Tag Archives: North America

Q&A: Yale Library Aims Both To Serve And Preserve, Says Gibbons

By Guest PostJanuary 17, 2012Education, Generalanthropologist, atmosphere, beinecke, freshman, kianti roman, knowledge, nancy foster, North America, river campus, sterling, sterling memorial library, susan gibbons, university librarian, university of rochester, yale, yale library

Susan Gibbons began a five-year term as University librarian in July 2011. In that role, she oversees one of the largest university libraries in North America, which includes over 12.5 million volumes housed in 18 different libraries.

Before coming to Yale, Gibbons worked at the University of Rochester, where she began as digital initiatives librarian in 2000. In 2008, she was appointed vice provost and dean of the River Campus Libraries.

Gibbons took time out of her hectic schedule to meet with YaleNews. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. (more…)

Upper Atmosphere Facilitates Changes That Let Mercury Enter Food Chain

By Guest PostJanuary 5, 2012Environmentaquatic ecosystems, atmosphere, bacteria, bangor, broomfield, chemical reactor, climate conditions, coal burning in asia, daniel jaffe, ecosystem impacts, Europe, food chain, humans, lower stratosphere, maine, mercury, mercury contaminated fish, mercury emissions, metallic element, methyl mercury, North America, oxidation, oxidized mercury, research aircraft, seth lyman, southwest united states, university of washington bothell, upper atmosphere, upper troposphere, vapor

Humans pump thousands of tons of vapor from the metallic element mercury into the atmosphere each year, and it can remain suspended for long periods before being changed into a form that is easily removed from the atmosphere.

New research shows that the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere work to transform elemental mercury into oxidized mercury, which can easily be deposited into aquatic ecosystems and ultimately enter the food chain. (more…)

North American Mammal Evolution Tracks with Climate Change

By Guest PostJanuary 1, 2012Environment, Nature, Science65 million years, anthropogenic climatic change, borja figueirido, brown university, changes in climate, christine janis, climate changes, deep sea microorganisms, diversity, early middle eocene fauna, early miocene epoch, evolutionary biologists, evolutionary faunas, fossil record, future climactic changes, global paleotemperatures, herbivores, history, immigration events, jack sepkoski, juan perez claros, levels of atmospheric oxygen, life on earth, mammal species, miocene fauna, natural history, North America, paleocene fauna, paleontologist, paul palmqvist, potential connection, quantitative analysis, rise and fall, savannah, six waves of species diversity, species migrations, university of chicago, vegetation, warming and cooling periods, waves, woodland

*Climate changes profoundly influenced the rise and fall of six distinct, successive waves of mammal species diversity in North America over the last 65 million years, shows a novel statistical analysis led by Brown University evolutionary biologists. Warming and cooling periods, in two cases confounded by species migrations, marked the transition from one dominant grouping to the next.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — History often seems to happen in waves — fashion and musical tastes turn over every decade and empires give way to new ones over centuries. A similar pattern characterizes the last 65 million years of natural history in North America, where a novel quantitative analysis has identified six distinct, consecutive waves of mammal species diversity or “evolutionary faunas.” What force of history determined the destiny of these groupings? The numbers say it was typically climate change.

“Although we’ve always known in a general way that mammals respond to climatic change over time, there has been controversy as to whether this can be demonstrated in a quantitative fashion,” said Christine Janis, professor of evolutionary biology at Brown University. “We show that the rise and fall of these faunas is indeed correlated with climatic change — the rise or fall of global paleotemperatures — and also influenced by other more local perturbations such as immigration events.” (more…)

UChicago Chemist Helps Craft Message For World Leaders

By Guest PostDecember 23, 2011General, ScienceBangladesh, burundi, dmitri talapin, energy and environment, food and population, future development, Germany, global necessity, global warming, Health, Japan, kyoto, kyoto protocol, mass media, megacities, nigeria, nobel laureates, North America, nuclear safety, positive and negative aspects, reverse osmosis membrane, science and technology, scientific information, scientific research, singapore, social media, steve koppes, sts forum, sustainability, the netherlands, water shortage, young scientists

Dmitri Talapin, associate professor in chemistry, was one of 10 young scientists from around the world who delivered a message that “Scientific Research is a Global Necessity” to political, scientific and business leaders participating in the 2011 Science and Technology in Society forum last October in Kyoto, Japan.

