atmosphere, where all manner of human-made objects orbit. The problem is that those orbits are too crowded with dead satellites and debris, making new launches riskier.
Robert Winglee has spent years developing a magnetized ion plasma system to propel a spacecraft at ultra-high speeds, making it possible to travel to Mars and return to Earth in as little time as 90 days. The problem is that cost and other issues have dampened the desire to send astronauts to Mars or any other planet. (more…)
*comScore Releases Overview of European Internet Usage for February 2012*
LONDON, UK, 12 April 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of internet 
usage in Europe, showing that 386.6 million Europeans went online in February 2012 for an average of 28.2 hours per person. This release highlights internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated into the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Amongst its findings, the study also showed that 46 percent of Europeans visit Sports sites, with Turkey and Ireland having the highest penetration at approximately 70 percent in February 2012. (more…)
