Record Breaking Cold Weather and Global Warming

Posted on 2014/01/07 by admin

Since we began studying global warming, there has been one thing all scientists could agree on — man-made warming of the Earth will cause an increase in extreme weather events.

We are not saying that the Earth’s temperature is just going to rise. In general, as energy is added to a system, the fluctuations in the system increase. So, we expect more storms, more droughts, more wildfires, more floods, more fluctuations of all kinds. What we are saying is that weather conditions will become more volatile due to the impact of humans. — Sidd Mukherjee & Daniel Brouse (2004)

When it come to the record breaking low temperatures of 2013 and 2014 in the United States, some people are tying to diminish the importance of curbing global warming. The extreme events appear to give some humans the excuse to be delusional about human induced climate change. However, at this point in time, it is the ocean temperature we need be most concerned about. The changes we are seeing help cause the increase in volatility and extreme weather events.

Sorry to say, the ocean temperature is rising more rapidly than scientist had predicted. Because of the way the Earth is warming, island nations are feeling the heat. In fact, 2013 was the warmest year on record in Australia.

Interstellar Overdrive

Posted on 2014/01/03 by admin

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun.

New and unexpected data indicate Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year through plasma, or ionized gas, present in the space between stars. Voyager is in a transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble, where some effects from our sun are still evident. A report on the analysis of this new data, an effort led by Don Gurnett and the plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, is published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science.

“Now that we have new, key data, we believe this is mankind’s historic leap into interstellar space,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. “The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we’ve all been asking — ‘Are we there yet?’ Yes, we are.”

Voyager 1 first detected the increased pressure of interstellar space on the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding the sun that reaches far beyond the outer planets, in 2004. Scientists then ramped up their search for evidence of the spacecraft’s interstellar arrival, knowing the data analysis and interpretation could take months or years.

Voyager 1 does not have a working plasma sensor, so scientists needed a different way to measure the spacecraft’s plasma environment to make a definitive determination of its location. A coronal mass ejection, or a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields, that erupted from the sun in March 2012 provided scientists the data they needed. When this unexpected gift from the sun eventually arrived at Voyager 1’s location 13 months later, in April 2013, the plasma around the spacecraft began to vibrate like a violin string. On April 9, Voyager 1’s plasma wave instrument detected the movement. The pitch of the oscillations helped scientists determine the density of the plasma. The particular oscillations meant the spacecraft was bathed in plasma more than 40 times denser than what they had encountered in the outer layer of the heliosphere. Density of this sort is to be expected in interstellar space.

The plasma wave science team reviewed its data and found an earlier, fainter set of oscillations in October and November 2012. Through extrapolation of measured plasma densities from both events, the team determined Voyager 1 first entered interstellar space in August 2012.

“We literally jumped out of our seats when we saw these oscillations in our data — they showed us the spacecraft was in an entirely new region, comparable to what was expected in interstellar space, and totally different than in the solar bubble,” Gurnett said. “Clearly we had passed through the heliopause, which is the long-hypothesized boundary between the solar plasma and the interstellar plasma.”

The new plasma data suggested a timeframe consistent with abrupt, durable changes in the density of energetic particles that were first detected on Aug. 25, 2012. The Voyager team generally accepts this date as the date of interstellar arrival. The charged particle and plasma changes were what would have been expected during a crossing of the heliopause.

“The team’s hard work to build durable spacecraft and carefully manage the Voyager spacecraft’s limited resources paid off in another first for NASA and humanity,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “We expect the fields and particles science instruments on Voyager will continue to send back data through at least 2020. We can’t wait to see what the Voyager instruments show us next about deep space.”

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2, launched before Voyager 1, is the longest continuously operated spacecraft. It is about 9.5 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) away from our sun.

Voyager mission controllers still talk to or receive data from Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 every day, though the emitted signals are currently very dim, at about 23 watts — the power of a refrigerator light bulb. By the time the signals get to Earth, they are a fraction of a billion-billionth of a watt. Data from Voyager 1’s instruments are transmitted to Earth typically at 160 bits per second, and captured by 34- and 70-meter NASA Deep Space Network stations. Traveling at the speed of light, a signal from Voyager 1 takes about 17 hours to travel to Earth. After the data are transmitted to JPL and processed by the science teams, Voyager data are made publicly available.

“Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. “Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey.”

Scientists do not know when Voyager 1 will reach the undisturbed part of interstellar space where there is no influence from our sun. They also are not certain when Voyager 2 is expected to cross into interstellar space, but they believe it is not very far behind.

JPL built and operates the twin Voyager spacecraft. The Voyagers Interstellar Mission is a part of NASA’s Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA’s Deep Space Network, managed by JPL, is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions.

The cost of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions — including launch, mission operations and the spacecraft’s nuclear batteries, which were provided by the Department of Energy — is about $988 million through September.

Dating The Calendar

Posted on 2014/01/01 by admin

The history of calendars goes back thousands of years. The oldest calendar is a Lunar Calendar found in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, from 8,000 BC.

The modern day calendar is known as the Gregorian calendar. This calendar is a refinement made in 1582 to the Julian calendar to help Easter align with the time of the year in which the First Council of Nicaea occurred.

“The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days and in a leap year, an intercalary or leap day is added as 29 February making the year 366 days. Normally a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years, unlike the Julian calendar, which retains those leap days.”

The Gregorian calender is one of the most universal standards in the world making New Year’s Day the world’s most celebrated public holiday.

International Year of Crystallography

Posted on 2013/12/162013/12/16 by admin

NEW YORK, NY — The United Nations has declared 2014 to be the year of crystallography.

The International Year of Crystallography (IYCr2014) will be launched during an opening ceremony to be held on 20 and 21 January 2014 at UNESCO Headquarters (Paris). This international launch will be a showcase for crystallography and crystallographers, featuring eminent scientists, industrialists and personalities from around the world. Keynote lectures will be ensured at this occasion by Professor Brian Kobilka, 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, on his vision of crystallography and its role in elucidating biological mechanisms; and by Professor Jenny Glusker on “Crystallography past, present and future”.
The opening ceremony will also comprise an interactive session called “Young Talented Crystallographers of the World”, bringing together promising young minds from all the regions of the globe, and a special session called “Crystallography in the BRICS countries – success stories and roles for development”, which will feature key speeches by high officials and presidents of the National Science Academies of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) on their leadership positions in areas such as innovations in pharmaceuticals, materials science, high energy physics, nanotechnology, mineralogy and others.

A special session of the launch event will also be dedicated to the immense contribution to crystallography of Arab scientists of the Islamic golden age, through presentation of crystallography-related symmetries in art, historical artifacts and architecture.

Foraging For Food in the Winter

Posted on 2013/12/102013/12/10 by admin

Winter foraging can be one of the toughest challenges; however, if you do a little preparation in the fall, the buried treasures will yield healthy results.

Find out more from the Guide To Edible Plants’ Foraging for Food in the Winter.

Chives, Garlic Greens, Mint, Carrot Greens, Parsley

Circadian Rhythms

Posted on 2013/11/07 by admin

National Institute of General Medical Sciences —

What are circadian rhythms?

Circadian rhythms are physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding primarily to light and darkness in an organism’s environment. They are found in most living things, including animals, plants and many tiny microbes. The study of circadian rhythms is called chronobiology.

Are circadian rhythms the same thing as biological clocks?

No, but they are related. Our biological clocks drive our circadian rhythms.

What are biological clocks?

The biological clocks that control circadian rhythms are groupings of interacting molecules in cells throughout the body. A “master clock” in the brain coordinates all the body clocks so that they are in synch.

What is the master clock?

The “master clock” that controls circadian rhythms consists of a group of nerve cells in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN. The SCN contains about 20,000 nerve cells and is located in the hypothalamus, an area of the brain just above where the optic nerves from the eyes cross.

Do circadian rhythms have a genetic component?

Yes. Researchers have already identified genes that direct circadian rhythms in people, fruit flies, mice, fungi and several other model organisms used for studying genetics.

Does the body make and keep its own circadian rhythms?

