Tag Archives: 21st century

The future of research universities

By Guest PostDecember 24, 2013Education, Science21st century, maryland, merit based system, moocs, patrick harker, problem based learning, research universities, time to innovation, united states, university of delaware, university system, usm, william kirwan

Maryland chancellor shares ideas to enhance effectiveness of America’s research universities

For research universities to produce the ideas and talent the United States needs in order to lead in the 21st century, they “must make a steady and persistent movement to adapt to the times,” according to William (Brit) Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM).

Kirwan spoke on the future of research universities on Wednesday, Dec. 11, at the University of Delaware. The talk, presented to a group of UD faculty and administrators, was designed to help set the scene and percolate new ideas as UD considers the next phase of its Path to Prominencestrategic plan, a process that will begin in the new year. (more…)

Another Yale Nobel: Robert Shiller

By Guest PostOctober 15, 2013Economy, Education21 thinkers, 21st century, alfred nobel, american economic review, asset prices, bob shiller, born in detroit, case shiller, die zeit, economic sciences, empirical analysis, eugene fama, german newspaper, home price, irrational exuberance, jim rothman, lars peter hansen, management, MIT, nobel prize, professor of economics, real estate index, robert shiller, social psychologist, university of chicago, university of michigan, university of minnesota, university of pennsylvania, yale nobel, yale school, yale university

Robert J. Shiller, the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, has been awarded a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He shares the award — formally, the 2013 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — with Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen from the University of Chicago. According to the Nobel committee, the three were honored “for their empirical analysis of asset prices.”

Shiller, whose name became a household word with the wide use of the Case-Shiller Home Price real estate Index, came to national prominence with the publication in 2000 of “Irrational Exuberance.” The book, which quickly became a bestseller, described speculative bubbles fueled by mass misinformation and herd instinct, and accurately predicted the dot.com implosion. As early as 2003, Shiller warned of the housing market collapse, and later wrote a precept for recovery, “Subprime Solution: How the Global Financial Crisis Happened and What to Do about It.” (more…)

From art book to iPad app: Josef Albers’ classic work undergoes a ‘magical’ transformation

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2013Culture, Technology21st century, albers methodology, anni albers foundation, classic work, color palette tool, interaction of color, ipad app, john donatich, josef albers, magical transformation, michelle komie, potion, professor albers, Technology, yale university press

“Interaction of Color” — Josef Albers’ iconic book that taught legions of students and professionals alike how to think creatively about color — has been given a modern makeover as an iPad app, just in time for the 50th anniversary of its publication by Yale University Press.

The app, which combines Albers’ traditional teaching methods with 21st-century technology, was created by Yale University Press and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and developed by Potion, an award-winning design and technology firm specializing in interactive experiences. (more…)

‘A better path’ toward projecting, planning for rising seas on a warmer Earth

By Guest PostApril 30, 2013Environment21st century, Antarctica, basins, behavior, christopher little, climate change, climate change policy, coastal planning, computer algorithms, continental ice sheets, geosciences, greenland, ice sheet dynamics, ipcc, massive ice sheets, methodology, michael oppenheimer, monte carlo simulations, nathan urban, Nature, polar ice sheets, princeton university, projection, risk tolerance, sea level, sea level change, sparse data, upper bounds

More useful projections of sea level are possible despite substantial uncertainty about the future behavior of massive ice sheets, according to Princeton University researchers.

In two recent papers in the journals Nature Climate Change and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers present a probabilistic assessment of the Antarctic contribution to 21st-century sea-level change. Their methodology folds observed changes and models of different complexity into unified projections that can be updated with new information. This approach provides a consistent means to integrate the potential contribution of both continental ice sheets — Greenland and Antarctica — into sea-level rise projections. (more…)

UMass Amherst Climate Model is First to Study Climate Effects of Arctic Hurricanes

By Guest PostDecember 31, 2012Environment21st century, alan condron, arctic hurricane, arctic region, arctic seas, barometric pressure, central eye, climate, climate model, climate prediction models, climate scientist, conveyer belt, cyclone, east anglia, England, Europe, forecast climate change, gas exploration, higher resolution modeling, ian renfrew, massachusetts amherst, missing storms, model, North America, north atlantic, norwegian sea, ocean water circulation, oil, oxymoron, polar lows, satellite, thermohaline circulation, thick ice, university, wave

AMHERST, Mass. – Though it seems like an oxymoron, Arctic hurricanes happen, complete with a central “eye,” extreme low barometric pressure and towering 30-foot waves that can sink small ships and coat metal platforms with thick ice, threatening oil and gas exploration. Now climate scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and in England report the first conclusive evidence that Arctic hurricanes, also known as polar lows, play a significant role in driving ocean water circulation and climate.

