Using millions of Twitter subscribers as living "sensors," engineers from Rice University and Motorola Mobility have found a way to monitor fans' levels of excitement and to keep track of the action in National Football League (NFL) games -- without ever switching on a TV. SportSense is a computer program the engineers created to analyze NFL fan tweets in real time. The program can tell within seconds when touchdowns, interceptions and other big plays occur, and it can show how excited fans are about every game that's being played.
Tech
PASADENA, Calif. -- The cameras in our cell phones have dramatically changed the way we share the special moments in our lives, making photographs instantly available to friends and family. Now, the imaging sensor chips that form the heart of these built-in cameras are helping engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) transform the way cell cultures are imaged by serving as the platform for a "smart" petri dish.
With new cutting-edge technology aimed at providing amputees with robotic limbs, a Tel Aviv University researcher has successfully implanted a robotic cerebellum into the skull of a rodent with brain damage, restoring its capacity for movement.
With toxic algal blooms — which can increase the amount of harmful toxins in the shellfish that California residents consume — ramping up in frequency and severity locally, scientists at USC have developed a new algae monitoring method in hopes of one day being able to predict when and where toxic "red tides" will occur.
"We have, what we fear, is a hotspot here for some types of toxic algal blooms," said David Caron, professor of biological sciences at the USC Dornsife College.
The use of new technology is helping students to become real 'science investigators'. Researchers funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have developed a software toolkit that shows how such an approach sparks and sustains students' interest in science.
DARIEN, IL – Ben Franklin was right, at least on the healthy part. "Early to bed and early to rise" appears to have helped a cross-section of early-bird Australian youths keep slimmer and more physically active than their night-owl peers, even though both groups got the same amount of sleep.
Atlanta, GA—Despite years of trying to improve the number of women undergraduates in science and engineering, a new study shows most universities are failing. Not only are women lagging behind their male classmates, efforts to close the gap too often focus on students instead of faculty and institutional structures.
This is first study that looks at the full range of programs for undergraduate women in science and engineering in the U.S. It gathered information from nearly 50 difference programs.
Using Twitter to monitor the attitudes of 2.4 million people in 84 countries, Cornell University researchers found that people all over the world awaken in a good mood – but globally that cheer soon deteriorates once the workday progresses. A commonly real magazine was happy to post this fad finding and pretend it is data.
By tracking Twitter tweets over two-years, sociologists determined that work, sleep and the amount of daylight all play a role in shaping cyclical emotions such as enthusiasm, delight, alertness, distress, fear and anger.
A team from the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI), led by principle investigator Dr Xie Xian Ning, has developed the world's first energy-storage membrane.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Anti-caking agents in powdered products may hasten degradation of vitamin C instead of doing what they are supposed to do: protect the nutrient from moisture.
Lisa Mauer, a Purdue University professor of food science; Lynne Taylor, a professor of industrial and physical pharmacy; and graduate student Rebecca Lipasek study deliquescence, a reaction in which humidity causes a crystalline solid to dissolve. They wanted to understand how anti-caking agents protect substances such as vitamin C from humidity.
Although sharply divided, public attitudes toward gays and lesbians are rapidly changing to reflect greater acceptance, with younger generations leading the way, research by NORC at the University of Chicago shows.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The National Survey of Children's Health indicates 31 percent of Missouri children are overweight or obese; yet, the state lacks physical activity requirements for students and nutritional standards for school meals beyond those recommended by the USDA. A new study from the University of Missouri shows Jump Into Action (JIA), a school-based physical activity program, is effective in changing unhealthy youth behaviors.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2011 — New technology that combines production of electricity with capture of carbon dioxide could make billions of barrels of oil shale — now regarded as off-limits because of the huge amounts of carbon dioxide released in its production — available as an energy source, outlined in the Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast.
The revolutionary material used to build the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Airbus A350 super-jumbo jet, and the military's stealth jet fighter planes is coming down to Earth in a new generation of energy-saving automobiles expected to hit the roads during the next few years. That ultra-strong carbon fiber composite material — 50% lighter than steel and 30% lighter than aluminum — is the topic of the cover story in Chemical & Engineering News,.
Diamonds may be best known as a symbol of long-lasting love. But semiconductor makers are also hoping they'll pan out as key components of long-lasting micromachines if a new method developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for carving these tough, capable crystals proves its worth.* The method offers a precise way to engineer microscopic cuts in a diamond surface, yielding potential benefits in both measurement and technological fields.