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U.S. Students Need New Way of Learning Science

By Guest PostApril 7, 2012Educationamerican students, atoms, cells, conservation of mass and energy, digital organisms, energy, forces, genomics, k 12 school, michigan state university, next generation, prom se, radiation, research project, Science, science standard, scientific fact, simon billinge, stephen pruitt, student assessment, synthetic biology, systems change, united states, variation, william schmidt

EAST LANSING, Mich. — American students need a dramatically new approach to improve how they learn science, says a noted group of scientists and educators led by Michigan State University professor William Schmidt.

After six years of work, the group has proposed a solution. The 8+1 Science concept calls for a radical overhaul in K-12 schools that moves away from memorizing scientific facts and focuses on helping students understand eight fundamental science concepts. The “plus one” is the importance of inquiry, the practice of asking why things happen around us – and a fundamental part of science. (more…)

Many Young People Would Rather Surf the Web than Drive a Car

By Guest PostApril 5, 2012General, Technologyage, bernie degroat, brandon schoettle, canada, driver, environmental consequences, finland, function, Germany, great britain, information highway, internet users, Israel, Japan, latvia, license, michael sivak, norway, people, poland, societal wealth, south korea, spain, Sweden, switzerland, teenager, the netherlands, traffic injury, travel, united states, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— More young adults today would rather hit the information highway than the open highway, say University of Michigan researchers.

In a new study in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the U-M Transportation Research Institute found that having a higher proportion of Internet users was associated with lower licensure rates among young persons.

And this is just not in the United States; it’s happening in other countries, too. (more…)

Yale Center for British Art to partner with Google on expanded Art Project

By Guest PostApril 4, 2012Culture, Technologyamy meyers, art, art project, british art, connecticut, george stubbs, Google, google art project, john frederick herring, joshua reynolds, museum, synthesis, Technology, the harvest, thomas gainsborough, thomas rowlandson, united kingdom, united states, william hogarth, yale center

The Yale Center for British Art is partnering with the Google Art Project to share the museum’s renowned collections with viewers around the world. The collaboration is part of a major global expansion of the pioneering Art Project, which now consists of 151 partners in 40 countries.

The Yale Center for British Art — which houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom — is one of only six university museums in the world to collaborate with Google. It is one of only 29 institutions in the United States and is the only museum in Connecticut to participate. (more…)

Seeing Double: 1 in 30 Babies Born in U.S. is a Twin

By Guest PostApril 4, 2012Healthbarbara luke, birth of twins, children, fertility therapies, fertility treatment, fetal loss, fetuses, joyce martin, medication, ovulation stimulation, reproductive technologies, twin, twin birth, united states, women

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Women having children at older ages and the growing availability of fertility treatments has led to a marked increase in the birth of twins: In 2009, one in every 30 babies born in the United States was a twin compared with one in every 53 in 1980.

The findings, presented by Michigan State University’s Barbara Luke this week at the 14th Congress of the International Society of Twin Studies in Florence, Italy, have important health implications, including greater morbidity and mortality risks and higher health care costs. (more…)

Mapping Grasslands for Biofuel Potential

By Guest PostMarch 31, 2012Environmentalternative, america, biofuel crop, cell wall, cellulosic, energy, environmental impact, fertilizer, fossil fuel, grassland, irrigation water, marcia mcnutt, miscanthus, municipal wastes, nebraska, non food crop, north american, overgrazing, plant, platte river basin, prairie, switchgrass, tallgrass, united states, usgs, woody biomass

USGS scientists have developed a new method for mapping grasslands that demonstrate high potential for growing biofuel crops with relatively little energy input and environmental impact.

The pioneering investigation used remote sensing data from satellites to identify detailed areas of the Greater Platte River Basin (most of Nebraska, parts of adjacent states) that are best suited for producing cellulosic (from the cell walls of plants) biofuel derived from hardy switchgrass, a native plant that grows wild or is easily cultivated. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Study Shows Significantly Higher Potential for Wind Energy in India than Previously Estimated

By Guest PostMarch 29, 2012Environmentamol phadke, berkeley lab, China, electricity, gw, India, jayant sathaye, julie chao, mnre, potential, ranjit bharvirkar, renewable energy, united states, western india, wind energy, wind power

A new assessment of wind energy in India by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that the potential for on-shore wind energy deployment is far higher than the official estimates— about 20 times and up to 30 times greater than the current government estimate of 102 gigawatts. This landmark finding may have significant impact on India’s renewable energy strategy as it attempts to cope with a massive and chronic shortage of electricity.

“The main importance of this study, why it’s groundbreaking, is that wind is one of the most cost-effective and mature renewable energy sources commercially available in India, with an installed capacity of 15 GW and rising rapidly,” says Berkeley Lab scientist Amol Phadke, the lead author of the report. “The cost of wind power is now comparable to that from imported coal and natural gas-based plants, and wind can play a significant role in cost effectively addressing energy security and environmental concerns.” (more…)

‘Bed-of-Nails’ Breast Implant Deters Cancer Cells

By Guest PostMarch 26, 2012Healthbed of nails, blood vessel, breast cancer, brown university, cancer tumor, cell, cell function, chemical analysis, electron spectroscopy, lijuan zhang, malignant, michael platek, nanoscale, Nanotechnology, plga, protein, regrowth, thomas webster, tumor, united states, university of rhode island, vegf

Researchers at Brown University have created an implant that appears to deter breast cancer cell regrowth. Made from a common federally approved polymer, the implant is the first to be modified at the nanoscale in a way that causes a reduction in the blood-vessel architecture that breast cancer tumors depend upon, while also attracting healthy breast cells. Results are published in Nanotechnology.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — One in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer. Of those, many will undergo surgery to remove the tumor and will require some kind of breast reconstruction afterward, often involving implants. Cancer is an elusive target, though, and malignant cells return for as many as one-fifth of women originally diagnosed, according to the American Cancer Society. (more…)

Another Vertebrate Species Reported Extinct from the Hawaiian Islands

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2012Naturearchipelago, blue tailed skink, chris brown, cnrs, copper striped, cryptic extinction, emoia impar, extinction, hawaiian islands, ivan ineich, kauai, lizard, marcia mcnutt, maui, napali coast, oahu, oryx, Paris, robert fisher, skink, species, tropical, tropical pacific, united states, vertebrate species

HONOLULU – A species of lizard is now extinct from the Hawaiian Islands, making it the latest native vertebrate species to become extirpated from this tropical archipelago.

The copper striped blue-tailed skink (Emoia impar) — a sleek lizard with smooth, polished scales and a long, sky-blue tail — was last confirmed in the Na’Pali coast of Kauai in the 1960s. But repeated field surveys on Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawai’i islands from 1988 to 2008 have yielded no sightings or specimens. (more…)

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