Tag Archives: los angeles

Los Angeles is a metropolitan den for mountain lions

UCLA – NPS study is first to investigate where the cats hunt in highly urbanized areas

Los Angeles is one of only two megacities — Mumbai, India, is the other — where large predatory cats live among us, and they’re closer to human development than you might think. (more…)

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Top 5 Cities for Going Solar

The eco-friendly lifestyle is no longer just a trend. Cities across the country have incorporated greener methods into construction, travel, production, and business strategy. We at Modernize know how important it is to conserve energy and rely on renewable resources. If you’re looking to make some positive lifestyle changes for the environment, check out these top five solar cities in America for inspiration. (more…)

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Die Spur des Menschen: Siedlungsmuster aus dem All

Radarsatelliten erfassen weltweit die Siedlungsflächen in bisher unerreichter Genauigkeit

Wie eine Tuschezeichnung mit mal filigranen, mal kräftigen Linien und Flecken sehen die Bilder aus, die Wissenschaftler des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) aus den Daten der deutschen Radarsatelliten TerraSAR-X und TanDEM-X berechnet haben. In Wirklichkeit zeigen die schwarz-weißen Karten aus über 500 Kilometern Höhe weltweit Städte, Dörfer und Häusergruppen, die sich an Flussläufen entlangwinden, Straßen und Eisenbahnlinien folgen oder sich in fruchtbaren Gebieten ausbreiten – mit einer Genauigkeit, wie sie bisher für globale Auswertungen nicht erreicht wurde. “Wir gehen davon aus, dass die besiedelte Fläche weltweit größer ist als bisher geschätzt”, sagt DLR-Wissenschaftler Dr. Thomas Esch. Bei einer Auflösung der zu Grunde liegenden Radaraufnahmen von drei Metern erkennen die Satelliten selbst einzelne Gebäude aus dem All. (more…)

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Possible evidence for dark matter particle presented at UCLA physics symposium

Dark matter, the mysterious substance estimated to make up approximately more than one-quarter of the mass of the universe, is crucial to the formation of galaxies, stars and even life but has so far eluded direct observation.

At a recent UCLA symposium attended by 190 scientists from around the world, physicists presented several analyses that participants interpreted to imply the existence of a dark matter particle. (more…)

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When danger is in the eye of the beholder

UCLA anthropologists study how, why we read into potential peril

They went boating alone without life vests and gave no thought to shimmying up very tall coconut trees.

And although they were only figments of a writer’s imagination, the fictional adventurers helped provide new insight into how humans, especially men, gauge the threat of a potential adversary. Those reading the stories — dozens of residents of a small village on the Fijian island of Yasawa — judged the characters to be risk-seekers.  (more…)

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UCLA psychologists report new insights on human brain, consciousness

UCLA psychologists have used brain-imaging techniques to study what happens to the human brain when it slips into unconsciousness. Their research, published Oct. 17 in the online journal PLOS Computational Biology, is an initial step toward developing a scientific definition of consciousness.

“In terms of brain function, the difference between being conscious and unconscious is a bit like the difference between driving from Los Angeles to New York in a straight line versus having to cover the same route hopping on and off several buses that force you to take a ‘zig-zag’ route and stop in several places,” said lead study author Martin Monti, an assistant professor of psychology and neurosurgery at UCLA. (more…)

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