The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the New York Academy of Sciences selected Talapin to represent the young scientists of North America at the STS Forum, which meets at the same venue were the Kyoto Protocol to alleviate global warming was signed in 1997. (more…)

Growing U.S. Violent Extremism – Facts on the Ground: UMD Database

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2011General, Politicsal qaida, anti abortion extremists, aqap, arabian peninsula, attacks, blueprint, community resilience, earth liberation front, elf, environmental extremists, financial schemes, foiled terrorist plots, ft hood, gary lafree, global war on terrorism, homegrown terrorists, islamist extremists, janet napolitano, lone wolf, North America, plots, political spectrum, radicalization, start, statistics, tehrik i taliban pakistan, terrorism database, terrorist attacks, texas, ttp, united states, university of maryland, violent extremism, White House, white supremacists, work of extremists

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Over the past decade, attacks and plots by homegrown terrorists in the United States have increased, the work of extremists from across the political spectrum – roughly 40 percent of it by so-called ‘lone wolf,’ non-aligned actors – says an analysis by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) based at the University of Maryland.

The statistics underscore the threat addressed in a White House plan released Thursday: Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States – a blueprint for “building community resilience against violent extremism.” (more…)

Today’s Severe Drought, Tomorrow’s Normal

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2011Environmentatmospheric greenhouse gases, balance, benjamin santer, berkeley lab, canada, century, climate models, david easterling, drought, dust bowl, evapotranspiration, global climate, jay lawrimore, Mexico, michael wehner, noaa, normal occurrence, North America, oklahoma, precipitation, richard heim, russell vose, severe drought conditions, simulations, state-of-the-art, texas, united states, warming planet

*Berkeley Lab scientists part of team that analyzed 19 state-of-the-art climate models.*

While the worst drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s grips Oklahoma and Texas, scientists are warning that what we consider severe drought conditions in North America today may be normal for the continent by the mid-21^st century, due to a warming planet.

A team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came to this conclusion after analyzing 19 different state-of-the-art climate models. Looking at the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration—the movement of water from soil to air—they found that no matter how rainfall patterns change over the next 100 years, a warming planet leads to drought. Their results were published in the December 2011 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Hydrometerology. (more…)

Examining The Changing Face of Christianity

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2011Cultureafrica, anthropologist, asia, chaplains in guatemala, charismatic christianity, China, christianity, christians, diversity, downtown toronto, Europe, faith, girish daswani, god, ju hui judy han, kevin o neill, korean missionaries, latin america, nigeria, North America, north korea, pamela klassen, pentecostal christianity, pentecostalism, politics of global christianity, rural villages, ruth marshall, simon coleman, social process, spiritual warriors, university of toronto, valentina napolitano

U of T leading centre for study of global Christianity

A century ago, 80 per cent of the world’s Christians lived in Europe and North America; today, nearly 70 per cent live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, making Christianity a predominantly non-Western religion.

A critical mass of scholars who are looking into the implications of this shift has made the University of Toronto a leading centre for the study of global Christianity.

Christianity today has more than 2.2 billion adherents worldwide. The majority are overwhelmingly poor, displaced from rural villages into overcrowded cities in search of work, and adhere strictly to the word of Scripture, which can command their loyalty far more than state or society. (more…)

Online Banking on the Rise in Southeast Asia

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2011Technologybank mandiri, citigroup, Comscore, Europe, global banking brands, hong kong, internet growth, joe nguyen, malaysia, North America, southeast asia, vietcombank, Vietnam

*Brands with Strong Local Presence Top List as Most-Visited Online Banking Destinations*

*comScore Presents ‘The State of the Internet Southeast Asia’ *

Singapore, March 4, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the latest results from a study of Internet usage in Southeast Asia. The report found that an increasing number of consumers across the region turned to online banking throughout 2010. In each of the six markets included in the study (Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines), visitation to the online banking category grew by double-digits percentages, outpacing overall Internet growth by a factor of two in most cases. These results will be presented along with other key online trends via a complimentary, live webinar The State of the Internet Southeast Asia on Wednesday, March 9. For more information and to register, please visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/302171344 (more…)