Hi there, blog reader! Before I start today?s post, I?m going to give you a little update about how I?ve been doing?
If you follow me on twitter, you?ll probably notice I?ve been a little sparse the past couple of days, and it?s because I haven?t been feeling well. I thought I had a stomach bug? but increasing severity of symptoms lead to me getting sent to the emergency room last night.
Oy!
It turns out that I have Colitis (that means, ?swollen colon?) and although I?ve gotten some pain medicine, I still feel pretty icky. It?ll be a few days (due to the holiday weekend) before I can get to a GI who?ll sort out the underlying cause (whether it?s a chronic condition or a one-off thing).
Thank you for all of your get-well wishes! I?m doing my best to heal!
In the past couple of days, a rather disturbing design-related event has been unfolding. It involves Trendsetter Yarns?s not-so-nice use of the popular pattern, Wingspan.
You can read the full story on on Wingspan?s designer?s blog. Here?s a very short sketch of what happened:
Trendsetter knit up a sample of Wingspan in their yarn and displayed it on their Facebook page, listing the pattern as Wingspan. They then changed some stitch counts and contacted a lawyer to verify that this not a copyright violation. They are now selling the pattern as part of a booklet and kit as their own.
This situation has the knitting community up in arms. Why? Because it?s not nice.
I?m not a lawyer, and I?m not going to pretend to make any legal judgements.
But there?s something to this issue that gives most designers a bit of a queasy feeling? somehow it feels not quite right that a company can get away with changing a few lines and calling the design their own.
Especially if the finished sample looks nearly identical to the original design. And particularly if the company admits that they copied the original pattern and tweaked it. We, as designers, understand and accept that designers occasionally are separately inspired to make very similar patterns? but this is not such a case.
One reason why this situation gives me a feeling of the ickies is that so much could have been done to avoid it.
Trendsetter could have:
Emailed the designer and asked for permission to use her pattern (for free)
Offered to pay the designer a royalty for using/distributing her pattern
Hired a designer to design a new pattern that highlights a similar aspect of the yarn, but is original.
Stuck to showing off samples of Wingspan knit in their yarn? nothing wrong with that!
I?ve been reading the back and forth, and in the end, I just feel sad. So sad that a company would think this course of action is a good idea. Also feeling so sad for the designer? who if she wants to take action would be forced to pay mega legal fees.
Next week, I?m going to talk a bit more about the issue of being inspired by another person?s design, since it?s come up in my Ravelry group as well. As I said, I can?t weigh in on the legal/copyright issue, but I can talk more about the ?gut-feeling? that drives my process.
(RNS) If heading a religious community is a lonely job for any woman, a Catholic Womenpriest might be the loneliest of all.
Yet the ordination of Catholic women within the Womenpriests movement, which flaunts Roman Catholic Church law forbidding the practice, continues to grow, as members demand greater inclusion of women in the institutional church.
The most recent ordination was on Feb. 9, in Toledo, Ohio, and five more are scheduled for 2013.
"I really believe that this is the time when we need to stand up for women's rights in the church," said Jeannette Love, 68, who helps lead the Catholic Church of the Beatitudes, a Womenpriests community in Santa Barbara, Calif. "Sure, it is easy for us to go to a Protestant church, but then we don't become change agents in our own community."
Beatitudes is one of nearly four dozen Catholic communities in the United States led by women ordained in the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. Its ranks now include more than 100 deacons, priests, and bishops in the U.S. and abroad.
The original members -- known as the Danube Seven -- were ordained in Europe in 2002 by Argentine Bishop Romulo Antonio Braschi, a progressive who broke with the Vatican in the 1970s. That ordination forms Womenpriests' claim for legitimacy.
Subsequently, the Womenpriests have ordained each other. In 2008, church officials threatened excommunication on any woman seeking ordination, and any clergy member who assists her.
In a 2010 poll by The New York Times and CBS, however, 59 percent of American Catholics favor the ordination of women.
Support for women's ordination as deacons is even stronger. One rung below priests in the church hierarchy, deacons can perform some functions, such as baptism.
Church law forbidding female priests is nuanced, said the Rev. James Heft, head of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California. It is based, in part, on "fittingness."
"It is more appropriate for a man to play the role of Hamlet than a woman," Heft said. "You could say that the argument is that. If the re-enactment of the Last Supper presided by Jesus is a good analogy to the Mass, than it is more appropriate that a man preside."
There is historical evidence that women played an important role in ministry in the early church, but there is no proof they were ordained, Heft said.
"The present pope, before he became pope, offered his opinion that he thought it was an infallible teaching," said Heft. "Strictly speaking, this could change."
The Womenpriests movement represents one strain in a decades-old push for the ordination of women by some Catholics. Most of those ordained have advanced degrees in religious studies or theology, and years of experience in ministry, including stints as members of Catholic religious orders.
The movement attracts Catholics who have broken with the Vatican on issues beyond women's ordination, including homosexuality, birth control and married priests. Most are of retirement age, although there are some young families.
