Blog

Sampling the Pacific for Signs of Fukushima

Environment

An international research team is reporting the results of a research cruise they organized to study the amount, spread, and impacts of radiation released into the ocean from the tsunami-crippled reactors in Fukushima, Japan. The group of 17 researchers and technicians from eight institutions spent 15 days at sea in June 2011 studying ocean currents, and sampling water and marine organisms up to the edge of the exclusion zone around the reactors. (more…)

Read More

Sexual Objectification of Female Artists in Music Videos Exists Regardless of Race, MU Study Finds

Entertainment, Media

*Music videos could play an influential role in young viewers’ development*

COLUMBIA, Mo. ­— Popular music videos have been criticized as having misogynistic messages and images. While more female music artists have gained visibility and created successful “brands” in recent years, critics argue that many of these artists are pushing the boundaries of acceptable norms with regard to race, gender and sexuality in popular culture. (more…)

Read More

Free iPad App from IBM and Eames Office, Reinvents Iconic ’60s-Era Infographic on History of Math

Technology

Vintage Timeline Designed by Charles and Ray Eames Continues to Inspire Interest in Math and Science

ARMONK, N.Y. – 05 Apr 2012: To celebrate the history of math and its impact on the world, IBM has released Minds of Modern Mathematics, an iPad app that re-imagines a classic 50-foot infographic on the history of math created by husband-and-wife design team Charles and Ray Eames and displayed at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. (more…)

Read More

Many Young People Would Rather Surf the Web than Drive a Car

General, Technology

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— More young adults today would rather hit the information highway than the open highway, say University of Michigan researchers.

In a new study in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the U-M Transportation Research Institute found that having a higher proportion of Internet users was associated with lower licensure rates among young persons.

And this is just not in the United States; it’s happening in other countries, too. (more…)

Read More

Soy and Menopause

Health

*Large-scale study finds soy may alleviate hot flashes in menopause*

In the most comprehensive study to date to examine the effects of soy on menopause, researchers have found that two daily servings of soy can reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes by up to 26 percent, compared to a placebo.

The findings, published in Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Association, reviewed 19 previous studies that examined more than 1,200 women. (more…)

Read More

Organics Probably Formed Easily in Early Solar System

Science

Complex organic compounds, including many important to life on Earth, were readily produced under conditions that likely prevailed in the primordial solar system. Scientists at the University of Chicago and NASA Ames Research Center came to this conclusion after linking computer simulations to laboratory experiments.

Fred Ciesla, assistant professor in geophysical sciences at UChicago, simulated the dynamics of the solar nebula, the cloud of gas and dust from which the sun and the planets formed. Although every dust particle within the nebula behaved differently, they all experienced the conditions needed for organics to form over a simulated million-year period. (more…)

Read More