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Russia Meteor Not Linked to Asteroid Flyby

New information provided by a worldwide network of sensors has allowed scientists to refine their estimates for the size of the object that entered that atmosphere and disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia, at 7:20:26 p.m. PST, or 10:20:26 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (3:20:26 UTC on Feb. 15).

The estimated size of the object, prior to entering Earth’s atmosphere, has been revised upward from 49 feet (15 meters) to 55 feet (17 meters), and its estimated mass has increased from 7,000 to 10,000 tons. Also, the estimate for energy released during the event has increased by 30 kilotons to nearly 500 kilotons of energy released. These new estimates were generated using new data that had been collected by five additional infrasound stations located around the world – the first recording of the event being in Alaska, over 6,500 kilometers away from Chelyabinsk. The infrasound data indicates that the event, from atmospheric entry to the meteor’s airborne disintegration took 32.5 seconds. The calculations using the infrasound data were performed by Peter Brown at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. (more…)

Fungi, Fungi Everywhere

New research shows fungi living beneath the seafloor are widespread

Fungi living beneath the seafloor are widespread in ocean environments around the world, according to a new paper by scientists at the University of Delaware and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“They’re ubiquitous,” said co-author Jennifer Biddle, assistant professor of marine biosciences at UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. “They are everywhere.” (more…)

Positive Online Comments Can Help Blunt Cyberbullying

Want to stop cyberbullying on Facebook? Try using … Facebook.

A recently published study by a team of Michigan State University researchers found that one effective way of fighting cyberbullying is by using the medium where it tends to flourish. The key, said the researchers: Make your anti-cyberbullying messages positive in nature. (more…)

Lungs of the Planet Reveal Their True Sensitivity to Global Warming

Tropical rainforests are often called the “lungs of the planet” because they generally draw in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen.

But the amount of carbon dioxide that rainforests absorb, or produce, varies hugely with year-to-year variations in the climate.

In a paper published online (Feb 6 2013) by the journal Nature, a team of climate scientists from the University of Exeter, the Met Office-Hadley Centre and the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, has shown that these variations reveal how vulnerable the rainforest is to climate change. (more…)

How the World’s Saltiest Pond gets its Salt

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…)

Earthquakes, Glue and Grappling Hooks: Scientists Dissect the Movement of Bacteria

A team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has discovered that microscopic bacteria have a lot in common with earthquakes — when it comes to their jolting movements.

In a new study published in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists also report that a molecular “glue” produced by the bacteria to help them adhere to surfaces also acts as a sort of transportation lubricant, helping them move and organize into rudimentary social structures. These discoveries, they say, could lead to new ways to combat harmful microbes in the long term. (more…)

Big Data? No Biggie. Microsoft Partners Have Your Business Covered

Microsoft partners Infusion, BlueGranite and Neudesic weigh in on how they use big data to shape their business strategy.

REDMOND, Wash. – Feb. 13, 2013 – IT departments are being overrun with big data – gigabytes, terabytes, petabytes of data – that is racing through their servers, often untamed and uncontrolled, with more data crowding onto the IT network every day, every hour.

While businesses can choose to keep all this data penned up, they are missing an opportunity to mine valuable business intelligence from their big data unless they harness it and analyze the information they have corralled, using that insight to gain a competitive edge. While a portion of this big data is well-organized information on products and finances, much of it is unstructured, from social media posts and photos to disparate research findings and customer feedback. (more…)