"What impressed me most was its aggressive inclusiveness," said Mike Crowley, 66, a member of the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community in San Diego. "Not just (with) women; they aggressively include all the people that the church is doing its best to drive out -- young divorced people, gays and lesbians."
Jane Via, a retired prosecutor who heads Mary Magdalene, acknowledged that Womenpriests have done little to trigger dialogue at the institutional level.
After being ordained a deacon in 2004 and a priest in 2006, she lost access to most clergy friends. They are too angry or too scared to maintain the relationship, Via said. Her congregation, like other Womenpriests communities, rents space in a Protestant church.
"It is a huge justice issue," Via said. "It is not just about getting women ordained in the Catholic Church, it is about changing the Catholic Church so that gender equality pervades it."
Members of the Womenpriests movement said they are hopeful that the election of Pope Francis will mean a renewal of pastoral church leadership.
"We look forward to the birth of a new era that promotes the inclusion of the voices of women, the poor and all others marginalized by society," the organization said in a statement on its website.
In Santa Barbara, the Catholic Church of the Beatitudes is small -- regular Mass attendance tops at about 35 people -- but steady, Love said.
"Our saying is we are here and we are not going away," Love said. "My hope and dream is that we will continue to grow, not only in numbers, but in depth."
From 24/7 Wall St.: The United States is in the midst of one of the biggest droughts in recent memory. At last count, over half of the lower 48 states had abnormally dry conditions and are suffering from at least moderate drought.
More than 80 percent of seven states were as of last week in ?severe drought,? characterized by crop or pasture loss, water shortage and water restrictions. Depending on whether the hardest-hit regions see significant precipitation, crops yields could fall and drought conditions could persist for months to come. Based on the latest data provided by the U.S. Drought Monitor, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the seven states running out of water.
Click here to see the seven states running out of water
U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist and Drought Monitor team member, Brad Rippey, explained that when the drought began in 2012, the worst of the conditions were much farther east, in states like Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan ? the corn belt states. Based on pre-drought estimates, corn used for grain lost slightly more than a quarter of its potential. By the Summer of 2012, 59 percent of U.S. rangeland and pastureland was rated by the USDA as being in poor or very poor condition. The growing drought decimated national hay production, causing feed shortages, which in turn drove up prices in livestock.
By the fall of 2012, drought conditions continued to expand westward to its current epicenter ? states like Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma. Rippey explained that most worrying is the drought?s effects on the winter wheat crop, which is one of the biggest crops grown in the U.S., and which is grown almost entirely in the states in severe drought. While the region has had some precipitation recently, ?winter wheat crop will need ideal conditions heading through the next few weeks just to break even. We?re still trending towards a very poor hard red winter wheat crop at this point,? Rippey said.
In addition to severe drought conditions, relatively large areas in the worst-off states are in ?exceptional? drought, which the USDA identifies as ?exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses, shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells creating water emergencies.? More than 70 percent of Nebraska is currently classified as being in a state of ?exceptional drought,? which includes Exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses; shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells creating water emergencies.
The last time the U.S. saw a drought close to this level of severity was in the 1980s, Rippey explained. But even compared to that drought, the current conditions may be worse. ?You really need to go back to the 1950s to find a drought that lasted and occupied at least as much territory,? Rippey said.
The U.S. Drought Monitor, is produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the seven states that had at least 80 percent of the total area classified in at least a state of severe drought as of March 14th. We also reviewed agricultural statistics, such as crop yields, in these states, using data collected from USDA state agricultural overviews. Most of these data are for 2011.
