Tag Archives: national science foundation

Crowdsourcing Site Compiles New Sign Language for Math and Science

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2012Education, Scienceamerican sign language, asl, asl stem forum, byte, caroline solomon, crowdsourcing, dictionary, eukaryote, Europe, google corp, harry lang, kyle rector, lexicon of science, light year, multimedia feature, national science foundation, new york times, organism, photosynthesis, raja kushalnagar, richard ladner, science signs lexicon, sign language, united states, university, urban dictionary, Washington, Wikipedia

A multimedia feature published this week in the New York Times, “Pushing Science’s Limits in Sign Language Lexicon,” outlines efforts in the United States and Europe to develop sign language versions of specialized terms used in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The article shares newly defined signs for terms like “light-year,” “organism” and “photosynthesis.” It also describes a successful crowdsourcing effort started at the University of Washington in 2008 that lets members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community build their own guide to the evolving lexicon of science.

“It’s not a dictionary,” explained Richard Ladner, a UW professor of computer science and engineering. “The goal of the forum is to be constantly changing, a reflection of the current use.” (more…)

Changing Climate, Not Tourism, Seems to Be Driving Decline in Chinstrap-Penguin Populations

By Guest PostNovember 7, 2012Environmentadelie, antarctic peninsula, antarctic science, antarctic site inventory, antarctic treaty nations, asi, baily head, breeding population, changing, chevy chase, chinstrap colony, chinstrap penguins, chinstrap population, climatic condition, data, deception island, gentoo penguins, heather lynch, high resolution, michael polito, national science foundation, nsf, oceanites, penguin dynamics, penguin population, polar programs, ron naveen, satellite imagery, Southern Ocean, steven forrest, stony brook university, temperature, thomas mueller, tinker foundation, tourist location, united states, warm

High-resolution satellite imagery aids in study

The breeding population of chinstrap penguins has declined significantly as temperatures have rapidly warmed on the Antarctic Peninsula, according to researchers funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The study indicates that changing climatic conditions, rather than the impact of tourism, have had the greatest effect on the chinstrap population.

Ron Naveen, founder of a nonprofit science and conservation organization, Oceanites, Inc., of Chevy Chase, Md., documented the decline in a paper published in the journal Polar Biology. Naveen and coauthor Heather Lynch, of Stony Brook University, are researchers with the Antarctic Site Inventory (ASI). (more…)

Foster Kids do Equally Well when Adopted by Gay, Lesbian or Heterosexual Parents

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2012Generaladoption, california, children, clinical psychologist, county, foster care, gay, heterosexual, high risk, iq score, jill waterman, justin lavner, lesbian, letitia anne peplau, los angeles, multiple, national science foundation, parents, premature birth, psychologist, risk factor, ucla, united states

High-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when placed with gay, lesbian or heterosexual parents, UCLA psychologists report in the first multi-year study of children adopted by these three groups of parents.

The psychologists looked at 82 high-risk children adopted from foster care in Los Angeles County. Of those children, 60 were placed with heterosexual parents and 22 were placed with gay or lesbian parents (15 with gay male parents and seven with lesbian parents). (more…)

NSF’s South Pole Telescope Discovers a Galaxy Cluster Creating Stars at a Record Pace

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Scienceantarctic program, Antarctica, big bang, black hole, blanco 4 meter, bradford benson, chandra, Chile, cmb, cosmic microwave background, earth, energy, galaxy cluster, hubble fellow, john carlstrom, light year, magellan telescope, michael mcdonald, NASA, national science foundation, nsf, phoenix cluster, radiation, radio telescope, south pole telescope, spt, spt clj2344-4243, sunyaev zeldovich, sz effect, university of chicago, xray observatory

Researchers say Phoenix Cluster activity may cause scientists to rethink how galaxies evolve

A National Science Foundation-funded radio telescope in Antarctica has found an extraordinary galaxy cluster that may force astronomers to rethink how galaxy clusters and the galaxies that inhabit them evolve.

