Entries in "Science and Technology"
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January 03, 2007
Our Top 20 stories from Earth to Pluto
Columbus Dispatch, January 2, 2007
Science produced headlines in 2006: The public and politicians, shocked by high gasoline prices, rediscovered alternative energy during the spring and summer. "We've been ignoring alternative energy for so long, bioethanol, and wind energy is becoming quietly competitive," said Tom Zawodzinski, a fuel cell researcher at Case Western Reserve University. Later in the article, Dan Akerib, a physicist and dark-matter researcher at Case, is quoted on the topic of dark matter, which is considered to be the glue of the universe. Read article.
December 20, 2006
Research knows no holiday
Columbus Dispatch, December 19, 2006
Many scientists who work at academic centers must squeeze their field research into a couple of months during the summer and several weeks between the end of fall classes and the beginning of winter classes. That often means working through Christmas and New Year's, and leaving loved ones behind for work. Ralph Harvey, a geologist at Case Western Reserve University, has spent 16 Christmases in Antarctica, scouring the continent for meteorites. Read article.
December 19, 2006
Pollock paintings not so easy to spot
San Francisco Chronicle, December 18, 2006
Finding a Jackson Pollock painting is the art world's equivalent of a winning lottery ticket. But proving a Pollock painting's authenticity isn't easy, which is why physicist Richard Taylor's theory that the famed artist's work can be identified using fractals has stirred such interest and controversy. "I firmly believe his analysis is seriously flawed," said Kate Jones-Smith, a third-year doctoral student in physics at Case Western Reserve University. Read article.
December 18, 2006
Ohio awards nearly $168 million in high-tech grants
Akron Beacon Journal, December 15, 2006
Nine high-tech projects will receive a total of about $168 million in grants from the Ohio Third Frontier program, including a $60 million award to the Cleveland Clinic for a new heart research center, the state announced. Swagelok Co., a Solon-based business that makes industrial valves and fittings, received $5.5 million to work with Case Western Reserve University on its patented process of carburizing steel—using carbon to make steel harder and less vulnerable to corrosion—at a low temperature. Read article.
December 07, 2006
Rich in fiber
Tucson Weekly, December 7, 2006
Could a concept from America's Rust Belt be used to technologically improve Sun Belt Tucson? Local advocates hope so, and look for action on the idea in 2007. To increase interconnections between public and nonprofit organizations, OneCleveland was created on the banks of Lake Erie. OneCleveland has acquired fiber-optic lines unused by commercial companies. Lev Gonick, vice president of information services at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, came up with the idea, and lists both connectivity and the new technological applications it allows as the system's chief advantages. Read article.
December 05, 2006
Theoreticians ponder why we exist: Scientists debate how anthropic reasoning predicts cosmological constant
MSNBC.com, December 4, 2006
The emergence of humans in the universe might not tell us anything concerning the fundamental constants of nature as scientists have speculated, new theoretical findings argue. The idea known as the anthropic principle states that human existence is possible only if fundamental constants such as the speed of light or the strength of gravity are not higher or lower than what is observed. However, theoretical physicist Glenn Starkman of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and cosmologist Roberto Trotta at Oxford University in England take issue with how anthropic reasoning predicts the cosmological constant. Read article.
December 04, 2006
The case of Pollock's fractals focuses on physics
New York Times, December 2, 2006
In an article published this week in the prestigious science journal Nature, two physicists contend that a method intended to identify complex geometric patterns in the seemingly chaotic drip paintings of Jackson Pollock is flawed and may be useless in the increasingly convoluted world of authenticating Pollock's work. The article, written by a physics professor and a physics doctoral student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, provides a new twist in the mystery surrounding a group of small drip paintings discovered several years ago in a storage locker in Wainscott, N.Y. In 2004, before the examination of the disputed paintings, a physics doctoral student at Case Western, Katherine Jones-Smith, became interested in Taylor's published reports about Pollock and fractals and made the research the subject of a presentation. Read article.
Just how precise is the balancing act that maintains life?
Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2006
If the laws of physics and the fundamental constants of nature were the slightest bit different, the world would not exist, at least in the form we see it. For years, many scientists viewed anthropic reasoning as "the last refuge of scoundrels," says cosmologist Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University. "It was what you resorted to when you couldn't think of other explanations. But science has always tried to explain why the universe is the way it is…" Read article. (subscription required)
November 30, 2006
Case researchers say artwork analysis flawed
The Plain Dealer, November 30, 2006
A Case Western Reserve University physics student and her colleague have added a new twist to a nasty feud about whether a group of recently discovered paintings is the work of renowned artist Jackson Pollock. The Case research, published today in the prestigious journal Nature, casts doubt on a method a fellow scientist had used to suggest that the paintings weren't real Pollocks. Read article.
