Tag Archives: united states

NASA Scientist: Climate Just One Factor in Wildfires

By Guest PostJuly 4, 2012Environment2002 hayman fire, ash creek fire, bill patzert, climate, climate change, colorado, factor, fiery summer, forests, grasslands, horse creek fire, jpl climatologist, la niña, los angeles county, misr, nasa scientist, new mexico, southeastern montana, southern california, united states, us wildfire season, wildfire

It’s shaping up to be a fiery summer across the United States. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, as of July 3, 45 large active wildfires are currently burning in 15 states. Combined, these fires have scorched nearly three-quarters of a million acres. Since January 1, wildfires have burned nearly 2.2 million acres across the country, including devastating blazes in Colorado and New Mexico. We asked JPL Climatologist Bill Patzert to discuss the recent wildfire outbreak and whether climate change is playing a role.

Q: The U.S. wildfire season is off to an active start. What factors have contributed to the recent rash of blazes?

Patzert: Across the West, out-of-control wildfires this summer have left a heartbreaking path of destruction. The primary condition that triggered these fires was an unusually dry and warm La Nina winter and spring. These conditions primed the Western U.S. for an incendiary summer. The arrival of a persistent, scorching high-pressure system over the Western and Central U.S. just exacerbated already dangerous conditions, which reached a tipping point when strong, gusty winds sent these fires rampaging across the landscape. From New Mexico to Colorado and many other states, out-of-control wildfires are still burning through forests, grasslands and destroying neighborhoods. (more…)

Satiric News Decreases Bias Against Arab-Americans and Al Jazeera

By Guest PostJune 24, 2012Media, Politicsaje, al jazeera, al qaeda, americans, anti american agenda, arab americans, bush administration, cnn international, humorous tones, intercultural acceptance, jon stewart, kabul government, katie brown, osama bin laden, satiric news, taliban, the daily show, the nightly news, united states, university of michigan, viewing habits, war on terror, william youmans

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Satiric news coverage—a format seen on programs such as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”—decreases Arab American prejudice and bias against Al Jazeera English.

A new University of Michigan study finds that Americans can change their views about Al Jazeera English, a global news network, depending on how it is covered by other media.

AJE has not been welcomed in the United States, in part, because many people associate it with Al Qaeda and other American adversaries. Many Americans presume the network is biased and driven by an anti-American agenda. (more…)

Global Science: U.S. is Still in The Game

By Guest PostJune 19, 2012Sciencealexandra achen killewald, america today, american economy, american science, decline, globalization, harvard university, mathematics, new york times, newsweek, popular media, relative scale, Science, scientific achievement, united states, university of michigan, US, yu xie

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Globalization is a benefit to U.S. scientific achievement, not a threat. That’s the conclusion of a new book that weighs the evidence from a number of recent surveys to answer its title question: “Is American Science in Decline?”

American science is in good health, according to the book’s authors, sociologists Yu Xie of the University of Michigan and Alexandra Achen Killewald of Harvard University.

Although there are areas of concern, they maintain that traditional American values will help the nation maintain its strength in science for the foreseeable future, and that globalization will promote efficiency in science through knowledge sharing. (more…)

Teaching Autistic Teens to Cope

By Guest PostJune 17, 2012Healthalexander gantman, asd, autism spectrum disorder, catherine mogil, elizabeth laugeson, fred frankel, help group, knowledge, social functioning, teenagers, united states

Unique UCLA program that teaches social skills proves effective over long term

Teenagers with autism spectrum disorder are in a bind. The disorder is characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction, but it’s a continuum, so some teens diagnosed with ASD are considered high functioning and healthy enough to be “mainstreamed” in school.

But without the proper social skills, even mainstreamed teens don’t quite fit into the general social milieu of middle school or high school. As a result, they suffer from all the slings and arrows of that world.

Since 2006, however, the UCLA PEERS (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) clinic has assisted high-functioning teens with ASD by literally teaching them the strategies they need to fit in better with their peers. And while previous research demonstrated that the program was effective, it wasn’t known whether the new skills “stuck” with these teens after they completed the PEERS classes. (more…)

Measuring the “Other” Greenhouse Gases: Higher Than Expected Levels of Methane in California

By Guest PostJune 16, 2012Environmentanthropogenic, atmospheric lifetime, berkeley lab, black carbon, california, carb, carbon dioxide, central valley, ch4 emissions, climate pollutant, CO2, coal mines, decomposition, environment policy, fossil fuel, fraction, global warming, greenhouse gas, halocarbon gases, landfills, livestock ranches, man made source, map, marc l fischer, methane, methane emissions, methane signals, natural sources, nitrous oxide, noaa, organic matter, refrigerants, sacramento, seongeun jeong, soot, sound energy, spatial, temporal resolution, united states, walnut grove

Berkeley Lab scientists develop new method for evaluating short-lived pollutants.

