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El Zotz Masks Yield Insights into Maya beliefs

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2012Culture, Science3d image, ancient america, archaeological site, boris beltran, brown university, cast, cultural heritage, diablo pyramid, dupee family, edwin roman, el zotz, guatemala, hieroglyphic text, kinich ajaw, maya belief, maya civilization, Mexico City, night sun, pre colombian mesoamerica, sarah newman, stephen houston, stuccos, sun god, temple, tikal

A team of archaeologists led by Stephen Houston has made a new discovery at the Maya archaeological site in El Zotz, Guatemala, uncovering a pyramid believed to celebrate the Maya sun god. The structure’s outer walls depict the god in an unprecedented set of images done in painted stucco. In 2010, the team uncovered a royal tomb filled with artifacts and human remains at the same site. Researchers believe the pyramid was built to link the deceased lord to the eternal sun.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A team of archaeologists led by Brown University’s Stephen Houston has uncovered a pyramid, part of the Maya archaeological site at El Zotz, Guatemala. The ornately decorated structure is topped by a temple covered in a series of masks depicting different phases of the sun, as well as deeply modeled and vibrantly painted stucco throughout.

The team began uncovering the temple, called the Temple of the Night Sun, in 2009. Dating to about 350 to 400 A.D., the temple sits just behind the previously discovered royal tomb, atop the Diablo Pyramid. The structure was likely built after the tomb to venerate the leader buried there. (more…)

Solar Storm Protection

By Guest PostJuly 17, 2012Scienceastronauts in space, explosions on sun, solar flares, solar storm protection, solar storms

Warning system to protect astronauts from solar storms

Massive explosions on the sun unleash radiation that could kill astronauts in space. (more…)

Not Your Typical Summer Job for High School Students

By Guest PostJuly 17, 2012Education, Sciencehigh school students, iclem program, iclem students, paid summer internship, summer jobs

The iCLEM Program Gives Students Hands-On Science Experience and a Salary

When we think of high school summer jobs what typically comes to mind are images of lawn-mowing, camp-counseling, life-guarding at a swimming pool, and baby-sitting. But for eight high school students from the East Bay Area, a job this summer means a lab coat and safety glasses, working in a state-of-the art microbiology research facility on the next-step in bioenergy. (more…)

New Technique Controls Crystalline Structure of Titanium Dioxide

By Guest PostJuly 14, 2012Scienceanatase, antimicrobial coatings, atoms dictates, crystalline structure, dme, domain matching epitaxy, hydrogen production, jay narayan, m r bayati, north carolina state university, optimal structure, photovoltaic cells, r molaei, roger narayan, rutile, sapphire substrate, smart sensor, titanium dioxide

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for controlling the crystalline structure of titanium dioxide at room temperature. The development should make titanium dioxide more efficient in a range of applications, including photovoltaic cells, hydrogen production, antimicrobial coatings, smart sensors and optical communication technologies.

Titanium dioxide most commonly comes in one on of two major “phases,” meaning that its atoms arrange themselves in one of two crystalline structures. These phases are “anatase” or “rutile.” The arrangement of atoms dictates the material’s optical, chemical and electronic properties. As a result, each phase has different characteristics. The anatase phase has characteristics that make it better suited for use as an antibacterial agent and for applications such as hydrogen production. The rutile phase is better suited for use in other applications, such as photovoltaic cells, smart sensors and optical communication technologies. (more…)

Ribbeting Research

By Guest PostJuly 13, 2012Nature, Scienceacoustic difference, amphibians, amplexus, cocktail party problem, eardrum movement, eustachian tubes, female cope, frog ears, frogs, gray treefrog, hearing aids, jackhammer, mammalian ears, mammals, mark bee, mr right, study, university of minnesota, velocity

Studies of frogs may lead to better hearing aids

When Mark Bee talks to his 106-year-old grandmother alone, her two enormous hearing aids enable her to understand him well.

“But at a table at Thanksgiving, with everybody talking, the devices don’t do well,” says Bee, an associate professor of ecology, evolution and behavior at the University of Minnesota.

Her difficulty in a noisy situation is called the cocktail party problem, after the background babble that stymies many hearing-impaired people trying to pick out individual voices at a party. But in ponds all over the world, frogs handle a similar problem, and Bee hopes to learn enough about how they do it to put the principles to work helping people like his grandmother. (more…)

Metamolecules That Switch Handedness at Light-Speed

By Guest PostJuly 13, 2012Scienceartificial chiral molecule, artificial molecules, enantiomers, meta atom, terahertz frequencies, terahertz technologies

Researchers Develop Optically Switchable Chiral Terahertz Metamolecules

A multi-institutional team of researchers that included scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has created the first artificial molecules whose chirality can be rapidly switched from a right-handed to a left-handed orientation with a beam of light. This holds potentially important possibilities for the application of terahertz technologies across a wide range of fields, including reduced energy use for data-processing, homeland security and ultrahigh-speed communications. (more…)

Training Improves Recognition of Rapid-Fire Objects

By Guest PostJuly 12, 2012Scienceattentional blink, attentional function, brain activity, brown university, fmri machine, gibberish character, hoon choi, Kazuhisa Shibata, li hung chang, perception, rapid fire objects, sequence, Takeo Watanabe, visual perception

“Attentional blink” is the term psychologists use to describe our inability to recognize a second important object if we see it less than half a second after a first one. It always seemed impossible to overcome, but in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Brown University psychologists report they’ve found a way.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — So far it has seemed an irreparable limitation of human perception that we strain to perceive things in the very rapid succession of, say, less than half a second. Psychologists call this deficit “attentional blink.” We’ll notice that first car spinning out in our path, but maybe not register the one immediately beyond it. It turns out, we can learn to do better after all. In a new study researchers now based at Brown University overcame the blink with just a little bit of training that was never been tried before. (more…)

Making Mirrors for the Sun

By Guest PostJuly 11, 2012Scienceconcentrated solar power, mirror making technology, photovoltaic panels, photovoltaic prototype, solar electricity, solar mirrors, solar tracking systems

With $1.5 million from the Department of Energy, UA researchers are continuing to improve groundbreaking technology to produce solar electricity at a price competitive with non-renewable energy sources

Just behind the University of Arizona’s Bear Down Gymnasium, a house-sized frame of crisscrossing steel tubes is mounted onto a swiveling post in the concrete bottom of an empty swimming pool. (more…)

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