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New analysis suggests wind, not water, formed mound on Mars

By Guest PostMay 9, 2013Sciencealaska, california, caltech, claire newman, clay, dawn sumner, dusty atmosphere, dynamic, earth like, edwin kite, evidence, gale crater, geology, habitability, hirise camera, institute of technology, kevin lewis, lakebed silt, layer, mars rover curiosity, mars science laboratory, martian climate, martian climate history, martian mound, martian surface, models, mount sharp, mt mckinley, NASA, organic compounds, princeton university, red planet, sediment, sedimentary mounds, sedimentary records, slope winds, soil analyses, steep topographic slopes, topographical details, understanding mars past, water molecules, wind deposition

A roughly 3.5-mile high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet’s famously dusty atmosphere, an analysis of the mound’s features suggests. If correct, the research could dilute expectations that the mound holds evidence of a large body of water, which would have important implications for understanding Mars’ past habitability.

Researchers based at Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology suggest that the mound, known as Mount Sharp, most likely emerged as strong winds carried dust and sand into the 96-mile-wide crater in which the mound sits. They report in the journal Geology that air likely rises out of the massive Gale Crater when the Martian surface warms during the day, then sweeps back down its steep walls at night. Though strong along the Gale Crater walls, these “slope winds” would have died down at the crater’s center where the fine dust in the air settled and accumulated to eventually form Mount Sharp, which is close in size to Alaska’s Mt. McKinley. (more…)

Facebook Helps Researchers See How Friendships Form

By Guest PostDecember 21, 2011Culture, Technologyadvertising, basic building blocks, classical, diffusion, emotional health, Facebook, friends, friendship, harvard university, influence, internet, internet and society, internet relationships, jason kaufman, jazz, kevin lewis, marco gonzalez, mechanisms, national science foundation, network, obesity, online social network, patterns of social segregation, relationships, reproduction of inequality, role, society, sociologists, statistical methods

*Long-term study analyzes social selection and peer influence in online environments*

New research funded by the National Science Foundation and published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by three Harvard University sociologists examines how we select our friends and the role that friendship plays in transmitting tastes and new ideas.

Relationships are basic building blocks of society, and understanding who befriends whom can therefore provide insight into patterns of social segregation, mechanisms for the reproduction of inequality, social support (including mental and emotional health), and access to job opportunities. Some have even viewed these relationships as a means to influence behavior whether to control obesity or target advertising. But is it really that easy, even on the Internet, to make friends with people who have different cultural upbringings, different interests, different backgrounds and different tastes in movies, music and books? (more…)

Facebook Study Finds Race Trumped by Ethnic, Social, Geographic Origins in Forging Friendships

By Guest PostNovember 1, 20101 commentTechnologyafrican americans, america, american college students, andreas wimmer, ethnic background, Facebook, human behavior, kevin lewis, picture friends, political engagement, popularity, race, racial background, racial discrimination, self-esteem, social networking site, sociologists

Harvard graduate Kevin Lewis (left) and UCLA sociologist Andreas Wimmer are co-authors of a new Facebook study on how college students form friendships. Image credit: Luis Gomez

Race may not be as important as previously thought in determining who buddies up with whom, suggests a new UCLA–Harvard University study of American college students on the social networking site Facebook.

“Sociologists have long maintained that race is the strongest predictor of whether two Americans will socialize,” said Andreas Wimmer, the study’s lead author and a sociologist at UCLA. “But we’ve found that birds of a feather don’t always flock together. Whom you get to know in your everyday life, where you live, and your country of origin or social class can provide stronger grounds for forging friendships than a shared racial background.”

“We’ve been able to show that just because two people of the same racial background are hanging out together, it’s not necessarily because they share the same racial background,” said co-author Kevin Lewis, a Harvard graduate student in sociology. (more…)

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New analysis suggests wind, not water, formed mound on Mars

Facebook Helps Researchers See How Friendships Form

Facebook Study Finds Race Trumped by Ethnic, Social, Geographic Origins in Forging Friendships