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Die schlafende Schöne

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2014Sciencearchitektur, architekturtheorie, art deco kinos, asmara, asmara projekt, bar crispi, bart lootsma, die schlafende schoene, eritrea, frozen city, fwf projekt, hauptstadt, katharina paulweber, kolonialzeit, lehrstuhl, peter volgger, the sleeping beauty, UNESCO, universitaet innsbruck

Eritreas Hauptstadt Asmara und ihr einzigartiges koloniales Archtitekturerbe muss man aus vielen Perspektiven betrachten, um ein adäquates Gesamtbild zu bekommen.

Mondäne Art-Déco-Kinos, futuristisch-geradlinige Industrie-Bauten und avantgardistische Bar-Interieurs aus der italienischen Kolonialzeit – ein Architekturjuwel, wie eingefroren inmitten der Hauptstadt eines bitterarmen, vom Bürgerkrieg erschütterten afrikanischen Staates: So zeigten die „Entdecker“ des modernistischen Asmara in den 1990er Jahren in ihren Ausstellungen und Publikationen die Stadt der Weltöffentlichkeit. Dahinter standen sowohl eritreeische als auch internationale Bemühungen, eines der weltweit größten, erhaltenen modernistischen Architektur-Ensembles zum UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe zu erheben und das 1993 unabhängige gewordene Eritrea touristisch nach außen zu öffnen. Die militaristische Regierung stoppte dann aber aprupt internationale Konserverierungs- und Entwicklungshilfe-Programme und ging auf Isolationskurs. „Seit damals gibt es kaum mehr Material und Forschungen aus und über Asmara“, sagt Dr. Peter Volgger, Mitarbeiter bei Univ.-Prof. Bart Lootsma am Lehrstuhl für Architekturtheorie. Volgger ist mit der einseitigen Darstellung von Asmara als „frozen city“ nicht ganz einverstanden. Im Rahmen des von Bart Lootsma koordinierten FWF-Projekts „The Sleeping Beauty“ streben die Innsbrucker Architekturtheoretiker eine wesentlich vielschichtigere Betrachtung der Stadt an, die die Perspektive der Bevölkerung, aber auch des offiziellen Eritrea miteinbeziehen soll. Denn im Gegensatz zu anderen ehemaligen Kolonialstaaten betrachtet man in Eritrea das architektonische und kulturelle Erbe der italienischen Fremdherrschaft als Teil der nationalen Identität, versucht die wichtigsten historischen Gebäude in Stand zu halten, pflegt den Barbesuch und die Passegiata im Rahmen der eigenen Kultur. (more…)

New Study Finds Extreme Longevity in White Sharks

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2014Nature, Scienceadvantage of radiocarbon, age, ear bones, fin rays, great white sharks, greg skomal, growth rate, indian ocean, layers of tissue, li ling hamady, lifespan, lisa natanson, longevity, marine organisms, mineralized tissue, nefsc lab, northwestern atlantic ocean, ocean, ocean ecology, oceanographic institution, otoliths, sexual maturity, simon thorrold, southwestern pacific ocean, species, subtropical waters, temperate, time stamp, vertebra layers, vertebrae, whoi, woods hole, world

Great white sharks—top predators throughout the world’s ocean—grow much slower and live significantly longer than previously thought, according to a new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

In the first successful radiocarbon age validation study for adult white sharks, researchers analyzed vertebrae from four females and four males from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Age estimates were up to 73 years old for the largest male and 40 years old for the largest female. (more…)

UCLA life scientists, colleagues differentiate microbial good and evil

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2014Scienceacidic soils, agents of infection, ammonia, ann hirsch, annette angus, atmosphere, australia, b pseudomallei, bacteria, bacterial genus burkholderia, bioterrorist agent, burkholderia cepacia, burkholderia tuberum, caenorhabditis elegans, christina agapakis, climate change, evolutionary lineage, fertilize crops, microbial, nitrogen fixation, pathogenic strains, pathogens, paul yang, protein rich crops, southern hemisphere, stephanie fong, symbiotic burkholderia species, Thailand, ucla life scientists

To safely use bacteria in agriculture to help fertilize crops, it is vital to understand the difference between harmful and healthy strains. The bacterial genus Burkholderia, for example, includes dangerous disease-causing pathogens — one species has even been listed as a potential bioterrorist agent — but also many species that are safe and important for plant development.