Here are seven states running out of water, according to 24/7 Wall St.:
7. Oklahoma
<strong>Percent of state in severe drought:</strong> 83.2% <strong>Percent of state in extreme drought:</strong> 56.7% (4th highest) <strong>Percent of state in exceptional drought:</strong> 9.7% (6th highest) Over half the area of Oklahoma currently suffers from extreme drought ? the second worst level listed on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Oklahoma shares this distinction with just four other states. Drought conditions have actually improved since the start of the year. The percentage of the state facing exceptional drought ? the worst category of drought ? has fallen from 37% at the start of the year to less than 10% currently. In January, the USDA declared a large part of the winter wheat belt, spanning from Texas to North Dakota, as a disaster area due to the lack of moisture. According to the Scottsbluff Star-Herald, recent precipitation has not been enough to help the winter wheat crop in the state that had to be planted in dry soil. <a href="http://247wallst.com/2013/03/21/the-seven-states-running-out-of-water/#ixzz2P2lNh39V" target="_blank">Read more at 24/7 Wall St. </a>
6. Wyoming
<strong>Percent of state in severe drought:</strong> 83.7% <strong>Percent of state in extreme drought:</strong> 54.7% (5th highest) <strong>Percent of state in exceptional drought:</strong> 10.1% (5th highest) Wyoming is one of the driest states in the country, a condition not likely to improve in the near future. According to the National Weather Service, the drought is expected to persist or worsen in most of the state over the next few months. The most critical drought problems are taking place in the eastern portion of the state. In the summer of 2012, Governor Matt Mead had to ask the federal government for disaster relief due to the drought. During the year before the request, ranchers working on non-irrigated land had lost about half their pasture grass and hay production because of the drought, a state agriculture official told Reuters. <a href="http://247wallst.com/2013/03/21/the-seven-states-running-out-of-water/#ixzz2P2lNh39V" target="_blank">Read more at 24/7 Wall St. </a>
5. South Dakota
<strong>Percent of state in severe drought:</strong> 86.3% <strong>Percent of state in extreme drought:</strong> 67.5% (2nd highest) <strong>Percent of state in exceptional drought:</strong> 20.1% (4th highest) More than two-thirds of South Dakota suffers from extreme drought, the second highest portion of any state. Additionally, South Dakota is one of just four states where more than 20% of its area faces exceptional drought. As with many other states, much of South Dakota?s winter wheat crop was hurt by the lack of precipitation. According to the USDA, at the end of February, 66% of winter wheat crop was considered to be in poor or very poor condition, up from 31% in February 2012. <a href="http://247wallst.com/2013/03/21/the-seven-states-running-out-of-water/#ixzz2P2lNh39V" target="_blank">Read more at 24/7 Wall St. </a>
4. Colorado
<strong>Percent of state in severe drought:</strong> 89.0% <strong>Percent of state in extreme drought:</strong> 48.1% (7th highest) <strong>Percent of state in exceptional drought:</strong> 21.2% (3rd highest) Colorado is one of five states where all of its area is considered to be in moderate drought, with nearly 90% of the state experiencing severe drought. With the exception of the Northeast corner of the state, the drought is expected to either persist or get worse over the next several months. Yet even most the Northeast corner is experiencing either extreme or exceptional drought. Due to the ongoing problems, several of Colorado?s largest municipal water providers are considering restricting spring and summer lawn-watering, potentially limiting landowners to watering their grass just twice a week. Crop production declined significantly in 2012 compared to 2011, with wheat production falling 9.3%, while corn production falling a whopping 29%. <a href="http://247wallst.com/2013/03/21/the-seven-states-running-out-of-water/#ixzz2P2lNh39V" target="_blank">Read more at 24/7 Wall St. </a>
3. New Mexico
<strong>Percent of state in severe drought:</strong> 89.9% <strong>Percent of state in extreme drought:</strong> 49.9% (6th highest) <strong>Percent of state in exceptional drought:</strong> 4.3% (8th highest) As of early March, normal weather conditions persist in only about 0.21% of New Mexico ? the highest percentage in nearly a year. However, for most of the state problems remain. Last July, the USDA designated Cibola County as a primary disaster area due to drought. Six counties bordering Cibola, including Bernalillo County where Albuquerque is located, also qualified for natural disaster assistance. In late February, Albuquerque?s water board announced a ?drought watch,? which raised fines for wasting water to $40 for first offenders. <a href="http://247wallst.com/2013/03/21/the-seven-states-running-out-of-water/#ixzz2P2lNh39V" target="_blank">Read more at 24/7 Wall St. </a>
2. Kansas
<strong>Percent of state in severe drought:</strong> 96.4% <strong>Percent of state in extreme drought:</strong> 64.6% (3rd highest) <strong>Percent of state in exceptional drought:</strong> 21.4% (2nd highest) Severe drought conditions persist in more than 96% of Kansas. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of the state is experiencing extreme drought, while more than one-fifth is experiencing exceptional drought. The good news for Kansas is that rain in March has eased the drought, although National Weather Service meteorologist Andy Kleinsasser told the Associated Press earlier this week that the state is still experiencing ?precipitation deficits? of as much as 20 inches in many parts of the state. Kansas produces about 20% of the nation?s wheat, more than any other state. Wheat production was up 38% in 2012 compared to 2011, although the drought affecting the state probably will make this level of production unsustainable for 2013. <a href="http://247wallst.com/2013/03/21/the-seven-states-running-out-of-water/#ixzz2P2lNh39V" target="_blank">Read more at 24/7 Wall St. </a>
1. Nebraska
<strong>Percent of state in severe drought:</strong> 100% <strong>Percent of state in extreme drought:</strong> 96.1% (the highest) <strong>Percent of state in exceptional drought:</strong> 76.4% (the highest) Nebraska is unique among all states in that all areas are experiencing at least a severe drought. Worse, extreme drought conditions persist in more than 96% of the state, with a stunning 76% of the state experiencing exceptional drought. In the next worst-hit state, Kansas, just 21.4% of all area suffers from exceptional drought. Drought has hurt much of the state?s winter wheat crop, 50% of which was in poor or very poor condition at the end of February, up from just 6% last year. The National Weather Service?s Climate Prediction Center estimates that the drought in Nebraska will last ? with some improvement in conditions ? through at least the end of May. <a href="http://247wallst.com/2013/03/21/the-seven-states-running-out-of-water/#ixzz2P2lNh39V" target="_blank">Read more at 24/7 Wall St. </a>
The "Happy Ending" ratings are in, and Friday night TV viewers did not heed ABC's plea to "Save" the cult ensemble comedy.
