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Weekly Science Picks

Kelly Burnes — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 07:43:48 +0000

Flying virus carrier. Photo credit: Jonathan H. Epstein/ EcoHealth Alliance

Well, it’s a new day in Australia with the election of Tony Abbott. It will be interesting to see what changes may be ahead for environmental laws and science.

But this is Weekly Science Picks and not a political roundup at the moment, so let’s get started on some of the fascinating stories in the world of science this week.

With H.I.V., SARS, and now MERS, a virus catalog seems like a good resource to have for future and potentially deadly epidemics.

A Catalog for All the World’s Viruses? by Carl Zimmer

In a new study published in the journal mBio, Dr. Anthony and his colleagues have taken an initial step toward such a catalog by exhaustively searching for all the viruses that infect a single species of mammal — a bat known as the Indian Flying Fox. They found 55 viruses, 50 of which are new to science.

If you had hopes of escaping planet Earth and heading to your lunar estate for some peace and quiet…well, you might need to think again.

Why we might not be able to live on the Moon by Philip Ball

A new paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters drives another nail into the coffin of lunar living. It suggests that what was at first taken to be bright, reflective ice in the Shackleton crater is in fact more likely to be white rock.

An intriguing story about land, mining and the afterlife.

Inside the Battle Over a Strip-Mine Cemetery by Pat Walters

To your rear will be 40 graves—old men and women, small children, veterans of conflicts from the Civil War to World War II—surrounded by a white, split-rail fence and a thin ring of trees. Underfoot: approximately four billion dollars’ worth of coal.

To cap off this week’s edition, a story by Australian Science’s own, Danielle Spencer. What an incredible job to engage children in science and guide them on their journeys of exploration and discovery of the world around them! Take a look at Danielle’s latest post about teaching a unit on space to her students.

Where does the Sun Go at Night? by Danielle Spencer

Now other than being highly entertaining to read, identifying children’s misconceptions is an important part of science teaching. Whilst admittedly some of the above responses may have been guesses, the children were asked to provide their best reason. The responses included here are a sample of the wide variety provided by the children.

Cite this article:
Burnes K (2013-09-08 07:43:48). Weekly Science Picks. Australian Science. Retrieved: Apr 28, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/news/weekly-science-picks-45/

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SignMedia: online learning tool for deaf media professionals

Editorial Board — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:20:34 +0000

SignMedia is an online learning resource that uses sign language to teach vocational written English to deaf media professionals. The project was proud to be a finalist in the recent MEDEA Awards 2012.

The world of broadcast media offers an increasingly rich source of employment for deaf graduates and professionals across Europe, but the focus on communication through written English still proves to be a barrier for sign language users. Essential production documentation contains challenging technical English, as do many of the instructions and descriptors used in software, hardware and on technological equipment.

The SignMedia project aims to break down these barriers with an innovative and accessible online learning resource that uses Sign Language video and interactive tasks. It has pushed boundaries further in eLearning design, bringing video narrative, and an immersive, alternative reality to deaf online education for the first time. To create an authentic media experience for the users, the learning takes place within a fictional deaf production company whilst working on the soap opera ‘Beautiful Days’. All learning
activities are designed around authentic media documentation taken from the production process, such as Risk Assessments, Call Sheets, Treatments and Scripts, thus enabling deaf users to develop language skills that are directly transferrable to their place of work.

The use of Sign Language videos and deaf presenters to teach written English is in itself an innovation. For many years, deaf people have been taught through the spoken word, but recent developments have seen a rise in sign bilingualism across Europe – a teaching method that promotes deaf culture and uses sign language as a method of delivery. Within the SignMedia learning tool, we were determined that Sign Language users would not feel like an afterthought, an ‘added extra’.

The visual medium of Sign Languages also means that print dictionaries are of limited use. As a result, it is a real challenge to make specialist language items and neologisms accessible to the wider deaf community and younger generations. This presents an obvious disadvantage to Sign Language users who wish to break into the media industry. SignMedia addresses this need with the inclusion of a signed glossary with language items selected by deaf and hearing media industry professionals.

Target users have described the tool as engaging, unique and fun. We were especially delighted when feedback revealed that the ‘alternative reality’ learning environment removed the threat and pressure that many deaf people have experienced in formal education. There has also been a powerful response to the Sign Language videos, with deaf adults revealing that they have understood English grammatical concepts for the first time after watching the clips.
The SignMedia project recognises the immense potential of combining the shared visual modalities of e-learning, media and Sign Language. The result is a product that uses contemporary media developments to reflect the vibrancy, creativity and professional aspirations of the deaf community. SignMedia was supported by Leonardo da Vinci Development of Innovation and the consortium included deaf and hearing teams from the University of Wolverhampton (UK), University of Klagenfurt (Austria), University of Turin (Italy) and Mutt&Jeff Pictures (UK). Visit the resource.

By Christine Jolly, University of Wolverhampton, UK

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Hands on Science in the Early Years

Katie McIntyre — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:28:34 +0000

Hands on science activities to engage students in scientific inquiry and investigation are key in the early years to develop skills and knowledge in all areas of science. No one knows this better than Mrs Suzanne Clarke who is the founder of the mini-scammers science club at Mitchelton State School, a feeder club for SC@M (Science Club at Mitchie).

