Technology – Page 656 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

In last great age of warmth, CO2 at work — but hardly alone

Warming patterns during Earth’s last period of prolonged global warmth differed dramatically from modern temperature patterns, according to new research by a Yale University scientist and colleagues. Cloud feedbacks, ocean mixing, or other dynamic factors must have played a greater role in Pliocene warming than commonly recognized, the scientists argue, and these must be accounted for in order to make meaningful predictions about Earth’s future climate. (more…)

elicit Helps Improve Your Website’s Searchability

Microsoft BizSpark startup uses Windows Azure to put keyword search control into the hands of humans rather than algorithms.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 3, 2013 — One of the biggest fears for website developers is that their visitors click an internal search button on the site, can’t find what they’re looking for and leave frustrated. Because every failed search can mean a lost opportunity for business owners, elicit was founded to help people find what they are looking for within a website.

The founders of elicit are all serial entrepreneurs who met when working together at various startups. Brothers Eric and Adam Heneghan are the co-founders of Giant Step, a digital marketing firm; Jeff Froom is an application and interaction developer; and Chip Aubry is a software architecture expert. While working at an interactive marketing agency, they formed the idea for elicit based on feedback from customers. (more…)

150 Years of Mexican, Mexican American History Now Online

The UA Libraries has just made 150 years of regionally published newspapers documenting the voice of Mexican and Mexican American communities digitally available for the first time

A new digital collection at the University of Arizona Libraries makes accessible more than 150 years of news coverage documenting the voice of the Mexican and Mexican American community. (more…)

Youth with diabetes at greater risk following transition from pediatric to adult care

Type 1 diabetes is a condition in which the body does not produce insulin and cannot convert sugar, starches and other food into energy. Generally diagnosed during childhood or adolescence, the disease requires lifelong access to medical care and intensive daily self-management.
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Glaciers Contribute Significant Iron to North Atlantic Ocean

All living organisms rely on iron as an essential nutrient. In the ocean, iron’s abundance or scarcity means all the difference as it fuels the growth of plankton, the base of the ocean’s food web. (more…)

The origins of laughter

We know the benefits of laughter on health. But why do we laugh? What are the evolutionary origins of laughter and humour? Steven Légaré has asked these questions and has made them the subject of his master’s thesis, which he recently submitted to the Université de Montréal’s Department of Anthropology.

“Science provides few answers to these questions other than in psychology and neuroscience. From the perspective of anthropology, laughter and humour are often overlooked. However, it is a serious subject,” says the recent graduate. (more…)

Foundations of Carbon-Based Life Leave Little Room for Error

Life as we know it is based upon the elements of carbon and oxygen. Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, is looking at the conditions necessary to the formation of those two elements in the universe. They’ve found that when it comes to supporting life, the universe leaves very little margin for error.

Both carbon and oxygen are produced when helium burns inside of giant red stars. Carbon-12, an essential element we’re all made of, can only form when three alpha particles, or helium-4 nuclei, combine in a very specific way. The key to formation is an excited state of carbon-12 known as the Hoyle state, and it has a very specific energy – measured at 379 keV (or 379,000 electron volts) above the energy of three alpha particles. Oxygen is produced by the combination of another alpha particle and carbon. (more…)

CU study provides new evidence ancient asteroid caused global firestorm on Earth

A new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth’s species, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study. (more…)