Tag Archives: Technology

Model Suggests Ocean Currents Shape Europa’s Icy Shell in Ways Critical for Potential Habitats

AUSTIN, Texas — In a finding of relevance to the search for life in our solar system, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have shown that the subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa may have deep currents and circulation patterns with heat and energy transfers capable of sustaining biological life.

Scientists believe Europa is one of the planetary bodies in our solar system most likely to have conditions that could sustain life, an idea reinforced by magnetometer readings from the Galileo spacecraft detecting signs of a salty, global ocean below the moon’s icy shell. (more…)

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Acid raid, ozone depletion contributed to ancient extinction

Washington, D.C.— Around 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, there was a mass extinction so severe that it remains the most traumatic known species die-off in Earth’s history. Some researchers have suggested that this extinction was triggered by contemporaneous volcanic eruptions in Siberia. New results from a team including Director of Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Linda Elkins-Tanton show that the atmospheric effects of these eruptions could have been devastating. Their work is published in Geology.

The mass extinction included the sudden loss of more than 90 percent of marine species and more than 70 percent of terrestrial species and set the stage for the rise of the dinosaurs. The fossil record suggests that ecological diversity did not fully recover until several million years after the main pulse of the extinction. (more…)

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Technology in the Classroom

UD faculty use Twitter to enhance classroom experience

The University of Delaware’s Alexander Brown, instructor of business administration, and Anuradha Sivaraman, assistant professor of business administration, believe that using Twitter for their courses helps keep the classroom discussions contemporary and increases class participation.

“It’s a good way to source material for classroom discussions,” Brown explains. “If you run a class where you want to engage students with current content and keep things contemporary, Twitter is the way to go.” (more…)

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IBM Study Finds More Than Half of Midmarket Companies Lack an Integrated Digital Strategy

Small and Midsize Businesses Outperform Competitors By Fusing the Physical with Big Data, Mobile and the Cloud

ARMONK, N.Y – 21 Nov 2013: An IBM global study of C-Suite leaders uncovers a surprising fact about small and midsize companies: they may not be as digitally savvy as they’d like.   

The survey’s top findings include:

  • More than half of midmarket companies lack an integrated digital strategy.
  • 65% of the midmarket C-Suite business executives recognized that the lack of a cohesive social media plan is the biggest barrier to doing more in the digital space.
  • More than half of respondents also cite the need to better understand how social media fits with other operational priorities, and how to measure its return on investment. (more…)

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Microsoft unveils game-changer for South Africa’s small businesses

Boston Consulting Group research highlights potential for technology to help drive significant revenue and job growth by SMEs.

JOHANNESBURG — Nov. 5, 2013 — Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner on Tuesday unveiled an online hub that will give South African small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) access to a range of free products and services from Microsoft and other partners.

The hub, at https://southafrica.biz4afrika.com, is specifically designed to aggregate all the best resources — both IT and non-IT — available to local SMEs. The baseline services offered are free and highly relevant for South African SMEs looking to bring their business online and improve their general competitiveness. The launch offer will provide SMEs with the opportunity to get their businesses online for free for the first year. This includes a free .co.za domain, a free website, as well as free email and collaboration tools.* (more…)

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IBM Study Reveals Businesses Using Cloud Computing for Competitive Advantage Can Generate Double Revenue and Profit Compared to their Peers

Cloud Ranks Higher on Agenda of Business than IT
IBM Collaborates with 100 Universities globally to Develop Cloud Skills for the Jobs of the Future

Armonk, N.Y. – 24 Oct 2013: IBM today announced that organizations gaining competitive advantage through high cloud adoption are reporting almost double the revenue growth and nearly 2.5 times higher gross profit growth than peer companies that are more cautious about cloud computing, from a recent survey conducted with more than 800 business decision makers and users worldwide. [1]

IBM’s survey also revealed that the cloud’s strategic importance to decision-makers, such as CEOs, CMOs, finance, HR and procurement executives, is poised to double from 34 percent to 72 percent – vaulting over their IT counterparts at 58 percent. (more…)

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Made in IBM Labs: Two-Factor Security for Mobile Transactions

ZURICH – 18 Oct 2013: IBM scientists have developed a new mobile authentication security technology based on the radio standard known as near-field communication (NFC). The technology provides an extra layer of security when using an NFC-enabled device and a contactless smartcard to conduct mobile transactions, including online banking and digital signatures when accessing a corporate Intranet or private cloud.

According to a recent report by ABI Research, the number of NFC devices in use will exceed 500 million in 2014. This statistic and the fact that 1 billion mobile phone users will use their devices for banking purposes by 2017* make for an increasingly opportune target for hackers. (more…)

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Researcher controls colleague’s motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.

Using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation, Rajesh Rao sent a brain signal to Andrea Stocco on the other side of the UW campus, causing Stocco’s finger to move on a keyboard. (more…)

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