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‘Ancient Bipedal Hominid Dubbed ‘Nutcracker Man’ Preferred Grass to Nuts’

By Guest PostMay 3, 2011Scienceafrican landscape, ancestors of humans, bipedal hominid, c3 photosynthetic, c4 photosynthetic pathway, carbon isotopes, emma mbua, hard fruit, hominid, huge molars, matt sponheimer, meave leakey, northern kenya, nutcracker man, nuts, paranthropus, paranthropus boisei, powerful jaws, savannah grasses, seeds, teeth, thure cerling, tropical environments, university of colorado boulder, zebras

An ancient, bipedal hominid sporting a set of powerful jaws and huge molars that earned it the nickname “Nutcracker Man” likely didn’t crack nuts at all, preferring instead to slurp up vast quantities of grasses and sedges, says a new study.

The hominid, known as Paranthropus boisei, ranged across the African landscape more than 1 million years ago and lived side-by-side with direct ancestors of humans, said University of Colorado Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, a study co-author. It was long assumed Paranthropus boisei favored nuts, seeds and hard fruit because of its huge jaws, powerful jaw muscles and the biggest and flattest molars of any known hominid in the anthropological record, he said. (more…)

Yahoo! Sets Records With The Royal Wedding; Drives Largest Traffic Day for Single Event

By Guest PostMay 2, 20111 commentTechnologyacademy awards, aol, cnet, digital media company, huffington post, jai singh, japan earthquake, mickie rosen, new york city, omg, osama bin laden, royal wedding, Sunnyvale, traffic, Yahoo, yahoo news, yahoo tv

*Names Jai Singh Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo! Media Network*

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)— Yahoo! Inc. drove its largest traffic numbers for a single event last week when the world turned to the company for coverage of the Royal Wedding. Over a 24-hour period on Friday, April 29, 2011, Yahoo! drove more traffic and video to its coverage of the wedding than any previous event. (more…)

Bin Laden’s Attacks Among the Most Lethal: UMD Study

By Guest PostMay 2, 20111 commentGeneral, Politicsal qaida, gary lafree, gtd, karl rethemeyer, lethal terrorist organization, osama bin laden, qaida global terrorism database, start, terrorist attacks, terrorist organization, university of maryland, us department of homeland security, victor asal

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Under Osama bin Laden’s leadership, al Qa’ida has been one of the most lethal terrorist organization in the world, responsible for more than 10,000 deaths and injuries in a dozen years – finds a new analysis by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland (START).

“Al-Qa’ida, the terrorist organization Osama bin Laden founded, was responsible for fomenting more mass casualty attacks than any other group in recent history,” says START Director Gary LaFree, a University of Maryland professor responsible for assembling the world’s most comprehensive unclassified terrorism database. (more…)

Orion Energy Systems Sees the Light, Moves Data to Windows Azure

By Guest PostMay 2, 2011Technologyenergy consumption data, intelite, jason young, Microsoft, microsoft sql azure, prashant ketkar, save energy, sensor and control solution, that orion energy systems, windows azure platform

*Energy-management company switches to cloud-based platform to provide customers with a robust, consolidated view of energy-usage data.*

REDMOND, Wash. — May 2, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Orion Energy Systems is using the Windows Azure platform to host InteLite, a sensor-and-control solution designed to help Orion customers save energy and control lighting costs. This move will enable building managers to view energy-consumption data from multiple facilities on the Windows Azure platform, while providing Orion with approximately a $57,000 savings each year in hardware, labor and maintenance costs. (more…)

Scorpion Venom – Bad for Bugs, Good for Pesticides

By Guest PostMay 1, 2011Sciencedesert scorpion, scorpion toxin project, scorpion toxins, scorpion venom

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Fables have long cast scorpions as bad-natured killers of hapless turtles that naively agree to ferry them across rivers. Michigan State University scientists, however, see them in a different light. (more…)

Taking Safety Personally

By Guest PostApril 30, 2011Environment, Generalbp disaster, bp explosion, culture, culture of safety, deepwater horizon oil rig, disaster, geller, individual freedom, message, oil spill, psychologists, safety personally, scott geller, video, virginia tech

A year after the BP explosion and oil spill, those trying to find someone to blame are misguided, says psychological scientist E. Scott Geller, Alumni Distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, and author of a new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Geller has spent much of his 42-year career developing interventions to keep people safe, particularly helping companies develop a culture that promotes occupational safety. (more…)

Asteroids Collide at 11,000 Miles Per Hour; Scientists Study Debris

By Guest PostApril 30, 2011Science596 scheila, asteroid, collision of asteroids, david jewitt, dust plumes, earth, empire state building, evolution of the solar system, history of astronomy, hubble data, Hubble Space Telescope, jupiter, mars, NASA, new york, scheila, swift ultraviolet optical telescope, uvot

Scientists have captured and studied the collision of two asteroids for only the second time in the history of astronomy. In the May 20 edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters (currently online), UCLA’s David Jewitt and colleagues report on observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of a large asteroid that was hit by a much smaller one.

On Dec. 11, 2010, astronomers noticed that an asteroid known as (596) Scheila had unexpectedly brightened and was sporting short-lived dust plumes. Data from NASA’s Swift satellite and Hubble Space Telescope showed that these changes likely occurred after Scheila was struck by a much smaller asteroid, probably in late November or early December. The shape, evolution and content of the plumes enabled the scientists to reconstruct what occurred. (more…)

Mutations in Single Gene May Have Shaped Human Cerebral Cortex

By Guest PostApril 29, 2011Healthcerebral cortex, genetic analysis, human brain, mutations in gene

The size and shape of the human cerebral cortex, an evolutionary marvel responsible for everything from Shakespeare’s poetry to the atomic bomb, are largely influenced by mutations in a single gene, according to a team of researchers led by the Yale School of Medicine and three other universities. (more…)

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