SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — For the first time, scientists have been able to validate the age of deep-sea black corals in the Gulf of Mexico. They found the Gulf is home to 2,000 year-old deep-sea black corals, many of which are only a few feet tall.
These slow-growing, long-living animals thrive in very deep waters—300 meters (984 feet) and deeper—yet scientists say they are sensitive to what is happening in the surface ocean as well as on the sea floor. (more…)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Engineers at Ohio State University have invented a new kind of nano-particle that shines in different colors to tag molecules in biomedical tests.(more…)
*Microsoft is “just scratching the surface” of what’s coming in digital advertising, said CEO Steve Ballmer. He spoke at Imagine 2011, the company’s advertising and marketing thought leadership conference.*
REDMOND, Wash. – March 31, 2011 – While Microsoft Advertising was busy on Wednesday helping T-Mobile stream a live Ellie Goulding concert across three screens, a first for both companies, CEO Steve Ballmer was thinking of the next big opportunity in advertising.
Microsoft has “a deep drive, commitment, and a lot of great work going on in all of our great brands to let our clients and consumers take advantage of the next generation of technology,” said Ballmer, speaking Wednesday at Microsoft’s Imagine 2011 marketing leadership summit. (more…)
Pest-control services provided by insect-eating bats in the United States likely save the U.S. agricultural industry at least $3 billion a year, and yet insectivorous bats are among the most overlooked economically important, non-domesticated animals in North America, according to an analysis published in this week’s Science magazine Policy Forum.
“People often ask why we should care about bats,” said Paul Cryan, a U.S. Geological Survey research scientist and one of the study’s authors. “This analysis suggests that bats are saving us big bucks by gobbling up insects that eat or damage our crops. It is obviously beneficial that insectivorous bats are patrolling the skies at night above our fields and forests — these bats deserve help.” (more…)
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Sexual harassment may have become so commonplace for women that they have built up resistance to harassing behavior they consider merely “bothersome,” suggests a provocative new study by Michigan State University researchers.
This effect, said lead investigator Isis Settles, may be similar to the way people build up immunity to infection following exposure to a virus. (more…)
On March 29, 1807, German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers spotted Vesta as a pinprick of light in the sky. Two hundred and four years later, as NASA’s Dawn spacecraft prepares to begin orbiting this intriguing world, scientists now know how special this world is, even if there has been some debate on how to classify it.
Vesta is most commonly called an asteroid because it lies in the orbiting rubble patch known as the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But the vast majority of objects in the main belt are lightweights, 100-kilometers-wide (about 60-miles wide) or smaller, compared with Vesta, which is about 530 kilometers (330 miles) across on average. In fact, numerous bits of Vesta ejected by collisions with other objects have been identified in the main belt. (more…)
*Males Spend 64 Percent More Time Viewing Online Video than Females*
*comScore Releases Latest Online Video Rankings for New Zealand*
Auckland, New Zealand, March 30, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its latest study of online video viewing habits in New Zealand based on data from the comScore Video Metrixservice, which was launched in New Zealand earlier this year. The report found that 2.1 million online users in New Zealand watched online video in February 2011, representing 77 percent of the total online population. Google Sites led the market as the top online video property, driven largely by viewership at YouTube.com.
“Video viewing is an important and growing online activity for New Zealanders, with online viewers watching more than one video every day on average,” said Amy Weinberger, comScore vice president for Australia and New Zealand. “Online video offers an especially engaging experience for consumers that translates into the potential for high quality advertising impressions from desirable audiences that can be delivered at scale.”(more…)
*California’s aging LGB population is set to double in next 20 years*
Members of California’s aging lesbian, gay and bisexual population are more likely to suffer from certain chronic conditions, even as they wrestle with the challenges of living alone in far higher numbers than the heterosexual population, according to new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Half of all gay and bisexual adult men in California between the ages of 50 and 70 are living alone, compared with 13.4 percent of heterosexual men in the same age group. And although older California lesbians and bisexual women are more likely to live with a partner or a family member than their male counterparts, more than one in four live alone, compared with one in five heterosexual women. (more…)
