university of michigan – Page 6 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Facebook memes can evolve like genes

By Guest PostJanuary 18, 2014Culture, Technologybehavior, biological genes, data science team, evolution, evolutionary biologist, evolve like genes, eytan adar, facebook meme, genetic information, idea, jabba the hutt, lada adamic, meme reproduction, mutation, petri dish, richard dawkins, self described liberals, share button, social network, star wars, thousands of variations, university of michigan, villain, viral internet content

ANN ARBOR — What started as a politically liberal Facebook meme in support of health care reform morphed as it spread across the social network into hundreds of thousands of variations—some just a few words from the original, but others centered on taxes, beer, or Star Wars’ villain Jabba the Hutt.

The twists on the original text over time in many ways mirrored the evolution of biological genes, researchers from the University of Michigan and Facebook have found. (more…)

‘Standing on a comet’: Rosetta mission will contribute to space weather research

By Guest PostJanuary 16, 2014Scienceandre bieler, archeological artifacts, carbon dioxide, churyumov gerasimenko, comet 67p, comet bound spacecraft, electric grid, electrified particles, european space agency, evolution, ionosphere, kenneth hansen, michael combi, model, on a comet, orbit of neptune, origin, planets, rosetta, rosetta mission, rosetta mission lander, rosetta orbiter, satellites, solar system, space weather research, standing, sun, tamas gombosi, the philae lander, university of michigan, valeriy tenishev

ANN ARBOR — A comet-bound spacecraft that’s been in sleep mode for more than two years is scheduled to wake up on the morning of Jan. 20—beginning the home stretch of its decade-long journey to a mile-wide ball of rock, dust and ice.

If all goes as planned, Rosetta—a European Space Agency-led mission that involves University of Michigan engineers and scientists—will be the first craft to actually land on a comet as well as track it for an extended period of time. (more…)

A rare crash at the Milky Way’s core: U-Michigan astronomers could be the first to see it

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2014Scienceconstellation, core, g2, galactic center, galaxy by spring, gaseous g2 object, mark reynolds, Milky Way, mysterious gas cloud, NASA, nathalie degenaar, rare collision, sagittarius, scorpius, supermassive black hole, swift telescope, u michigan astronomers, university of michigan, xray wavelengths

ANN ARBOR — University of Michigan astronomers could be the first to witness a rare collision expected to happen at the center of the galaxy by spring.

With NASA’s orbiting Swift telescope, the U-M team is taking daily images of a mysterious gas cloud about three times the mass of Earth that’s spiraling toward the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s core. From our vantage point, the core lies more than 25,000 light years away in the southern summer sky near the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. (more…)

Ancient sharks reared young in prehistoric river-delta nursery

By Guest PostJanuary 9, 2014Nature, Scienceadult bandringa, ancient, ancient sharks, bandringa fossils, bandringa sharks, electroreceptors, fossilized egg, freshwater, hawaii, illinois state museum, journal, lauren sallan, long snouted, marine, mazon creek, mechanoreceptors, michael coates, ohio, paddlefish, paleontologist, Pennsylvania, prehistoric, river delta nursery, river delta system, saltwater shark migration, sawfish, sensory organs, shark migration, shark nurseries, tiger sharks, university of chicago, university of michigan, upper midwest, vertebrate paleontology

ANN ARBOR — Like salmon in reverse, long-snouted Bandringa sharks migrated downstream from freshwater swamps to a tropical coastline to spawn 310 million years ago, leaving behind fossil evidence of one of the earliest known shark nurseries.

That’s the surprising conclusion of University of Michigan paleontologist Lauren Sallan and a University of Chicago colleague, who reanalyzed all known specimens of Bandringa, a bottom-feeding predator that lived in an ancient river delta system that spanned what is today the Upper Midwest. (more…)

White paper urges new approaches to assure access to scientific data

By Guest PostJanuary 5, 2014Scienceaccess, data archiving, digital data, george alter, icpsr, research data, scientific data, university of michigan, viability, white paper

ANN ARBOR — A newly released white paper calls for new approaches for preserving scientific data and sustainable funding of domain repositories—data archives with ties to specific scientific communities.

“Sustaining Domain Repositories for Digital Data: A White Paper” is the result of a meeting last summer that brought together representatives of 22 data repositories serving the social, natural and physical sciences. The meeting at the University of Michigan was organized by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, part of the U-M Institute for Social Research. (more…)

Water in cells behaves in complex and intricate ways

By Guest PostJanuary 2, 2014Sciencealbert einstein, biological action, cell machinery, charles brooks, computer simulation, dexter, distance, kevin kubarych, liquid, manhattan, phenomenon, picosecond timescale, protein, protein surface, proteins are hydrophobic, quantum entanglement, spooky action, university of michigan, water in cells

ANN ARBOR — In a sort of biological “spooky action at a distance,” water in a cell slows down in the tightest confines between proteins and develops the ability to affect other proteins much farther away, University of Michigan researchers have discovered.

On a fundamental level, the findings show some of the complex and unexpected ways that water behaves inside cells. In a practical sense, they could provide insights into how and why proteins clump together in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Understanding how proteins aggregate could help researchers figure out how to prevent them from doing so. (more…)

Smartphone as mentor: How tech could change behavior

By Guest PostDecember 31, 2013Technologybehavior, change, creativity, daniel lao, diana sussman, electric vehicles, feedback, harmony, jasprit singh, joggle, mentor, mindfulness, new delhi, nonconfrontational messages, psychological issues, radar, smartphone, social network, stream of vocabulary, tech, Technology, university of michigan, wellness, yoga devotee

ANN ARBOR — Funneling a steady stream of diversions straight to your pocket, smartphones are often cast as the ultimate distractors. But a University of Michigan engineering professor sees potential for them to be something quite the opposite.

What if they could act as mentors in mindfulness, helping users stay attentive in order to achieve particular goals? (more…)

What’s your story? Six strategies for entrepreneurs

By Guest PostDecember 26, 2013Economy, Small Businessapple computers, failure, good storyteller, India, investors, jamsetji tata, jobs, lianne lefsrud, limited financial resources, p devereaux jennings, seed oil mill, small businesses, startups, strategies for entrepreneurs, success, tata group, two steves, university of Alberta, university of michigan, wozniak

ANN ARBOR — An entrepreneur’s backstory plays a critical role in the success or failure of a fledgling venture, says Lianne Lefsrud, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Ross School’s Erb Institute.

“Especially for entrepreneurs with limited financial resources, stories are a way to create resources if you can make sense of the world with your stories,” Lefsrud said. (more…)

Tag Archives: university of michigan