Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
This week's featured story comes from Australian Broadcasting Corporation via Discovery News.
Biggest Full Moon in Decades to Appear This Weekend
Moon gazers are in for a treat this weekend when the full moon will appear 14 percent bigger..Fri Mar 18, 2011 08:47 AM ET
Content provided by Carl Holm
Romantics, werewolves and other moon gazers are in for a treat this weekend as they witness the biggest full moon seen in nearly 20 years.
But experts are discounting predictions of earthquakes associated with the event.
The moon's orbit is elliptical, and as it follows its path, one side of the ellipse, known as perigee, passes about 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) closer than the on the other side -- apogee.
A perigee full moon appear around 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than an apogee full moon.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this Space!
ROV 18: Japan Nuclear Disaster
by middleagedhousewife
Resveratrol Combined with Acetyl Can Protect Against Radiation
by Dry Observer
I include all science diaries in this list, even the bad ones.
Japan's Airborne Radiation Is Stabilizing to Safe Levels
by vets74
The Daily Bucket - Pounding Rain Edition
by enhydra lutris
Inconvenient Truth of the "Inconvenient Truth: Wind Energy Has Killed More Americans Than Nuclear"
by demsd
This week in science
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
Watch this Space!
NASA Television on YouTube: On This Week @ NASA...
Watch Expedition 25 Land Safely, Celebrate Messenger's Orbit Around Mercury, Check out NASA's New Website Honoring Women, Meetup at the Tweetup with a Former Space Station Resident, Do the Logo-Motion, Meet Robonaut 2, and Mark the Anniversaries of Gemini 3 and STS-76.
Fora TV on YouTube: Why Was Darwin's 'Origin of Species' So Popular?
The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik discusses how Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" was able to find such a wide audience of mainstream readers. Gopnik argues that much of the book's effectiveness comes from Darwin's talent for clear, accessible writing that even readers from non-scientific backgrounds could understand.
Fora TV on YouTube: Sexually Promiscuous? Blame It On Anatomy
British psychologist Glenn Wilson asserts that evidence of promiscuity in primates can be determined anatomically. Wilson compares the genital size and sexual practices of several primate species, including orangutans and chimpanzees with that of humans. Wilson argues that like most primates, "humans are not naturally monogamous."
Astronomy/Space
University of Western Ontario (Canada) via Science Daily: Russian Lunar Rover Found: 37-Year-Old Space Mystery Solved
Mar. 17, 2010
A researcher from The University of Western Ontario has helped solve a 37-year old space mystery using lunar images released March 15 by NASA and maps from his own atlas of the moon.
Phil Stooke, a professor cross appointed to Western's Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Geography, published a reference book on lunar exploration in 2007 entitled, "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration."
On March 15, images and data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) were posted. The LRO, scheduled for a one year exploration mission about 31 miles above the lunar surface, will produce a comprehensive map, search for resources and potential safe landing sites and measure lunar temperatures and radiation levels.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
University of Michigan: First spacecraft to orbit Mercury carries U-Michigan device
March 14, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—NASA's MESSENGER vehicle will begin to orbit the planet Mercury on March 17, and continue to orbit the environmentally hostile planet every 12 hours for the duration of its mission.
An onboard device dubbed FIPS (Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer), designed and built at the University of Michigan will take atmospheric measurements.
"March 17 will be the culmination of decades of aspirations and dreams for the U-M FIPS team," said team leader Thomas Zurbuchen, professor in the departments of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science and Aerospace Engineering at the College of Engineering. "FIPS will be the first plasma instrument to explore the plasmas in Mercury's space environment.
Evolution/Paleontology
University of Cincinatti via physorg.com: Fossils record ancient migrations and trilobite orgies
March 16, 2011
Few specimens inspire greater thrills among fossil collectors than a complete trilobite. These ancient arthropods – relatives of lobsters, spiders and insects – went extinct more than 250 million years ago, but are sometimes found in beautifully preserved condition. In rare instances, an entire population of trilobites is found fossilized together. Carlton E. Brett finds evidence for ancient environment and behavior in these mass graves.
Brett, University of Cincinnati professor of geology, will present his findings March 20 at the Geological Society of America regional meeting in Pittsburgh, in a paper co-authored with Adrian Kin of Poland's Institute of Geological Sciences at Jagiellonian University, and Brenda Hunda of the Cincinnati Museum Center.
