Background Science recently did a brief lay review of the race to find evidence for the dark matter that comprises roughly 25 percent of the mass-energy density of the Universe. For perspective, keep in mind that dark energy allegedly accounts for 70 percent of the mass-energy density of the Universe. The matter and energy we [...]
Categories: Science
Tagged: CoGeNT, Coherent Germanium Neutrino Technology, DAMA, Elena Aprile, gravity, Juan Collar, mass-energy density, Possible Sighting of Dark Matter Fires Up Search and Tempers, Rita Bernabei, weakly interacting massive particles, WIMPs, XENON, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
- Published:
- 28 June 2011 – 09:24
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Predicting short-term seasonal characteristics A correlation study found that: The extent of snow cover over Eurasia during autumn has been shown to be influential in shaping atmospheric circulation over the Northern Hemisphere the following winter via the Arctic Oscillation (AO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and the Pacific/North American (PNA) teleconnections. Regions of Eurasian snow cover [...]
Categories: Climate,Science
Tagged: Emily R. Kutney, Northern Eurasian snowpack could be an important predictor of winter weather in U. S., Regions of autumn Eurasian snow cover and associations with North American winter temperatures, Thomas L. Mote, weather prediction, winter temperatures
- Published:
- 26 June 2011 – 04:41
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
An environmentally important study funded by charitable foundations Barbara Block and colleagues recently published an important paper in Nature: Tagging of Pacific Predators, a field programme of the Census of Marine Life, deployed 4,306 tags on 23 species in the North Pacific Ocean, resulting in a tracking data set of unprecedented scale and species diversity [...]
Categories: Environment,Science
Tagged: A. J. Winship, A. Swithenbank, A.-L. Harrison, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, B. A. Block, B. R. Mate, California Current, Census of Marine Life, D. G. Foley, D. P. Costa, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, E. L. Hazen, Future of Marine Animal Populations, G. A. Breed, G. L. Shillinger, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, H. Dewar, I. D. Jonsen, J. E. Ganong, K. M. Schaefer, M. Castleton, M. J. Weise, Marine Life JIP-OPG, NOAA, North Pacific Transition Zone, Office of Naval Research, Pacific’s California Current Likened to Africa’s Serengeti Plain, R. W. Henry, Randy Kochevar, S. A. Shaffer, S. J. Bograd, S. J. Jorgensen, S. R. Benson, Tagging of Pacific Predators, Terry Collins, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation, Tim Stephens, Tracking apex marine predator movements in a dynamic ocean
- Published:
- 24 June 2011 – 18:35
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Only fifty people were examined, however Alok Jha, writing for the Guardian, noticed an interesting tidbit in the science journal, Nature, about research into the brain effects of urbanization as compared to those of rural living. Jha reported that: The brains of people living in cities operate differently from those in rural areas, according to [...]
Categories: Neuroscience,Public Health,Science
Tagged: amygdala, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, anxiety, brain, cingulate cortex, City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress processing in humans, Fabian Streit, fear, Florian Lederbogen, Heike Tost, hyper-vigilance, Jens C. Pruessner, Leila Haddad, Marcella Rietschel, Michael Deuschle, Peter Kirsch, Philipp Schuch, Stefan Wüst
- Published:
- 22 June 2011 – 16:25
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Color-coded to help fire-fighters know where to go Courtesy of NASA: The Wallow fire began May 29, 2011 in the Bear Wallow Wilderness area located in eastern Arizona. High winds and low humidity meant that by June 14, 2011 the Wallow Fire became Arizona’s largest wildfire to date with over 487,016 acres burned. The Landsat [...]
Categories: Environment,Science
Tagged: false-color, forest, Landsat 5 Satellite Helps Emergency Managers Fight Largest Fire in Arizona History., Rob Gutro, Wallow, wildfire
- Published:
- 18 June 2011 – 12:18
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Not the kind of thing that one would necessarily anticipate George Aldridge and colleagues reported that: As mid-summer temperatures have warmed, we found that a montane meadow ecosystem in the southern Rocky Mountains of the United States exhibits a trend toward a bimodal distribution of flower abundance, characterized by a mid-season reduction in total flower [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, blooming, David W. Inouye, ecology, Emergence of a mid-season period of low floral resources in a montane meadow ecosystem associated with climate change, flower, George Aldridge, Jessica R. K. Forrest, pollinator, Rockies, Rocky Mountains, summer, warming, William A. Barr
- Published:
- 17 June 2011 – 12:32
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Becoming a galactic extrovert takes time Galaxy ESO 546-G34 was first observed some twenty years ago. A recent analysis, using new techniques, by astrophysicist Lars Mattsson and colleagues indicates that: “Our analysis shows that while a large, mature galaxy like our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is composed of around 15-20 percent gas, this faint [...]
Categories: Science
Tagged: ESO 546−G34: the most-metal-poor, evolution, heavy elements, Lars Mattsson, Leonid S. Pilyugin, light elements, low surface brightness galaxy?, Nils Bergvall, shine, time, Universe
- Published:
- 15 June 2011 – 16:02
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Courtesy of the National Science Foundation and the European Commission The National Science Foundation and the European Commission have funded a program that supports thirty “critical zone observatories” around the world. The University of Sheffield explains: In some parts of the world, losses due to erosion are greatly outstripping the natural rate of soil formation [...]
Categories: Agriculture,Environment,Science
Tagged: critical zone observatories, EC, erosion, European Commission, formation, National Science Foundation, NSF, Planet's soils are under threat warns University academic, Save our soils, Shemina Davis, soils, Steve Banwart
- Published:
- 11 June 2011 – 07:29
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
A unique strain of Mycobacterium leprae has been found in U.S. armadillos and patients Mycobacterium leprae causes leprosy. For those of us who live or lived in armadillo country, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine bears interesting news: Wild armadillos and many patients with leprosy in the southern United States are infected [...]
Categories: Medicine,Public Health,Science
Tagged: Adamandia Kapopoulou, Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, David M. Scollard, Jacques Rougemont, Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, Mycobacterium leprae, Philippe Busso, Probable Zoonotic Leprosy in the Southern United States, Pushpendra Singh, Rahul Sharma, Richard W. Truman, Stewart T. Cole, Sylvain Brisse, Thomas P. Gillis, Yes You Can Get Leprosy from an Armadillo
- Published:
- 10 June 2011 – 10:03
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Ordinarily, American political sex scandals are boring, given the wide swath that sexuality cuts through our lives, but — In Anthony Weiner’s case, what was he thinking? In scattering sexually-oriented photographs of himself across cyberspace, didn’t it occur to him that someone might take offense and ultimately sabotage his career? Face to face sexual peccadillos [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Anthony Weiner, Congress, dishonor, judgment, lesson, pecadillo, politician, representative, scandal, sexual, trust
- Published:
- 9 June 2011 – 10:44
- Author:
- By BrainiYak