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Are the Wealthiest Countries the Smartest Countries?

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2011Culture, Economyadam smith, cognitive ability, Colombia, economic freedom, economic productivity, economists, factor, free market, gdp, heiner rindermann, intelligence, iq, james thompson, kazakhstan, new zealand, nobel prizes, people, technological progress, u s, value of human capital

It’s not just how free the market is. Some economists are looking at another factor that determines how much a country’s economy flourishes: how smart its people are. For a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers analyzed test scores from 90 countries and found that the intelligence of the people, particularly the smartest 5 percent, made a big contribution to the strength of their economies.

In the last 50 years or so, economists have started taking an interest in the value of human capital. That means all of the qualities of the people who make up the workforce. Heiner Rindermann, of the Chemnitz University of Technology, wanted to look more closely at human capital, and particularly the factor that psychologists call cognitive ability. “In other words, it’s the ability of a person to solve a problem in the most efficient way—not with violence, but by thinking,” Rindermann says. He wrote the new study with James Thompson of University College London. (more…)

For Longer-Life, Disease-Free Roses, NC State Researchers Insert Celery Gene

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2011Sciencealcohol, botrytis, bryon sosinski, celery, Colombia, disease, ecuador, environmental factors, fungal pathogens, gene, george allen, grocery stores, john dole, john williamson, lettuce, mannitol, petal blight, plant diseases, post harvest diseases, rose, rose plants, valentine day, vase life

A rose by any other name would smell … like celery?

North Carolina State University research intended to extend the “vase life” of roses inserts a gene from celery inside rose plants to help fight off botrytis, or petal blight, one of the rose’s major post-harvest diseases.

Some fungal pathogens, the bad guys that infect plants, produce a sugar alcohol called mannitol that interferes with the plant’s ability to block disease like petal blight, which produces wilty, mushy petals – an effect similar to what happens to lettuce when it’s been in the crisper too long. (more…)

Tropical Forest Diversity Increased During Ancient Global Warming Event

By Guest PostNovember 18, 20101 commentEnvironment, Nature, Scienceangiosperm pollen, atmospheric carbon dioxide, carlos jaramillo, century, Colombia, eldredge bermingham, global warming, joe wright, outcrops, paleocene-eocene thermal maximum, panama, rainforests, scanning electron microscopy image, taxa, temperature increase, tropical areas, Venezuela

The steamiest places on the planet are getting warmer. Conservative estimates suggest that tropical areas can expect temperature increases of 3 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. Does global warming spell doom for rainforests? Maybe not. Carlos Jaramillo, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and colleagues report in the journal Science that nearly 60 million years ago rainforests prospered at temperatures that were 3-5 degrees higher and at atmospheric carbon dioxide levels 2.5 times today’s levels.

About the image: This is a scanning electron microscopy image of characteristic angiosperm pollen taxa from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Image credit: Francy Carvajal, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (more…)

Earth’s Highest Coastal Mountain on the Move

By Guest PostSeptember 20, 20101 commentScienceagustin cardona, camilo montes, caribbean sea, coastal mountain, Colombia, earth, ecopetrol energy company, geological basin, geological evolution, german ojeda, paleomagnetic, panama, peru, santa marta, sierra nevada de santa marta, smithsonian scientists, smithsonian tropical research institute, stri, volcanoes

The rocks of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta—the highest coastal mountain on Earth—tell a fascinating tale: The mountain collides and then separates from former super-continents. Volcanoes are born and die. The mountain travels from Peru to northern Colombia and finally rotates in a clockwise direction to open up an entirely new geological basin. Smithsonian scientists were part of a four-year project to study Santa Marta’s geological evolution. Their findings are published in the October 2010 special issue of the Journal of South American Earth Sciences.

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The Bigga Snake

By ShamsFebruary 5, 2009ScienceColombia, Epoch, Paleocene, rainforest, snake, Titanoboa cerrejonensis

Scientists have just discovered, let’s say, (fortunately) met with the fossil of Titanoboa cerrejonensis (not with the living Giant).