Results point to potentially cooler conditions in Europe and North America in the 21^st century than other models predict. (more…)

Environmental Cost of Agriculture: Soil Determines Fate of Phosphorous

By Guest PostDecember 17, 2012Environment21st century, agricultural nutrient, agriculture, alfisol, algae, algal blooms, amazon basin, Argentina, brazil, brown university, buenos aires, clean water act, environmental challenge, environmental consequence, environmental cost, farmer, fertilizer, goldilocks problem, grosso, industrial agriculture, iowa farmers, mato, modern farming, mollisol, overfertilization, oxisol, phosphorous, polluted waterways, renewable, shelby riskin, single crop, soil demand, soil ph, soil type, soybean, soybean fields, soybean harvest, stephen porder, ultisol, united states

Brazil’s soybean yields have become competitive with those of the United States and Argentina, but the soil demands a lot of phosphorous, which is not renewable. In the United States, meanwhile, historical applications of the fertilizer have polluted waterways. What accounts for these problems? It’s the soils, according to a new study comparing agriculture in the three countries.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Just 20 years ago, the soils of the Amazon basin were thought unsuitable for large-scale agriculture, but then industrial agriculture — and the ability to fertilize on a massive scale — came to the Amazon. What were once the poorest soils in the world now produce crops at a rate that rivals that of global breadbaskets. Soils no longer seem to be the driver — or the limiter — of agricultural productivity. But a new Brown University-led study of three soybean growing regions, including Brazil, finds that soils have taken on a new role: mediating the environmental consequences of modern farming. (more…)

Climate Change Threatens Giant Pandas’ Bamboo Buffet–and Survival

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Environment, Nature21st century, affect, bamboo, bamboo famine, changing climate, chinese academy, climate change, climate projection, common species, conservation resource, field data, food supply, forest floors, historic data, human habitation, jianguo jack liu, julie winkler, mao ning tuanmu, meal source, michigan state university, mountain range, msu, natural bridge, northwestern china, optimistic scenarios, panda habitat, ploughshare tortoise, qinling mountains, sciences, scientists, shaanxi province, weihua xu, wild population, yu li, zhiyun ouyang

China’s endangered wild pandas may need new dinner reservations–and quickly, based on models that indicate climate change may kill off swaths of bamboo that pandas need to survive

In this week’s Nature Climate Change, an international journal, scientists from Michigan State University (MSU) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences provide comprehensive forecasts of how changing climate may affect the most common species of bamboo that carpet the forest floors of prime panda habitat in northwestern China. Even the most optimistic scenarios show that bamboo die-offs would effectively cause prime panda habitat to become inhospitable by the end of the 21st century.

The scientists studied possible scenarios of climate change in the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province. At the northern boundary of China’s panda distributional range, the Qinling Mountains are home to about 275 wild pandas, which account for about 17 percent of the remaining wild population. The Qinling pandas, which have been isolated because of thousands of years of human habitation around the mountain range, vary genetically from other giant pandas. The geographic isolation of these pandas makes them particularly valuable for conservation, but vulnerable to climate change. (more…)

Small Organisms Could Dramatically Impact World’s Climate

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Environment21st century, atmospheric, carbon, carbon dioxide, christopher klausmeier, climate change, colin kremer, cycle, david garrison, diversity, element, elena litchman, equatorial water, evolutionary adaptation, food chain, global climate, impact, level, marine microorganism, michigan, mridul thomas, nitrogen, ocean, ocean floor, organism, phosphorous, photosynthesis, phytoplankton, population, science express, state university, temperature, tropical water, warmer

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Warmer oceans in the future could significantly alter populations of phytoplankton, tiny organisms that could have a major impact on climate change.

In the current issue of Science Express, Michigan State University researchers show that by the end of the 21st century, warmer oceans will cause populations of these marine microorganisms to thrive near the poles and may shrink in equatorial waters. Since phytoplankton play a key role in the food chain and the world’s cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and other elements, a drastic drop could have measurable consequences. (more…)