March 27, 2008, 9:14 PM CT

Dramatic developments at Kilauea Volcano

Explosive eruptions and noxious gas emissions at Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii this week have prompted researchers to work around the clock to understand what will happen next and how to keep the public out of harms way.

Researchers are monitoring gas emissions and seismic activity at Kilauea, which on March 19 experienced its first explosive eruption since 1924. The volcano is also emitting sulfur dioxide at toxic levels.

The National Park Service has closed Crater Rim Drive through the south caldera area until further notice. The U.S. Geological Survey is issuing frequent updates, which can be accessed at http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/.

Sulfur dioxide emissions at the volcanos summit have increased to a rate that is likely to be hazardous for areas downwind of Halema'uma'u crater. Future explosions from Halema'uma'u Crater are possible.

This historic activity has created new hazards that did not exist before explosive eruptions as well as toxic sulfur dioxide emissions in the middle of a national park, said U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program Coordinator John Eichelberger. Our job is to give emergency responders and the civil defense community the very best information we can provide about what the volcano is doing and what it is likely to do in the future......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

March 26, 2008, 10:10 PM CT

New Organic Molecule in Space

The « Large Molecule Heimat » is a very dense, hot gas clump within the star forming region Sagittarius B2. In this source of only 0,3 light-year diameter, which is heated by a deeply embedded newly formed star, most of the interstellar molecules known to date have been found, including the most complex ones such as ethyl alcohol, formaldehyde, formic acid, acetic acid, glycol aldehyde (a basic sugar), and ethylene glycol.

Starting from 1965, more than 140 molecular species have been detected in space, in interstellar clouds as well as in circumstellar envelopes. A large fraction of these molecules is organic or carbon-based. A lot of attention is given to the quest for so-called "bio"-molecules, particularly interstellar amino acids. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins and therefore key ingredients for the origin of life, have been found in meteorites on Earth, but still not in interstellar space.

The simplest amino acid, glycine (NH2CH2COOH), has long been searched for in the interstellar medium but has so far not been unambiguously detected. Since the search for glycine has turned out to be extremely difficult, a chemically related molecule was searched for, amino acetonitrile (NH2CH2CN), probably a direct precursor of glycine.

The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn selected the "Large Molecule Heimat", as the source has been named by experts, and investigated a dense forest of 3700 spectral lines from complex molecules with the IRAM 30-metre telescope in Spain. Atoms and molecules emit light at very specific frequencies, which appear as characteristic lines in the radiation spectrum. By analyzing these spectral lines, astronomers can determine the chemical composition of cosmic clouds. The more complex a molecule is, the more possibilities it has to radiate its internal energy. This is the reason why complex molecules emit a number of spectral lines, which are very weak and therefore difficult to identify in the "line jungle"......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

March 25, 2008, 8:10 PM CT

Antarctic ice shelf disintegrating

Satellite imagery from the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center shows a portion of Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of the continent.

While the area of collapse involves 160 square miles at present, a large part of the 5,000-square-mile Wilkins Ice Shelf is now supported only by a narrow strip of ice between two islands, said CU-Boulder's Ted Scambos, lead scientist at NSIDC. "If there is a little bit more retreat, this last 'ice buttress' could collapse and we'd likely lose about half the total ice shelf area in the next few years".

In the past 50 years, the western Antarctic Peninsula has experienced the biggest temperature increase on Earth, rising by 0.9 degree F per decade. "We believe the Wilkins has been in place for at least a few hundred years, but warm air and exposure to ocean waves are causing a breakup," said Scambos, who first spotted the disintegration activity in March.

Satellite images indicate the Wilkins began its collapse on Feb. 28. Data revealed that a large iceberg, measuring 25.5 by 1.5 miles, fell away from the ice shelf's southwestern front, triggering a runaway disintegration of 220 square miles of the shelf interior. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad sheet of permanent floating ice on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula roughly 1,000 miles south of South America......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

March 24, 2008, 8:32 PM CT

New findings from Tibetan Plateau suggest uplift occurred in stages

The vast Tibetan Plateau--the world's highest and largest plateau, bordered by the world's highest mountains--has long challenged geologists trying to understand how and when the region rose to such spectacular heights. New evidence from an eight-year study by U.S. and Chinese scientists indicates that the plateau rose in stages, with uplift occurring first in the central plateau and later in regions to the north and south.

"The middle part of the plateau was uplifted first at least 40 million years ago, while the Himalayan Range in the south and also the mountains to the north were uplifted significantly later," said Xixi Zhao, a research scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The team found marine fossils suggesting that the now lofty Himalayas remained below sea level at a time when the central plateau was already at or near its modern elevation, Zhao said. The average elevation of the plateau today is more than 4,500 meters (14,850 feet).

The scientists published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (online the week of March 24 and later in print). Zhao, who is affiliated with the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UCSC, is the second author of the paper. First author Chengshan Wang of the China University of Geosciences in Beijing has been collaborating with Zhao and other UCSC scientists since 1996......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

March 24, 2008, 8:04 PM CT

Students making the grade online, in class

The lives of todays college students have always included computers and the Internet. That technology now has moved from the ether into instruction.

A technical report from a University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance researcher finds that students in a hybrid class that incorporated instructional technology with in-class lectures scored a letter-grade higher on average than their counterparts who took the same class in a more traditional format.

Brian McFarlin measured the student involvement and academic performance of a traditional classKinesiology 3306from fall 2004 to fall 2005. He compared those measurements with those of students in the hybrid class, offered as an alternative from summer 2006 to fall 2007.

One reason we offered the hybrid class in the first place was because students said they wanted it, said McFarlin, a researcher and assistant professor. Their formal evaluations of the class indicated the traditional class didnt take advantage of instructional technologies available, and that these technologies could give them additional help and access to course material outside of class time.

