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Scientists Reconstruct Pre-Columbian Human Effects on the Amazon Basin

By Guest PostJune 19, 2012Environment, Sciencealan tessier, Amazon, amazon basin, amazon river, archaeological evidence, biodiversity, climate change, crystal mcmichael, cultural parkland, d r piperno, ecological processes, environmental change, european, fit, historical evidence, human disturbance, human populations, luiz lobato, m r silman, madre de dios river, mark bush, national science foundation, peru, peruvian amazon, porto velho manaus, pre columbian amazon, pre columbian times, tropical rainforests

Findings overturn idea that the Amazon had large populations of humans that transformed the landscape

Small, shifting human populations existed in the Amazon before the arrival of Europeans, with little long-term effect on the forest.

That’s the result of research led by Crystal McMichael and Mark Bush of the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). The finding overturns the idea the Amazon was a cultural parkland in pre-Columbian times with large human populations that transformed vast tracts of the landscape.

The Amazon Basin is one of the highest biodiversity areas on Earth. Understanding how it was modified by humans in the past is important for conservation and for understanding the ecological processes in tropical rainforests. (more…)

Put a cork in it

By Guest PostJune 19, 2012Sciencecork, rohacell, sandwich composites, synthetic foam, vibrational properties, wine bottle stoppers

Paper details use of natural material cork for quiet sandwich composites

Cork, known for its use in such low-tech applications as wine bottle stoppers and bulletin boards, now shows promise as the core material in composite sandwich structures for use in high-tech automotive, aircraft and energy applications. (more…)

Global Science: U.S. is Still in The Game

By Guest PostJune 19, 2012Sciencealexandra achen killewald, america today, american economy, american science, decline, globalization, harvard university, mathematics, new york times, newsweek, popular media, relative scale, Science, scientific achievement, united states, university of michigan, US, yu xie

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Globalization is a benefit to U.S. scientific achievement, not a threat. That’s the conclusion of a new book that weighs the evidence from a number of recent surveys to answer its title question: “Is American Science in Decline?”

American science is in good health, according to the book’s authors, sociologists Yu Xie of the University of Michigan and Alexandra Achen Killewald of Harvard University.

Although there are areas of concern, they maintain that traditional American values will help the nation maintain its strength in science for the foreseeable future, and that globalization will promote efficiency in science through knowledge sharing. (more…)

Crisis in Academic Publishing

By Guest PostJune 18, 2012Scienceacademic publishing, academic spring, author payer model, open access, open access journals, public funds

“In almost every country in the world, research is supported by public funds. When researchers publish their results in academic journals, they do so for free. The results are also reviewed by peers for free. And journals often require researchers to give up their rights to these articles. Then, major publishers or learned societies sell their journals at exorbitant prices to libraries… which are also financed by public funds! It’s a vicious circle in which taxpayers pay for the production and access to researchers while publishers and societies make profits of 30-45% before taxes. It’s outrageous!” exclaimed Jean-Claude Guédon. This professor of comparative literature at the Université de Montréal is far from being the only one to protest. In recent months, more than 11,000 researchers worldwide have expressed their dissatisfaction through a petition calling for a boycott of Elsevier. This academic publishing giant earned profits of more than US $1.1 billion in 2011. (more…)

First Commercial IBM Hot-Water Cooled Supercomputer to Consume 40% Less Energy

By Guest PostJune 18, 2012Science, Technologyartificial heart valve, computing infrastructure, europe fastest computer, german federal government, hot water cooling, supermuc, supermuc performance, Technology, zero emission

Leibniz’s “SuperMUC” named Europe’s fastest supercomputer

MUNICH – 18 Jun 2012: The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), in collaboration with IBM, today announced the world’s first commercially available hot-water cooled supercomputer, a powerful, high-performance system designed to help researchers and industrial institutions across Europe investigate and solve some of the world’s most daunting scientific challenges. (more…)

Learning About Spatial Relationships Boosts Understanding of Numbers

By Guest PostJune 18, 2012Sciencearithmetic, calculation, elizabeth gunderson, geometry, gerardo ramirez, jason smith, linear number, math problems, mathematics, number knowledge, number line, numerical representations, objects, puzzles, sian beilock, spatial learning, spatial relationships, spatial skill, stem, Technology, university of chicago

Children who are skilled in understanding how shapes fit together to make recognizable objects also have an advantage when it comes to learning the number line and solving math problems, research at the University of Chicago shows.

The work is further evidence of the value of providing young children with early opportunities in spatial learning, which contributes to their ability to mentally manipulate objects and understand spatial relationships, which are important in a wide range of tasks, including reading maps and graphs and understanding diagrams showing how to put things together. Those skills also have been shown to be important in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. (more…)

“Extremely Little” Telescope Discovers Pair of Odd Planets

By Guest PostJune 17, 2012Sciencebrown dwarf, failed star, kelt project, odd planets, orbital dynamics, solar system evolution

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Even small telescopes can make big discoveries.

Though the KELT North telescope in southern Arizona carries a lens no more powerful than a high-end digital camera, it’s just revealed the existence of two very unusual faraway planets. (more…)

Crocodilian Evolution

By Guest PostJune 15, 2012Nature, Scienceadam thomas, alligators, birds, canr, carl schmidt, colin kern, crocodile, crocodilian evolution, crocodilian family, crocodilian native, danielle quigley, david ray, dna sequence, evolution research, extinction, gene, genetic evolution, genome, genomic change, gharials, indian subcontinent, university of delaware, wetlands

UD’s Schmidt studies genome of crocodile family in evolution research

University of Delaware scientist Carl Schmidt is working to identify genes in crocodiles, alligators and gharials as he searches for links between the creatures that could give clues as to how they evolved over the years in relation to one another.

Schmidt’s effort is part of a National Science Foundation-funded project being conducted by a team of researchers assembled by David Ray, an evolutionary biologist at Mississippi State University. (more…)

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