In a quest that has taken him from Oklahoma to Morocco and Poland, Brett has analyzed multiple examples of mass trilobite burial. A smothering death by tons of hurricane-generated storm sediment was so rapid that the trilobites are preserved in life position. These geologic "snapshots" record behavior in much the way that ancient Roman life was recorded at Pompeii by volcanic ash.
Agence France Presse via physorg.com: Zed's dead: LA museum unearths ice-age mammoth skull
March 18, 2011
by Michael Thurston
Excited archeologists in California are rubbing their hands: after three years' back-breaking work they are finally, painstakingly revealing the face of Zed, the ice age mammoth.
Zed is the prize find in a fossil treasure trove unexpectedly unearthed on a Los Angeles building site in 2006, when workmen digging for a new parking lot stumbled on the prehistoric beast's skull.
"The Zed deposit was actually found by a bulldozer, by a piece of heavy equipment that took off the top six inches of his skull," said Trevor Valle of the Page Museum, which has meticulously cleaned some 80 percent of Zed's bones.
"But at least they stopped before they went any further. It was better to hit a somewhat simpler area of the head than say take out the teeth or the tusks," added Valle, scraping and cleaning away at the massive head bone.
For more info, click on
PROJECT 23: NEW DISCOVERIES AT RANCHO LA BREA.
This isn't the first time bones have been discovered at Rancho La Brea during construction. In fact, the excavation for the Page Museum itself uncovered a complete saber-toothed cat skeleton. The previous expansion of the L.A. County Museum of Art stumbled across the bones that had been previously exhumed from the lake pit, which was originally an open pit mine for tar, and then dumped. I worked on salvaging the bones from that episode. That's on top of my studying the fossil snails and clams of another deposit at the site.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Biodiversity
Michigan State University: Sweet sixteen science SmackDown!
March 15, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University is launching its own version of March Madness – with a scientific twist.
The Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror,which will run in conjunction with the NCAA basketball tournament, will see a veritable sweet sixteen of the worst terrestrial invasive species vie to become national champion. The stink bug will attempt to exterminate the gypsy moth; the giant hogweed will try to make bacon of the feral swine; and online voters will advance the winners through the brackets to decide an overall winner.
The novel approach to raising awareness about invasive species was created by students in the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism’s Great Lakes Echo program. The program is designed to promote innovation in environmental news coverage related to the Great Lakes region, and the SmackDown is about as innovative as it gets, said Alice Rossignol, co-coordinator and graduate student from Corvallis, Ore.
“The idea was sparked when we jokingly began debating who would win a battle between a spaceman and a caveman,” she said. “The conversation eventually evolved to invasive species, and voila, the launch of the SmackDown was born.”
Biotechnology/Health
University of Michigan: Researchers connect a specific protein to head and neck cancers
March 16, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The discovery that a certain protein is over-expressed in patients with oral cancer may give new treatment hope to people suffering from the particularly aggressive, localized forms of head and neck cancer.
Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry found that when they inhibited the expression of that protein, called SIRT3 or Sirtuin-3, in oral cancer cells in a petri dish, the cells did not proliferate and more of them died.
Further, when researchers suppressed the protein in the cancer cells and combined that with radiation or chemotherapy treatment, the prohibitive effect on cancer cells was even greater, said Yvonne Kapila, associate professor of dentistry and lead author of the study.
Michigan State University: USDA grant to study how E. coli causes foodborne illness
March 14, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University has received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop strategies to reduce the amount of E. coli released by cattle, and in effect, decrease the number of foodborne illness in humans.
The project, which is being led by Shannon Manning, molecular biologist and epidemiologist in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at MSU, will work to reduce cattle’s fecal “shedding” of shiga toxin-producing E. coli.
“These infections are a national concern, particularly during outbreaks when public health agencies are rapidly trying to identify the sources to prevent additional infections,” said Manning, whose work is funded in part by MSU AgBioResearch. “The data generated through this project will aid in the development of STEC control methods that can be used to improve food safety.”
STEC is a leading cause of foodborne and waterborne infections, and most outbreaks are caused by contact with fecal material from cattle and other ruminant animals. However, little is known about the factors that impact shedding from these animals.
University of Wisconsin: Research Team Finds Reduction in Asthma Attacks Tied to Seasonal Allergies
Madison, Wisconsin - Seasonal asthma attacks in inner-city children at risk were eliminated when the youngsters took a medication that knocks out the key molecule involved in allergies, the antibody IgE.
