*Projections for the future still loom large*
The seas are creeping higher as the planet warms. But how high could they go?
Projections for the year 2100 range from inches to several feet, or even more.
The sub-tropical islands of Bermuda and the Bahamas are two seemingly unlikely places scientists have gone looking for answers. (more…)
Sharing scientific knowledge is a fundamental part of university life. Regardless of whether you’re an undergraduate or a tenured professor, everyone has the responsibility of spreading their knowledge as widely as possible.
Why would you want to, though? “For a variety of reasons,” answers William Raillant-Clark, Press attaché at Université de Montréal’s Office of Communications and Public Relations. “The media is an excellent vehicle for communicating your ideas or your discoveries to the general public, and it can also draw the attention of your research peers to your work. This is one of the reasons why funding partners and potential research directors take into consideration science outreach work.” (more…)
An unmanned aircraft has captured hundreds of images of Exmoor’s peatlands, revealing the condition of this rare environment as never seen before.
Flying 300 metres above the ground, the state-of-the art remote-controlled vehicle captured very detailed photographs of two five-hectare study sites.
The University of Exeter and South West Water will use the images to monitor the effectiveness of the planned restoration of these rare ecosystems. The research will investigate whether the restoration, due to take place later this year, will result in improved water storage in the blanket bogs, bringing benefits such as cost savings on water bills and improvements in river quality. (more…)
A new atlas and catalog of the entire infrared sky with more than a half-billion stars, galaxies and other objects captured by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission was unveiled by NASA Wednesday.
“Today WISE delivers the fruit of 14 years of effort to the astronomical community,” said Edward L. (Ned) Wright, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and the mission’s principal investigator, who began working on the mission in 1998. (more…)
*Hulu Streams Record 1.5 Billion Videos Ads in February*
RESTON, VA, March 16, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 179 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 38 billion videos of online video content in February.
Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers
Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in February with 147.4 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 60.9 million, VEVO with 52 million, Facebook.com with 43.6 million and Viacom Digital with 43.2 million. Nearly 38 billion video views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 16.7 billion, followed by Hulu with 951 million and Yahoo! Sites with 721 million. The average viewer watched 21.8 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7 hours) and Hulu (3.8 hours) demonstrating the highest average engagement among the top ten properties. (more…)
New estimates suggest more U.S. land prone to flooding than previously thought.
About 3.7 million Americans are at risk for flooding as the sea level continues to rise in the coming century, according to a new study from a team that includes University of Arizona researchers.
Areas on the south Atlantic Seaboard and surrounding the Gulf of Mexico appear to be most prone to future flooding. In terms of numbers of people at risk, Florida is the most vulnerable, closely followed by Louisiana, California, New York and New Jersey. (more…)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers have designed a new version of a labor-tracking tool for pregnant women that they predict could reduce the use of hormonal intervention during labor and lower the number of cesarean sections performed on low-risk, first-time mothers.
The tool, called a partograph, takes into account the most recent research findings that suggest labor is not a linear process, but is instead slower during earlier labor and accelerates gradually as labor advances. A diagnosis of abnormally slow labor is the No. 1 reason that C-sections are performed in low-risk births by first-time moms. (more…)
JBEI Researchers Develop a New Candidate for a Cleaner, Greener and Renewable Diesel Fuel
A class of chemical compounds best known today for fragrance and flavor may one day provide the clean, green and renewable fuel with which truck and auto drivers fill their tanks. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria to generate significant quantities of methyl ketone compounds from glucose. In subsequent tests, these methyl ketones yielded high cetane numbers – a diesel fuel rating comparable to the octane number for gasoline – making them strong candidates for the production of advanced biofuels. (more…)
