Author Archives: Guest Post

New Survey From FITNESS Magazine and omg! From Yahoo! Reveals Jennifer Aniston as Top Choice for New Year’s Resolution Inspiration

Aniston also voted #1 choice for celebrity work out buddy;

40% voted Britney Spears the best career makeover/comeback;

56% say Maria Shriver had the smartest life makeover of 2011 by ditching the ‘Governator’

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)-– Jennifer Aniston once again tops the charts, beating fellow hot-body celeb Halle Berry with 38% percent of the vote as the celebrity whose body is most likely to inspire real life makeovers. With ‘new year, new you’ resolutions in full swing, FITNESS Magazine teamed up with omg! From Yahoo!, the No.1 celebrity news site reaching more than 28 million fans per month, for an exclusive survey of 1,500 women and men to find out which star-studded body and life transformations rev up their New Year’s resolutions.

The survey found that 44% of women are looking to Aniston to inspire their fitness goals, followed by Berry (30%), Sofia Vergara (12%), Cameron Diaz (10%), and Blake Lively (7%). However 35% of men found inspiration from Berry. (more…)

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Meteorite Shockwaves Trigger Dust Avalanches on Mars

Dust avalanches around impact craters on Mars appear to be the result of the shock wave preceding the actual impact, according to a study led by an undergraduate student at the UA.

When a meteorite careens toward the dusty surface of the Red Planet, it kicks up dust and can cause avalanching even before the rock from outer space hits the ground, a research team led by an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona has discovered.

“We expected that some of the streaks of dust that we see on slopes are caused by seismic shaking during impact,” said Kaylan Burleigh, who led the research project. “We were surprised to find that it rather looks like shockwaves in the air trigger the avalanches even before the impact.” (more…)

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Novel Device Removes Heavy Metals From Water

*Engineers at Brown University have developed a system that cleanly and efficiently removes trace heavy metals from water. In experiments, the researchers showed the system reduced cadmium, copper, and nickel concentrations, returning contaminated water to near or below federally acceptable standards. The technique is scalable and has viable commercial applications, especially in the environmental remediation and metal recovery fields. Results appear in the Chemical Engineering Journal.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — An unfortunate consequence of many industrial and manufacturing practices, from textile factories to metalworking operations, is the release of heavy metals in waterways. Those metals can remain for decades, even centuries, in low but still dangerous concentrations.

Ridding water of trace metals “is really hard to do,” said Joseph Calo, professor emeritus of engineering who maintains an active laboratory at Brown. He noted the cost, inefficiency, and time needed for such efforts. “It’s like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.” (more…)

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Targeting Protein Critical To Cell Division Stops Cancer Cells From Proliferating And Kills Them

Suppressing a newly identified protein involved in regulating cell division could be a novel strategy for fighting certain cancers because it stops the malignant cells from dividing and causes them to die quickly, according to a study by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

During the five-year study, designed to seek new targets for anti-cancer therapies, researchers discovered that depleting the protein, called STARD9, also helped the commonly used chemotherapy drug Taxol work more effectively against certain cancers. (more…)

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Researcher Explains How Santa Delivers Presents in One Night

Don’t believe in Santa Claus? Magic, you say? In fact, science and technology explain how Santa is able to deliver toys to good girls and boys around the world in one night, according to a North Carolina State University researcher.

NC State’s Dr. Larry Silverberg, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, can explain the science and engineering principles that allow Santa, also known as Kris Kringle or Saint Nicholas, to pull off the magical feat year after year. (more…)

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