Futurity.org » University of Washington

Earthquake sensors on seafloor track whale songs

Hannah Hickey-UW — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:17:17 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — Seafloor earthquake sensors are an inexpensive and noninvasive way to monitor the movements of fin whales that are vulnerable to collision with fast-moving ships.

Fin whales are the second-largest animal ever to live on Earth—but paradoxically are also one of the least understood because their huge size and global range make movements and behavior hard to study.

Can eating peppers help prevent Parkinson’s?

Vince Stricherz-UW — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:15:20 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — Eating peppers may reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease, a new study suggests.

Peppers are in the same botanical family as tobacco, and research has shown that dietary sources of nicotine may prove protective.

Hundreds of possible ways to starve cancer

Michelle Falling-Columbia — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:04:41 +0000

COLUMBIA U. (US) — An analysis of gene expression from 22 types of tumors has come up with hundreds of potential drug targets that could cut off cancer’s fuel supply.

Scientists say the results should ramp up research into drugs that interfere with cancer metabolism, a field that dominated cancer research in the early 20th century and has recently undergone a renaissance.

Why beers warm up faster in humid weather

Hannah Hickey-UW — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:08:05 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — Condensation on a can of beer or soda provides more heat than the surrounding air, which means humid weather warms up your drink more than twice as much as dry heat does.

“Probably the most important thing a beer koozie does is not simply insulate the can, but keep condensation from forming on the outside of it,” says Dale Durran, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.

He’s co-author of results published in the April issue of Physics Today that give the exact warming for a range of plausible summer temperatures and humidity levels. For example, on the hottest, most humid day in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, condensation alone would warm a can from near-freezing temperature to 48 degrees Fahrenheit in just five minutes.

Super-Earth planets snug ‘in the zone’

Peter Kelley-U. Washington — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:05:00 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — Astronomers have discovered perhaps the most Earth-like planet yet found outside our solar system.

Researchers say Kepler 62f is a small, probably rocky planet orbiting a sunlike star in the Lyra constellation. The planet is about 1.4 times the size of Earth, receives about half as much solar flux, or heat and radiation, as Earth and circles its star in 267.3 (Earth) days.

West Antarctic ice loss still within normal range

Vince Stricherz-UW — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:48:09 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — Glaciers at the edge of the icy continent of Antarctica have been thinning dramatically, but the changes can’t be attributed with confidence to human-caused global warming, according to new ice core research.

Previous work has shown that rapid thinning of Antarctic glaciers, which contributes significantly to sea level rise, was accompanied by accelerated warming and changes in atmospheric circulation near the coast. The research showed that the majority of Antarctic warming came during the 1990s in response to El Niño conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

Testosterone pumps up threats for tough guys

Brooke Donald-Stanford — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:03:35 +0000

STANFORD (US) — The higher a man’s testosterone level, the more macho he’s likely to act when his masculinity is threatened, a new study finds.

Robb Willer, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University, has been studying masculinity since he was a graduate student, lending empirical data to the popular beliefs about emasculation.

Hear the Big Bang in high fidelity

Vince Stricherz-UW — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:17:03 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — New high-frequency audio recreates the likely sound just after the Big Bang—when the entire universe was ringing.

A decade ago, spurred by a question for a fifth-grade science project, University of Washington physicist John Cramer devised an audio recreation of the Big Bang that started our universe nearly 14 billion years ago.

Gene tied to double Alzheimer’s risk in African Americans

Michelle Falling-Columbia — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:57:20 +0000

COLUMBIA (US) — African Americans with a specific gene variant have almost double the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease compared with African Americans who lack the variant.

The ABCA7 gene is involved in the production of cholesterol and lipids, which suggests that lipid metabolism may be a more important pathway in Alzheimer’s disease in African Americans than in whites.

Can nuclear fusion get us to Mars?

Michelle Ma-Washington — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:30:16 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — To get astronauts to Mars, scientists are working with nuclear fusion—the same energy that powers the sun and stars.

Scientists are building components of a fusion-powered rocket aimed to clear many of the hurdles that block deep space travel, including long times in transit, exorbitant costs, and health risks.