Can the microbial good and evil be told apart? Yes, UCLA life scientists and an international team of researchers report Jan. 8 in the online journal PLOS ONE. (more…)

Dead Star and Distant Black Holes Dazzle in X-Rays

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2014Scienceb1509, canada, cosmic evolution survey, cosmos field, dead star, distant black holes, fiona harrison, francesca civano, hand of god, hongjun an, mcgill university, montreal, NASA, new haven, nuclear, nustar, particle, psr b1509 58, pulsar, pulsar wind nebula, spectroscopic telescope array, spinning star, xrays, yale university

Two new views from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, showcase the telescope’s talent for spying objects near and far. One image shows the energized remains of a dead star, a structure nicknamed the “Hand of God” after its resemblance to a hand. Another image shows distant black holes buried in blankets of dust.

“NuSTAR’s unique viewpoint, in seeing the highest-energy X-rays, is showing us well-studied objects and regions in a whole new light,” said Fiona Harrison, the mission’s principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. (more…)

Kids have skewed view of gender segregation

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2014Sciencechild development, elise cappella, formation of friendships, gender segregation, jennifer watling neal, journal, kids, michigan state university, psychology, same gender, scholar, skewed view, zachary p neal

Children believe the world is far more segregated by gender than it actually is, implies a new study led by a Michigan State University scholar.

Jennifer Watling Neal and colleagues examined classroom friendships in five U.S. elementary schools. Their findings, published in the journal Child Development, found boys and girls had no problems being friends together but for some reason had a perception that only boys played with boys and girls played with girls. (more…)

A Norwegian defense

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2014Education, Science19th century, atlantic, brain cancer, characterization, christopher columbus, deni galileo, egil johnson, finland, glioblastoma cells, glioblastoma multiforme, iver langmoen, joel glover, juha jaaskelainen, kuopio university, mrinal joel, newark, norway, norwegian capital, norwegian defense, norwegians discovered america, oslo, ph d defense, small viking ships, stem cell, university of delaware, viking ship museum, xenotypic tissue environments

Brain cancer researcher travels to Oslo for dissertation defense

As winter weather hit Newark, Del., on Sunday, Dec. 8, a University of Delaware brain cancer researcher escaped the storm by traveling to Oslo, Norway, of all places.

The Norwegian capital also received its first snow of the season that day, but it only accumulated to about three inches, according to Deni Galileo, associate professor of biological sciences at UD. He traveled to Oslo to take part in the Ph.D. defense of Mrinal Joel, a University of Oslo doctoral student who, like Galileo, is working on the most lethal type of brain cancer, Glioblastoma multiforme. (more…)

A rare crash at the Milky Way’s core: U-Michigan astronomers could be the first to see it

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2014Scienceconstellation, core, g2, galactic center, galaxy by spring, gaseous g2 object, mark reynolds, Milky Way, mysterious gas cloud, NASA, nathalie degenaar, rare collision, sagittarius, scorpius, supermassive black hole, swift telescope, u michigan astronomers, university of michigan, xray wavelengths

ANN ARBOR — University of Michigan astronomers could be the first to witness a rare collision expected to happen at the center of the galaxy by spring.

With NASA’s orbiting Swift telescope, the U-M team is taking daily images of a mysterious gas cloud about three times the mass of Earth that’s spiraling toward the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s core. From our vantage point, the core lies more than 25,000 light years away in the southern summer sky near the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. (more…)

Quantum mechanics explains efficiency of photosynthesis

By Guest PostJanuary 9, 2014Sciencealexandra olaya castro, chromophore vibrations, classical physics, clover leaf, efficiency of photosynthesis, energy transfer, light gathering macromolecules, molecular vibrations, non classical explanation, quantum, quantum mechanics, quantum of energy, quantum physics, quantum states, scott robinson, theoretical evidence, vibrational degrees

Light-gathering macromolecules in plant cells transfer energy by taking advantage of molecular vibrations whose physical descriptions have no equivalents in classical physics, according to the first unambiguous theoretical evidence of quantum effects in photosynthesis published today in the journal Nature Communications.

The majority of light-gathering macromolecules are composed of chromophores (responsible for the colour of molecules) attached to proteins, which carry out the first step of photosynthesis, capturing sunlight and transferring the associated energy highly efficiently. Previous experiments suggest that energy is transferred in a wave-like manner, exploiting quantum phenomena, but crucially, a non-classical explanation could not be conclusively proved as the phenomena identified could equally be described using classical physics. (more…)

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