Key Media Mentions November 2013
Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013
Earth’s Giant Ear Marks 50 Years of Listening for Signals From the Cosmos - Wired.com Nov. 1, 2013
The Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope is the largest single dish in the world. Here, the platform above the dish is illuminated by the afternoon light. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)
A 1960 photo of the sinkhole that would later hold the world’s largest radio telescope. Already, some land is being moved to make way for the dish. (Photo courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)
ARECIBO, Puerto Rico — The Arecibo Observatory, home of the world’s largest single radio telescope, celebrates its 50th birthday today. In that half-century, the giant, iconic dish and its three towers have become a symbol of the quest to understand the cosmos and whether we are alone in the universe...After two failed launches in 1968, the final available rocket set the pre-dawn sky above the observatory ablaze with the brilliance of a second sun as Earth’s home star illuminated the barium cloud. When the cloud ionized and broke apart – the charged particles being guided by magnetic fields — it changed color. “I went outside and looked up at the sky, and wow,” said space physicist Herb Carlson, now at Utah State University, who worked on that early experiment. “It looked like a bull’s eye – different colors, and with rings.”
Invention Offers Solution for Dangerous Space Debris - KSL.com Nov. 4 2013
SALT LAKE CITY — Some high-tech items created by scientists with Utah ties may make it safer for astronaut to do their job.
Imagine driving along a crowded freeway, but instead of using marked lanes, cars are traveling in every direction. Plus, you're traveling at several thousand miles an hour...Utah State University Adjunct Professor Gil Moore said there was a lot of debris caused by the Chinese government several years back when they blew up one of their own spacecraft."They created an enormous cloud of debris which really complicated all of the other nations' problems of trying to keep debris from running into their professional, military and national satellites," he said...
Staying Alive In the High and Dry - Innovations.com Nov. 6, 2013
The vast sagebrush landscapes of the western United States are one of the largest ecosystems in North America....Long, cold winters and hot, dry summers characterize these cold desert ecosystems and create bone-dry soils during seasonal droughts. New research published this week from MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) senior scientist Zoe Cardon, John Stark (Utah State University), and their two former students, sheds light on how desert plants gain nutrients they desperately need—even in the driest circumstances.
Nobel Winner lectures Utah State students on Learning Economics - Deserest News Nov. 13, 2013
Vernon L. Smith, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, provided a guest lecture on Wednesday to students in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.Nobel Prize winner Vernon Smith spoke to students at Utah State University's Jon M. Huntsman School of Business on Wednesday...
Nov 14, 2013
“Hydraulic Lifts” Discovered in the Root of Desert Plants - Softpedia.com Nov. 14, 2013
Sagebrush have very deep roots featuring hydraulic lifts that easily bring water to the surface from deep underground Enlarge picture - Sagebrush have very deep roots featuring hydraulic lifts that easily bring water to the surface from deep underground. A group of scientists from the Utah State University and the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) recently determined how stubborn desert vegetation such as sagebrush are able to survive in the desert even during prolonged and severe droughts...
A Talk With Lars Peter Hansen, Nobel Laureate - FreeNews.com Nov. 16, 2013
Nobel Economics Prize: American trio of scientists receive 2013 economics award
....Q. O.K., let’s move off that for a while. Tell me about yourself, your background. How did you get into economics?
A. It took me a while. I was a troublemaker in high school.
A. Yes, my father was an itinerant academic and my parents moved me from Michigan to Utah at age 16, and in my last years of high school, I was a very erratic performer. I would bring home double check marks for “does not respect authority,” and so my option for college was basically to go to college where I was living. That was Utah State University. My dad, a biochemist, was provost there at the time.Once I got to college, I had to shift into a higher gear. First I tried chemistry except I found I didn’t like lab work. I got into mathematics quite early. And I was a political science major. My junior year I finally decided to explore economics.
Women Fret More Over Weight Gain in College - Kuam.com Nov. 21, 2013
THURSDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- It's true that college students tend to pack on extra pounds, but women are more likely to be troubled by that weight gain than men, according to a new study....The gender differences "are probably not too surprising when you think about it," said Heidi Wengreen, associate professor of nutrition, dietetics and nutritional sciences at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, who was not involved with the study.
Nov 23, 2013
Wasp Genus Abernessia Gets Two New Species - Softpedia.com Nov. 23, 2013
Two new wasp species from the genus Abernessia discovered in Brazil Enlarge picture - Two new wasp species from the genus Abernessia discovered in Brazil....Researchers from the Utah State University (USU) announce the discovery of two new wasp species from the genus Abernessia, which is one of the rarest on the planet. With this new finding, the total number of species in the genus has just jumped from two to four.
Divorce can seriously affect men's health - Netdoctor.com Nov. 30, 2013
Divorce can have serious and negative repercussions for men's health, according to a new study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Indiana University and Utah State University in the US. The team discovered that divorced and unmarried men have mortality rates up to 250 per cent higher than married men due to illnesses like cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke. They also display higher rates of substance abuse and depression, as well as being 39 per cent more likely to commit suicide than their married counterparts and ten per cent more likely to need psychiatric care....
(Deseret News, 11/13/2013)
(Soft Pedia, 11/14/2013)
(New York Times, 11/16/2013)
(Soft Pedia, 11/23/2013)
(Net Doctor, 11/30/2013)