"Happy Endings" totaled 3 million total viewers and scored a 0.9 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. Those numbers are on-par, though slightly down in the demo, with how the show had been performing in its previous Tuesday night timeslot.
The bad news is that ABC's "broader" comedies "Last Man Standing" and "Malibu Country" more than doubled "Happy Endings" total viewers in that same Friday night timeslot last week.
Still, the network just released yet another promo that maintains "'Happy Endings' is worth fighting for," and showrunner David Caspe believes ABC is really pulling for the show's success. ?ABC truly loves the show and they tell us that all the time, and I completely believe them ... They obviously could have just canceled us and they haven?t. So I think it?s a testament that they?re trying to figure out a way to make it work,? he told TV Line.
"Happy Endings" airs Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Long rumoured - and hoped for - GDC 2013 has finally provided confirmation that Apple will release its own dedicated game controller.
Of course, there's no official word yet, but Apple has been active during the conference talking to developers about its plans and ensuring plenty of games will support the joypad at launch.
It's been operating a meeting room at the show, albeit booked under a pseudonym company name to avoid media attention.
However, speaking anonymously, multiple developer sources have confirmed the news to PocketGamer.biz.
In the hand
It's expected Apple will formally announce its plans during its annual April press event; previously this has been centred around the iPad.
Many things remain unknown, though.
None of our contacts had seen or held the physical device so we don't know if the pad will take a conventional approach or employ a radical new design.
Following recent mishaps, Apple doesn't let unreleased hardware leave its closely guarded offices.
Neither are we sure when the pad will be released.
It would be logical for it to hit retail alongside a new iPad, but given the opportunities a dedicated controller would provide in the living room, we'd expect it to be part of a large announcement also revealing Apple's wide TV strategy, including a direct assault on the console businesses of Sony and Microsoft.
Everybody plays the joypad game
The news follows on from an explosion in third-party controllers from iOS and Android devices during 2012.
This has come from dedicated peripheral companies like MOGA and Nyko, as well as start ups such as Green Throttle, and even unconsole players like Ouya and GameStick, for whom a physical controller is a vital part of their plans to disrupt the console business.
Another example of the important of a game pad to big business was Samsung's surprise announcement of its Game Pad at the Galaxy S4 launch.
And to complete the picture, one developer source also told us that Google will be making its own announcement about an official game controller in the near future too.
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Apple are often criticised for not reaching out to the games development community, perhaps this time that is what they have done, and whether the rumours become reality or not, that's probably a good thing.
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Todd - nope. The news came from trusted sources while at GDC. Whether it makes it to market is another matter, but we've been assured something was happening in San Francisco.
We don't run rumours lightly on PocketGamer.biz - they're something of a rarity here.
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Which is it? Confirmed or not confirmed? Looks like the story is unfounded and author is using the Apple name just to bait people into reading this generating hits on nothing.
"Long rumoured - and hoped for - GDC 2013 has finally provided confirmation that Apple will release its own dedicated game controller."
"Of course, there's no official word."
Jim says "nope" and I agree.
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I hope this is a rare miss on Dalrymple's part...
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From Jim Dalrymple: "Nope"
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Jim Dalrymple says "Nope", so it's not happening. If you're not familiar with Jim, check his track record before responding. http://www.loopinsight.com/2013/03/29/the-rumored-apple-branded-gaming-joypad/
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Sooner than I thought - three cheers for things that make sense.
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Relevant tweet from a developer at GDC: https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH/status/316736139753029633
A recent city noise control ordinance in Boston has cops cracking down on roving rock shows that don't take place in formal venues. So they're posing as punk rockers online to sniff out concert locations so they shut them down more easily. Only problem is their police work reads like an out of touch parent trying to talk to a teen about that new fangled rock and/or roll. More »
Storify has become a useful tool of media organizations trying to capture newsworthy or entertaining social media conversations for their readers, with its ability to combine tweets, photos, and more into an embeddable conversation. Today the company is announcing a VIP plan with features designed specifically for "media organizations, publishers or anyone wanting to deeply integrate social curation and storytelling into their site." The plan includes the ability to update a Storify story in real-time (useful for live blogging), to customize the appearance of a story with CSS, to receive priority technical support, add custom sources, and to share stories privately. Co-founder Burt Herman told me via email that the first two features will probably make the biggest difference for readers, while the private sharing could be useful for newsroom collaboration, and also for communication within companies and PR agencies. (So for example if a brand becomes embroiled in a big social media controversy, Storify might be a good way for an agency to capture what's going on, but that's probably not something they'd want to highlight publicly.)
SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea put its missile units on standby on Friday to attack U.S. military bases in South Korea and the Pacific, after the United States flew two nuclear-capable stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula in a rare show of force.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed off on the order at a midnight meeting of top generals and "judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation", the official KCNA news agency said.
