Tag Archives: Environment

Student’s Curiosity Produces Ecological Buzz

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2013Environment, Natureabout publishing papers, aerial imagery, cape cod, ecology, Environment, experimental ecologist, geographic information systems, geology class, gis assisted analysis, gis technology, great depression era, historical aerial photography, jon witman, mark bertness, marsh grass, mosquito populations, open curriculum, outdoors, plague, postdoc, project, provocative research, recreational fishing, salt marsh habitats, salt marshes, sesarma crabs, sesarma reticulatum crab, spartina alterniflora, students at brown, tyler coverdale

Students studying what they love is a well-established principle at Brown. For Tyler Coverdale, that meant the outdoors, the environment, and, ultimately, some provocative research on Cape Cod salt marshes through GIS-assisted analysis of historical aerial photography. He loves it.

Tyler Coverdale’s newly published study in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment on the collapse of salt marsh habitats along Cape Cod tells an intriguing, if unfortunate, tale of how three different human activities spanning 70 years finally added up to a problem that no one anticipated. The story of how he made the discovery — which is generating some buzz in ecology — while a Brown undergraduate is a tale of happier serendipities. (more…)

NASA Mars Rover Preparing to Drill into First Martian Rock

By Guest PostJanuary 16, 2013Scienceaileen yingst, bassinite, bradbury landing, calcium, california institute, camera, chemcam, chemical composition, concretions, curiosity, drill hardware, drilling, drilling target, drt, dust removal tool, Environment, evidence, flat rock, fractures, france, gale crater, gillespie lake rock, gypsum, hydrated calcium sulfate, hydrogen, imager, internet buzz, jet propulsion laboratory, john grotzinger, john klein, laser pulsing chemistry, level, mahli, mars, mars hand lens, mars rover curiosity, mars science laboratory, martian flower, martian material, mast camera, mastcam, microbial life, mineral, mission, nantes, NASA, nicolas mangold, pale veins, pasadena, red planet, richard cook, rock, samples, sedimentary rocks, shaler unit, shallow depression, sheepbed outcrop, stream flow, sulfur, Technology, terrain, tucson, veins, wet environment, wet history, yellowknife bay

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red Planet. If the rock meets rover engineers’ approval when Curiosity rolls up to it in coming days, it will become the first to be drilled for a sample during the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

The size of a car, Curiosity is inside Mars’ Gale Crater investigating whether the planet ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. Curiosity landed in the crater five months ago to begin its two-year prime mission. (more…)

Helping Patients Navigate New Cancer Drugs

By Guest PostJanuary 14, 2013Healthautomated calling system, barbara given, cancer clinic, cancer treatment, chemotherapy, chemotherapy pills, chronic conditions, cutting edge treatment, cycle, diarrhea, dose, Environment, fatigue, ineffective, intravenous drugs, journal cancer nursing, life threatening disease, manage symptoms, michigan state university, monitor, multiple medications, oral chemotherapy drugs, oral pills, pain, patient, pill, sandra spoelstra, severe nausea, skin reactions, vomiting

As cancer treatment in pill form transforms how care is delivered, a new Michigan State University study underscores the challenges patients face in administering their own chemotherapy outside the supervised environment of a cancer clinic.

Chemotherapy pills can target specific cancers better than some traditional intravenous drugs, said Sandra Spoelstra, the MSU assistant professor of nursing who led the study. But they also can be difficult for patients to take. (more…)

UMass Amherst Biochemists Trap a Chaperone Machine in Action, Opening Pathway to Possible New Cancer Treatment

By Guest PostJanuary 2, 2013Scienceadp, amino acid chains, anastasia zhuravleva, atp, bacteria, cancer cell, chemical environments, cycle, dnak, drug target, e coli bacteria, Environment, eugenia clerico, folding of proteins, heat shock protein, holding pattern, hsp, hsp70, humans, key step, lila gierasch, massachusetts amherst, mechanism, molecular chaperones, molecular machine, nanofactories, neurodegenerative diseases, nmr methods, nuclear magnetic resonance, origami like, ribosomes, stress, uncontrolled growth, university

AMHERST, Mass. – Molecular chaperones have emerged as exciting new potential drug targets, because scientists want to learn how to stop cancer cells, for example, from using chaperones to enable their uncontrolled growth. Now a team of biochemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Lila Gierasch have deciphered key steps in the mechanism of the Hsp70 molecular machine by “trapping” this chaperone in action, providing a dynamic snapshot of its mechanism.

