The same scientific quest for which Erika Edwards won recognition from President Obama on May 5 had two months earlier led her and 12 students up dusty mountainsides in the world’s driest desert. (more…)
NASA has received 58 proposals for science and exploration technology instruments to fly aboard the agency’s next Mars rover in 2020, twice the usual number submitted for instrument competitions in the recent past, and an indicator of the extraordinary interest in exploration of the Red Planet.
The agency is beginning a thorough review to determine the best combination of science and exploration technology investigations for the mission and anticipates making final selections in the next five months. (more…)
Human activities, a changing climate and natural disasters are rapidly altering the face of our planet. Now, with NASA’s Images of Change iPad application, users can get an interactive before-and-after view of these changes.
The app presents pairs or sets of images of places around the world that have changed dramatically. Some of these locations have suffered a disaster, such as a fire or tsunami, or illustrate the effects of human activities, such as dam building or urban growth. Others document impacts of climate change such as persistent drought and rapidly receding glaciers. (more…)
Project will utilize Ohio State’s new microscopy facility
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Armed with microscopes, computers and an innovative way to study metals, researchers at The Ohio State University and their partners are building a database of new titanium alloys.
The goal: to reduce the stress that pins, plates and other medical implants put on healthy bones. (more…)
Since the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts in 1958, space scientists have believed these belts encircling the Earth consist of two doughnut-shaped rings of highly charged particles — an inner ring of high-energy electrons and energetic positive ions and an outer ring of high-energy electrons.
In February of this year, a team of scientists reported the surprising discovery of a previously unknown third radiation ring — a narrow one that briefly appeared between the inner and outer rings in September 2012 and persisted for a month. (more…)
A study led by a Michigan State University scholar questions whether higher education ranking systems are creating competition simply for the sake of competition at a time when universities are struggling financially.
Global rankings that emphasize science and technology research – such as the Academic Rankings of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University – have become increasingly popular and influential during the past decade, said Brendan Cantwell, lead author and assistant professor of educational administration. (more…)
Members of tea party claim the movement springs from and promotes basic American conservative principles such as limited government and fiscal responsibility.
But new research by University of Washington political scientist Christopher Parker argues that the tea party ideology owes more to the paranoid politics associated with the John Birch Society — and even the infamous Ku Klux Klan — than to traditional American conservatism. (more…)
Newt Gingrich described for the audience at a recent University of Chicago Institute of Politics event the shock he felt when he realized last Election Day that President Obama would win re-election, confounding Gingrich’s predictions and hopes.
Gingrich said he and his wife Callista stared at each other in disbelief as they took in exit polls and then voting returns that showed a loss beyond anything he had feared, especially among Senate races in traditionally Republican states. It led Gingrich to take a hard look at the tactical and technological gap that may have contributed to his party’s loss. (more…)
