Strength Lives in Languages
Jenna Cushing-Leubner works with teachers and youth to create learning spaces where languages “bring knowledge from many places.” (more…)
Tag Archives: knowledge
Seven steps to selling your idea to the boss
ANN ARBOR — Middle managers often know best when certain practices or products are ripe for change in an organization, but can struggle selling their ideas up the chain of command.
Sue Ashford, professor of management and organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, details smart steps managers can take to get their ideas considered and implemented in a new Harvard Business Review article. (more…)
Architecture of signaling proteins enhances knowledge of key receptors
ANN ARBOR — A team of scientists from the University of Michigan, Duke Medicine and Stanford University has determined the underlying architecture of a cellular signaling complex involved in the body’s response to stimuli such as light and pain.
This complex, consisting of a human cell surface receptor and its regulatory protein, reveals a two-step mechanism that has been hypothesized previously but not directly documented. (more…)
Experts Team Up on Tsunami Resilience in California
While scientists can’t predict when a great earthquake producing a pan-Pacific tsunami will occur, thanks to new tools being developed by federal and state officials, scientists can now offer more accurate insight into the likely impacts when tsunamis occur. This knowledge can lead officials and the public to reduce the risk of the future tsunamis that will impact California.
What are the potential economic impacts? Which marinas could be destroyed? Who needs to be prepared for evacuations? A newly published report looks at these factors and more. (more…)
UCLA life scientists present new insights on climate change and species interactions
UCLA life scientists provide important new details on how climate change will affect interactions between species in research published online May 21 in the Journal of Animal Ecology. This knowledge, they say, is critical to making accurate predictions and informing policymakers of how species are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures.
“There is a growing recognition among biologists that climate change is affecting how species interact with one another, and that this is going to have very important consequences for the stability and functioning of ecosystems,” said the senior author of the research, Van Savage, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of biomathematics at UCLA. “However, there is still a very limited understanding of exactly what these changes will be. Our paper makes progress on this very important question.” (more…)
Sowing a more sustainable future
One of the keys to better nutrition and health for the people of Rwanda fits in the palm of a hand: legumes. But despite their nutritional punch, legumes—including common beans, cowpeas, and lima beans—are highly susceptible to drought and disease. That’s what brought MSU scientists to Rwanda, which has the world’s highest bean consumption per capita, to work on breeding heartier varieties that can sustain the people and economy of the country.
To increase yields, MSU’s Jim Kelly, a professor of crop and soil sciences who has been developing bean varieties for more than 30 years, is introducing new varieties as well as educational materials to help farmers grow them successfully. Using traditional methods that don’t require genetic manipulation, Kelly has bred climbing beans, as opposed to bush-like beans, that already have improved yields from a quarter ton per acre to four tons per acre in the country’s high-altitude, steep, hilly terrain. (more…)
Science Xplained: Ice cream chemistry
Ainissa Ramirez, associate professor of mechanical engineering, describes the science behind a tasty bit of chemistry — ice cream. She shows how to make ice cream using liquid nitrogen, which is as cold as the surface of Neptune, and describes why these cold temperatures makes ice cream, creamier. She demonstrates how our knowledge of how […]
The Universe in the Middle of Nowhere
The UA’s Chris Impey has taught cosmology to Tibetan Buddhist monastics in remote parts of India each summer for the past five years. With a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, he detailed his experiences in a book, “Humble Before the Void,” which likely will publish in 2014.
Chris Impey thinks back to the time he spent living on the edge of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, teaching modern cosmology to Buddhist monastics in India: “On a typical day, they would be up at 5 a.m. and have prayed for a few hours or done meditation before you even see them. And their attention is just as good at the end of a long day as at the beginning.” (more…)