The North has an arsenal of Soviet-era short-range Scud missiles that can hit South Korea and have been proven, but its longer-range Nodong and Musudan missiles that could in theory hit U.S. Pacific bases are untested.
On Thursday, the United States flew two radar-evading B-2 Spirit bombers on practice runs over South Korea, responding to a series of North Korean threats. They flew from the United States and back in what appeared to be the first exercise of its kind, designed to show America's ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes "quickly and at will", the U.S. military said.
The news of Kim's response was unusually swift.
"He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA (Korean People's Army), ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea," KCNA said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported there had been additional troop and vehicle movements at the North's mid- and long-range missile sites, indicating they may be ready to fire.
"Sharply increased movements of vehicles and soldiers have been detected recently at North Korea's mid and long-range missile sites," Yonhap quoted a South Korean military source as saying.
It was impossible to verify the report which did not specify a time frame, although South Korea's Defense Ministry said on Friday that it was watching shorter-range Scud missile sites closes as well as Nodong and Musudan missile batteries.
The North has launched a daily barrage of threats since early this month when the United States and the South, allies in the 1950-53 Korean War, began routine military drills.
The South and the United States have said the drills are purely defensive in nature and that no incident has taken place in the decades they have been conducted in various forms.
The United States also flew B-52 bombers over South Korea earlier this week.
The North has put its military on highest readiness to fight what it says are hostile forces conducting war drills. Its young leader has previously given "final orders" for its military to wage revolutionary war with the South.
ECONOMIC ZONE
Despite the tide of hostile rhetoric from Pyongyang, it has kept open a joint economic zone with the South which generates $2 billion a year in trade, money the impoverished state can ill-afford to lose.
Pyongyang has also canceled an armistice agreement with the United States that ended the Korean War and cut all communications hotlines with U.S. forces, the United Nations and South Korea.
"The North Koreans have to understand that what they're doing is very dangerous," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.
"We must make clear that these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously and we'll respond to that."
The U.S. military said that its B-2 bombers had flown more than 6,500 miles to stage a trial bombing raid from their bases in Missouri as part of the Foal Eagle war drills being held with South Korea.
The bombers dropped inert munitions on the Jik Do Range, in South Korea, and then returned to the continental United States in a single, continuous mission, the military said.
Thursday's drill was the first time B-2s flew round-trip from the mainland United States over South Korea and dropped inert munitions, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.
Victor Cha, a North Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the drill fitted within the context of ramped-up efforts by the Pentagon to deter the North from acting upon any of its threats.
Asked whether he thought the latest moves could further aggravate tensions on the peninsula, Cha, a former White House official, said: "I don't think the situation can get any more aggravated than it already is."
South Korea denied suggestions on Friday that the bomber drills contained an implicit threat of attack on the North.
"There is no entity on the earth who will strike an attack on North Korea or expressed their wishes to do so," a spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry said.
Despite the shrill rhetoric from Pyongyang, few believe North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, will risk starting a full-out war.
Still, Hagel, who on March 15 announced he was bolstering missile defenses over the growing North Korea threat, said all of the provocations by the North had to be taken seriously.
"Their very provocative actions and belligerent tone, it has ratcheted up the danger and we have to understand that reality," Hagel said, renewing a warning that the U.S. military was ready for "any eventuality" on the peninsula.
North Korea conducted a third nuclear weapons test in February in breach of U.N. sanctions and despite warnings from China, its one major diplomatic ally.
(Additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Warren Strobel, Paul Simao and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Mar. 27, 2013 ? Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges. But where exactly does the erupted magma come from?
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego now have a better idea after capturing a unique image of a site deep in the Earth where magma is generated.
Using electromagnetic technology developed and advanced at Scripps, the researchers mapped a large area beneath the seafloor off Central America at the northern East Pacific Rise, a seafloor volcano located on a section of the global mid-ocean ridges that together form the largest and most active chain of volcanoes in the solar system. By comparison, the researchers say the cross-section area of the melting region they mapped would rival the size of San Diego County.
Details of the image and the methods used to capture it are published in the March 28 issue of the journal Nature.
"Our data show that mantle upwelling beneath the mid-ocean ridge creates a deeper and broader melting region than previously thought," said Kerry Key, lead author of the study and an associate research geophysicist at Scripps. "This was the largest project of its kind, enabling us to image the mantle with a level of detail not possible with previous studies."
The northern East Pacific Rise is an area where two of the planet's tectonic plates are spreading apart from each another. Mantle rising between the plates melts to generate the magma that forms fresh seafloor when it erupts or freezes in the crust.
Data for the study was obtained during a 2004 field study conducted aboard the research vessel Roger Revelle, a ship operated by Scripps and owned by the U.S. Navy.
The marine electromagnetic technology behind the study was originally developed in the 1960s by Charles "Chip" Cox, an emeritus professor of oceanography at Scripps, and his student Jean Filloux. In recent years the technology was further advanced by Steven Constable and Key. Since 1995 Scripps researchers have been working with the energy industry to apply this technology to map offshore geology as an aid to exploring for oil and gas reservoirs.