A national team of clinical researchers led by William Busse, MD, of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health also found that the treatment decreased milder year-round asthma symptoms among the young people, who were allergic and lived in inner cities of the United States, a very high risk group of patients.
"Although we knew that respiratory viruses and allergies work together, we were surprised, and pleased, to learn that if you eliminate a key component to allergic reactions - the antibody IgE - you can prevent seasonal asthma attacks almost completely," says Busse, a professor of medicine. "Somehow allergies and the virus that causes the common cold have the ability to join together and become key players in these attacks."
Climate/Environment
University of Michigan: Reframing climate change: It's as much cultural as scientific
March 14, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—While debate on climate change often strikes a caustic tone, the real impediment to meaningful dialogue is that the two sides often talk past each other in what amounts to a "logic schism," says a University of Michigan researcher.
"In a logic schism, a contest emerges in which opposing sides are debating different issues, seeking only information that supports their position and disconfirms their opponents' arguments," said Andy Hoffman, the Holcim (U.S.) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at U-M's Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment. "Each side views the other with suspicion, even demonizing the other, leading to a strong resistance to any form of engagement, much less negotiation and concession."
In a new study in this month's issue of the journal Organization & Environment, Hoffman provides a descriptive analysis of the cultural and social landscape of the climate change debate in the United States, examining the presence of ideological and cultural influences on both the definition of the problem and consideration of solutions.
This is a follow up to last week's
It's all in a name: 'Global warming' versus 'climate change' from the University of Michigan.
Geology
Watch this space!
Discovery News: No Link Between 'Super Moon' and Earthquakes
The 'maximal perigee' tonight has only a minimal effect on seismic activity and cannot be linked with last week's earthquakes in Japan.
Fri Mar 18, 2011 10:50 PM ET
Content provided by Rachel Rice
Despite opinions being dispersed over the Internet that the 'super moon' will lead to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions, geologist Bill Burton with the US Geological Survey says that this is unlikely.
"There are just too many factors that go into seismic activity to make that statement," Burton told Discovery News. "I think you'd be hard pressed to see a difference in tectonic activity during different lunar phases."
Severe natural disasters such as the earthquake off the coast of Japan last week can raise questions about all of the factors involved. Research geophysicist Malcom Johnston with the USGS says that blaming such events on the moon's orbit is not a new idea.
"This idea of blaming natural disasters on the phases of the moon goes way back to the Greeks. It has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years," Johnston said.
Psychology/Behavior
Michigan State University: Violence in advertising becoming a ‘disturbing’ trend
March 18, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A punch. A kick. A hit in the head with a can of soda. It’s not a Three Stooges film but rather the latest trend in advertising, a trend a Michigan State University professor calls “disturbing.”
Advertising professor Nora Rifon recently served as guest editor of the latest edition of the Journal of Advertising which was devoted to advertising and its connection to violence and abuse. The special edition includes nine articles from international researchers on topics ranging from the impact of violence against women in advertisements to potential effects of commercial TV violence on children.
While violence in the media has long been studied, Rifon said this journal edition specifically shows connections between advertising and marketing, and violence – links that have not been shown before.
Several of the published studies indicate that parents tend to underestimate the impact violent ads can have on their children.
Wayne State University: Chasing the pot of gold: WSU study shows classifying gambling subtypes does not predict treatment outcomes
March 16, 2011
DETROIT - Approximately two million adults in the United States meet criteria for pathological gambling, and another four to six million are considered problem gamblers, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. A study by researchers at Wayne State University reveals that gambling addiction treatment is not one-size-fits-all, but it is difficult to predict which style of treatment is best for the various forms of gambling addiction.
According to David M. Ledgerwood, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University, there may be up to three different subtypes of people with serious gambling problems. One group, emotionally vulnerable (EV) gamblers, had higher psychiatric and gambling severity and were more likely to have a parent with psychiatric problems as compared to another subtype, behaviorally conditioned (BC) gamblers. BC gamblers are thought to start gambling because they get caught up in elements of reward associated with the game, rather than to soothe emotional problems.
"In addition, we found that antisocial impulsive (AI) gamblers also had elevated gambling and psychiatric severity when compared to BC gamblers," said Ledgerwood. "This group was most likely to have antisocial personality disorders, a history of substance abuse treatment, and a parent with substance abuse or gambling problems."