The galaxy cluster was discovered some 5.7 billion light years from Earth by the 10-meter wide South Pole Telescope (SPT) located at NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, which is funded by NSF’s Office of Polar Programs. (more…)

Ancient Alteration of Seawater Chemistry Linked With Past Climate Change

By Guest PostJuly 22, 2012Environmentadina paytan, alteration, antarctic ice sheet, candace major, cenozoic era, climate and evolution, climate change, collision, dissolution, eocene epoch, eurasia, greenhouse periods, gypsum, gypsum belt, gypsum deposit, hydrated calcium sulfate, icehouse climate, India, iodp, iran, joides resolution, marine, million years, mineral, national science foundation, ocean drillship, oman, Pakistan, phosphorus cycling, plate tectonics, santa cruz, seawater chemistry, sulfate aerosols, sulfate concentration, sulfur composition, ulrich wortmann, university of california, university of toronto, zagros mountains

Dissolution or creation of huge gypsum deposits changed sulfate content of the oceans

Scientists have discovered a potential cause of Earth’s “icehouse climate” cooling trend of the past 45 million years. It has everything to do with the chemistry of the world’s oceans.

“Seawater chemistry is characterized by long phases of stability, which are interrupted by short intervals of rapid change,” says geoscientist Ulrich Wortmann of the University of Toronto, lead author of a paper reporting the results and published this week in the journal Science.

“We’ve established a new framework that helps us better interpret evolutionary trends and climate change over long periods of time. The study focuses on the past 130 million years, but similar interactions have likely occurred through the past 500 million years.” (more…)

Scientists Reconstruct Pre-Columbian Human Effects on the Amazon Basin

By Guest PostJune 19, 2012Environment, Sciencealan tessier, Amazon, amazon basin, amazon river, archaeological evidence, biodiversity, climate change, crystal mcmichael, cultural parkland, d r piperno, ecological processes, environmental change, european, fit, historical evidence, human disturbance, human populations, luiz lobato, m r silman, madre de dios river, mark bush, national science foundation, peru, peruvian amazon, porto velho manaus, pre columbian amazon, pre columbian times, tropical rainforests

Findings overturn idea that the Amazon had large populations of humans that transformed the landscape

Small, shifting human populations existed in the Amazon before the arrival of Europeans, with little long-term effect on the forest.

That’s the result of research led by Crystal McMichael and Mark Bush of the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). The finding overturns the idea the Amazon was a cultural parkland in pre-Columbian times with large human populations that transformed vast tracts of the landscape.

The Amazon Basin is one of the highest biodiversity areas on Earth. Understanding how it was modified by humans in the past is important for conservation and for understanding the ecological processes in tropical rainforests. (more…)

Where Have All the Hummingbirds Gone?

By Guest PostJune 8, 2012Environment, Natureamy mckinney, arizona, billy barr, broad tailed hummingbirds, bumblebees, central america, crested butte, david bertelsen, david inouye, food resources, glacier lily, global warming, higher latitudes, hummingbirds, hummingbirds fly, male hummingbirds, mountain meadows, mountain summer, national science foundation, nectar, nickolas waser, North America, paul caradonna, saran twombly, united states, university of maryland

Glacier lilies and broad-tailed hummingbirds out of sync

The glacier lily as it’s called, is a tall, willowy plant that graces mountain meadows throughout western North America. It flowers early in spring, when the first bumblebees and hummingbirds appear.

Or did.

The lily, a plant that grows best on subalpine slopes, is fast becoming a hothouse flower. In Earth’s warming temperatures, its first blooms appear some 17 days earlier than they did in the 1970s, scientists David Inouye and Amy McKinney of the University of Maryland and colleagues have found. (more…)

Relationship Between Social Status and Wound-Healing in Wild Baboons

By Guest PostMay 26, 2012Nature, Scienceamboseli baboon research project, amboseli national park, anthropology, baboon, beth archie, carolyn ehardt, chronic stress, george gilchrist, immune function, jeanne altmann, Kenya, kinyua warutere, national science foundation, old age, relationship, social status, susan alberts, university of notre dame, wild baboons, wound healing

Findings show it’s best to be “top baboon”

Turns out it’s not bad being top dog, or in this case, top baboon.

Results of a study by University of Notre Dame biologist Beth Archie and colleagues from Princeton University and Duke University finds that male baboons that have a high rank within their society recover more quickly from injuries, and are less likely to become ill than other males.

The finding is somewhat surprising, given that top-ranked males also experience high stress, which should suppress immune responses. (more…)