Science – Page 174 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

‘Life as Research Scientist’: Lauren Cruz, Wildlife Ecologist

By BlogArenaMarch 9, 2014Education, Interview, Nature, Scienceanthropogenic factors, coastal ecosystems, ecology of leatherback, environmental leadership lab, incubation temperature, jim spotila, john wnek, kayak tours, lauren cruz, leatherback trust, pacific leatherback population, playa grande, sea turtle species, turtle nesting, young biologist

Wildlife biologist Lauren Cruz is dedicated to the conservation of coastal ecosystems. She is a recent graduate from the University of Delaware and currently having a B.S. in Wildlife Conservation, Agricultural and Natural Resources and a minor in Entomology. Miss Cruz plans to pursue a M.S. in Marine Science. She attended the Brown University Environmental Leadership Lab on the Big Island of Hawai’i and participated in several projects in different wildlife fields while at the University of Delaware. During her summers, she worked at the Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center where she lead kayak tours and taught visiting groups about the marsh ecosystem and its inhabitants. (more…)

Touching the brain

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2014Health, Scienceafter stroke, brain damage, brain remapping, brenda rapp, cognitive psychologist, experience dependent plasticity, hyper plasticity, jared medina, neural map, patients, phenomenon, touching the brain, university of delaware

Research finds rapid brain ‘remapping’ in patients years after stroke

By examining the sense of touch in stroke patients, a University of Delaware cognitive psychologist has found evidence that the brains of these individuals may be highly plastic even years after being damaged.

The research is published in the March 6 edition of the journal Current Biology, in an article written by Jared Medina, assistant professor of psychology at UD, and Brenda Rapp of Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Cognitive Science. The findings, which are focused on patients who lost the sense of touch in their hands after a stroke, also have potential implications for other impairments caused by brain damage, Medina said. (more…)

Lavaströme am Fuß des Mistretta-Kraters auf dem Mars

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2014Sciencedaedalia planum, der krater mistretta, dlr, high resolution, hrsc, lavastrom, mars, mars express sonde, mistretta gebiets, mistretta krater, stereo camera, topographie, vulkan arsia mons, vulkanismus

Diese Bilder der vom Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) betriebenen hochauflösenden Stereokamera HRSC auf der europäischen Mars Express-Sonde lassen erkennen, wie stark der Vulkanismus die Oberfläche des Mars geprägt hat. Der Krater Mistretta und die ihn umgebende Hochlandebene Daedalia Planum wurden von Lavaströmen überflutet, die vom Vulkan Arsia Mons stammen. Er ist fast 18 Kilometer hoch und liegt 900 Kilometer im Nordwesten. (more…)

NASA: Warm Rivers Play Role in Arctic Sea Ice Melt

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2014ScienceArctic, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, beaufort sea, consumption rate, dorothy hall, drainage basins, energy, factor, ignatius rigor, mackenzie river, NASA, northern hemisphere, reflective sea ice, sea ice melt, son nghiem, united states, warm rivers, watersheds

The heat from warm river waters draining into the Arctic Ocean is contributing to the melting of Arctic sea ice each summer, a new NASA study finds.

A research team led by Son Nghiem of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperature of the waters discharging from a Canadian river into the icy Beaufort Sea during the summer of 2012. They observed a sudden influx of warm river waters into the sea that rapidly warmed the surface layers of the ocean, enhancing the melting of sea ice. A paper describing the study is now published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. (more…)

Study in Mice Raises Question: Could PTSD Involve Immune Cell Response to Stress?

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2014Scienceanxiety, anxiety like behavior, behavioral marker, behavioral terms, cellular component, central nervous system, chronic stress, immune cell response, inflammation, inflammatory immune response, john sheridan, jonathan godbout, monocytes, monocytes in brain, mood disorders, ohio state university, post traumatic, pro inflammatory proteins, ptsd, single acute stressor, stress, stress disorder, study in mice, symptom

After chronic stress, primed immune cells in spleen lead to excessive reaction to later event

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Chronic stress that produces inflammation and anxiety in mice appears to prime their immune systems for a prolonged fight, causing the animals to have an excessive reaction to a single acute stressor weeks later, new research suggests.

After the mice recovered from the effects of chronic stress, a single stressful event 24 days later quickly returned them to a chronically stressed state in biological and behavioral terms. Mice that had not experienced the chronic stress were unaffected by the single acute stressor. (more…)

Laserstrahl vom Mond bis zur Erde

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2014Scienceapollo 13, blu ray version, deutschen zentrums, dirk giggenbach, dlr, erde, esa, flugzeug, laserstrahl, llcd, llst, luft, lunar laser, MIT, mond, nasa sonde ladee, raumfahrt, signal

Rund 400 000 Kilometer hat das Signal zurückgelegt und die Erdatmosphäre durchquert, wenn es von Wissenschaftlern des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) analysiert wird. Das Ergebnis: “Der Einfluss der Atmosphäre ist weniger stark als erwartet, die Qualität des Signals ist sehr gut”, sagt Dr. Dirk Giggenbach vom DLR-Institut für Navigation und Kommunikation. Gesendet wurde das Signal vom Lunar Lasercomm Space Terminal (LLST) an Bord der NASA-Sonde LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer), die seit Oktober 2013 um den Mond kreist. Damit wurde erstmals ein optischer Link nach seinem langen Weg durch den Weltraum vermessen. In Zukunft könnten beispielsweise Mond- oder planetare Missionen von dieser Art der Datenübertragung profitieren und Rover hochaufgelöste 3D-Aufnahmen in Echtzeit übermitteln. (more…)

Undergraduate women in physics find strength in numbers

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2014Education, Scienceadler planetarium, astrophysics, biophysics, carolyn phillips, ceo, debra fischer, erin abouzaid, female scientists, lisa nash, louis block, michelle larson, physics, samantha stam, savannah thais, undergraduate women, university of chicago, yale university, young kee kim

Prof. Young-Kee Kim leads conference for aspiring female scientists

On a mid-January Friday night, Savannah Thais stood at the podium in International House’s Assembly Hall and shared some of her experiences as a female student in physics. She described the refusal of some male students to work with her, the difficulty in finding a female professor or mentor in math or physics, and the common message from adults that “I can’t be ‘girly’ and good at physics.” (more…)

Study uncovers why almost winning is just as good for some gamblers

By Guest PostMarch 5, 2014General, Sciencechanges in brain, frequency range, gambler, gambling history, magnetoencephalography, meg, natalia lawrence, ofc, orbitofrontal cortex, payline, simon dymond, swansea university, university of exeter, winning

A new study led by the University of Exeter and Swansea University has pinpointed the changes in the brain that lead gamblers to react in the same way to near-misses as they do to winning.

The research shows that near-misses are underpinned by increases in the brain’s electrical activity, particularly in the theta frequency range – known to be involved in processing win and loss outcomes.

They found that these increases in theta are linked to both how severe someone’s gambling history is and how susceptible they might be to developing a future gambling problem. (more…)

Category Archives: Science