Circadian rhythms are produced by natural factors within the body, but they are also affected by signals from the environment. Light is the main cue influencing circadian rhythms, turning on or turning off genes that control an organism’s internal clocks.

How do circadian rhythms affect body function and health?

Circadian rhythms can influence sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, body temperature and other important bodily functions. They have been linked to various sleep disorders, such as insomnia. Abnormal circadian rhythms have also been associated with obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder.

How are circadian rhythms related to sleep?

Circadian rhythms are important in determining human sleep patterns. The body’s master clock, or SCN, controls the production of melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. Since it is located just above the optic nerves, which relay information from the eyes to the brain, the SCN receives information about incoming light. When there is less light—like at night—the SCN tells the brain to make more melatonin so you get drowsy.

How are circadian rhythms related to jet lag?

Jet lag occurs when travelers suffer from disrupted circadian rhythms. When you pass through different time zones, your body’s clock will be different from your wristwatch. For example, if you fly in an airplane from California to New York, you “lose” 3 hours of time. So when you wake up at 7:00 a.m., your body still thinks it’s 4:00 a.m., making you feel groggy and disoriented. Your body’s clock will eventually reset itself, but this often takes a few days.

How do researchers study circadian rhythms?

Scientists can learn about circadian rhythms by studying humans or by using model organisms that have similar “clock” genes. Basic researchers doing these experiments can control the subject’s environment by altering light and dark periods and then look for changes in gene activity or other molecular signals.

How does circadian rhythm research contribute to human health?

Understanding what makes biological clocks tick may lead researchers to treatments for sleep disorders, jet lag and other health problems. Learning more about the genes responsible for circadian rhythms will also enhance our understanding of biological systems and the human body.

Learn more:
Tick Tock: New Clues About Biological Clocks and Health
A Light on Life’s Rhythms: Profile of Cara Altimus

NIGMS is a part of the National Institutes of Health that supports basic research to increase our understanding of life processes and lay the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. For more information on the Institute’s research and training programs, see http://www.nigms.nih.gov.

Content reviewed November 2012

Galaxy Growth Like Watching Paint Dry

Posted on 2013/11/01 by admin

NASA — Watching a tree grow might be more frustrating than waiting for a pot to boil, but luckily for biologists, there are tree rings. Beginning at a tree trunk’s dense core and moving out to the soft bark, the passage of time is marked by concentric rings, revealing chapters of the tree’s history.

Galaxies outlive trees by billions of years, making their growth impossible to see. But like biologists, astronomers can read the rings in a galaxy’s disk to unravel its past. Using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), scientists have acquired more evidence for the “inside-out” theory of galaxy growth, showing that bursts of star formation in central regions were followed one to two billion years later by star birth in the outer fringes.

“Initially, a rapid star-forming period formed the mass at the center of these galaxies, followed later by a star-forming phase in the outer regions. Eventually, the galaxies stop making stars and become quiescent,” said Sara Petty of Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., lead author of a paper appearing in the October 2013 issue of the Astronomical Journal. “This later star-forming phase could have been caused by minor mergers with gas-rich neighbors, which provide the fuel for new stars.”

The discovery may also solve a mystery of elderly galaxies. The galaxies in the study, known as “red and dead” for their red color and lack of new star births, have a surprising amount of ultraviolet light emanating from the outer regions. Often, ultraviolet light is generated by hot, young stars, but these galaxies were considered too old to host such a young population.

The solution to the puzzle is likely hot, old stars. Petty and colleagues used a new multi-wavelength approach to show that the unexplained ultraviolet light appears to be coming from a late phase in the lives of older stars, when they blow off their outer layers and heat up.

GALEX and WISE turned out to be the ideal duo for the study. GALEX was sensitive to the ultraviolet light, whereas WISE sees the infrared light coming from older stars. GALEX is no longer operating, but WISE was recently reactivated to hunt asteroids, a project called NEOWISE (see http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-257 ). Both telescopes have large fields of view, allowing them to easily capture images of entire galaxies.

“The synergy between GALEX and WISE produces a very sensitive measurement of where the hot, older stars reside in these red-and-dead galaxies,” said Don Neill, co-author of the paper from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. “This allows us to map the progress of star formation within each galaxy.”

