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Scientific Agenda

Scientific Agenda

Red wine, white wine, fish and science

By Jim Dawson | 10/29/09
WASHINGTON, D.C.  -- The long-standing rule of matching wine and food -- red wine with red meat and white wine with fish -- actually has a scientific explanation, according to two scientists working for the Mercian Corporation, a Japanese producer a
Scientific Agenda

U of M project wins energy grant

By Sharon Schmickle | 10/28/09
They’ve been called “long shots . . . innovative energy initiatives ... extreme research.”  By any name, they are winners under a first round of U.S.
Scientific Agenda

Science Museum of Minnesota wins 'Gulf Guardian' award

By Sharon Schmickle | 10/28/09
Never mind that the Science Museum of Minnesota is more than 1,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. It will be honored this week for helping to improve the Gulf’s environmental health. The museum has won a first-place award in the U.S.
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Glacial melting releases long-frozen pollutants

By Jim Dawson | 10/28/09
WASHINGTON, D.C.
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Nano particles boost plant growth

By Jim Dawson | 10/27/09
WASHINGTON, D.C.
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Why fly humans into space?

By Jim Dawson | 10/26/09
WASHINGTON — When Norman Augustine presented the Review of Human Spaceflight Plans Committee's 154-page report last week, the committee chairman left no doubt that the NASA program is in trouble. "The U.S.
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Design of H2O repelling material inspired by nature

By Mike Lucibella | 10/26/09
WASHINGTON, D.C.  — In many respects, modern science is just starting to catch up to some of the natural engineering marvels of the world. One of these naturally occurring engineering marvels is found in leaves from the lotus plant.
Scientific Agenda

A 47-million-year-old fossil and the dangers of popularizing science

By Sharon Schmickle | 10/23/09
New research related to the famous 47-million-year-old fossil Ida cuts open controversy on more than one level. It also offers some sobering lessons for science popularizers.
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Protection needed for geological features

By Chris Gorski | 10/23/09
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Motorists driving along Highway 36 near Stockton, Utah, may not notice a tall, dam-like pile of gravel and rocks spanning the mile-long gap between two mountains.
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Radio nabs burglar!

By Sharon Schmickle | 10/22/09
Ever been annoyed by static on an AM radio when people were moving around the room? Whether you knew it or not, you were confronting the fact that human beings absorb radio waves. Now, researchers are turning the static problem to good use.
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Math problems? Help is on the way

By Sharon Schmickle | 10/21/09
Third graders in the Twin Cities who are struggling with math will be the target of a University of Minnesota study funded with nearly $1 million from the National Institutes of Health. Educational psychology professors Asha Jitendra and Jennifer M
Scientific Agenda

Whales engage in polite conversation

By Jim Dawson | 10/21/09
Scientists are beginning to be able to identify individual whales by the unique clicks the giant ocean-going mammals make to communicate with other whales, and an extension of that research has found that whales in groups seem to vary the interval o
Scientific Agenda

Hungry? Try the Bell Museum

By Sharon Schmickle | 10/21/09
Ideally, you would read this post while you eat something — maybe the turkey sandwich you ordered for lunch. Or, if you are in Bangkok, the deep-fried grasshopper you bought from a street vendor.
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Can a man talk like a woman?

By Jim Dawson | 10/20/09
When men try to imitate the voice of a woman, they typically raise their voices to a higher pitch, and in the end, sound like men imitating women.
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Studying carpet wrinkles: physics of a bump in a rug

By Mike Lucibella | 10/19/09
WASHINGTON, D.C.  — Scientists often have to make sacrifices for their work. Physicist Dominic Vella chopped his bathroom rug into strips, and L. Mahadevan's coauthor ran off with his bookshelf.
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I said, 'How loud is your iPOD!?'

By Jim Dawson | 10/19/09
After asking a group of college students to listen to the rock song "Summer of 69" by Brian Adams on their iPods or other personal music players,  researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg checked the volume of the devices
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Solar Decathlon: U team takes first place in lighting

By Sharon Schmickle | 10/16/09
The University of Minnesota’s sun-powered house did not win the Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C., but it did outshine the competition in lighting design. Team Germany took first place in the overall competition, the U.S.
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Arctic Ocean meltdown: Say goodbye to the Arctic ice cap

By Pete Spotts | 10/16/09
It’s been another lean summer for the Arctic Ocean’s sheath of summer sea ice. Much of the ice in one region is too thin to survive next summer’s melt season, according to an expedition that trekked across the ice in the Beaufort Sea off the coasts
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Solar Decathlon event: U team in the middle of heated competition

By Jim Dawson and Devin Powell | 10/15/09
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A team from the University of Minnesota is one of 20 teams to build entirely solar-powered homes on the National Mall in downtown Washington as part of the Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon competition.
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Halo cloud over Moscow creates UFO buzz

By Jimmy Orr | 10/15/09
A Russia Today report on the giant circular cloud over Moscow. Finally, indisputable proof of UFOs. Well... indisputable proof of clouds, anyway.