A shrinking outlay for science
The Plain Dealer, November 30, 2006
Ruth Keri's growing anxiety about securing research dollars should matter to more than the handful of scientists who toil in her lab at Case Western Reserve University. Keri's story—recently detailed by Plain Dealer reporter Regina McEnery—is one of literally thousands of such tales across the country. Read article.
November 28, 2006
Natural evangelism
The Toronto Star, November 25, 2006
Somewhere along the way, a forum this month at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., which might have been one more polite dialogue between science and religion, began to resemble the founding convention for a political party built on a single plank: In a world dangerously charged with ideology, science needs to take on an evangelical role, vying with religion as teller of the greatest story ever told. Lawrence Krauss, a physicist at Case Western Reserve University known for his staunch opposition to teaching creationism, found himself in the unfamiliar role of playing the moderate. "I think we need to respect people's philosophical notions unless those notions are wrong," he said. Read article.
November 27, 2006
Science slippage in city's schools
The Plain Dealer, November 26, 2006
Cleveland already ranks last among Ohio school districts on this year's state report cards, so it should come as little surprise that it also trailed urban peers on a national measure of science skills. What counts as news is that the district has taken steps to improve its dismal ranking, joining forces with Case Western Reserve University to bring extra training to teachers. Read article.
November 21, 2006
Picking up the pieces
The Columbus Dispatch, November 21, 2006
When Ralph Harvey scans Antarctica's icy terrain, it becomes clear just how rough-and-tumble the solar system was four billion years ago. At a minimum, the inner solar system had a rough coming-of-age moment," said Harvey, a Case Western Reserve University geologist who spends a month or so in November and December with a team that combs icy Antarctic wastes for meteorites. Read article.
Two Michiganders awarded Rhodes Scholarships
Detroit Free Press, November 20, 2006
Thirty-two men and women across the United States—two from Michigan—were selected as Rhodes Scholars for 2007. One of the Michigan winners is Shaan-Chirag C. Gandhi of Battle Creek, a student at Case Western Reserve University. The students will enter Oxford University in England next October. The scholars were selected from 896 applicants endorsed by 340 colleges and universities, and will join scholars selected from 13 other jurisdictions around the world. Approximately 85 are selected each year. The scholarships provide two or three years of study, with the total value averaging about $45,000 per year. Read article.
November 16, 2006
City schools failing in science
The Plain Dealer, November 16, 2006
Among 10 major American cities, Cleveland had the smallest percentage of fourth- and eighth-graders proficient in science, according to 2005 test data released today by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Since 2002, the district has been in a partnership with Case Western Reserve University that provides intensive training for math and science teachers. Read article.
November 15, 2006
Think tank will promote thinking: advocates want science, not faith, at core of public policy
The Washington Post.com, November 15, 2006
A group of prominent scientists and advocates of strict church-state separation yesterday announced formation of a Washington think tank designed to promote "rationalism" as the basis of public policy. The small public policy office will lobby and sometimes litigate on behalf of science-based decision making and against religion in government affairs. Lawrence M. Krauss, an author and theoretical physicist at Case Western Reserve University, said the scientific community has done a "poor job" of explaining its logic and benefits to the public. Read article.
November 08, 2006
Grid computing gets small
IEEE Distributed Systems online, November 2006
The United States and Japan have successfully demonstrated one of grid computing's long-standing holy grails—dynamic, on-demand provisioning of bandwidth and interoperability between high-performance resources in two national research testbeds. Recent grid computing deployments have gone beyond the "big science" of specialized research projects to the regional and even individual enterprise level. For example, the OneCleveland project in Cleveland, Ohio is a community-based ultrabroadband grid network meant to foster economic development. Lev Gonick, who first proposed OneCleveland and now chairs its board, says the grid concept must be presented in a wider context to obtain buy-in from nontechnical decision makers. "We, in our own thinking, define the grid as provisioning, in a just-in-time way, a combination of spinning disc, network services, and, obviously, cycles," says Gonick, chief information officer at Case Western Reserve University. Read article.