Archeology/Anthropology
University of Colorado at Boulder via physorg.com: Neanderthals were nifty at controlling fire: study
March 14, 2011
A new study involving the University of Colorado Boulder shows clear evidence of the continuous control of fire by Neanderthals in Europe dating back roughly 400,000 years, yet another indication that they weren't dimwitted brutes as often portrayed.
The conclusion comes from the study of scores of ancient archaeological research sites in Europe that show convincing evidence of long-term fire control by Neanderthals, said Paola Villa, a curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Villa co-authored a paper on the new study with Professor Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University in the Netherlands.
"Until now, many scientists have thought Neanderthals had some fires but did not have continuous use of fire," said Villa. "We were not expecting to find a record of so many Neanderthal sites exhibiting such good evidence of the sustained use of fire over time."
Wellcome Trust via physorg.com: Ancient Egypt and a pioneer of palaeopathology
March 15, 2011
At the start of the last century, a team of archaeologists began a race against the clock to rescue thousands of human bodies from ancient graves in modern Egypt’s Lower Nubia region. They would have been lost forever when the Lower Aswan Dam was raised in 1907, causing the Nile to back up and flood the entire valley. Sir Grafton Elliot Smith’s study of the excavated bones pioneered the discipline of palaeopathology and the methods of modern epidemiology. Trust-funded researchers at the University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum are now tracking down the bones he collected and carrying on his work.
"You can draw so many conclusions about what ancient life was like from bones," says Professor Rosalie David at the University of Manchester. "You can see the disease patterns, what people ate, whether there's evidence of starvation. And you can get a picture of crime and punishment - you can see if people were hanged, for example. And physical trauma to the bones can be indicative of war or fighting."
PR Web UK via Yahoo! News: Roman Roads not Roman after all?
Wed Mar 16, 8:00 am ET
A discovery at Tarmac’s Bayston Hill quarry in Shropshire has thrown into question the belief that Roman invaders introduced roads to Britain.
Excavations carried out by environmental consultants SLR at the site suggest that the Romans may have made use of existing roads engineered by Iron Age Britons.
The find shows that a metalled and cambered roadway, was constructed in the first century BC – a 100 years before the Emperor Claudius sent troops to conquer Britain.
BBC: Rare Roman altar stones uncovered in Musselburgh
Two rare, carved altar stones found in East Lothian could shed new light about the Roman period in Scotland, it has been claimed.
The Roman stones were found during the redevelopment of a cricket pavilion in Lewisvale Park, Musselburgh.
Experts said they may help re-write the history books on the Roman occupation of Inveresk.
Science News: Pueblo traded for chocolate big-time
Far-flung exchanges may have involved turquoise for cacao
By Bruce Bower
Web edition : Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Chocolate may have provided sweet impetus for extensive trade between ancient northern and southern societies in the Americas. Pueblo people living in what’s now the U.S. Southwest drank a cacao-based beverage that was imported from Mesoamerican cultures in southern Mexico or Central America, a new chemical analysis of Pueblo vessels finds.
Pueblo groups and an ensuing Southwest society traded turquoise for Mesoamerican cacao for about five centuries, from around 900 to 1400, proposes a team led by archaeologist Dorothy Washburn of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Surprisingly, large numbers of people throughout Pueblo society apparently consumed cacao, from low-ranking farmers to elite residents of a multistory pueblo, the scientists report online March 4 in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
“Since cacao was consumed by both Pueblo elites and nonelites, active trading for cacao must have occurred with Mesoamerican states,” Washburn says.
Worcester News (UK): All bites are off - fleas did spread plague
By David Paine
COUNTY archaeologists have provided conclusive proof that the plague which wiped out about 60 per cent of the European population in the 14th century was caused by fleas.
Human skeletons excavated from pits near Hereford Cathedral helped scholars at Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service definitively confirm the plague’s origins.
...
Their findings, published in an online journal, provide final proof that the plague spread via the transmission of the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which was passed on through bites from fleas carried by black rats.
This effectively rules out other common theories, including that the Black Death was actually a fever, and resolves a long-standing debate about the cause of the devastating disease.
BBC: Tunnel found in Forth Valley hospital grounds
An abandoned tunnel has been found in the grounds of a Falkirk hospital.
The brick-lined tunnel links a derelict mansion and ornamental loch which forms part of the estate of the new Forth Valley Royal Hospital.
Ranger Gordon Harper made the discovery while clearing rhododendron bushes on the loch's shore.
