October 24, 2011

Good Morning,

I added a fifth article that covers a story about a teacher from China whose chemistry song, written to help students, has become an internet hit. Check out the last article to read more details about this educator's motives and hopes for the song.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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New model better predictor of space storms

BOULDER, Colo. - U.S. scientists say a sophisticated forecast model improves predictions of space weather that affects people and technology-based infrastructure used daily. Researchers at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration say the new model allows them to track and forecast explosions on the sun that can cause geomagnetic and solar radiation storms that can affect electrical power grids, interfere with the normal function of GPS systems and hamper radio and satellite telecommunications. "This advanced model has strengthened forecasters' understanding of what happens in the 93 million miles between Earth and the sun following a solar disturbance," Tom Bogdan of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., said in a NOAA release Thursday. It will help power grid and communications technology managers know what to expect so they can protect infrastructure and the public." Magnetic storms can hit Earth one to four days after a coronal mass ejection on the sun sends a burst of charged particles and their accompanying magnetic field speeding toward Earth at more than 1 million mph. Before development of the new model, forecasters could predict timing of such impacts within a 30-hour window. The new model allows forecasters to narrow that window to 12 hours, NOAA said.


Planet-sized object as cool as Earth found

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Spitzer Space Telescope has captured images of the coldest companion object to be directly imaged outside our solar system, U.S. scientists say. Penn State astronomy Professor Kevin Luhman said the planet-sized brown dwarf moving through space with a companion white dwarf star is as cool as Earth. "This planet-like companion is the coldest object ever directly photographed outside our solar system," said Luhman, who led the discovery team. "Its mass is about the same as many of the known extra-solar planets -- about six to nine times the mass of Jupiter -- but in other ways it is more like a star. "Essentially, what we have found is a very small star with an atmospheric temperature about cool as the Earth's." A brown dwarf forms just like a star out of a massive cloud of dust and gas but its mass is not enough to ignite thermonuclear reactions in its core, resulting in a failed star that is very cool.


Study: No negative impact from e-readers

MAINZ, Germany - A comparison of reading texts on paper with reading from an e-book found no disadvantages associated with the electronic version, European researchers say. "This study provides us with a scientific basis for dispelling the widespread misconception that reading from a screen has negative effects," Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz researcher Stephan Fussel said. There is no (reading) culture clash -- whether it is analog or digital, reading remains the most important cultural technology." The study found no difference in terms of reading performance between reading from paper and from an e-ink reader -- even though many participants expressed a subjective preference for printed text, the researchers said. "We have thus demonstrated that the subjective preference for the printed book is not an indicator of how fast and how well the information is processed," researcher Matthias Schlesewsky said. The study analyzed the differences in reading from various kinds of media -- including e-book, tablet PC or paper -- in two sample groups, young and elderly adults. While there were no differences among the three media in terms of rates of reading by the younger participants, older participants exhibited faster reading times when using the tablet PC, the researchers said.


Evidence of earliest life on land found

EDMONTON, Alberta - Canadian researchers say they've found evidence of the oldest oxygen-breathing life form that came into existence on land around 2.48 billion years ago. Biologists at the University of Alberta said the discovery suggests oxygen-breathing bacteria occupied and thrived on land 100 million years earlier than previously thought. The researchers studied the link between atmospheric oxygen levels and rising concentrations of chromium in the rock of ancient seabeds, caused as oxygen-breathing bacteria broke down the mineral pyrite. "This gives us a new date for the Great Oxidation Event, the time when the atmosphere first had oxygen," geomicrobiologist Kurt Konhauser said in a university release Thursday. "The rising levels of atmospheric oxygen fostered the evolution of new bacteria species that survived by aerobic respiration on land." The same bacterial life forms are alive and well today, the researchers said, living off pyrite and settling in the highly acidic wastewaters of mining sites the world over.


Chinese chemistry song an online hit

BEIJING - The Chinese educator whose chemistry-themed song has become a hit on the Internet said he is hoping to inspire others to write science songs. Zhou Qifeng, a chemist and head of Peking University in Beijing, said he used colloquial terms and popular Internet terms in his song, which was broadcast on China Central television and later posted online, to make it accessible to students and others without in-depth knowledge of chemistry, China Daily reported Thursday. Zhou was quoted by the Chinese-language Yangtze Evening Post and New Express Daily as saying he hopes his song will inspire others to write songs for the International Year of Chemistry 2011. Organizers of the event said they are looking for a "Song of Chemistry" written by members of the public. The chemist's song was forwarded more than 20,000 times on Weibo, a Chinese Web site similar to Twitter, and received more than 6,000 comments.



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