She and colleagues describe this work in the current issue of Cell. Gierasch’s research on Hsp70 chaperones is supported by a long-running grant to her lab from NIH’s National Institute for General Medical Sciences. (more…)

Space Life

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Scienceask magazine, astrobiology, biology, c elegans, chandran sabanayagam, cubesat projects, dbi, desg, DNA, does life exist, earth, Environment, evolution, microbes, microscopic worms, NASA, physicist, proteins, space life, space research, telemetry, trl3, universe, zero gravity

NASA funds astrobiology research by Delaware Biotechnology Institute scientist

Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? That’s the type of broad but poignant question NASA likes to ask, according to Chandran Sabanayagam, associate scientist in the Bioimaging Center at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI). And he would know, because he’s preparing to help answer it.

NASA will receive $100 billion from the federal government over the next five years to assure America is number one in space exploration, according to Astrobiology.com. As part of its push to seek new partnerships and broaden its vision, NASA is offering grants to people conducting transformational science. With this opportunity, Sabanayagam is merging his love of physics and biology. (more…)

Television: Chronicle of a Death Foretold?

By Guest PostNovember 24, 2012Mediaandre h caron, balance of time, bell media, calgary, canadian productions, canadian programming, children, creation, cross canada study, cyms, endangered, Environment, made in canada, media platform, montreal, nuclear family, publication, quality, quebec, social impact, st john, television, television programs, toronto, tv, université de montréal, vancouver, young canadians

Not only is TV not endangered, but it also has a unifying social impact on the nuclear family across the country. This is the main conclusion of a cross-Canada study—Are the Kids All Right?—on the television viewing habits of families with at least one child aged between 9 and 12 years. The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by André H. Caron, professor of communications at the Université de Montréal and Director of the Centre for Youth and Media Studies (CYMS).

“Young Canadians today live in a different world than that experienced by previous generations. In this context, many well-placed observers have predicted the impending death of television,” says Dr. Caron. “We wanted to test the veracity of this statement, so we set out to meet 80 different families (over 200 participants) to determine the current place of the small screen that has shaped so many childhoods since its creation.” (more…)

Technology in the Classroom

By Guest PostNovember 17, 2012Educationaudio, chrystalla mouza, concept, delaware, digital book, electronic text, Environment, fred hofstetter, future educator, graphics, hyperlinks, information, ipad, kindle, learn by doing, multimodal text, multiple modes, rachel karchmer klein, teaching, university, video, website

Teaching future educators how to read and write in a new way

Rachel Karchmer-Klein, an associate professor in the University of Delaware’s School of Education, is teaching future educators to read and write multimodal texts, which includes everything from literature on a Kindle or iPad to information on a website.

“With traditional texts we teach students to read left to right, top to bottom, but electronic text is different because it contains multiple modes,” Karchmer-Klein explained. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Applies U.S. Tools and Technologies to Spur Low-Carbon Cities in China

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Environmentbenchmark, carbon dioxide, carbon emission, central government, China, china energy group, china today, chinese cities, chongqing, eco city, energy foundation, Environment, green, indicator, industrial activity, intensity, low carbon, low-carbon city, modern urbanites, nan zhou, ndrc, new energy city, province, reduce emission, renewable technology, san francisco, shanghai, urban environment

When eight cities and five provinces in China were asked by the central government to develop a plan to become “low carbon,” many had no idea what to do. Some planted trees. Others decided to build up a solar panel industry. One city even thought about building a lake to be more “green.” Local government leaders were at a loss as to how to reduce their carbon emissions.

In 2008, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a joint effort to address energy and environmental challenges facing urban centers in both countries. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s China Energy Group was tasked by DOE to identify and recommend best practices, tools and technologies. With nearly 25 years experience analyzing energy use in China, the China Energy Group has tailored a variety of resources to help local Chinese officials turn government mandates into practical how-to guides for understanding their energy usage and reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. (more…)