Hands on learning in the early years.

Established just this year, the junior science club encourages students in the early years to formulate hypothesis, carry out experiments and discuss their findings with their peers directly mirroring the similar process used in later years. Student work in multi-aged groups to manipulate materials and equipment, generate solutions and compare their results. As Mrs Clarke highlights “this method of discovery learning engages all children and promotes the use of multiple intelligences

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Does my Science look big in this? October edition

Kevin Orrman-Rossiter — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 06:54:20 +0000

Science this month tackled many of the big questions: Where did life on Earth originate? How do we learn? How can we live healthy lives? and, What is it with scientists and sticky-tape?

Lithopanspermia is the idea that basic life forms are distributed throughout the universe via meteorite-like planetary fragments. Eventually, another planetary system’s gravity traps these roaming rocks, which can result in a transfer of any living cargo.

Researchers reported that under certain conditions there is a high probability that life came to Earth — or spread from Earth to other planets — during the solar system’s infancy when Earth and its planetary neighbors orbiting other stars would have been close enough to each other to exchange lots of solid material.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Previous research suggests that the speed with which solid matter hurtles through the cosmos makes the chances of being snagged by another object highly unlikely. This research reconsidered lithopanspermia under a low-velocity process called weak transfer in which solid materials meander out of the orbit of one large object and happen into the orbit of another. In this case, the researchers factored in velocities 50 times slower than previous estimates, or about 100 meters per second.

Using the star cluster in which our sun was born as a model, the team conducted simulations showing that at these lower speeds the transfer of solid material from one star’s planetary system to another could have been far more likely than previously thought.

The researchers suggest that ideal conditions for lithopanspermia in the sun's birth cluster, in the solar system and on Earth overlapped for several hundred million years (blue shaded area). Rock evidence suggests that the Earth (bottom line) contained surface water during a period when the relative velocities between the sun and its closest cluster neighbors (top line) were small enough to allow weak transfer to other planetary systems, and when the solar system (middle line) experienced high meteorite activity within the sun's weak gravitational boundary. If life arose on Earth shortly after surface water was available, life could have journeyed from Earth to another habitable world during this time, or vice versa if life had an early start in another planetary system. Image credit: Amaya Moro-Martín

The researchers suggest that of all the boulders cast off from our solar system and its closest neighbor, five to 12 out of 10,000 could have been captured by the other. Earlier simulations had suggested chances as slim as one in a million.

This research highlights that life could have originated away from earth. The theory that it did is yet to be demonstrated.

Research has again shown that you can indeed “teach old dogs new tricks.” The brain you have at any stage of your life is not necessarily the brain you are always going to have. It can still change, even for the better. This time however the researchers observed changes in the brain’s white matter.

Most people equate “gray matter” with the brain and its higher functions, such as sensation and perception, but this is only one part of the anatomical puzzle inside our heads. Another cerebral component is the white matter, which makes up about half the brain by volume and serves as the communications network.

The gray matter, with its densely packed nerve cell bodies, does the thinking, the computing, the decision-making. Projecting from these cell bodies are the axons – the network cables. They constitute the white matter. Its color derives from myelin – a fat that wraps around the axons, acting like insulation.

Human brain right dissected lateral view, showing grey matter (the darker outer parts), and white matter (the inner and prominently whiter parts). Photo credit: John A Beal, Dep't. of Cellular Biology & Anatomy, Louisiana State University

This study looked at a really complex, long-term learning process over time, actually looking at changes in individuals as they learn a language. The work demonstrates that significant changes in the mylenation were observed in adults as they were learning. This research demonstrates how learning is a many step process in our brain.

The flip-side of learning is the persistence of misinformation. Why does that kind of ‘learning’ stick? A new report explores this phenomenon. According to the researchers rejecting information actually requires cognitive effort. Weighing the plausibility and the source of a message is cognitively more difficult than simply accepting that the message is true. If the topic isn’t very important to you or you have other things on your mind, misinformation is more likely to take hold.

Misinformation is especially sticky when it conforms to our preexisting political, religious, or social point of view. Because of this, ideology and personal worldviews can be especially difficult obstacles to overcome.

Even worse, efforts to retract misinformation often backfire, paradoxically amplifying the effect of the erroneous belief.

Though misinformation may be difficult to correct, all is not lost. According to the report, these strategies can set the record straight.

Provide people with a narrative that replaces the gap left by false information
Focus on the facts you want to highlight, rather than the myths
Make sure that the information you want people to take away is simple and brief
Consider your audience and the beliefs they are likely to hold
Strengthen your message through repetition

Research has shown that attempts at “debiasing

Cite this article:
Orrman-Rossiter K (2012-10-01 06:54:20). Does my Science look big in this? October edition. Australian Science. Retrieved: Apr 28, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/science-2/does-my-science-look-big-in-this-october-edition/

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Harvard and MIT offer free online education materials

Danica Radovanovic — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:27:33 +0000

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced last week the launch of edX, a transformational partnership and initiative in online education. EdX presents a not-for-profit joint venture between these two institutions that will collaborate to “enhance campus-based teaching and learning and build a global community of online learners

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