Tag Archives: Technology

How Technology is Changing Kenya

By Guest PostSeptember 10, 2012Economy, Technologyafrica, big name, blog, business, changing, data, data collection, Economy, everyday life, facility, forefront, healthcare, information technology, internet, julie, Kenya, kenyans, next, online map, online resource, paul, portable, provider, smart phone, startup, Technology, wife

It is not often you think about how technology can affect an entire country, but the upsurge of affordable smart phones and portable internet have made a huge impact on the everyday lives on Kenyans. Not only do people now have access to things around the world, but they also have educational and health opportunities they have never had before. The idea of using smart phones as makeshift computers is nothing new, especially in developing countries. Where the income is limited, a smartphone can be a costly expense. However, having access to current technology will allow Kenyans to expand and grow in the world economy. To that end, here are some examples of improvements that new technology has had in the lives of Kenyans: (more…)

Teaching using Technology

By Guest PostAugust 31, 2012Education, Technologyashley mortimer, blog, class material, delaware, exam, Facebook, facebook docs, flickr, foreign language, Google, google site, group, multimedia experience, phillip penix tadsen, President Obama, review, social media, student, teaching, Technology, Twitter, ud prof, university

UD prof engages students with Facebook Groups and Google Sites

Phillip Penix-Tadsen, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures at the University of Delaware, is reaching his students at new levels inside and outside the classroom. The spring 2012 semester was the first time Penix-Tadsen required the use of Facebook Groups by all his students to increase engagement and participation.

“That virtual space builds a kind of community for the class that leads into the in-class interactions. Students get to know one another in the Facebook Group, which leads to stronger class conversations and discussions,” Penix-Tadsen said. (more…)

Fish-tailing Robots

By Guest PostAugust 9, 2012Environment, Naturealgorithm, asian carp, common carp, environmental parameter, fish behavior, fish tailing robots, gps position, internet, invasive fish, josh vander hook, lakes, minneapolis, oregon, patrick plonski, peter sorensen, pratap tokekar, radiotagged carp, robotic boats, staring lake, Technology, track, trash fish, university of minnesota, volkan isler

Robotic boats track radio-tagged common carp in area lakes

As a stiff breeze sweeps across Staring Lake in suburban Minneapolis, a five-foot, antenna-sporting robotic boat plies the water in a back-and-forth pattern.

On the shore, Volkan Isler follows the action as two graduate research assistants launch a second boat.

Today Isler, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Minnesota, and graduate students Pratap Tokekar and Josh Vander Hook have come to the lake to test the newer of the boats. Their mission: developing a new technology to track invasive fish. (more…)

Hunter-Gatherers Expend Same Calories as Average Americans

By Guest PostAugust 3, 2012Scienceafrica, audax mabulla, brian wood, caloric intake, calories, cause, david raichlen, energetic expenditure, evolutionary science, frank w marlowe, gym membership, hazda, herman pontzer, hunter college, hunter gatherer, obesity, obesity pandemic, physical exercise, susan b racette, Tanzania, Technology, university of arizona, western population, yale anthropologist

Taking in too many calories far outweighs getting too little exercise as a cause of obesity, according to a study of a hunter-gatherer society co- authored by Yale anthropologist Brian Wood and recently published in the July issue of the journal PLoS One.

Using state-of-the-art technology to measure the daily energetic expenditure of the Hazda, a foraging people of Tanzania, Wood and co-authors Herman Pontzer (Hunter College) and David Raichlen (University of Arizona) discovered that even though these last remaining hunter-gatherers in Africa are quite physically active, they expend on average no more calories in a day than the adult population of the industrialized world. Given the total lack of obesity among the Hadza, whose average daily calorie consumption is far lower than that found in the developed world, the researchers concluded that increased caloric intake is the main source of rising obesity in Western populations. (more…)

Killing of Bin Laden Offers Insight into “The Business of Martyrdom”

By Guest PostJuly 12, 2012Politicsal qaeda, bin laden, biotechnology, business of martyrdom, david, drone, goliath, history, Iraq, jeffrey lewis, killing, ltte, metaphor, muslim world, philosophy, political goal, smart bomb, sri lanka, suicide attack, suicide bomber, suicide bombing, Technology, terrorist leader, terrorist organization, united states, us military, uslim fighter

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The way the U.S. military killed Osama bin Laden sent a message every bit as powerful as the fact that he was killed in the first place, according to the author of a new history of suicide bombing.

