Scientists have discovered why there isn’t much impact-melted rock at Meteor Crater in northern Arizona. The iron meteorite that blasted out Meteor Crater almost 50,000 years ago was traveling much slower than has been assumed, University of Arizona Regents’ Professor H. Jay Melosh and Gareth Collins of the Imperial College London report in the cover article of Nature (March 10).
“Meteor Crater was the first terrestrial crater identified as a meteorite impact scar, and it’s proba
The telltale paw prints with huge 10 centimetre-long nails spoke volumes. But now definitive corroborating DNA evidence seals the case of the most northerly sighting of a grizzly bear. The discovery fuels mounting evidence that Canada’s High Arctic is no longer the sole preserve of the polar bear – Nanuk is having to make room for its southern cousin.
The evidence of the barren ground grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) was discovered on Melville Island, an uninhabited part of the western
Sandia gas sampling device rapidly determines whether MEMS seals are effective
Just as astronomers want to understand the atmospheres of planets and moons, so engineers want atmospheric knowledge of worlds they create that are the size of pinheads, their “skies” capped by tiny glass bubbles.
Should their silicon inhabitants – microcircuits, microgears, and micropower drivers – exist in a vacuum? An atmosphere of nitrogen? Air as we know it? More importantly, whatever at
GRUMP mapping project finds urban areas increasing in surprising ways
The majority of the world’s population will soon live in urban rather than rural areas. Adding a spatial dimension to population estimates, a new study finds that as much as three percent of the Earth’s land area has already been urbanized, which is double previous estimates.
This new data collection, known as the Global Rural Urban Mapping Project, or GRUMP, has provided the basis for a number of im
Pacific Northwest National Lab experiments point to clingy grains of ice to solve age-old mystery of how primordial dust pulled together to form planets
How dust specks in the early solar systems came together to become planets has vexed astronomers for years. Gravity, always an attractive candidate to explain how celestial matter pulls together, was no match for stellar winds. The dust needed help coming together fast, in kilometer-wide protoplanets, in the first few million y
Using Positron Emission Tomography in addition to Computed Tomography can reduce the amount of radiation exposure to normal tissue in some lung cancer patients, according to a new study published in the March 1, 2005, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of ASTRO, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.
The study, conducted on 21 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, created two three-dimensional
The engineers who built the massive external fuel tank that will power the shuttle Discovery into orbit this spring used sophisticated X-ray detectors developed by UF researchers to reduce the chance of a defect in the foam insulation covering the tank. The detectors, first invented as a new technology to find land mines, can identify tiny gaps, or air-filled voids, in the insulating foam without causing any damage. It is believed that such a gap – possibly located between the foam and the ta
Findings are bad news for women battling gender wage gap
Single men and women with college degrees are generally more likely to move to a big city to pursue job opportunities. Whether a married woman makes this potentially career-enhancing relocation depends largely on if her husband holds a college degree, suggests a study by economists at Washington University in St. Louis. “We are becoming more used to the idea of husbands as trailing spouses from newspaper and magazine artic
Study of U.S. Travelers to Mexico and Guatemala Found 65 Percent Prevalence Rate
A majority of traveler’s diarrhea cases among U.S. travelers to Mexico and Guatemala were attributed to Norovirus, a common cause of nonbacterial gastroenteritis outbreaks usually associated with developed countries, according to a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. The researchers also found that the longer travelers stayed at
Researchers exploring the brain structures involved in recalling an emotional memory a year later have found evidence for a self-reinforcing “memory loop” — in which the brain’s emotional center triggers the memory center, which in turn further enhances activity in the emotional center.
The researchers said their findings suggest why people subject to traumatic events may be trapped in a cycle of emotion and recall that aggravates post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They s
Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is no longer an automatic death sentence, thanks to the use of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART). However, several studies questions have suggested that HIV infection poses a serious threat to the heart — specifically, that HIV positivity leads to an increased risk for the development of angiographically severe coronary artery disease (CAD). But Emory research presented by Amar D. Patel, MD, today at the American College of Cardiol
Penn study shows that computerized physician-order entry systems often facilitate medication errors
Health-care policymakers and administrators have championed specialty-designed software systems – including the highly-touted Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems – as the cornerstone of improved patient safety. CPOE systems are claimed to significantly reduce medication-prescribing errors. “Our data indicate that that is often a false hope,” says sociologist Ross Ko
New research from the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology
Inner city children with asthma are exposed to significantly different levels of indoor allergens depending on the area of the country and type of home in which they live. These findings are featured in the March 2005 Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (JACI).
Exposure to major indoor allergens, such as dust mites, pets and cockroaches, contribute to the increasing prevalence of asthma in children living in in
The use of herbal supplements in women is increasing. Many mothers may also be giving herbal supplements to their children to treat or prevent various illnesses, including asthma, hyperactivity, colds, and respiratory infections. A study in the March issue of The Journal of Pediatrics reviews the medical literature to provide information about the effectiveness of some of the most common herbal supplements in children, including Andrographis paniculata, evening primrose oil, ivy leaf, and va
A concentration of senior citizens in a community can be a financial boon to a school district, rather than an adversary, unless the group includes a high percentage of newcomers with few, if any, emotional ties with the area, according to two Penn State experts.
“The ’aging of America’ will not automatically exacerbate fiscal strains on public school systems and their community residents,” says Dr. Michael B. Berkman, associate professor of political science. “A large in
Students from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering are partnering with Carnegie Mellon University’s “Red Team” in an effort to win a $2 million prize from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). All they have to do is complete the toughest ground course ever devised for a self-guided robotic vehicle.
The contest, called the DARPA Grand Challenge, is a race between fully self-guided ground vehicles to be conducted in the Southwestern United States on Oct. 8,
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