Gizmorama
November 29, 2010
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Silly Shaped Bands are Traded & Collected all over the world.
http://pd.gophercentral.com/u/1095/c/186/a/474
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Good Morning,
You can find details on how a redesign in military helmets
can promises to save lives in the second article. Also, at
the end of this issue, a video that highlights what may be
the answer to earth?s lingering water crisis.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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Study: World's lakes in 25-year warming
PASADENA, Calif. - Earth's largest lakes have warmed in the
past 25 years in response to climate change, a global survey
of temperature trends by U.S. scientists says. Researchers
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used
satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167
large lakes worldwide for the comprehensive study, a JPL
release said Tuesday. They found an average warming rate of
0.81 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, with some lakes warming
as much as 1.8 degrees per decade. Although the warming trend
was global, the greatest increases were in the mid- to high-
latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the study found. "Our
analysis provides a new, independent data source for asses-
sing the impact of climate change over land around the
world," JPL researcher Philipp Schneider said. "The results
have implications for lake ecosystems, which can be adversely
affected by even small water temperature changes," he said.
Small changes in water temperature can result in algal blooms
that can make a lake toxic to fish or result in the introduc-
tion of non-native species that change the lake's natural
ecosystem. The bodies of water studied were selected from a
global database of lakes and wetlands based on size, normally
at least 193 square miles or larger, JPL said.
Helmet re-design could protect troops
BOSTON - The design of the combat helmet worn by U.S. troops
in Iraq and Afghanistan does little to protect troops from
blast-related brain injury, researchers say. Scientists at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology investigated trau-
matic brain injury, often called TBI or concussion, one of
the most distinctive and difficult wounds sustained by
troops, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. More than
188,000 cases have been diagnosed among troops who have
served in the Middle East, military officials say. Brain
injuries from explosions occur when a soldier close to the
blast is thrown against a wall or to the floor, causing
"brain whiplash," neurosurgeon Jam Ghajar, president of the
Brain Trauma Foundation, said. But for many troops, brain
trauma appears to occur without a direct blow to the head,
leaving many experts wondering how the damage occurs. The MIT
research team says a design change could substantially im-
prove the helmet's ability to reduce the risk of concussion
in these cases. A face shield, they say, would deflect the
rippling force of an explosion away from the soft tissues of
the face that could be transmitting the shock of the explo-
sion into the skull and brain.
Physics stereotype hurts women's grades
BOULDER, Colo. - The expectation that men do better in phys-
ics than women is an "identity threat" that undermines
women's success in the subject, U.S. researchers say. Co-
authors Geoffrey Cohen, formerly a University of Colorado
at Boulder psychologist now at Stanford University, and
Lauren Kost-Smith, a physics graduate student at Colorado,
said the randomized double-blind experiment of 399 students
-- 283 men and 116 women -- were randomly assigned writing
assignments that either affirmed their values or did not.
The students in the "affirmation group" were given a list
of 12 values, such as "relationships with friends and family"
or "learning or gaining knowledge," and were asked to write
about the values most important to them. The students in the
"control" group were asked to pick values on the list that
were least important to them and to write about why those
values might be important to other people. The study, pub-
lished in the journal Science, found that the simple "values
affirmation" writing exercise generally raised women's course
grades from the "C" to "B" range and they showed greater
mastery over the conceptual material. The self-affirming
essays, the researchers suggested, assuaged women's stress
about being seen in light of negative stereotypes about women
in science. The positive effects of values affirmation were
most pronounced among women who tended to believe in the
stereotype that men are better than women at physics, the
researchers added.
VIDEO: Dean Kamen Invents The SlingShot Water Purifier
In the near future fresh water could cost as much as gas-
oline. In developing countries clean water is already a
precious commodity. So how do you make water purifying easy
and cheap? Inventor Dean Kamen has an answer.
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=17636
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