NASA Ozone Study May Benefit Air Standards, Climate
PASADENA, Calif. – A new NASA-led study finds that when it comes to combating global warming caused by emissions of ozone-forming chemicals, location matters. (more…)
Blog
4,000-year-old Shaman’s Stones Discovered near Boquete, Panama
Archaeologists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have discovered a cluster of 12 unusual stones in the back of a small, prehistoric rock-shelter near the town of Boquete. The cache represents the earliest material evidence of shamanistic practice in lower Central America.
Ruth Dickau, Leverhulme Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Exeter, unearthed the cache of stones in the Casita de Piedra rock-shelter in 2007. A piece of charcoal found directly underneath the cache was radiocarbon dated to 4,800 years ago. A second fragment of charcoal in a level above the cache was dated to 4,000 years ago. (more…)
Global Warming May Have Severe Consequences for Rare Haleakala Silverswords
HONOLULU — While the iconic Haleakalā silversword plant made a strong recovery from early 20th-century threats, it has now entered a period of substantial climate-related decline. New research published this week warns that global warming may have severe consequences for the silversword in its native habitat. (more…)
Film Producer’s “Pi” in the Sky Dreams Become Reality
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – You may not know Lee Berger by name, but you may have seen the work of his production teams in many of 2012’s biggest movies: “Django Unchained,” “The Hunger Games,” “Life of Pi” and “Snow White and the Huntsman.” (more…)
Is Social Media an Effective Instrument for Qualitative Education?
Learn about the reasons why social media can be efficient and easy tool in education process!
Students breathe social media; it’s like a drug spreading its tentacles over the younger generation. However, parents and teachers have begun to realize the importance of social media for the younger generation. For instance, they use the Internet databases and social media collaboration as homework writing help tools. (more…)
New book by James Wellman explores the rise, effect of Pastor Rob Bell
James Wellman, associate professor of American religion in the Jackson School of International Studies, is the author of the book “Rob Bell and a New American Christianity.” He answered a few questions about his book for UW Today. (more…)
NASA Mars Rover Preparing to Drill into First Martian Rock
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red Planet. If the rock meets rover engineers’ approval when Curiosity rolls up to it in coming days, it will become the first to be drilled for a sample during the Mars Science Laboratory mission.
The size of a car, Curiosity is inside Mars’ Gale Crater investigating whether the planet ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. Curiosity landed in the crater five months ago to begin its two-year prime mission. (more…)
Taking ‘Multi-Core’ Mainstream
UD professor works to overcome challenges in harnessing power of multicore computer processors
Computer processors that can complete multiple tasks simultaneously have been available in the mainstream for almost a decade. In fact, almost all processors developed today are multicore processors. Yet, computer programmers still struggle to efficiently harness their power because it is difficult to write correct and efficient parallel code.
According to the University of Delaware’s John Cavazos, to effectively exploit the power of multi-core processors, programs must be structured as a collection of independent tasks where separate tasks are executed on independent cores.
The complexity of modern software, however, makes this difficult. (more…)