It is thought the tunnel would have allowed wealthy guests staying at Larbert House 200 years ago to avoid staff on the walk to the loch.
Lowell Sun (Massachussetts): Archaeological church dig resumes this summer
By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- They dug it so much, they're going to do it again this summer.
Professor Colm Donnelly, chairman of the Historical Archaeology department at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, spoke to a UMass Lowell audience last night about the UMass student-driven dig that the two universities conducted last summer on the lawn of Saint Patrick's Church in the Acre section of Lowell.
The four-week excavation project -- which often had the participating students sweating profusely through some of the hottest days of the year, noted St. Patrick's resident historian David McKean -- yielded more than 1,300 artifacts left by Irish settlers who once inhabited the "shanty towns" surrounding the church.
Reuters via Art Daily: Victorian Smokers had Rotten Teeth to Match Lungs
By: Stefano Ambrogi
LONDON (REUTERS) - Smoking was as bad for the Victorians as it is for anyone today, but back in those days it seems it did far more damage to their teeth. In the mid-19th century, prior to the invention of the cigarette, when tobacco was copiously consumed through clay pipes, smoking often resulted in nasty dental disfigurement.
A Museum of London study of skeletal remains excavated from a Victorian cemetery in Whitechapel, east London, found most people had "notches" in at least two, and often four, front teeth made through the habitual holding of pipe stems.
Wilmington Star-News: Students help preserve history of Modern Greece warship
By Amy Hotz
For a ship that’s been sunk 150 years, the Modern Greece has impeccable timing.
On the morning of June 27, 1862, the 210-foot blockade runner slipped through a ring of Federal warships to enter the Cape Fear River.
Its hold was filled with goods from England for the industry-void Confederacy.
Agence France Presse via physorg.com: Britain to return Aboriginal remains to Australia
March 10, 2011
A British museum said Thursday it had agreed to return 138 sets of skeletal remains of indigenous people to Australia in what it hailed as a new approach to the delicate subject of repatriation.
London's Natural History Museum will return the remains to the Torres Strait Islands off Queensland.
Ned David, a community leader from the islands, said he was "deeply touched" by the museum's decision, which follows a long campaign by Aboriginal leaders who regard the removal of the remains as an insult to their culture.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
Watch this space!
Discovery News: Could Higgs Particle be a Time-Traveling Assassin?
Analysis by Ian O'Neill
Wed Mar 16, 2011 05:07 PM ET
Enter the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator that might (might!) become mankind's first time machine,* thereby helping us find out if we can kill our grandfathers in the past and still exist (or something like that).
"Time machine" is a very loose term in this case, as you couldn't actually use it to transport yourself through time (although there is a wormhole-LHC-time traveling theory that disagrees with this point), but the LHC might (might!) generate a type of Higgs particle that cuts through time like a hot knife through butter, and its decay particles appear in our universe before its own creation event.
This theory has been formulated by two Vanderbilt University theoretical physicists, Tom Weiler and Chui Man Ho. Stating the obvious, Weiler said that the theory "is a long shot," but it "doesn't violate any laws of physics."
Chemistry
University of Michigan: Fundamental discovery could lead to better memory chips
March 14, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to improve the performance of ferroelectric materials, which have the potential to make memory devices with more storage capacity than magnetic hard drives and faster write speed and longer lifetimes than flash memory.
In ferroelectric memory the direction of molecules' electrical polarization serves as a 0 or a 1 bit. An electric field is used to flip the polarization, which is how data is stored.
With his colleagues at U-M and collaborators from Cornell University, Penn State University, and University of Wisconsin, Madison, Xiaoqing Pan, a professor in the U-M Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has designed a material system that spontaneously forms small nano-size spirals of the electric polarization at controllable intervals, which could provide natural budding sites for the polarization switching and thus reduce the power needed to flip each bit.
Energy
University of Michigan: Japan worst-case scenario unlikely to cause catastrophic radiation release
March 16, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—While exposed spent fuel rods at the failing nuclear reactors in Japan pose new threats, the worst-case scenario would still be unlikely to expose the public to catastrophic amounts of radiation, says a University of Michigan nuclear engineering professor who is an expert on this particular kind of reactor.
"For the public, I don't believe it would be much higher than two additional chest x-rays," said John Lee, a professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, citing the results of the Three Mile Island accident.
