Author Archives: Guest Post

Microbes Generate Electricity While Cleaning Up Nuclear Waste

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Researchers at Michigan State University have unraveled the mystery of how microbes generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste and other toxic metals.

Details of the process, which can be improved and patented, are published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The implications could eventually benefit sites forever changed by nuclear contamination, said Gemma Reguera, MSU microbiologist. (more…)

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Ancient Humans Were Mixing it Up

*Anatomically modern humans interbred with more archaic hominin forms even before they migrated out of Africa, a UA-led team of researchers has found.*

It is now widely accepted that anatomically modern humans of the species Homo sapiens originated in Africa and eventually spread throughout the world. Ancient DNA recovered from fossil Neanderthal bones suggests they interbred with more archaic hominin forms once they had left their evolutionary cradle for the cooler climates of Eurasia, but whether they exchanged genetic material with other, now extinct archaic hominin varieties in Africa remained unclear.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, a team led by Michael Hammer, an associate professor and research scientist with the UA’s Arizona Research Labs, provides evidence that anatomically modern humans were not so unique that they remained separate. (more…)

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Study Finds Payment for Pediatric Obesity Services Now Can Save Money Later

Pediatric obesity ends up costing $3 billion annually in the U.S., but a significant amount of that could be saved by streamlining medical coverage to address health issues affecting young obese patients now rather than waiting to treat conditions they develop as they get older, according UCLA researchers and colleagues. (more…)

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WHOI-Led Study Sharpens Picture of How Much Oil and Gas Flowed in Deepwater Horizon Spill

In a detailed assessment of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers led by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have determined that the blown-out Macondo well spewed oil at a rate of about 57,000 barrels a day, totaling nearly 5 million barrels of oil released from the well between April 20 and July 15, 2010, when the leak was capped. In addition, the well released some 100 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas. (more…)

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Chinese Government and Businesses Continue to Embrace IBM Smarter Computing

*National Bureau of Statistics, Guizhou Provincial Health Department, and Guizhou Mobile leverage IBM optimized systems and cloud technology*

BEIJING and ARMONK, – 06 Sep 2011: IBM announced this week the continued adoption of its smarter computing systems, software, and services across China’s private and public sectors.

IBM is working with the China National Bureau of Statistics, Guizhou Provincial Health Department and Guizhou Mobile to help each build more advanced IT environments based on IBM’s optimized system architecture, data and analytics integration, and cloud computing capabilities. Through these smarter computing initiatives, each organization will improve their operational efficiencies and end-user services. (more…)

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Computer Helps MSU Researchers Unravel Plants’ Secrets to Survival

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Recent research by Michigan State University scientists has shed more light on how plants are able to cope with extreme environments.

However, the name of one of the key contributors to the work, which is detailed in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is not listed among the paper’s authors. That’s because it’s a cluster of computers. (more…)

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