Tag Archives: san francisco

‘Dark Oxidants’ Form Away from Sunlight in Lake and Ocean Depths, Underground Soils

New findings overturn understanding of light-dependent environmental oxidants

Breathing oxygen… can be hazardous to your health?

Indeed, our bodies aren’t perfect. They make mistakes, among them producing toxic chemicals, called oxidants, in cells. We fight these oxidants naturally, and by eating foods rich in antioxidants such as blueberries and dark chocolate.

All forms of life that breathe oxygen—even ones that can’t be seen with the naked eye, such as bacteria—must fight oxidants to live. (more…)

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Brick by brick

Professor, author Robertson discusses innovation evolution at Lego

When you hear Lego, if all you think about are shiny, plastic bricks and toys, think again. From a toy concept brought to life by a carpenter to tales of failed innovation truths that mirrored a Greek tragedy, the Lego story is about innovation and evolution, David Robertson told attendees at last week’s Chaplin Tyler Executive Leadership series lecture.

Robertson, professor of practice at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, presented “Rebuilding Lego” to 80 students, faculty, staff and community members on the University of Delaware’s Newark campus. (more…)

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Highly logical: Microsoft and Paramount Pictures team up to promote new ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ film

A new Star Trek app for Windows 8 and Windows Phone kicked off an unprecedented cross-company partnership to promote “Star Trek Into Darkness,” the new film from Paramount Pictures. Star Trek movie-themed content will materialize across Microsoft’s consumer products and services leading up the May 16 release of the highly anticipated new movie.

REDMOND, Wash. – May 15, 2013 – Star Trek and Microsoft — a logical pairing, Spock might say.

Paramount Pictures thought so. (more…)

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150 Years of Mexican, Mexican American History Now Online

The UA Libraries has just made 150 years of regionally published newspapers documenting the voice of Mexican and Mexican American communities digitally available for the first time.

A new digital collection at the University of Arizona Libraries makes accessible more than 150 years of news coverage documenting the voice of the Mexican and Mexican American community.

Curated, researched and digitized by librarians and archivists, in consultation with UA professors, the collection features 20 significant Mexican and Mexican American publications, many in Spanish. (more…)

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For This Doctor, Hope Amidst Fear is the Best Medicine

Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa may not be able to cure his patients’ brain cancer, but there is one thing that the internationally renowned neurosurgeon and neuroscientist can provide them with: hope.

During a recent visit to campus Quiñones-Hinojosa discussed his journey from a migrant farm worker to a doctor who researches the deadliest form of brain cancer, glioblastomas. His talk was sponsored by La Casa Cultural Center, the Latino Cultural Center at Yale. (more…)

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Within ‘Habitable Zone,’ More Planets than We Knew

The number of known places in our galaxy theoretically hospitable to life may be significantly greater than previously thought, according to new research.

Researchers with Planet Hunters are reporting the discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet in the so-called “habitable zone” of a star similar to Earth’s sun, as well as the identification of 15 new candidate planets also orbiting within their star’s habitable zone. (more…)

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Pronunciation of ‘s’ sounds impacts perception of gender, CU-Boulder researcher finds

A person’s style of speech — not just the pitch of his or her voice — may help determine whether the listener perceives the speaker to be male or female, according to a University of Colorado Boulder researcher who studied transgender people transitioning from female to male.

The way people pronounce their “s” sounds and the amount of resonance they use when speaking contributes to the perception of gender, according to Lal Zimman, whose findings are based on research he completed while earning his doctoral degree from CU-Boulder’s linguistics department. (more…)

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Experiencing Discrimination Increases Risk-Taking, Anger, and Vigilance

Experiencing rejection not only affects how we think and feel — over the long-term it can also influence our physical and mental health. New research suggests that when rejection comes in the form of discrimination, people respond with a pattern of thoughts, behaviors, and physiological responses that may contribute to overall health disparities.

“Psychological factors, like discrimination, have been suggested as part of the causal mechanisms that explain how discrimination gets ‘under the skin’ to affect health,” says psychological scientist and senior researcher Wendy Berry Mendes of the University of California, San Francisco. “We wanted to explore the behavioral consequences that follow experiences of discrimination to better understand these mechanisms.” (more…)

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