Futurity.org » Syracuse University

For better test results, swap topics often

Judy Holmes-Syracuse — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:20:07 +0000

SYRACUSE U./ INDIANA U. (US) — Students of all ages might improve their test scores if the category of information changed abruptly midway through the test, according to a new study.

“The simple act of testing harms memory,” says Amy Criss, assistant professor of psychology at Syracuse University. “Previous studies have shown that people are more accurate in their responses to questions at the beginning of a test than they are at the end of a test.

Invasive plants boast autumn advantage

Judy Holmes-Syracuse — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:50:58 +0000

SYRACUSE U. (US) — Invasive plants have a critical advantage—their leaves continue to function in the fall, long after their native cousins have hunkered down for the winter.

The findings, based on deciduous forests in the Eastern United States, are counter to conventional wisdom, which held that plants living under the forest leafy canopy obtain most of their food via photosynthesis in the spring and early summer before the canopy blocks the amount of sunlight getting to the shrubs.

“It’s a classic case of scientific serendipity,” says study author Jason Fridley, assistant professor of biology at Syracuse University whose findings are published in Nature.

Clues to climate from rare cold-water mineral

Judy Holmes-Syracuse — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:45:01 +0000

SYRACUSE U. (US) — Geochemists are using a rare mineral that forms in cold waters to unlock clues about past climate hidden in the fossil record.

Composed of calcium carbonate and water, ikaite crystals can be found off the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland.

Comparing health issues may help or hurt

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:57:32 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — Comparing yourself to others with the same health problem can affect your physical and emotional health, say researchers.

“If you’ve ever looked at another person and thought, ‘Well, at least I’m doing better than he is,’ or ‘Wow, I wish I could be doing as well as she is,’ you’re not alone,” says Josh Smyth, professor of biobehavioral health and of medicine at Penn State University.

Chew hormone gum, lose weight?

Judy Holmes-Syracuse — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:12:53 +0000

SYRACUSE (US) — Fighting weight gain may one day be as easy as chewing a stick of gum after meals, according to new research.

Syracuse University chemist Robert Doyle and colleagues have demonstrated, for the first time, that a critical hormone that helps people feel “full” after eating can be delivered into the bloodstream orally. Findings are published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Mineral on Mars needs water to form

Judy Holmes-Syracuse — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:18:35 +0000

SYRACUSE U. (US) — A mineral common to both Mars and Earth may be an effective tool in determining when and under what conditions water was present on the red planet.

The mineral jarosite, that can only form in the presence of water, is evident in rocks analyzed by the Mars Rover Opportunity. Researchers have established “diffusion parameters” for argon in the mineral. In other words, they discovered a way to use the noble gas argon, which accumulates in jarosite over time, to determine the age of the mineral and the surface conditions under which it formed.

What matters in universe’s asymmetry

Judy Holmes-Syracuse — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:17:38 +0000

SYRACUSE U. (US) — A study of the decay of a rare particle present right after the Big Bang could help solve the mystery of why the universe evolved to have more matter than antimatter.

Using scientific data from experiments on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, researchers observed the decomposition of a special type of B meson, created when protons traveling at nearly the speed of light smash into each other.

Cells get smart to suit environment

Ariel DuChene-Syracuse — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:25:15 +0000

SYRACUSE U. (US) — Shape memory polymers are offering new insight into how cells sense and respond to their physical environment.

Applications of the principles could offer potential solutions for current limitations of static substrate research in bioengineering research, such as medical devices and tissue engineering scaffolds.

Shape memory materials get smarter

Ariel DuChene-Syracuse — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:06:44 +0000

SYRACUSE U. (US) — Researchers have added a sophisticated twist to a class of smart materials that can switch between two shapes via heating and cooling.

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) function as actuators by first forming a heated article into a temporary shape and cooling. Then, by using a second stimulus (i.e. heat), the article can spring back to its original shape.

Your brain can’t get enough love

Sara Miller-Syracuse — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:30:06 +0000

SYRACUSE U. (US) — When a person falls in love, 12 areas of the brain work in tandem to release the same euphoric feeling as using cocaine, according to a new study.

The love feeling, which only takes about a fifth of a second to occur, also affects sophisticated cognitive functions, such as mental representation, metaphors, and body image.