New research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that levels of methane—a potent greenhouse gas emitted from many man-made sources, such as coal mines, landfills and livestock ranches—are at least one-and-a-half times higher in California than previously estimated.

Working with scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Berkeley Lab scientists Marc L. Fischer and Seongeun Jeong combined highly accurate methane measurements from a tower with model predictions of expected methane signals to revise estimated methane emissions from central California. They found that annually averaged methane emissions in California were 1.5 to 1.8 times greater than previous estimates, depending on the spatial distribution of the methane emissions. (more…)

Evolution of Religious Patriarchy as a Mate-Guarding Strategy?

By Guest PostJune 15, 2012Culture, Scienceadultery, african population, african society, beverly strassmann, Bible, biological anthropologist, brenda gillespie, brendan hugg, christianity, contraception, cuckoldry, dogon belief, dogon people, dogon practice, eneticist, erin burke, evolution, female sexuality, fertility status, fidelity, genetic data, ideology, indigenous, islam, Mali, menstrual huts, menstrual taboos, michael hammer, monotheistic religion, nikhil kurapati, pollution, quran, rates of cuckoldry, religious patriarchy, religious practices, sacred texts, tatiana karafet, traditional, united states, university of arizona, university of michigan, village, virginity, west africa, word of god, y dna mismatch

One of the largest and longest studies in a traditional African society sheds light on religious practices and cuckoldry. Genetic data suggest religious patriarchy is directly analogous to the mate-guarding tactics used by animals to ensure paternity.

Religious practices that strongly control female sexuality are more successful at promoting certainty about paternity, according to a study published in the June 4, 2012 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In an interdisciplinary collaboration, a group of researchers around biological anthropologist Beverly Strassmann from the University of Michigan and University of Arizona geneticist Michael Hammer analyzed genetic data on 1,706 father-son pairs in a traditional African population – the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa – in which Islam, two types of Christianity and an indigenous, monotheistic religion are practiced in the same families and villages. (more…)

Vampire Bat Study May Lead to Better Rabies-Control Strategies

By Guest PostJune 14, 2012Nature, ScienceAmazon rainforest, badgers, bat colonies, blood samples, bovine, cattle, charles rupprecht, culling bats, daniel streicker, ebola, genetic studies, immune, infectious diseases, ivan vargas, joel montgomery, jorge gomez benavides, marburg hemorrhagic fevers, mathematical modelling, nipah encephalitis, pejman rohani, peru, rabies, rabies in peru, rabies infections, rabies virus, sars, sergio recuenco, south america, tuberculosis, united states, university of michigan, vacuum effect, vampire bats, vampiricide, víctor pacheco, wildlife disease, zoonotic diseases

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A new study of rabies in vampire bats in Peru has found that culling bats—a common rabies control strategy—does not reduce rates of rabies exposure in bat colonies, and may even be counterproductive.

The findings may eventually help public health and agriculture officials in Peru develop more effective methods for preventing rabies infections in humans and livestock, according to a team of scientists from the United States and Peru led by Daniel Streicker, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology.

The study was published online this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The research team includes University of Michigan population ecologist Pejman Rohani. (more…)

A SMART(er) Way to Track Influenza

By Guest PostJune 12, 2012Scienceaartik sarma, amplification, andrew artenstein, anubhav tripathi, biological debris, brown assay, brown university, carmichael ong, DNA, first aid kit, flu detection test, genetic sequence, H1N1, hiv, influenza rna, influenza rna sequence, iPhone, magnetics, memorial hospital, microfluidics, nasba, nucleic acid sequence, pigs, polymerase chain reaction, prototype, rhode island, rna partners, rna probe, rna strand, smart, smart detector, stephanie mccalla, steven opal, swine flu, tb, tracking of influenza, tuberculosis, united states, virus in mexico

Brown University researchers have created a reliable and fast flu-detection test that can be carried in a first-aid kit. The novel prototype device isolates influenza RNA using a combination of magnetics and microfluidics, then amplifies and detects probes bound to the RNA. The technology could lead to real-time tracking of influenza. Results are published in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In April 2009, the world took notice as reports surfaced of a virus in Mexico that had mutated from pigs and was being passed from human to human. The H1N1 “swine flu,” as the virus was named, circulated worldwide, killing more than 18,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States said it was the first global pandemic in more than four decades. (more…)