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Pine Island Glacier: A Scientific Quest in Antarctica to Determine What’s Causing Ice Loss

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2011EnvironmentAntarctica, bismarck, cold, glacier, glacier melt, global sea level rise, harsh, hazards, ice shelf, international polar year, ipy, logistics hub, mcmurdo station, models to predict glacier acceleration, NASA, national science foundation, north dakota, nsf, ocean cavity shape, ocean currents, oceanographic instruments, pine island glacier, pine island glacier ice shelf, project, ross island, scott borg, sea-level rise, stormy climate, united states antarctic program, warmer ocean water, Washington

*Researchers study heat delivered by ocean currents to bottom side of glacier that releases more than 19 cubic miles of ice each year*

An international team of researchers, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, will helicopter onto the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf, one of Antarctica’s most active, remote and harsh spots, in mid-December 2011–weather permitting.

The project’s mission is to determine how much heat ocean currents deliver to the underside of the Pine Island Glacier as it discharges into the sea. Quantifying this heat and understanding how much melting it causes is key to developing reliable models to predict glacier acceleration and therefore predict how much ice will be delivered from land into the ocean thus contributing to sea level rise. (more…)

Imaging Technique IDs Plaques, Tangles in Brains of Severely Depressed Older Adults

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2011Healthamyloid plaques, brain scan, chemical marker, imaging technique, severe depression, tau tangles

Study provides more evidence linking depression to possible dementia later in life

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the elderly, but little is known about the underlying biology of its development in older adults. (more…)

Preventing Pancreatic Cell Death in Type 1 Diabetes

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2011Healthbeta cell death, blood glucose levels, diabetes, hyperglycemia, insulin producing cells, pancreatic cell death

Diabetes researchers at Yale University have developed a method to detect and measure the destruction of beta cells that occurs in the pancreas by measuring DNA expression in the blood. The destruction of beta cells leads, over time, to type 1 diabetes. Their finding could ultimately lead to a treatment that stops the progression of the disease. The paper appears in the Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Greek ‘Anti-Economist’ Offers Solution to Economic Crisis

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2011Economy, Politicsanti economist, current economic crisis, exit card, hart house, overcoming the eurocrisis, the global minotaur, toxic economic theories, yanis varoufakis

*Standing room only crowd at Hart House*

Yanis Varoufakis, a self-described anti-economist, told a standing-room only crowd at Hart House that the current economic crisis could be solved in two weeks; provided the political will to do so also existed. (more…)

Long-Term Carbon Storage in Ganges Basin May Portend Global Warming Worsening

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2011Environmentcarbon residence time, carbon storage, ganges basin, radiocarbon content, river sediments

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists have found that carbon is stored in the soils and sediments of the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin for a surprisingly long time, making it likely that global warming could destabilize the pool of carbon there and in similar places on Earth, potentially increasing the rate of CO₂ release into the atmosphere. (more…)

Exploring the Ocean in Our Brains with Jaron Lanier

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2011Technology100 most influential people of 2010, 3d environment, avatars, back to nature, cyberspace, digital maoism, gadget, geometry, hollywood, human, human machine interaction, jaron lanier, kinect for xbox 360, manifesto, Microsoft, microsoft research, minority report, motion sensing camera, optimist, sex in movies, silicon valley, somatic cognition, thinking about technology, time magazine, triangle, video game store in california, Wall Street Journal

*Jaron Lanier has spent decades thinking about technology and the ways we use – and misuse – it. He also has been thinking long and hard about using avatars to access the untapped potential of our brains.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Nov. 9, 2011 – One evening last November, Jaron Lanier queued up outside a video game store in California and counted down the minutes until he could buy Kinect for Xbox 360. Lanier – a technologist, computer scientist, composer, and one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People of 2010 – was just as excited to get his hands on Microsoft’s motion-sensing camera as the other gamers in line, most of whom he quickly realized were half his age. He was only slightly embarrassed by the observation.

“As a grownup and as a father I can’t believe I did that,” said Lanier, a partner architect for Microsoft Research. “But I was just so amazed it was really happening.” (more…)

Abused Students Can Return To School and Thrive With Educator Help, MU Researcher Finds

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2011Healthabused students, child maltreatment, daily living skills, thought control

Study of math and reading scores indicate daily focus can bring success

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A new study from the University of Missouri shows that children who are abused can return to school and do well academically if teachers can help them control their emotions, pay attention to detail and stay motivated. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Researchers Ink Nanostructures with Tiny ‘Soldering Iron’

By Guest PostNovember 8, 2011Sciencedip pen nanolithography, fabrication technique, nanofabrication techniques, role of temperature

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shed light on the role of temperature in controlling a fabrication technique for drawing chemical patterns as small as 20 nanometers. This technique could provide an inexpensive, fast route to growing and patterning a wide variety of materials on surfaces to build electrical circuits and chemical sensors, or study how pharmaceuticals bind to proteins and viruses. (more…)

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