Ned Wright of UCLA, a co-author of the study and the principal investigator of WISE before it was reactivated, compares the multi-wavelength range of the two telescopes to musical notes, “WISE itself covers the equivalent of a three-octave range, while WISE and GALEX together cover a seven-octave range.”

The technical paper for this study is online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.6282 .

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages and operates the recently activated NEOWISE mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The WISE mission was selected competitively under NASA’s Explorers Program managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://jpl.nasa.gov/wise .

Caltech led the Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission and was responsible for science operations and data analysis. JPL managed the mission and built the science instrument. The mission was developed under NASA’s Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Researchers sponsored by Yonsei University in South Korea and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France collaborated on this mission. Graphics and additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer are online at http://www.nasa.gov/galex and http://www.galex.caltech.edu.

Underwater Robotics Competition

Posted on 2013/08/27 by admin

Annual competition, sponsored by Marine Advanced Technological Education Center, gives competitors a taste of the real-life capabilities needed to maintain an ocean observing system
by NSF.gov

The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center hosted its 12th annual student underwater robotics competition earlier this summer in Federal Way, Wash. The Center is a national partnership of organizations working to improve marine technical education and help prepare the future workforce for ocean occupations.

Headquartered at Monterey Peninsula College, a community college in Monterey, Calif., the MATE Center has been funded as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Center of Excellence since 1997.

The student underwater robotics competition challenged this year’s participants to design and build a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) for tasks related to operating and maintaining an ocean observing system, a collection of high-tech instruments above and below the waves that provide around-the-clock information about what’s happening in the ocean.

The challenge was based on work being done at the University of Washington, where researchers are designing an observatory for the ocean floor. The missions assigned to this year’s competitors were designed to simulate many of the things that will have to be done by ROVs during the installation and maintenance of the observatory.

“This was a very challenging mission,” said Jill Zande, associate director and competition coordinator at the MATE Center. “And we found that a number of the students did really well.”

Participants included more than 50 student teams representing middle schools, high schools, home schools, community colleges, universities, after-school clubs, and outreach programs from the U.S., Canada, Venezuela, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macao, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Russia, and Egypt.

Competitors’ mission tasks

Student teams piloted their ROVs to complete a variety of underwater mission tasks, prepared and presented an engineering report to a panel of volunteer judges, and created a poster display aimed at the general public.

Students were encouraged to think like entrepreneurs and manage their teams like companies, a process that helps them develop the teamwork, creative thinking, and problem solving skills that are valued in today’s global workplace. Teams were evaluated on the design, construction, and performance of their ROVs; their ability to communicate what they learned; and how they put their knowledge to use in designing and building their ROVs.

Teams competed in either the RANGER or EXPLORER class, depending on the sophistication of their ROVs and the mission requirements. Teams from California won first place in each class. A complete list of winners appears below.

MATE’s impact over its history

With NSF funding, the MATE Center began as an ATE project, and has broadened its mission, expanded its reach and increased its impact over almost 20 years. MATE began with a focus on community colleges, but over time opened up to four-year institutions and high schools. Part of its mission is to develop curricula in marine technology, underwater robotics, marine geospatial technology, career awareness, and ocean observing systems. MATE also offers professional development for high school, college, and university faculty that focuses on a broad array of marine technologies, workplace skills, and pedagogical innovations.

Now an Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) project, led by Zande, is reaching middle-school students and teachers.

The idea behind MATE’s growth is that the ROV competition can be a means to keep students engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and create a pathway to careers in the STEM workforce. Ocean careers cover a broad range of skills, and MATE provides information on its website about the preparation required for more than 50 different careers, from that of able seaman to electrical engineer to ROV technician. There are also listings for jobs and internships.

The pathway from MATE to ocean careers is well-traveled. “We’ve had students snapped up by industry into $60,000 jobs before they’ve finished their associate degree,” said Deidre Sullivan, director and principal investigator for the MATE Center. “When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill happened three years ago, some of people who were operating the ROVs looking at the damage were graduates of the MATE curriculum.”

“MATE has become a magnet for these kinds of skills,” said David Campbell, program director for ATE. “If a student is interested in this kind of career, most community colleges will train students in electronics and depend on their future employers to train them in marine electronics. MATE is one of the few that’s geared toward marine technology.”

Winners of the 2013 ROV competition

There were three top winners in each class, and a host of other awards.

Explorer (Advanced) Class Winners:

In the Explorer class, the overall first place winner was Jesuit High School of Carmichael, Calif. The team also won an award for being safety-conscious.

Memorial University of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada took the second place prize. Third place was captured by SeaTech 4-H Club of Mt. Vernon, Wash., which also had the highest overall mission score.

Ranger (Intermediate) Class Winners:

Aptos High School of Aptos, Calif. won overall first place in the RANGER class. With 310 out of 320 possible points, the team had the highest mission score, and they also won an award for best technical report.

Second place went to Heritage Collegiate of Lethbridge, Newfoundland, Canada. Third place went to Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech, of New Bedford, Mass., which also won an award for top poster display.

NSF’s Advanced Technological Education program is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The program was created to improve and expand educational programs for technicians to work in high-tech, STEM fields that drive the U.S. economy. The program is congressionally mandated and focuses on both the undergraduate and the secondary school levels.
— Maria C. Zacharias, (703) 292-8454 mzachari@nsf.gov

Investigators
Deidre Sullivan
Jill Zande

Related Institutions/Organizations
Monterey Peninsula College

Locations
Monterey , California

Related Programs
Advanced Technological Education
Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers

Related Awards
#1104310 Marine Advanced Technology Education Center Resource Center 2011
#0929875 MATE ROV Competitions: Providing Pathways to the Ocean STEM Workforce

Years Research Conducted
1997 – 2013

Total Grants
$2,819,973

View video
Students were challenged to design and build an ROV that could maintain an ocean observing system.

The BRAIN Initiative

Posted on 2013/07/262013/07/26 by admin

Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative

What is the NIH BRAIN Initiative?

The NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is part of a new Presidential focus aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. By accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies, researchers will be able to produce a revolutionary new dynamic picture of the brain that, for the first time, shows how individual cells and complex neural circuits interact in both time and space. Long desired by researchers seeking new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, this picture will fill major gaps in our current knowledge and provide unprecedented opportunities for exploring exactly how the brain enables the human body to record, process, utilize, store, and retrieve vast quantities of information, all at the speed of thought.

A map of overall task-fMRI brain coverage from the seven tasks used in the Human Connectome Project.

A map of overall task-fMRI brain coverage from the seven tasks used in the Human Connectome Project. Yellow and red represent regions that become more active in most participants during one or more tasks in the MR scanner; blue represents regions that become less active. Source: D.M. Barch for the WU-Minn HCP Consortium.

Solar Radiation Storms

Posted on 2013/05/16 by admin

Solar radiation storms continue. It takes about two days for the effects to reach Earth.

A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun’s surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy (about a sixth of the total energy output of the Sun each second or 160,000,000,000 megatons of TNT equivalen.) They are mainly followed by a colossal coronal mass ejection also known as a CME. The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona of the sun into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day or two after the event.

X-rays and UV radiation emitted by solar flares can affect Earth’s ionosphere and disrupt long-range radio communications. Direct radio emission at decimetric wavelengths may disturb operation of radars and other devices operating at these frequencies.

The radiation risks posed by coronal mass ejections are a major concern in discussions of a manned mission to Mars, the moon, or other planets. Energetic protons can pass through the human body, causing biochemical damage,[10] presenting a hazard to astronauts during interplanetary travel. Some kind of physical or magnetic shielding would be required to protect the astronauts. Most proton storms take at least two hours from the time of visual detection to reach Earth’s orbit. A solar flare on January 20, 2005 released the highest concentration of protons ever directly measured,[11] giving astronauts as little as 15 minutes to reach shelter.

Region 1748 has been quiet but current analysis shows it still has the potential for more large events. SWPC forecasters are watching this region very carefully as it rotates further on the disk and into a more geoeffective position.

A CME, from the X1 flare on 15 May, is expected to arrive here late on 17 May but very little effects are forecast.