Saturn moon Iapetus' huge landslides stir intrigue - BBC News

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Rare Burst of Melting Seen in Greenland's Ice Sheet - New York Times

SUMMER SALE! Save 50% on a Times Subscription. Ends 7/31. GO NOW&raquo;<br />http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/science/earth/rare-burst-of-melting-seen-in-greenland-ice-sheet.html

In memoriam: 'Ride, Sally, Ride' - msnbc.com

Eileen Collins, NASA's first woman shuttle commander:"I am surprised and saddened by the news of Sally Ride&rsquo;s passing.&nbsp; She was such a wonderful role model and source of inspiration to me.&nbsp; People around the world still recognize her name as the first American woman in space, and she took that title seriously even after departing NASA.&nbsp; She mentored me several times during my astronaut career, leaving me with many cherished memories.&nbsp; She never sought media attention for herself, but rather focused on doing her normally outstanding job. &nbsp;Her Sally Ride Science programs have reached thousands of middle-school girls, giving them the confidence to stay focused on math and science, even when the mass media message was otherwise.&nbsp; She also played a notable role in both the Challenger and Columbia accident investigations.&nbsp; Sally left us too soon. Godspeed, Sally, you will be greatly missed."Now that Ride has passed away at the age of 61, af!
ter battling pancreatic cancer for 17 months, there's be another posthumous surge of celebrity. Once again, there'll be chatter about Ride's&nbsp;illness, which she reportedly asked NASA not to publicize, as well as her&nbsp;personal relationships. But for now, the focus should be squarely on her contribution to&nbsp;space exploration &mdash; as the woman who broke the space barrier, who helped investigate two of NASA's toughest tragedies, who helped shape America's space vision, and who fostered the next generation of explorers through such ventures as Sally Ride Science, EarthKAM and MoonKAM. That's the legacy that comes through loud and clear in the tributes from the White House and NASA, as well as the tributes from these other luminaries:<br />http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/23/12913149-in-memoriam-ride-sally-ride

Dumping Iron Into Oceans Could Sink Carbon, Slow Global Warming - iScienceTimes.com

This type of geoengineering - large-scale manipulation of the climate - has been controversial, but this is the first experiment to show that the technique works. At the end of the 2004 summer season, scientists fertilized an ocean eddy in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica with 7 tons of dissolved iron, prompting the growth of small plant-like organisms called phytoplankton.The study was the first convincing evidence that carbon, absorbed by algae, can sink to the ocean bed. If this organic matter settles into the deep ocean, it may not reach the surface for centuries or millennia, depending on ocean circulation, lead researcher Victor Smetacek said, according to CBS News.<br />http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/3469/20120720/dumping-iron-oceans-sink-carbon-slow-global.htm

Hubble spots spiral galaxy that shouldn't exist - Los Angeles Times

It is not suprising that the astronomers made the claim that the galazy shoudn't exist, they simply don't understand how the big bang worked. As the massive materials were being created and spun around due to their inherent angular momentum they formed all the galaxies at the same time and as the galaxies kept expanding and spiralling outwards more material formed the stars. Planets were only formed later as the nucleosunthesis produced the heavier elements. Fusion stoped at the iron Nickel limit and there was a collapse which produced the elements beyond nickel and the recoil after the collapse ejected the various planets. The idea is very simple and easy to understand if you have the mental capacity to do so.&nbsp;A team headed by astronomer David R. Law of the University of Toronto, a former graduate student at UCLA, used the Hubble to observe more than 300 distant galaxies and study their properties. One of the galaxies, named BX442, appeared unusual, and the team used t!
he W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to study it further. At first, the astronomers thought that it was an illusion of a spiral galaxy caused by the accidental alignment of two galaxies in the images. But studies of spectra from more than 3,600 locations in and around the galaxy revealed that it is, indeed, a rotating spiral galaxy, they reported in the journal Nature.<br />http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-spiral-galaxy-20120718,0,4789994.story?track%3Drss

Institutional Mission and University

University administration should generate a pool of creative ideas for faculty members. When designing an academic research project, professors know the general preferences of a university, but not necessarily specific policy of their own university.

http://higher-education.criticpen.com/article/institutional-mission-university-priorities-m4z9

Huge ice island breaks away from Greenland glacier - TG Daily

<br />http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/64769-huge-ice-island-breaks-away-from-greenland-glacier

Stone tools focus picture of ancient Americans - Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

University of Oregon archaeologist Dennis Jenkins says that indicates the Clovis style of chipping stone tools was not the mother of Stone Age technology. He says the two styles were developed independently by different groups that may have taken separate routes through the continent after crossing the Ice Age land bridge from Asia.GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) â€" Stone tools and human DNA from ancient caves in Oregon offer new evidence of how some of the first Americans spread through the continent: Quite apart from the better-known Clovis culture, a separate group occupied the West.<br />http://www.timesleader.com/stories/Stone-tools-focus-picture-of-ancient-Americans-,175387

University as a Country

The structure of a university is very similar to a country, and its management system too; a smaller society but utopia, due to its sophisticated community. Factors like national benefits, patriotism, and nostalgia are all (and must be) the case in a smaller scale. Even outsiders (usually in administrative roles) are expected to behave like loyal alumni, learn the school alma mater, and become interested in in the major sport teams, and other traditional functions of the university. This practical allegory is to utilize available models. The athletic success in Olympic is of political important (not just fun) for a country, it is the same for a university fame (for attracting students). The reasons and motivations of students for attending a university are like those of immigration. Thus, university leadership should empower its own country through united national strategies. This is the reason that today’s university essential needs to implement change. The ratio of people living in developed country to those living in developing countries from one to two (in 1995) is approaching one to four (in 2010)


http://higher-education.criticpen.com/article/university-as-a-country-m4zc

Q and A: Critical 'Arseniclife' studies released - USA TODAY

We did not initiate our work to falsify the claim in the first place, but to investigate whether there is "something" to the hypothesis that arsenic at least partly substitutes phosphorylated compounds or whether an altered metabolism could be observed in consequence of the presence of arsenic. Automatically disregarding new hypotheses and experimental data does not lead to advancements in science. Note that scientific progress strongly depends on new hypotheses. As scientists, we generate and test new ideas and hypotheses. These hypotheses are then experimentally challenged - this is scientific every days business.The original research by Felisa Wolfe-Simon and colleagues, published online by Science at the Science Express Web site on 2 December 2010, had proposed that GFAJ-1 substitutes arsenic for a small amount of the phosphorus in its DNA and other molecules. If true, such a finding would have important implications for our understanding of life's basic requirements sin!
ce all known forms of life on Earth use six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Arsenic is typically toxic to living organisms, but its chemical properties are similar to those of phosphorus.<br />http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2012/07/reaction-roundup-critical-arseniclife-studies-released/1

Swirling ocean prompts plankton blooms, suggests study - Christian Science Monitor

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The North Atlantic is currently bursting with color as blooms of microscopic plants erupt on the surface of the chilly sea. But these expanses of plankton, which provide the basis for the area's food chain and help take in enormous quantities of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, wouldn't be possible without swirling currents on the surface to keep them afloat, new research finds.<br />http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0706/Swirling-ocean-prompts-plankton-blooms-suggests-study