Tag Archives: university of washington

‘The Philosophical Child’: A book for when your child asks, ‘Why are we here?’

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2013Generalambassador, blog, cascadia community college, children, co inquirer, david shapiro, jana mohr lone, meaning of childhood, michael rosenthal, natural philosopher, Nature, new book, philosophical discussion, philosophical self, question, sara goering, the philosophical child, university of washington

Children are natural philosophers, says Jana Mohr Lone of the University of Washington Department of Philosophy.

Lone, an affiliate faculty member and director of the Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children, says she wrote her new book, “The Philosophical Child,” to help parents, teachers and other adults conduct conversations with children about life’s mysteries.

The center was founded in 1996 and became affiliated with the UW in 1999. In 2008, Lone started writing a blog titled “Wondering Aloud: Philosophy with Young People,” that she still maintains, often analyzing children’s books for their philosophical content. (more…)

Piranha Kin Wielded Dental Weaponry Even T. Rex Would Have Admired

By Guest PostDecember 27, 2012Nature, Scienceamazon river, american alligator, american university, ancient relative, anecdotes, armored fish, barracuda, bite, bite force, black piranha, blacktip shark, bull shark, c caracharias, c leucas, c limbatus, cairo, carcharodon megalodon, carnivorous fishes, customized force gage, dunkleosteus terrelli, earth, egypt, extinct mega predators, extinct piranhas, fossilized jaw, george washington university, guillermo orti, hammerhead shark, history, hyperbole, jaw forces, jaw muscles, jorge porto, justin grubich, largest piranha, mega bites, megapiranha paranensis, piranha infested waters, piranha like ability, piranhas, prehistoric, s mokarran, serrasalmus rhombeus, skeleton, soft tissue, stephanie crofts, steve huskey, t rex, teeth, tendons, tyrannosaurus rex, university of washington, western kentucky university, whale eating sharks, white sharks

Taking into consideration its size, an ancient relative of piranhas weighing about 20 pounds delivered a bite with a force more fierce than prehistoric whale-eating sharks, the four-ton ocean-dwelling Dunkleosteus terrelli and – even – Tyrannosaurus rex.

Besides the force of the bite, Megapiranha paranensis appears to have had teeth capable of shearing through soft tissue the way today’s piranhas do, while also being able to pierce thick shells and crack armoring and bones, according to Stephanie Crofts, a University of Washington doctoral student in biology. (more…)

God as a Drug: The Rise of American Megachurches

By Guest PostAugust 25, 2012Culture, Generalamerican christians, american megachurche, atmosphere, charismatic leadership, charismatic pastor, christianity, denver, drug, emotional energy, evangelical revivalism, god, holy spirit, hybrid, james wellman, kate stockly meyerdirk, katie e corcoran, message, multisensory mélange, rise, ritual chains, rob bell, rock music, san diego megachurch, sense, sensory pageantry, spiritual growth, spirituality, stagecraft, stereotyped, university of washington, vision

American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide their congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington.

“The megachurches movement is one of the leading indicators of how American Christians exercise their faith these days, so therefore they should be understood,” said James Wellman, associate professor of American religion at the University of Washington. “And our study shows they’re doing a pretty effective job for their members, based on self-reports, contrary to public opinion that tends to pass them off as a type of consumerist religion. In fact, their members speak eloquently of their spiritual growth.” (more…)

Crowd Funding on Campus: UW Scientists Raise Money for Research Online

By Guest PostAugust 11, 2012Education, Environment, Science, Technologyacidification, alaska, cindy wu, climate change, crowdsourcing, david eaton, dee boersma, denny luan, Environment, internet, karen boenker, kickstarter, kiki jenkins, lauren kuehne, microcredit, microryza, new york, online campaign, pacific oysters, petridish, rachel aronson, rockethub, university of washington

When Rachel Aronson travels this month to Alaska, she and a local research assistant will interview people who are in danger of being displaced by climate change. She will also send about 100 postcards to her funders.