"We have been working on developing our instruments and interpretation software for decades, and it is really exciting to see it all come together to provide insights into the fundamental processes of plate tectonics," said Constable, a coauthor of the paper and a professor in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps. "It was really a surprise to discover that melting started so deep in the mantle -- much deeper than was expected."
Key believes the insights that electromagnetics provides will continue to grow as the technology matures and data analysis techniques improve (last week Key and his colleagues announced the use of electromagnetics in discovering a magma lubricant for the planet's tectonic plates).
"Electromagnetics is really coming of age as a tool for imaging the earth," said Key. "Much of what we know about the crust and mantle is a result of using seismic techniques. Now electromagnetic technology is offering promise for further discoveries."
Key also has future plans to apply electromagnetic technology to map subglacial lakes and groundwater in the polar regions.
In addition to Key and Constable, coauthors of the paper include Lijun Liu of the University of Illinois and Anne Pommier of Arizona State University.
The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Seafloor Electromagnetic Methods Consortium at Scripps.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Kerry Key, Steven Constable, Lijun Liu, Anne Pommier. Electrical image of passive mantle upwelling beneath the northern East Pacific Rise. Nature, 2013; 495 (7442): 499 DOI: 10.1038/nature11932
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The first global treaty on regulating the multimillion-dollar arms trade appeared to be nearing consensus, supporters said, though worries remained that Iran, India or other countries would back off an agreement that requires approval from all 193 United Nations member states.
Thursday is the deadline for reaching a deal. U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations have been private, said Wednesday the United States was virtually certain to go along with the latest text.
Hopes of reaching agreement on what would be a landmark treaty were dashed last July when the U.S. said it needed more time to consider the proposed accord ? a move quickly backed by Russia and China. In December, the U.N. General Assembly decided to hold a final conference and set Thursday as the deadline.
"We need a treaty," China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong told The Associated Press. "We hope for consensus."
Iran, Egypt, India and several other countries have had serious concerns about the text.
There has never been an international treaty regulating the estimated $60 billion global arms trade. For more than a decade, activists and some governments have been pushing for international rules to try to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organized crime.
"It's important for each and every country in the world that we have a regulation of the international arms trade," Germany's U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig told the AP. "There are still some divergencies of views, but I trust we can overcome them."
The draft treaty does not control the domestic use of weapons in any country, but it would require all countries to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms, parts and components and to regulate arms brokers. It would prohibit states that ratify the treaty from transferring conventional weapons if they would violate arms embargoes or if they would promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.
The final draft makes this human rights provision even stronger, adding that the export of conventional arms should be prohibited if they could be used in the commission of attacks on civilians or civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals.
In considering whether to authorize the export of arms, the draft says a country must evaluate whether the weapon would be used to violate international human rights or humanitarian laws or be used by terrorists or organized crime. The final draft would allow countries to determine whether the weapons transfer would contribute to or undermine peace and security.
Anna Macdonald, Oxfam's head of arms control, said the scope of the weapons covered in the latest draft is still too narrow.
"We need a treaty that covers all conventional weapons, not just some of them," she said. "We need a treaty that will make a difference to the lives of the people living in Congo, Mali, Syria and elsewhere who suffer each day from the impacts of armed violence."
Ammunition has been a key issue, with some countries pressing for the same controls on ammunition sales as arms, but the U.S. and others opposed such tough restrictions. The draft calls for each country that ratifies the treaty to establish regulations for the export of ammunition "fired, launched or delivered" by the weapons covered by the convention.
The Control Arms coalition, which represents about 100 organizations worldwide campaigning for a strong treaty, and diplomats from countries that support them, said this wouldn't cover hand grenades and mines.
India and other countries had insisted that the treaty have an opt-out for government arms transfers under defense cooperation agreements. The new text appears to keep that loophole, stating that implementation of the treaty "shall not prejudice obligations" under defense cooperation agreements by countries that ratify the treaty.
"Making this treaty was like making a sausage: Everyone has added an ingredient," said Ted Bromund, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
"Unfortunately, that has produced a document that leans much too far towards satisfying the concerns of the Arab Group and Mexico. The former view it as a rebellion prevention plan, while the latter wants a text that edges towards its view that the domestic firearms market in the U.S. should be subject to treaty regulation," he said.
But Daryl Kimball, executive director of the independent Washington-based Arms Control Association, said, "The emerging treaty represents an important first step in dealing with the unregulated and illicit global trade in conventional weapons and ammunition, which fuels wars and human rights abuses worldwide."
He said the text could have been stronger and more comprehensive, but it can still make an important difference.
"The new treaty says to every United Nations member that you cannot simply 'export and forget,'" Kimball said.
