*Researchers pursue new information from East Coast hurricane*
While Hurricane Irene had officials along the East Coast preparing for mass evacuations, scientists at the Stroud Water Research Center and the University of Delaware were grabbing their best data collection tools and heading straight for the storm’s path.
It was a rare opportunity for the scientists to learn more about climate change and water quality, as Irene threatened to be the biggest hurricane to hit the Northeastern United States since 1985. (more…)
*Scientists Build the First Wafer-Scale Graphene Integrated Circuit Smaller than a Pinhead*
Yorktown Heights, NY – 10 Jun 2011: Today, IBM Research scientists announced that they have achieved a milestone in creating a building block for the future of wireless devices. In a paper published yesterday in the magazine Science, IBM researchers announced the first integrated circuit fabricated from wafer-size graphene, and demonstrated a broadband frequency mixer operating at frequencies up to 10 gigahertz (10 billion cycles/second).
Designed for wireless communications, this graphene-based analog integrated circuit could improve today’s wireless devices and points to the potential for a new set of appli-cations. At today’s conventional frequencies, cell phone and transceiver signals could be improved, potentially allowing phones to work where they can’t today while, at much higher frequencies, military and medical personnel could see concealed weapons or conduct medical imaging without the same radiation dangers of X-rays. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Talking or texting on a cell phone in public might seem off-putting to people nearby, but a new study suggests that using mobile devices may actually help spark conversations with strangers.
The University of Michigan study examined how mobile communication influences the extent to which people engage with others in public. The new findings indicate that overall frequency of cell phone use in public does not cause them to shun nearby strangers. In fact, the result may be the opposite. (more…)
*Evidence of evolutionary protection against inbreeding in women?*
Through an innovative use of cell phone records, researchers at UCLA, the University of Miami and Cal State, Fullerton, have found that women appear to avoid contact with their fathers during ovulation.
“Women call their dads less frequently on these high-fertility days and they hang up with them sooner if their dads initiate a call,” said Martie Haselton, a UCLA associate professor of communication in whose lab the research was conducted.(more…)
