Tag Archives: phenomenon

Individual Donation Amounts Drop When Givers Are in Groups, Says MU Researcher

By Guest PostApril 30, 2013Culture, Scienceanthropologist, arizona state university, bystander effect, central european university, charitable organizations, charity donations, joan silk, karthik panchanathan, new york post, phenomenon, pro self, pro social, pro social individual, social factors, university of missouri, willem e frankenhuis

COLUMBIA, Mo. — In December of last year the New York Post published images of a man about to be killed by a train while several bystanders did little to help him. Numerous studies have provided evidence that people are less likely to help when in groups, a phenomenon known as the “bystander effect.” Those studies examined situations where only one person was needed to take action to help another. A University of Missouri anthropologist recently found that even when multiple individuals can contribute to a common cause, the presence of others reduces an individual’s likelihood of helping. This research has numerous applications, including possibly guiding the fundraising strategies of charitable organizations.

“In our study, individuals who didn’t want to share money tended to influence others to not share money,” said Karthik Panchanathan, assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Science. “We don’t know what psychological mechanism caused that, but perhaps potential givers did not want to be ‘suckers,’ who gave up their money while someone else got away with giving nothing. Selfish behavior in others may have given individuals an opportunity to escape any moral obligation to share that they might have felt.” (more…)

How a Microbial Biorefinery Regulates Genes

By Guest PostMarch 1, 2013Sciencealternatives to petroleum, amino acid, aromatic compounds, biomass, biorefinery, breann brown, brown university, consumption of lignin, depolymerize, digesting lignin, DNA, dna binding activity, enzyme, gene expression, genes, high value chemicals, jason sello, jennifer davis, kind of protein, lignin, marr family, microbial biorefinery, microorganisms, pcav, pcav dna complex, phenomenon, plant biomass, protein crystallography, protocatechuate, rebecca page, streptomyces bacteria, technique, Technology, transcription factor, variety of biofuels

Digesting lignin, a highly stable polymer that accounts for up to a third of biomass, is a limiting step to producing a variety of biofuels. Researchers at Brown have figured out the microscopic chemical switch that allows Streptomyces bacteria to get to work, breaking lignin down into its constituent parts.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Microorganisms that can break down plant biomass into the precursors of biodiesel or other commodity chemicals might one day be used to produce alternatives to petroleum. But the potential of this “biorefinery” technology is limited by the fact that most microorganisms cannot break down lignin, a highly stable polymer that makes up as much as a third of plant biomass.

Streptomyces bacteria are among few microorganisms known to degrade and consume lignin. Now a group of researchers at Brown University has unlocked the genetic and molecular mechanisms behind a key part of that process. The results are published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. (more…)

Internet Banging: Gangs Use Social Media to Trade Insults, Threats

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 2013Culture, Technologycrimes, desmond patton, dirk butler, Facebook, gang members, gangs, hip hop music, homicide, insults, internet banging, male dominated behaviour, phenomenon, public forum, robert eschmann, social media, social media behaviour, threats, Twitter, university of chicago, university of michigan, urban masculinity, urban youth, violence, voice, YouTube

ANN ARBOR — Gangs now occupy two spaces: the streets and the Internet.

A new University of Michigan study reports that, in addition to carrying guns, gang members have armed themselves with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to incite dares, trade insults or make threats that may result in homicide or other crimes.

Researchers have described this new interaction as “Internet banging.” They examine several factors, including the role of hip-hop music in this phenomenon and urban masculinity’s influence on social media behavior. (more…)

Portable X-Ray Source Invented at MU Could Put Medical Diagnosis and Terrorism Prevention in the Palm of the Hand

By Guest PostJanuary 19, 2013Sciencecell phone, compact source, crystal, curiosity rover, electric charge, electricity, energy, forms of radiation, hand held scanners, interplanetary probes, lithium niobate, phenomenon, piezoelectric effect, portable x ray, power consumption, radiation source, radioactive material, radioisotopes, remote, scanner, scott kovaleski, shooting the rays, star trek, stress, tricorders, university of missouri, x-rays

The inexpensive device could improve health in the developing world and reduce mining risks

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The hand-held scanners, or tricorders, of the Star Trek movies and television series are one step closer to reality now that a University of Missouri engineering team has invented a compact source of X-rays and other forms of radiation. The radiation source, which is the size of a stick of gum, could be used to create inexpensive and portable X-ray scanners for use by doctors, as well as to fight terrorism and aid exploration on this planet and others.