After letting people know that they owe Google $1500 for the honor of getting Google Glass early, Google busted the ol' elementary school Indian Giver on them. Meaning, some of those "winners" won't be able to get Google Glass because they've been disqualified by Google. I wonder who those people are. More »
Mar. 27, 2013 ? Welding engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., have had an extremely busy winter assembling adapters that will connect the Orion spacecraft to a Delta IV rocket for the initial test flight of Orion in 2014. The adapter later will attach Orion to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a new heavy-lift rocket managed and in development at the Marshall Center that will enable missions farther into space than ever before. The 2014 Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) will provide engineers with important data about the adapter's performance before it is flown on SLS beginning in 2017.
In a high bay of Marshall's Building 4755, expert welders using state-of-the-art friction stir welding machines worked on two separate adapters. For each adapter, a vertical welding machine stitched panels together to form a conical cylinder, then a circumferential welding machine attached a thicker, structural support ring at the top and the bottom.
"While the adapters are identical and are considered flight articles, only one will actually be used for EFT-1," said Brent Gaddes, Spacecraft & Payload Integration Subsystem manager. "The other will undergo strenuous structural testing to ensure quality, while its twin will make the trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration into the rest of the test vehicle for launch."
United Launch Alliance (ULA), which makes the Delta IV rocket in nearby Decatur, Ala., will deliver a full-size section of the rocket later this spring for engineers to test the fit of the adapter.
"You really don't have the tools and the resources in one place anywhere else in the world," said Justin Littell, a mechanical engineer with the welding group at the Marshall Center. "The work that we do here is exciting and I get to work with a great team. It's amazing."
See the friction stir welds in action in this video: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=161317831
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA. The original article was written by Bill Hubscher, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Mar. 26, 2013 ? A proof-of-concept study suggests the possibility of engineering artificial ovaries in the lab to provide a more natural option for hormone replacement therapy for women. In Biomaterials, a team from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine report that in the laboratory setting, engineered ovaries showed sustained release of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone.
Although there are medications that can compensate for the loss of female sex hormone production, the drugs are often not recommended for long-term use due to the increased risk of heart disease and breast cancer.
"Our goal is to develop a tissue- or cell-based hormone therapy -- essentially an artificial ovary- to deliver sex hormones in a more natural manner than drugs," said Emmanuel C. Opara, Ph.D., professor of regenerative medicine and senior author. "A bioartificial ovary has the potential to secrete hormones in a natural way based on the body's needs, rather than the patient taking a specific dose of drugs each day."
Ovaries are the female reproductive organs that produce eggs that are fertilized for pregnancy as well as secrete hormones important to bone and cardiovascular health. The loss of ovarian function can be due to surgical removal, chemotherapy and radiation treatments for certain types of cancer, and menopause. The effects of hormone loss can range from hot flashes and vaginal dryness to infertility and increased risk of osteoporosis and heart disease.
"This research project is interesting because it offers hope to replace natural ovarian hormones in women with premature ovarian failure or in women going through menopause," Tamer Yalcinkaya, M.D., associate professor and section head of reproductive medicine at Wake Forest Baptist. "The graft format would bring certain advantages: it would eliminate pharmacokinetic variations of hormones when administered as drugs and would also allow body's feedback mechanisms to control the release of ovarian hormones."
The project to engineer a bioartificial ovary involves encapsulating ovarian cells inside a thin membrane that allows oxygen and nutrients to enter the capsule, but would prevent the patient from rejecting the cells. With this scenario, functional ovarian tissue from donors could be used to engineer bioartificial ovaries for women with non-functioning ovaries.
The Wake Forest Baptist team isolated the two types of endocrine cells found in ovaries (theca and granulosa) from 21-day-old rats. The cells were encapsulated inside materials that are compatible with the body. The scientists evaluated three different ways of arranging the cells inside the capsules.
The function of the capsules was then evaluated in the lab by exposing them to follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, two hormones that stimulate ovaries to produce sex hormones. The arrangement of cells that most closely mimicked the natural ovary (layers of cells in a 3-D shape) secreted levels of estrogen that were 10 times higher than other cell arrangements.
The capsules also secreted progesterone as well as inhibin and activin, two hormones that interact with the pituitary and hypothalamus and are important to the body's natural system to regulate the production of female sex hormones.
"Cells in the multilayer capsules were observed to function in similar fashion to the native ovaries," said Opara. "The secretion of inhibin and activin secretion suggests that these structures could potentially function as an artificial ovary by synchronizing with the body's innate control system."
Opara said the next step in the research, already underway, is to evaluate the function of the ovarian structures in animals.
Opara's co-researchers were Sivanandane Sittadjody, Ph.D, Sunyoung Joo, M.D., Ph.D., James J. Yoo, M.D., Ph.D., and Anthony Atala, M.D., all from Wake Forest Baptist, and Justin M. Saul, Ph.D., a former Wake Forest Baptist researcher now at Miami University.
