Tag Archives: world

Altitude sickness may hinder ethnic integration in the world’s highest places

By Guest PostJuly 4, 2013General, Scienceabu dhabi, access to sea, altitude sickness, andes dwellers, biological tolerance, Bolivia, China, chinese province, chinese security forces, christopher paik, clinica chimica acta, demographic patterns, effect of elevation, enze han, ethnic demographics, ethnic friction, ethnic integration, ethnic segregation, gansu, han chinese, highest places, himalayas, life on high, low oxygen conditions, migration patterns, modern times, new york university, population, princeton university, qinghai, qinghai tibet railway, role of factors, Sichuan, soil quality, tibetan autonomous region, tibetan name, tibetan plateau, tibetan settlements, traditional han settlements, university of london, wangyal shawa, world, yunnan

Ethnic segregation in nations straddling the world’s highest terrains may be reinforced by the biological tolerance different peoples have to altitude, according to one of the first studies to examine the effect of elevation on ethnic demographics.

Research from Princeton University published in the journal Applied Geography suggests that people native to low-lying areas can be naturally barred from regions such as the Tibetan Plateau, the Andes or the Himalayas by altitude sickness, which is caused by low oxygen concentration in the air and can be life-threatening. As a result, the homogeny of the local population can increase with elevation. In nations shared by people of high- and lowland extractions, this separation can potentially increase ethnic tension. (more…)

Biotech Crops vs. Pests: Successes, Failures from the First Billion Acres

By Guest PostJune 11, 2013Environmentbacillus thuringiensis, bacterium, Beijing, biotech crops, bruce tabashnik, bt, bt crop acreage, bt toxins, cirad, epa, evolutionary theory, france, global assessment, insecticidal proteins, kongming wu, million hectares, organic farmers, pest resistance, pests, pink bollworm caterpillar, rapid evolution, resistance in pests, sprays, thierry brevault, university of arizona, world, yves carriere

A new global assessment helps scientists explain why genetically modified crops have suppressed some pests for longer than a decade, while others adapted in a few years.

Since 1996, farmers worldwide have planted more than 1 billion acres (400 million hectares) of genetically modified corn and cotton that produce insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for short.

Bt proteins, used for decades in sprays by organic farmers, kill some devastating pests but are considered environmentally friendly and harmless to people. However, some scientists feared that widespread use of these proteins in genetically modified crops would spur rapid evolution of resistance in pests. (more…)

A truly global course

By Guest PostJune 5, 2013Educationafghanistan, australia, basic knowledge, california, class environment, food, food systems, global course, global life cycle, jason hill, kimberley mullins, mcknight land grant, minnesota, mooc platform, moocs, perspective, population, powerpoint slides, student in zimbabwe, sustainability, university of minnesota, world

Sixteen years ago, Jason Hill stood before some 30 students in one of his first classes as a teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota. This June, more than 14,000 students will log on to take his course, Sustainability of Food Systems: A Global Life Cycle Perspective.

Hill’s class is among the first five massive open online courses (MOOCs) the U of M is offering (for free) through a partnership with Coursera, a leading MOOC platform. (more…)

World’s melting glaciers making large contribution to sea rise

By Guest PostMay 29, 2013Environmentalaska, alex gardner, antarctic ice sheets, arctic canada, clark university, climate experiment, coastal greenland, columbia glacier, contribution, glacier mass changes, grace, gravity recovery, greenland, icesat, john wahr, melting glaciers, NASA, sea rise, sea-level rise, tad pfeffer, the himalayas, the southern andes, university colorado boulder, university of michigan, world

While 99 percent of Earth’s land ice is locked up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the remaining ice in the world’s glaciers contributed just as much to sea rise as the two ice sheets combined from 2003 to 2009, says a new study led by Clark University and involving the University Colorado Boulder.