“Currently, X-ray machines are huge and require tremendous amounts of electricity,” said Scott Kovaleski, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. “In approximately three years, we could have a prototype hand-held X-ray scanner using our invention. The cell-phone-sized device could improve medical services in remote and impoverished regions and reduce health care expenses everywhere.” (more…)

Want Better Employees? Get Somebody Else To Rate Their Personalities, Suggests New Study.

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Economyassessment, business, co worker, current employees, evaluation tool, job, maastricht university, michael scott, performance, personality test, phenomenon, potential, predictive, self rated, the office, toronto, university, ute huelsheger

TORONTO, ON – Businesses will get more accurate assessments of potential and current employees if they do away with self-rated personality tests and ask those being assessed to find someone else to rate them, suggest results from a new study.

Previous job performance studies have shown that outsiders are best at rating an individual’s personality in terms of how they work on the job. But observers in these studies have always been co-workers. (more…)

Asteroid Vesta Has Unique ‘Space Weathering’

By Guest PostNovember 1, 2012Scienceairless bodies, analysis, asteroid belt, brown university, carle pieters, dawn spacecraft, energetic particle, geologist, giant asteroid, gravitational characteristics, lunar surface, metal nanoparticle, mineral composition, moon, nanophase coatings, nanophase weathering, NASA, phenomenon, solar system, solar wind, space weathering, vaporized meteorite, vesta

Space weathering — a darkening of lunar surfaces by solar wind and metal nanoparticles from vaporized meteorites — appears to happen differently on Vesta, the largest body in the asteroid belt. The discovery, from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, has planetary geologists returning to their lunar data for another look and further analysis.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The surface of the giant asteroid Vesta is weathering in a way that appears to be completely different from any other asteroid yet visited, according to new data recorded by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. This new type of space weathering suggests that there’s something about Vesta — perhaps its mineral composition or its position in the solar system — that makes its surface environment fundamentally different from other asteroids studied thus far.

The new data are presented in a paper published Nov. 1, 2012, in the journal Nature. (more…)

Armchair Astronomers Find Planet in Four-Star System

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2012Scienceamerican, arizona, arxiv preprint, astronomical data, astronomical society, circumbinary planet, citizen scientist, cottonwood, debra fischer, discovery, earth, eclipsing star, Environment, four star, hawaii, jerome orosz, johns hopkins, keck telescopes, kepler spacecraft, kian jek, mauna kea, meg schwamb, NASA, neptune, nevada, orbit, ph1, phenomenon, planet, planet discovery, planet formation, planethunters, professional astronomer, radius, reno, robert gagliano, san diego, san francisco, server, star, state university, system, twin suns, university, website, yale

A joint effort of citizen scientists and professional astronomers has led to the first reported case of a planet orbiting twin suns that in turn is orbited by a second distant pair of stars.

Aided by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website, a Yale-led international team of astronomers identified and confirmed discovery of the phenomenon, called a circumbinary planet in a four-star system.

Only six planets are known to orbit two stars, according to researchers, and none of these are orbited by distant stellar companions. (more…)

Experiment Would Test Cloud Geoengineering as Way to Slow Warming

By Guest PostAugust 20, 2012Environment, Scienceairplane, burning fuel, climate science, climatological impact, cloud geoengineering, Environment, global warming, john latham, long lived clouds, marine cloud brightening, particle, phenomenon, pollutant, rob wood, salt water, satellite, science fiction, sea salt, sensor, ship trails, sky, sunlight, warming

Even though it sounds like science fiction, researchers are taking a second look at a controversial idea that uses futuristic ships to shoot salt water high into the sky over the oceans, creating clouds that reflect sunlight and thus counter global warming.

University of Washington atmospheric physicist Rob Wood describes a possible way to run an experiment to test the concept on a small scale in a comprehensive paper published this month in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

The point of the paper — which includes updates on the latest study into what kind of ship would be best to spray the salt water into the sky, how large the water droplets should be and the potential climatological impacts — is to encourage more scientists to consider the idea of marine cloud brightening and even poke holes in it. In the paper, he and a colleague detail an experiment to test the concept. (more…)