Jan 9, 2013 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Physics & Mathematics, Space, Technology, Uncategorized
Research by University of Arizona astronomy professor Rodger Thompson finds that a popular alternative to Albert Einstein’s theory for the acceleration of the expansion of the universe does not fit newly obtained data on a fundamental constant, the proton to electron...
Jan 8, 2013 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Physics & Mathematics, Technology
With the first explosions of atomic bombs, the world became witness to one of the most important and consequential principles in physics: Energy and mass, fundamentally speaking, are the same thing and can, in fact, be converted into each other. This was first...
Dec 4, 2012 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Technology, Uncategorized
Rain in Southern Arizona is scarce and precious to begin with, but the afternoon shower that soaked the soil 25 miles north of Tucson on Nov. 29 was unusual in several ways. Spouting from a network of pipes, thousands of gallons of water drizzled down onto the...
Oct 4, 2012 | Brain & Behavior, Life & Non-humans, Uncategorized
A compassion-based meditation program can significantly improve a person’s ability to read the facial expressions of others, finds a study published by Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. This boost in empathic accuracy was detected through both behavioral...
Sep 4, 2012 | Brain & Behavior, Health, Uncategorized
Researchers at Emory University have found that a medication that inhibits inflammation may offer new hope for people with difficult-to-treat depression. The study was published Sept. 3 in the online version of Archives of General Psychiatry. “Inflammation is...
Jul 22, 2012 | Brain & Behavior, Health, Uncategorized
A new study shows that a therapeutic intervention called Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) appears to improve the mental and physical health of adolescents in foster care. CBCT is a tool that provides strategies for people to develop more compassionate...
Jun 26, 2012 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Health, Technology, Uncategorized
Need to do some serious multitasking? Some training in meditation beforehand could make the work smoother and less stressful, new research from the University of Washington shows. Work by UW Information School professors David Levy and Jacob Wobbrock suggests that...
May 25, 2012 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Space, Uncategorized
Scientists on NASA’s asteroid sample return mission, Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), have measured the orbit of their destination asteroid, 1999 RQ36, with such accuracy they were able to...
Mar 25, 2012 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Physics & Mathematics, Space, Uncategorized
Astronomers have begun to blast 3 million cubic feet of rock from a mountaintop in the Chilean Andes to make room for what will be the world’s largest telescope when completed near the end of the decade. The telescope will be located at the Carnegie...
Mar 19, 2012 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Physics & Mathematics, Space, Technology, Uncategorized
Computer simulations have revealed a plausible explanation for a phenomenon that has puzzled astronomers: Rather than occupying orbits at regular distances from a star, giant gas planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn appear to prefer to occupy certain regions in...
