Tag: science research

5 Amazing Life Lessons from the One & Only, Albert Einstein!!

 

Albert Einstein has long been considered a genius by the masses. He was a theoretical physicist, philosopher, author, and is perhaps the most influential scientists to ever live. In honor of this science icon and to say ‘Happy Birthday Einstein,” we thought we’d share one of our favorite archived e-news articles from March 2013! 

Einstein has made great contributions to the scientific world, including the theory of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the prediction of the deflection of light by gravity, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation, to name a few of his scientific contributions.

Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” He’s published more than 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works. Einstein is considered the father of modern physics and is probably the most successful scientist there ever was.

But, you don’t have to be a physicist or an elite research scientist to take away from what Einstein had to offer. We don’t tap often enough into the words of wisdom Einstein shared with the world. From the simply stated to the profoundly put, there’s a lot we can take away from Einstein’s words.

Everyday brings a new opportunity to put his teachings to good use in our personal lives. In celebration of Albert Einstein’s birthday, we bring you 5 Amazing Lessons You Can Learn from Albert Einstein! 

These quotes are just a few of our favorites that show how Einstein reached people all throughout  walks of life – Do you have a favorite lesson from Albert Einstein? We want to know which of them resonates with you in your life!

Leave us your thoughts below – We always look forward to hearing what our readers have to say!

Chickadees, Blue Jays, and Robins Oh My …Join the Backyard Bird Count 2012!

backyard bird count

The 2012 Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) takes place from Friday, February 17 through Monday, February 22. Each year, volunteers across the country tally the birds they see in backyards, parks and natural areas. Last year, GBBC participants racked up more than 11 million observations and identified 596 species! Counting birds during GBBC helps scientists gain a snapshot of how winter bird populations are changing across North America over the years by documenting things like:

  • Rare sightings: In 2011, a Brown Shrike was spotted in California, far from its home in Asia. A Swainson’s Thrush, which usually winters in Central and South America, was reported in North Carolina.
  • Population Changes: American Crow numbers fell after being hard hit by West Nile virus in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but recent GBBC data shows that the population may be rebounding. Future data will help scientists determine if the crow population is really recovering.
  • Spread of Invasive Species: The Eurasian Collared-Dove is an invasive species that was introduced in Florida in the 1980s and has expanded its range ever since. In 1999, the dove’s range covered eight states. In 2011, it had expanded to 40 states, including Alaska – its most northerly reach yet.

Viewer Tip: Collecting all this data would be impossible without the help of thousands of volunteers. Anyone can participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count by tallying birds for at least 15 minutes on any day of the count. Simple instructions for counting and reporting birds are available at www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html. You can also find regional bird checklists, photo galleries, resources for kids and more!

The Northern Cardinal and Mourning Dove were the two most frequently reported birds during last year’s count.Click here for high resolution photos for media use in conjunction with reports about the Great Backyard Bird Count.

How Does Santa Do It? Science of Course!

All those presents, all those kids, how does Santa do it?  North Carolina State University’s Dr. Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering let’s in on Santa’s secrets to getting what seems impossible done in one night.

According to Dr. Silverberg, Santa uses nanotechnology to miniaturize the presents (solving the problem of the bulk) along with what he calls “relativity clouds” which bend time and space to allow Santa the needed time to visit all those homes.

What seems like a blink of the eye to us outside the cloud, is months to Santa and his trusty team of reindeer.

Still, reindeer are equipped with jet packs to increase their speed. Dr. Silverberg is a aerospace engineer after all.  The naughty vs.  nice tracking is done with a powerful listening network.

Read more in the researchers blog here or read the NC State news release

Don’t forget, NORAD will get in on the Santa business again this year with   their Santa Tracker.  I’m going to tag this with “manned spaceflight” for obvious reasons!

Gamers Help Decipher Structure of AIDS Virus in 3 Weeks!

 

In only three weeks, gamers did what scientists weren’t able to do in a decade: they’ve deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an HIV-like virus. This isn’t some silly “Let’s Cure AIDS!” game or “Science Research Tycoon” we’re talking about here – it’s the real deal. We’re also not talking about charity work. We’re talking about real, honest to goodness, hands on science. It’s the latest example of games for good, and it might just be the key to a better understanding of retroviruses like HIV.

Foldit is a free game developed by the University of Washington in which different competing groups of gamers race to unfold chains of amino acids. Science folks will tell you that amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and unfolding them will give the scientific community a valuable model to examine and better understand its makeup. Gamers, however, will tell you that unfolding a chain of amino acid is a puzzle. A great big, surprisingly rewarding, puzzle. And gamers completing these puzzles is actually making the world a better place.

But why gamers? Couldn’t a computer just as easily automate the task? “People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at,” says Seth Cooper, one of Foldit’s creators. “We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed,” adds Firas Khatib of the university’s biochemistry lab. “The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems.”

So the next time someone tells you that video games are a waste of time, just send them a link to this post.  Better yet – just send them to download Foldit.

Get the full story on Yahoo!

 

Unprecedented Scientific City To Be Built in New Mexico!

There are all kinds of ghost towns around the globe. There’s an abandoned city in Latvia that was up for auction.  There are multiple small former communities in Antarctica, which are present day ghost towns. At one point, there was even a ghost town amusement park, abandoned in the heart of New Orleans.  This past  Tuesday, a Washington based technilogical co mpany mad e the big announcement of a new, modern day ghost town that  sounds straight out of the movie- Back To The Future.

There is no doubt that this brand-spanking new “city of the future” would make Doc proud! New Mexico is already home to several of the nation’s premier scientific, nuclear and military institutions.

The 20-square-mile model of a small US city named “The Center,” will be  used to test everything from renewable energy innovations to intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks and smart-grid cyber security systems.  No one will live in The City but it will be modeled after a typical American town of 35,000 people, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings, old and new.

The Center is an unprecedented science project that will allow private companies, not for profits, educational institutions and government agencies to test in a unique facility with real world infrastructure, allowing them to better understand the cost and potential limitations of new technologies. For instance, developers of solar technology will be able to assess exactly how their systems would best be delivered and used in one house where the thermostat is set at 78, and another where it’s set at 68. The center could also help show how efficient it might be in an old building versus a new one.

You can read more about the announcement of The Center on the Washington Post website by clicking here: