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Extreme Space Weather at Mercury Blasts the Planet’s Poles

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2011Scienceatmosphere, aurora borealis, charged particles, earth, exosphere, fast imaging plasma spectrometer, fips, fundamental science about the sun, jim raines, magnetosphere, mercury, messenger spacecraft, NASA, oxygen particles, polar regions, sodium, solar system, solar wind sandblasts, space environment, squall of hot plasma, surface of planet mercury, thomas zurbuchen, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The solar wind sandblasts the surface of planet Mercury at its poles, according to new data from a University of Michigan instrument on board NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.

The sodium and oxygen particles the blistering solar wind kicks up are the primary components of Mercury’s wispy atmosphere, or “exosphere,” the new findings assert. Through interacting with the solar wind, they become charged in a mechanism that’s similar to the one that generates the Aurora Borealis on Earth. (more…)

Ancient Whale Skulls and Directional Hearing: A Twisted Tale

By Guest PostAugust 25, 2011Nature, Scienceaaron wood, archaeocetes, asymmetric skulls, baleen whales, basilosaurus isis, biological sonar, ct scans, echolocation, fossil, julia fahlke, modern whale, mysticetes, national science foundation, nsf, odontocetes, paleontologist, philip gingerich, richard lane, robert welsh, signs of artificial deformation, skewed skulls, symmetrical skulls, terrestrial mammals, three dimensional digital model, three dimensional torsion, toothed whales, twist, university of michigan

*Skewed skulls may have helped early whales find direction of sounds in water*

Skewed skulls may have helped early whales find the direction of sounds in water and are not solely, as previously thought, a later adaptation related to echolocation.

Scientists affiliated with the University of Michigan and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) report the finding in a paper published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Microbial life on Mars: Could Saltwater Make it Possible?

By Guest PostAugust 19, 2011Scienceair pressure, antarctic lakes, atmospheres, bruce block, carbon dioxide, daily and seasonal cycles, earth, forms of microbial life, gregory dick, gulf of mexico, mars, Mars Phoenix Lander, mars today, microbe, microbial life, NASA, nilton renno, organisms, perchlorate salts, salt loving extremophile microorganisms, saltwater on mars, sea level, temperatures, the centro de astrobiologia in madrid, the university of georgia, united states, university of michigan, university of texas at dallas, water vapor

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— How common are droplets of saltwater on Mars? Could microbial life survive and reproduce in them? A new million-dollar NASA project led by the University of Michigan aims to answer those questions.

This project begins three years after beads of liquid brine were first photographed on one of the Mars Phoenix lander’s legs.

“On Earth, everywhere there’s liquid water, there is microbial life,” said Nilton Renno, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences who is the principal investigator. Researchers from NASA, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Georgia and the Centro de Astrobiologia in Madrid are also involved. (more…)

Low Vitamin D Linked to Earlier First Menstruation, a Risk Factor for Health Problems Throughout Life

By Guest PostAugust 14, 2011Healthbehavioral and psychosocial problems in teens, blood vitamin d levels, bogota, breast cancer, cancer, cardiometabolic diseases, Colombia, early menstruation, eduardo villamor, environmental cause, epidemiologist, equator, health problems, limited sun exposure, puberty, risk factor, teen girls, university of michigan, vitamin d in young girls

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A study links low vitamin D in young girls with early menstruation, which is a risk factor for a host of health problems for teen girls as well as women later in life.

Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health measured the blood vitamin D levels in 242 girls ages 5-12 from Bogota, Colombia, and followed them for 30 months. Girls low on vitamin D were twice as likely to start menstruation during the study than those with sufficient vitamin D, said epidemiologist Eduardo Villamor, associate professor in the U-M SPH. (more…)

New Anticensorship Scheme Could Make it Impossible to Block Individual Sites

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2011Technologyalex halderman, Beijing, brainchild of computer science researchers, canada, censoring government, cryptographic protocol, cryptographic technique, https website, individual sites, internet, internet censorship, internet service providers, isps, proxy server, public key steganography, san francisco, steganography, telex, telex stations, university of michigan, university of waterloo, usenix security symposium, web, youtube videos

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A radical new approach to thwarting Internet censorship would essentially turn the whole web into a proxy server, making it virtually impossible for a censoring government to block individual sites.

The system is called Telex, and it is the brainchild of computer science researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Waterloo in Canada. They will present it Aug. 12 at the USENIX Security Symposium in San Francisco. (more…)

People often Talk About Politics on Blogs Geared Toward Other Topics

By Guest PostJuly 16, 2011Culture, Media, Politicsamericans, barcelona, blog posts, blogger, international conference on weblogs and social media, internet, national science foundation, paul resnick, personal diaries, political communication, political content, political discourse, political polarization, political websites, sean munson, university of michigan, Yahoo

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A full 25 percent of blog posts about politics occur on sites that are primarily about something else, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan School of Information. And when authors post about politics, their readers reply and engage with the political content of the posts.

The researchers say they have uncovered a significant repository of political discourse that is largely being ignored. They will present their findings July 19 at the International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media in Barcelona. (more…)

Children Who Seldom Smile, Laugh or Hug a Parent Might be at Risk for Depression

By Guest PostJuly 8, 2011Healthamy gentzler, charles george, children, daniel shaw, history of depression, hugging a parent, laboratory assessment, maria kovacs, negative emotions, negative moods, nestor lopez duran, positive displays, positive emotions, smiling and laughing, thomas olino, university of michigan, university of pittsburgh, vulnerability to depressive disorders

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A new study from the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh shows that even if a child isn’t crying, frowning or displaying other negative emotions on a consistent basis, another warning sign is when a child shows fewer positive displays, like hugging a parent or smiling and laughing.

“Surprisingly, it seems that it is low levels of happiness, as opposed to high levels of sadness, what may help explain why these kids too often develop depressive disorders,” said Nestor Lopez-Duran, an assistant professor of psychology at U-M and one of the study’s authors. (more…)

Preventing Diabetes Damage: Zinc’s Effects on a Kinky, two-faced Cohort

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2011Healthabout how zinc performs, ayyalusamy ramamoorthy, clump formation and amylin toxicity, fibril formation, fibrils, harmful clumps similar to those found in alzheimer's, huntington's, journal of molecular biology, manage blood sugar levels in diabetics, normal levels of zinc, parkinson's, preventing amylin from misbehaving, preventing diabetes damage, security guard, shut down insulin-producing cells, two-faced cohort, university of michigan, wreaking havoc, zinc's effects on a kinky, zinc-starved cellular environment

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—In type 2 diabetes, a protein called amylin forms dense clumps that shut down insulin-producing cells, wreaking havoc on the control of blood sugar. But zinc has a knack for preventing amylin from misbehaving.

Recent research at the University of Michigan offers new details about how zinc performs this “security guard” function. The findings appear in the July 8 issue of the Journal of Molecular Biology. (more…)

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