The fact that bin Laden was killed by a team of highly trained soldiers – and not by a drone or bomb – spoiled the grand narrative of brave Muslim fighters vs. U.S. technology that bin Laden and al Qaeda had developed in their war against the United States.

“Bin Laden had built up this image of himself and al Qaeda as a morally superior David against the technological Goliath that is the United States,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a lecturer in the International Studies program at Ohio State University. (more…)

World’s Top Tech Students Go for It All Down Under

By Guest PostJuly 6, 2012Technology2012 summer games, Argentina, australia, blog entry, brazilian brothers, bubblegum, cloud computing, darkened room, eduardo, eureka, gold medals, Greece, Iceland, imagine cup 2012, kinect fun labs, korea, let it bee, london, mathdash, Microsoft, olympic athletes, Pizza, project, robert miles, roberto sonnino, roberts quest, serbia, sydney, team, team boddymusic, team catchcake, team drexel dragons, team radiant, team symbiosis, Technology, united states, walid abu-hadba, windows, worldwide finals, xbox, xbox 360

Young technologists are looking to take the world by storm this weekend at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia.

SYDNEY – Wrapped in the flags of their countries, the competitors climb onto the podium, beaming with joy as the cameras flash. They are young, passionate, business-savvy ambassadors of their field.

These aren’t soccer players or high jumpers, but they are no less competitors than the athletes seeking gold medals at the 2012 Summer Games in London. They are the planet’s premiere young technologists. And, to slightly alter an infamous movie line, they’ve come to change the world and chew bubblegum – and they’re all out of bubblegum. (more…)

In Real Time, Yale Scientists Watch Stem Cells at Work Regenerating Tissue

By Guest PostJuly 4, 2012Sciencealexander brown coxe, ann m haberman, cancer, connective tissue, david g gonzalez, disease, elizabeth deschene, embryonic development, giovanni zito, hair follicle, ichiko saotome, imaging technique, mammal, mesenchyme, panteleimon rompolas, photon intravital microscopy, postdoctoral fellowship, regenerate tissue, stem cell, Technology, therapeutic purpose, valentina greco

Scientists have for the first time watched and manipulated stem cells as they regenerate tissue in an uninjured mammal, Yale researchers report July 1 online in the journal Nature.

Using a sophisticated imaging technique, the researchers also demonstrated that mice lacking a certain type of cell do not regrow hair. The same technique could shed light on how stem cells interact with other cells and trigger repairs in a variety of other organs, including lung and heart tissue.

“This tells us a lot about how the tissue regeneration process works,” said Valentina Greco, assistant professor of genetics and of dermatology at the Yale Stem Cell Center, researcher for the Yale Cancer Center and senior author of the study. (more…)

Nano-Sandwich Technique Slims Down Solar Cells, Improves Efficiency

By Guest PostJune 29, 2012Scienceamorphous silicon, Berkeley, cadmium telluride, chemical fuel, efficiency, electricity, linyou cao, nano-sandwich, nanometer, nanostructures, nm, organic materials, paul alivisatos, solar cells, solar energy, substrate, technique, Technology, university of california, vivian ferry

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found a way to create much slimmer thin-film solar cells without sacrificing the cells’ ability to absorb solar energy. Making the cells thinner should significantly decrease manufacturing costs for the technology.

“We were able to create solar cells using a ‘nanoscale sandwich’ design with an ultra-thin ‘active’ layer,” says Dr. Linyou Cao, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. “For example, we created a solar cell with an active layer of amorphous silicon that is only 70 nanometers (nm) thick. This is a significant improvement, because typical thin-film solar cells currently on the market that also use amorphous silicon have active layers between 300 and 500 nm thick.” The “active” layer in thin-film solar cells is the layer of material that actually absorbs solar energy for conversion into electricity or chemical fuel. (more…)