Hybrid classes are growing in popularity and practicality for students and professors, at UH and on campuses across the country, because of the presentation of material and the accessibility and flexibility to students. For example, an upper-level business law and ethics class in the UH Bauer College of Business reaches more than 1,000 students each academic year because of its flexible, hybrid offerings......... Posted by: Kevin      Read more         Source

March 21, 2008, 8:52 PM CT

Extra-curricular activities to prevent juvenile delinquency?

The study, conducted by Northeastern University researchers, looked separately at delinquency and risky behaviors for both young men and young women in a suburban high school and how involvement in outside activities influenced those behaviors. The findings provided interesting, and, in some cases, surprising results.

While they found that involvement in extra-curricular activities definitely seemed to minimize the risky behaviors, there seemed to be a tipping point where too much participation had a counter-effect. They also found that nontraditional activities for each gender (such as sports for girls and church for boys) provided a greater protection from delinquency. The researchers believe that extracurricular involvement helps deter delinquency by reducing unstructured time, providing incentives to conform, and creating avenues for attachments with other pro-social peers and adults.

Young people who participate in sports and both community and church activities report significantly less serious delinquency as well as less problem drinking and risky sexual behavior, writes co-author Sean P. Varano, Ph.D. A healthy and measured dose of involvement in extracurricular activities is good for young people......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

March 21, 2008, 8:43 PM CT

Extra-curricular activities to prevent juvenile delinquency?

The study, conducted by Northeastern University researchers, looked separately at delinquency and risky behaviors for both young men and young women in a suburban high school and how involvement in outside activities influenced those behaviors. The findings provided interesting, and, in some cases, surprising results.

While they found that involvement in extra-curricular activities definitely seemed to minimize the risky behaviors, there seemed to be a tipping point where too much participation had a counter-effect. They also found that nontraditional activities for each gender (such as sports for girls and church for boys) provided a greater protection from delinquency. The researchers believe that extracurricular involvement helps deter delinquency by reducing unstructured time, providing incentives to conform, and creating avenues for attachments with other pro-social peers and adults.

Young people who participate in sports and both community and church activities report significantly less serious delinquency as well as less problem drinking and risky sexual behavior, writes co-author Sean P. Varano, Ph.D. A healthy and measured dose of involvement in extracurricular activities is good for young people......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

March 20, 2008, 8:16 PM CT

Domestication of the donkey

An international group of researchers, led by Fiona Marshall, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has found evidence for the earliest transport use of the donkey and the early phases of donkey domestication, suggesting the process of domestication may have been slower and less linear than previously thought.

Based on a study of 10 donkey skeletons from three graves dedicated to donkeys in the funerary complex of one of the first Pharaohs at Abydos, Egypt, the team, led by Marshall and Stine Rossel of the University of Copenhagen, observed that donkeys around 5,000 years ago were in an early phase of domestication. They looked like wild animals but displayed joint wear that showed that they were used as domestic animals.

"Genetic research has suggested African origins for the donkey," said Marshall. "But coming up with an exact time and location for domestication is difficult because signs of early domestication can be hard to see. Our findings show that traces of human management can indicate domestication before skeletal or even genetic changes."

The previously unpublished research was presented in "Domestication of the Donkey: New Data on Timing, Process and Indicators" in the March 10 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences......... Posted by: William      Read more         Source

March 18, 2008, 8:47 PM CT

Elevated CO2 From Manmade Emissions

Using data from the SCIAMACHY instrument aboard ESA's Envisat environmental satellite, researchers have for the first time detected regionally elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide - the most important greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming - originating from manmade emissions.

More than 30 billion tonnes of extra carbon dioxide (CO2) is released into the atmosphere annually by human activities, mainly through the burning of fossil fuels.

As per the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this increase is predicted to result in a warmer climate with rising sea levels and an increase of extreme weather conditions. Predicting future atmospheric CO2 levels requires an increase in our understanding of carbon fluxes.

Dr Michael Buchwitz from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen in Gera number of and colleagues detected the relatively weak atmospheric CO2 signal arising from regional 'anthropogenic', or manmade, CO2 emissions over Europe by processing and analysing SCIAMACHY data from 2003 to 2005.

As illustrated in the image, the findings show an extended plume over Europe's most populated area, the region from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Frankfurt, Gera number of......... Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

March 18, 2008, 8:44 PM CT

Tiny Torrents

Engineers harnessing the same physical property that drives silent household air purifiers have created a miniaturized device that is now ready for testing as a silent, ultra-thin, low-power and low maintenance cooling system for laptop computers and other electronic devices.

The compact, solid-state fan, developed with support from NSF's Small Business Innovation Research program, is the most powerful and energy efficient fan of its size. It produces three times the flow rate of a typical small mechanical fan and is one-fourth the size.

Dan Schlitz and Vishal Singhal of Thorrn Micro Technologies, Inc., of Marietta, Ga. will present their RSD5 solid-state fan at the 24th Annual Semiconductor Thermal Measurement, Modeling and Management Symposium (Semi-Therm) in San Jose, Calif., on March 17, 2008. The device is the culmination of six years of research that began while the scientists were NSF-supported graduate students at Purdue University.

"The RSD5 is one of the most significant advancements in electronics cooling since heat pipes. It could change the cooling paradigm for mobile electronics," said Singhal.

The RSD5 incorporates a series of live wires that generate a micro-scale plasma (an ion-rich gas that has free electrons that conduct electricity). The wires lie within un-charged conducting plates that are contoured into half-cylindrical shape to partially envelop the wires......... Posted by: Kevin      Read more         Source