‘Greener’ and more engaging experiments draw students in
As a college student, Michelle Driessen had an all-too-typical experience.
“I hated general chemistry,” she says. “I thought it was terribly boring.”
She had plenty of company. Experiments were all laid out in advance, and the goal seemed to be to get to a predetermined result without blowing up the glassware.
In the old days, “very few students appreciated the point of most general chemistry labs,” adds Driessen. “With cookbook chemistry, you couldn’t have anything go wrong or deviate [from what’s supposed to happen], but I find those things to be the most interesting part of science.” (more…)
*Berkeley Lab scientists part of team that analyzed 19 state-of-the-art climate models.*
While the worst drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s grips Oklahoma and Texas, scientists are warning that what we consider severe drought conditions in North America today may be normal for the continent by the mid-21st century, due to a warming planet.
A team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came to this conclusion after analyzing 19 different state-of-the-art climate models. Looking at the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration—the movement of water from soil to air—they found that no matter how rainfall patterns change over the next 100 years, a warming planet leads to drought. Their results were published in the December 2011 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Hydrometerology. (more…)
Tai Chi helps reduce the risk of falls in the elderly, and improves mental health, is what a new study shows. However, practicing the ancient Chinese art does not help to ease the symptoms of cancer or rheumatoid arthritis.
The information is from the research of a team that analyzed 35 reviews of studies evaluating the effects of Tai Chi on health.
The databases reviewed were British, Chinese and Korean that assessed the impact of Tai Chi on various diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, cancer, osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s, musculoskeletal pain, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.(more…)