Aronson is among a growing number of University of Washington students, faculty and staff who are using online campaigns to pay for their research. Crowdsourcing uses the Internet to broadcast a question and pool the answers; crowd funding uses the Internet to post an idea and ask people to pony up money to make it a reality. (more…)

Division of Labor Offers Insight into the Evolution of Multicellular Life

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2012Scienceann dornhaus, avida, beacon center, beacon researchers, ben kerr, charles ofria, communication system, digital organism, evolution, evolution platform, evolutionary history, genetic material, heather goldsby, human economies, michigan state university, multi celled, multicellular life, organism, single celled, university of arizona, university of washington

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Dividing tasks among different individuals is a more efficient way to get things done, whether you are an ant, a honeybee or a human.

A new study by researchers at Michigan State University’s BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action suggests that this efficiency may also explain a key transition in evolutionary history, from single-celled to multi-celled organisms.

The results, which can be found in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate that the cost of switching between different tasks gives rise to the evolution of division of labor in digital organisms. In human economies, these costs could be the mental shift or the travel time required to change from activity to another. (more…)

‘Documents that Changed the World’: A podcast series from Joe Janes

By Guest PostAugust 5, 2012Culture, Media, Politicsaids quilt, andrew brink, Barack Obama, bayeux tapestry, bill of rights, birth certificate, british broadcasting corp, change, credit card, declaration of independence, documents, elastic, france, history, joe janes, john snow, magna carta, mickey mouse, mystery of cholera, phrase, physician, podcast, president, steamboat willie, storytelling, the jazz singer, unabomber manifesto, university of washington, websters dictionary, world

The phrase occurred to Joe Janes out of the blue one day and immediately appealed to him. From there, ideas began to flow quickly.

Janes, associate professor in the University of Washington Information School, had been a fan of the British Broadcasting Corp. radio series “A History of the World in 100 Objects” and thought those shows effectively blended history and storytelling.

He got to wondering, what if he took a similar approach to information, telling about the twists and turns of history — through documents? (more…)

Got Milk? Climate Change Means Stressed Cows in Southern U.S. May Have Less

By Guest PostJuly 11, 2012Environmentclimate change, dairy cows, dairy industry, dry arizona climate, eric salathe, florida, guillaume mauger, heat of summer, holstein milk, humidity, maricopa, milk production, nancy gohring, northern california, southern us, stressed cow, temperature, tillamook, university of washington, yoram bauman

“Cows are happy in parts of Northern California and not in Florida” is a good way to sum up the findings of new research from the University of Washington, said Yoram Bauman, best known as the “stand-up economist.”

Bauman and colleagues found that the decline in milk production due to climate change will vary across the U.S., since there are significant differences in humidity and how much the temperature swings between night and day across the country. For instance, the humidity and hot nights make the Southeast the most unfriendly place in the country for dairy cows.

Their study combined high-resolution climate data and county-level dairy industry data with a method for figuring out how weather affects milk production. The result is a more detailed report than previous studies and includes a county-by-county assessment — that will be available to farmers — of the impact climate change will have on Holstein milk production in the U.S. through 2080. (more…)

Scientists Discover New Trigger for Immense North Atlantic Ocean Spring Plankton Bloom

By Guest PostJuly 7, 2012Environmentadam huxtable, amala mahadevan, atlantic ocean, biological pump, bjarni saemundsson, carbon dioxide, climate, climate on earth, CO2, craig lee, diatoms, don rice, eddies, emily kallin, eric d asaro, fossil fuel, global carbon cycle, holiday fireworks, mary jane perry, michael ohmart, microscopic plants, modulate, north atlantic bloom, not sunlight, nsf, ocean physics, oceanic cycling, oxygen, photosynthesis, physical biological model, phytoplankton, research vessel, silica, sun, surface warming, university of maine, university of washington, us beachgoers, whirlpools, whoi, zooplankton

Ocean eddies help jump-start plankton blooms that spread across hundreds of square miles

On this July 4^th week, U.S. beachgoers are thronging their way to seaside resorts and parks to celebrate with holiday fireworks. But across the horizon and miles out to sea toward the north, the Atlantic Ocean’s own spring and summer ritual unfolds. It entails the blooming of countless microscopic plants, or phytoplankton.

In what’s known as the North Atlantic Bloom, an immense number of phytoplankton burst into existence, first “greening,” then “whitening” the sea as one or more species take the place of others.

What turns on this huge bloom, what starts these ocean fireworks? Is it the Sun’s warmth? (more…)