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MU Students Gain Experience with Advanced Weather Tracking Technology

By Guest PostSeptember 29, 2012Education, Environment, Scienceadvance, atmospheric sciences, brett williams, bridge creek, columbia, data, doppler, dow, dow system, eric brewster, hinkson creek, jason hubbard, job market, kansas city, kayla flamm, map, measure, meteorology technology, missouri, mobile, neil fox, nicole hoban, North America, on, predicting storms, rainfall, raw data, sediment transport, severe, soil erosion, st. louis, stationary, storm research, student, tracking device, university, weather, weather radar, wheels

Students use tornado-chasing technology to research rain’s impact on stream

COLUMBIA, Mo. – With advances in meteorology technology, predicting storms is becoming easier than in the past. While most meteorology students learn about these new technologies in the classroom and don’t get a chance to use sophisticated equipment until they are on the job, a group of University of Missouri students were able to test a mobile weather tracking device, Doppler on Wheels (DOW), made famous by shows such as Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers.

The DOW visiting MU is one of a fleet of radar trucks maintained by the Center for Severe Storm Research. Each radar truck is mounted with a Doppler weather radar dish. The fleet also consists of a support vehicle and three trucks that deploy instruments to track weather patterns in tornadoes and hurricanes. One of the radar trucks was brought to MU so that students could learn about the technology first-hand. (more…)

Browser Plug-in Helps People Balance Their Political News Reading Habits

By Guest PostSeptember 29, 2012Politics, Technologyappalling cesspool, article, balanced view, balancer, behavior, cartoon, chrome browser, debate, democrat, Google, michigan, new jersey, online, plug in, political bias, political blog, political news, political rumor, political spectrum, presidential election, reading habit, republican, sean munson, self discovery, site, Social networking, university, US, voter, Washington, web browser

As the U.S. presidential election approaches, many voters become voracious consumers of online political news. A tool by a University of Washington researcher tracks whether all those articles really provide a balanced view of the debate – and, if not, suggests some sites that offer opinions from the other side of the political spectrum.

Balancer, a free plug-in for Google’s Chrome browser, was developed this summer by Sean Munson, a new UW assistant professor of Human Centered Design and Engineering. The tool analyzes a person’s online reading habits for a month and calculates the political bias in that behavior. It then suggests sites that represent a different point of view and continues to monitor reading behavior and offer feedback. (more…)

UF Biologist Discovers Mammal with Salamander-like Regenerative Abilities

By Guest PostSeptember 29, 2012Natureafrican, african mammal, amphibian biology, ashley seifert, biopsy, blastema like, cartilage, damaged tissue, florida, hair follicles, human biology, ken muneoka, Kenya, lost limbs, model, mpala, nairobi, regenerative medicine, regrow, research, research centre, salamander, skin, skin autotomy, spiny mouse, structure, tissue regeneration, university, wound healing

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A small African mammal with an unusual ability to regrow damaged tissues could inspire new research in regenerative medicine, a University of Florida study finds.

For years biologists have studied salamanders for their ability to regrow lost limbs. But amphibian biology is very different than human biology, so lessons learned in laboratories from salamanders are difficult to translate into medical therapies for humans. New research in the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature describes a mammal that can regrow new body tissues following an injury. The African spiny mouse could become a new model for research in regenerative medicine. (more…)

Know How Much You’re Texting While Driving? U-M Study Says No

By Guest PostSeptember 27, 2012Technologyalarm clock, automatic behavior, driving, frequency, habit, human behavior, joseph bayer, michigan, mobile communication, public safety, scott campbell, Technology, texting, texts, university, young adults

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Texting while driving is a serious threat to public safety, but a new University of Michigan study suggests that we might not be aware of our actions.

U-M researchers found that texting while driving is predicted by a person’s level of “habit”—more so than how much someone texts.