The new research found that all glacial regions lost mass from 2003 to 2009, with the biggest ice losses occurring in Arctic Canada, Alaska, coastal Greenland, the southern Andes and the Himalayas. The glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic sheets lost an average of roughly 260 billion metric tons of ice annually during the study period, causing the oceans to rise 0.03 inches, or about 0.7 millimeters per year. (more…)

A Dual Look at Photosystem II Using the World’s Most Powerful X-Ray Laser

By Guest PostFebruary 27, 2013Sciencealgae, berkeley lab, carbon dioxide, catalytic activities, cryogenic temperatures, cyanobacteria, data, earth, energy, free electron laser, green plants, jan kern, junko yano, laser pulses, lcls, light source, linac coherent, living cells, manganese calcium, metal ion, metalloenzyme crystal, metalloenzymes, mn4ca, molecular oxygen, most powerful, natural photosynthesis, nicholas sauter, nitrogen fixation, oxidation states, photo reduction, photon step cycle, photon steps, photosystem, protein complex, proteins, radiation damage, roberto alonso mori, s1 to s4, sensitive to radiation, simulate solar photons, slac, software tools, sunlight, uwe bergmann, vital to life, vittal yachandra, water, water molecules, world, xes, xfel, xray beams, xray diffraction, xray emission spectroscopy, xray laser, xrd

Berkeley Lab and SLAC Researchers Demonstrate Room Temperature Simultaneous Diffraction/Spectroscopy of Metalloenzymes

From providing living cells with energy, to nitrogen fixation, to the splitting of water molecules, the catalytic activities of metalloenzymes – proteins that contain a metal ion – are vital to life on Earth. A better understanding of the chemistry behind these catalytic activities could pave the way for exciting new technologies, most prominently artificial photosynthesis systems that would provide clean, green and renewable energy. Now, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have taken a major step towards achieving this goal.

Using ultrafast, intensely bright pulses of X-rays from SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, the researchers were able to simultaneously image at room temperature the atomic and electronic structures of photosystem II, a metalloenzyme critical to photosynthesis. (more…)

In Conversation with: Paul Bracken, Expert on Nuclear ‘Power Politics’

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2013Politicsatomic bomb, cold war, collapse, critical regions, department of defense, expert, food, iran, Japan, mirv, missile, multiple warhead icbm, north korea, nuclear power politics, nuclear test, oil donations, paul bracken, political science, pyongyang, second nuclear age, south korea, submarines, un. china, united states, Washington, weapons program, world, yale

North Korea, which just conducted its third nuclear test, is using its weapons program to deter the United States by holding its allies “hostage,” according to Paul Bracken, who teaches management and political science at Yale.

Bracken is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on several Department of Defense advisory boards, and is the author, most recently, of “The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics” (Times Books, 2012). The following is an edited version of an email interview with him. (more…)

How the World’s Saltiest Pond gets its Salt

By Guest PostFebruary 15, 2013Environmentboston university, brown university, chloride bearing salts, closed basins, dark streaks, data, david marchant, dead sea, deliquescence, don juan pond, dry valleys, flowing water, frozen desert, geologists, groundwater, high salt content, jay dickson, jim head, joseph levy, mars, mcmurdo dry valleys, moisture, oregon state, permafrost layer, present day mars, red planet, relative humidity, salinity of antarctica, salt, saltiest pond, snow, soil, temperature, time lapse photography, water tracks, world

Jay Dickson and Jim Head have gathered time-lapse photography and other data about the sustained salinity of Antarctica’s Don Juan Pond, the most saline natural body of water on earth. Their findings, published online in Scientific Reports, suggest that such ponds could be possible on Mars.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Antarctica’s Don Juan Pond might be the unlikeliest body of water on Earth. Situated in the frigid McMurdo Dry Valleys, only the pond’s high salt content — by far the highest of any body of water on the planet — keeps it from freezing into oblivion. (more…)

Targeted Micro-Bubbles Detect Artery Inflammation, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostJanuary 1, 2013Healthanimals, arterial inflammation, artery inflammation, cardio exercise, cause of death, heart disease, human clinical trials, humans, isabelle masseau, leading, michael davis, pigs, plaque, risk for strokes, targeted micro bubbles, ultrasound, university of missouri, world

Procedure done in pigs could potentially detect heart disease early in humans

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Heart disease is a leading cause of death throughout the world. Doctors say that it is important to detect heart disease early before it becomes too serious. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found a way that they believe could help detect heart disease before it progresses too far as well as identify patients who are at risk for strokes.

In a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Isabelle Masseau, an assistant teaching professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, found that she could use targeted micro-bubbles to detect artery inflammation in pigs. She says that this procedure may help detect patients with heart disease or who are at risk for strokes before those ailments become too serious by monitoring artery inflammation, as that is an early warning sign of health problems. She says this procedure may also help monitor the effectiveness of artery inflammation treatments. (more…)