Turning fossil fuel into energy is easy: You just burn it. And live with the carbon dioxide byproduct. What if we could reverse the process and turn water and carbon dioxide back into fuel?
A dream solution, but it may seem like trying to put the genie back in the bottle. (more…)
Robert J. Shiller, the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, has been awarded a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He shares the award — formally, the 2013 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — with Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen from the University of Chicago. According to the Nobel committee, the three were honored “for their empirical analysis of asset prices.”
Shiller, whose name became a household word with the wide use of the Case-Shiller Home Price real estate Index, came to national prominence with the publication in 2000 of “Irrational Exuberance.” The book, which quickly became a bestseller, described speculative bubbles fueled by mass misinformation and herd instinct, and accurately predicted the dot.com implosion. As early as 2003, Shiller warned of the housing market collapse, and later wrote a precept for recovery, “Subprime Solution: How the Global Financial Crisis Happened and What to Do about It.” (more…)
Each year, the land-dwelling Christmas Island red crab takes an arduous and shockingly precise journey from its earthen burrow to the shores of the Indian Ocean where weeks of mating and egg laying await.
Native to the Australian territories of Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, millions of the crabs start rolling across the island roads and landscape in crimson waves when the November rains begin. After a two-week scuttle to the sea, the male crab sets up and defends a mating burrow for himself and a female of his kind, the place where she will incubate their clutch for another two weeks. Before the morning of the high tide that precedes the December new moon, the females must emerge to release their millions of eggs into the ocean. A month later, the next generation of crabs comes ashore. (more…)
Research shows a correlation between eating breakfast and a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes
As Americans continue to fight the obesity epidemic and try to stem the incidence of type 2 diabetes, dietary guidelines are becoming increasingly important.
Among the possible keys to better health? Eating breakfast, for starters. (more…)
How the Carlson School supports veterans going for an MBA
Looking to apply to an MBA program, Heidi Sandell faced a common problem among veterans.
“I had a hard time translating my skills into something the business world could use and appreciate,” says Sandell, who served four years in the U.S. Navy. (more…)
From a sweet deal to the bitter end, there’s no accounting for taste. Descriptions of flavor are littered throughout our common sayings, and there’s a good reason for that. Food and flavor sensations are a key part of the human experience, and everyone knows what “bitter” feels and tastes like.
But what happens when a scientist tries to quantify taste? What, exactly, is flavor? What makes a food taste sweet, or salty, or even cooked? (more…)
Years ago the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, changed its policy on dealing with the emerald ash borer (EAB), a pretty but deadly insect that has killed many of the state’s ash trees.
Instead of cutting down all ash trees, they allowed residents to treat high-value trees with insecticides at their own expense, says Kathy Quick, an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs who was working in Grand Rapids at the time. (more…)
How thoughts can control a flying robot
It’s a staple of science fiction: people who can control objects with their minds.
At the University of Minnesota, a new technology is turning that fiction into reality.
In the lab of biomedical engineering professor Bin He, several young people have learned to use their thoughts to steer a flying robot around a gym, making it turn, rise, dip, and even sail through a ring. (more…)