When people check their cell phones without thinking about it, the habit represents a type of automatic behavior, or automaticity, the researchers say. Automaticity, which was the key variable in the study, is triggered by situational cues and lacks control, awareness, intention and attention. (more…)

What’s that Noise?

By Guest PostSeptember 26, 2012Scienceabhyudai singh, brandon razooky, cell, delaware, expression, gene, hiv, hiv virus, human, immunodeficiency virus, leor weinberger, mrnas, new method, noise, protein level, roy dar, san francisco, source, university, variability

Paper describes new method to understand sources of noise in gene-expression

Abhyudai Singh, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware, describes a new method to understand sources of “noise” in gene-expression that create variability in protein levels in a paper published in Molecular Systems Biology, a publication of Nature, on Aug. 28.

This noise is expressed as variability in the levels of proteins/mRNAs in a cell. (more…)

Large Bacterial Population Colonized Land 2.75 Billion Years Ago

By Guest PostSeptember 26, 2012Scienceatmosphere, atmospheric oxygenation, cambrian period, continental rock, data, database, david catling, earth, Environment, eva stueken, event, geologist, great, methane, microbial life, molybdenum, ocean, oxidation, oxygen, ozone layer, research record, roger buick, sulfur, ultraviolet radiation, university, Washington, weathering pyrite

There is evidence that some microbial life had migrated from the Earth’s oceans to land by 2.75 billion years ago, though many scientists believe such land-based life was limited because the ozone layer that shields against ultraviolet radiation did not form until hundreds of millions years later.

But new research from the University of Washington suggests that early microbes might have been widespread on land, producing oxygen and weathering pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral, which released sulfur and molybdenum into the oceans. (more…)

Exeter Scientist Discovers UK’s Rarest Bat in East Devon

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2012Natureadrian bayley, axe, bat, bat boxes, Britain, colyford, east devon, estuary wetlands, evening, exeter, farming method, fiona mathews, fraser rush, grey, habitat management, isle, light pollution, long eareds, newton abbot, rarest mammal, seaton, university, urbanisation, wet, whispering bats, wight, wild weekend, wildlife

University of Exeter scientist Dr Fiona Mathews has discovered one of Britain’s rarest mammals living in East Devon.

Members of the public were treated to a surprise close-encounter with the Grey long-eared bat, believed to be one of only 1,000 individuals in the country, at an event organised by East Devon District Council’s Countryside Service at the Axe Estuary Wetlands.

The bat evening was part of a regular Wet and Wild Weekend – a celebration of the wildlife of the Axe Estuary Wetlands attracting nearly 500 people. Dr Mathews and fellow bat-enthusiast Adrian Bayley had set up mist nets so that people could meet some of the animals they were hearing on bat detectors, and were amazed to find the country’s rarest bat.

There are only six known breeding colonies of Grey long-eared bats in the UK. This discovery potentially links an isolated group near Newton Abbot with colonies in Dorset and the Isle of Wight. (more…)

The Original Twitter? Tiny Electronic Tags Monitor Birds’ Social Networks

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2012Nature, Sciencearchipelago, bird, brian otis, broadcast, costa rica, crow, drexel university, ecology, encounternet, forest, frequency, galapagos islands, german, internet, islands, john burt, lysanne snijders, Netherlands, new caledonia, radio tracking, radio transmitter, scotland, social behavior, social mobility, social network, South Pacific, st andrews, Technology, university, Washington, wireless sensor, woodland bird

If two birds meet deep in the forest, does anybody hear? Until now, nobody did, unless an intrepid biologist was hiding underneath a bush and watching their behavior, or the birds happened to meet near a research monitoring station. But an electronic tag designed at the University of Washington can for the first time see when birds meet in the wild.

A new study led by a biologist at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews used the UW tags to see whether crows might learn to use tools from one another. The findings, published last week in Current Biology, supported the theory by showing an unexpected amount of social mobility, with the crows often spending time near birds outside their immediate family. (more…)

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