Lee worked at General Electric during the time the company was making the type of boiling water reactor at the Fukushima plant. His book, "Risk and Safety Analysis of Nuclear Systems," will be published in May.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
The Spokesman-Review: Hazardous dumping site debate raised
Becky Kramer
A hazardous waste repository built two years ago near Old Mission State Park has stirred debate among archaeologists about whether federal and state officials complied with historic preservation laws on the project.
The Old Mission, built by Jesuit priests and ancestors of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe in the 1850s, is both a national historic landmark and Idaho’s oldest standing building. Nearby, a 14-acre repository accepts contaminated soil from the cleanup of old mine sites in the Coeur d’Alene Basin.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Great Lakes Echo: Un-Wisconsin: A once Great Lakes leader backslides on the environment
By Gary Wilson
Mention Wisconsin and what comes to mind?
I’ll bet it’s the recent public battle with the Republican governor and legislature pitted against the state’s public unions over collective bargaining rights. The fight spilled into the streets and legislative corridors of Madison and received national media coverage.
But not garnering as much attention is the assault on environmental regulations waged by the same governor and legislative majority.
Science Education
Northwestern University: Dig into the life of archaeologist Anna Roosevelt
by Ani Vrabel
March 15, 2011
Anna Roosevelt is the living definition of a multi-tasker. It’s Thursday, and she has just run from teaching an undergraduate class to her office at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she is due to record an interview for an Austrian radio station any minute. With her right hand gripped around her telephone receiver, she uses her left hand to prepare the lunch she has brought from her Evanston home.
Lunch breaks aren’t always quite this hectic, she says after wrapping up the interview (during which she gave a rapid-fire account of some of her research in the Amazon). She props her feet up on an extra chair in her office, revealing sensible black sneakers under her black dress pants, and says she usually just spends her midday meal time meeting with students.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
University of Michigan: Detroit sixth-grade BioKIDS to present science projects at U-M
March 14, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—More than 120 Detroit Public School sixth-graders will present the results of small-group science projects at 10:45 a.m. March 22 at the Michigan League Ballroom.
The students, from Detroit's Foreign Language Immersion School and O.W. Holmes Elementary School, have been following the innovative BioKIDS curriculum developed by the University of Michigan. Graduate students from U-M's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and School of Natural Resources and Environment have been visiting the classes, working with the sixth-graders and presenting their own research in kid-friendly presentations.
The curriculum has been proven effective: according to 1996 data, just 30 percent of Detroit students passed the state standardized science tests. But for students using the BioKIDS curriculum, the pass rate rocketed to 42 percent.
Michigan State University: MSU graduate programs rank among nation's best
March 15, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A host of Michigan State University graduate programs – from nuclear physics to elementary education to African history – rank among the nation’s elite, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2012 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools.
The magazine, which hits newsstands April 5, ranks MSU’s elementary and secondary education graduate programs No. 1 for the 17th year in a row. Through the College of Education programs, faculty members and graduate students focus on improving the practice of teaching and learning through research and training initiatives for K-12 teachers – all with close ties to elementary and secondary classrooms.
MSU’s College of Education, which has nearly 1,800 graduate students, also scored highly in other graduate programs including curriculum/instruction at No. 2 and educational psychology at No. 4.
Science Writing and Reporting
University of Wisconsin: Al Jazeera adviser to headline UW-Madison journalism ethics conference
March 15, 2011
Al Jazeera's chief strategic adviser in the Americas will be the keynote speaker at the third journalism ethics conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday, April 15.
Tony Burman, previously managing director of Al Jazeera English, will address the conference "In Your Face: Partisan Journalism in a Democracy." The Center for Journalism Ethics will stage the conference at the Fluno Center.
This year's conference addresses the following question: "Is the rise of a more opinionated and partisan media a positive development for our democracy or not?" Participants from across the political spectrum will explore the implications of partisan media for public broadcasters, news networks and journalism ethics.
I know, it's not science. It's still very on topic for Daily Kos, even if it's not really on topic for this particular night's OND.
Science is Cool
University of Michigan: Upcoming TEDx event to encourage 'crazy ideas'
March 14, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The intellectual equivalent of a University of Michigan football game, in terms of community involvement, is what organizers hope the upcoming TEDxUofM conference turns out to be.
The student-organized event will be held 10 a.m.-5 p.m. April 8 at the Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor.
The ideas convention will feature 23 innovative U-M professors, alumni and students with globally oriented minds, organizers say. Webcast live and streamed on three screens across campus, conference planners hope to get more than 100,000 people to tune in or attend.