Tag Archives: scientist

To Be A Scientist

*How Bob Vince changed the world*

Where does it begin, the act of becoming a scientist? Perhaps with a bowling ball, its finger holes packed with explosives, which when detonated, launch the ball into the air, cracking the otherwise pristine concrete walkway of your childhood home in four places, much to the consternation of your father. Or maybe with an explosion of homemade rocket fuel in your basement chemistry lab that scares your mother half to death. And all this before the troublesome teen years.

Bob Vince can’t be sure where his becoming a scientist began. But where it led changed the world. (more…)

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NSF Announces Major Awards for Biodiversity Research, WHOI Scientists Selected

The 1977 discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems that obtain energy through chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis greatly expanded the perception of life on Earth. However, an understanding of their underlying microbiology and biogeochemistry still remains elusive.

A newly funded project, one of several major awards announced by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Dimensions in Biodiversity research program, stands to change that through a multi-disciplinary, international collaborative research effort led by Associate Scientist Stefan Sievert of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. (more…)

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Over the Hump: Ecologists Use Power of Network Science to Challenge Long-Held Theory

*Global sampling of 48 sites on five continents yields unprecedented data set*

For decades, ecologists have toiled to nail down principles explaining why some habitats have many more plant and animal species than others.

Much of this debate is focused on the idea that the number of species is determined by the productivity of the habitat.

Shouldn’t a patch of prairie contain a different number of species than an arid steppe or an alpine tundra? (more…)

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On the Sizeable Wings of Albatrosses

An oceanographer may be offering the best explanation yet of one of the great mysteries of flight—how albatrosses fly such vast distances, even around the world, almost without flapping their wings. The answer, says Philip L. Richardson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), lies in a concept called dynamic soaring, in which the large bird utilizes the power of above-ocean wind shear while tacking like an airborne sailboat.

“I have a simple model that explains the basic physics of what albatrosses do,” says Richardson, a scientist emeritus at WHOI, who, in addition to his primary career in studying ocean currents, has also piloted gliders. The key, he says, is the bird’s ability to balance the kinetic energy gained in soaring with the energy lost from drag. (more…)

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Glaciers Retreating in Asia

*Could Impact Water Supplies for Millions and Cause Flood Conditions* 

Many of Asia’s glaciers are retreating as a result of climate change. 

This retreat impacts water supplies to millions of people, increases the likelihood of outburst floods that threaten life and property in nearby areas, and contributes to sea-level rise.

(more…)

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