The study was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (award #R01DK080897).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
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Journal Reference:
Sivanandane Sittadjody, Justin M. Saul, Sunyoung Joo, James J. Yoo, Anthony Atala, Emmanuel C. Opara. Engineered multilayer ovarian tissue that secretes sex steroids and peptide hormones in response to gonadotropins. Biomaterials, 2013; 34 (10): 2412 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2012.11.059
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
From front, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Timmy Hill, Joey Logano, Paul Menard and others pit during the first caution flag during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race in Fontana, Calif., Sunday, March 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
From front, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Timmy Hill, Joey Logano, Paul Menard and others pit during the first caution flag during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race in Fontana, Calif., Sunday, March 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Denny Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in his lower spine during Sunday's last-lap crash at Fontana, Calif., his racing team said Monday.
Joe Gibbs Racing disclosed the injury and said Hamlin was expected to be released soon from a Southern California hospital to return home. He has what is called an L1 compression fracture; essentially, the first vertebra in the lumbar section of his spine collapsed.
There was no immediate word on how long his recovery would take. JGR said he will be evaluated by Dr. Jerry Petty of Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates later this week.
Hamlin was airlifted from the track after a collision with Joey Logano on the penultimate turn sent him nearly head-on into the inside wall. Logano managed to finish third despite wrecking into the outside wall after hitting Hamlin, who spun Logano last week at Bristol and sparked a bitter post-race confrontation.
"He probably shouldn't have done what he did last week, so that's what he gets," Logano said Sunday after the race won by Kyle Busch.
Tony Stewart got into a post-race shoving match with Logano, who aggressively blocked Stewart out of a late restart. Hamlin's team expects Logano to be fined.
Hamlin got himself out of the car, but then slumped to the ground beside it before an ambulance arrived. He was eventually airlifted out due to traffic around the track. His girlfriend, Jordan Fish, tweeted afterward that Hamlin was "alert n awake, main concern is his back."
The injury is a bit more common in open-wheel racing, which has had three incidents of drivers breaking their backs since 2009.
Will Power broke several vertebrae in his lower back in a 2009 crash during practice at Sonoma and missed that event and the final three races of the season. He couldn't train for two months and wore a back brace for almost four months.
He also suffered a compression fracture of his fourth thoracic vertebrae in the 2011 season finale at Las Vegas but missed no racing as he healed during the offseason.
Justin Wilson fractured his fifth thoracic vertebra in 2011 and missed the last six races of the season. Wilson said he was in a back brace for 10 weeks.
In NASCAR, Sterling Marlin missed the last seven races of the 2002 season with a fractured vertebra in his neck.
Museum exhibit developed at Harvard SEAS puts evolution at visitors' fingertipsPublic release date: 25-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caroline Perry cperry@seas.harvard.edu 617-496-1351 Harvard University
Massively detailed, interactive Tree of Life visualization at Harvard Museum of Natural History illustrates the processes of evolution
With a quick swipe of the finger, the Tree of Life became a blur of branches flying past, zooming away from the root through deep history until finally, at the end of a twig, the human species Homo sapiens appeared. Engaging with an exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences last fall, a young visitor could hardly contain his awe at how far he had traveled: "Whoa, 3.5 billion years agothat's a long time." The boy's mother then pointed to a pair of connecting lines and told him gleefully, "You're related to a banana!"
Now, visitors to the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) in Cambridge, Mass., can experience and interact with the same computerized tabletop exhibit, while learning about evolution and the history of life on Earth.
The result of a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation and based at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Life on Earth exhibit represents the cutting edge of tabletop computing technology. Its multitouch surface and programming allow museum visitors to zoom and scroll through the Tree of Life, the immense tree diagram biologists use to represent the evolutionary history of millions of related species.
The educational feat of illustrating the accumulation of subtle changes over the course of billions of yearssomething biologists and museums alike have struggled to show in the pastis as notable as the underlying technology.
"We animate the whole process of opening up the tree, showing so many interactions, so many diversifications, and giving a real sense of the magnitude of biodiversity," explains Chia Shen, Senior Research Fellow in Computer Science at SEAS, who led the project from its conception to this culmination in the Evolution hall of the Museum.
Shen, director of the Scientists' Discovery Room Lab at SEAS, is the principal investigator of the multi-institutional Life on Earth project, the goal of which was to develop learning activities to advance the public's understanding of the history of life on Earth and biodiversity, in both formal and informal educational settings.
HMNH has been a longtime partner to the Life on Earth project, accommodating and assisting with the research, observation, and evaluation stages of the activities' development.
The exhibit, which opened at HMNH on March 5 showcases one of the multitouch tables and two activities.
The DeepTree software (video: http://youtu.be/dpo9iK26el8) allows users to fly through the evolutionary relationships of over 70,000 named species and learn how they are related through shared derived traits. The FloTree program (video: http://youtu.be/cb279wqU9QA) is a simulation of evolution in action. Branching lineages of organisms progress up the screen, until some environmental changeyour hand, placed on the tabletopprevents them from interbreeding. These lineages continue to multiply around and above your hand, propagating genetic variations and diverging into new species over many generations. DeepTree and FloTree run on the same exhibit table, highlighting the relationship between life's evolutionary history and the speciation process that underlies this diversity.
As Shen explains, "These are very abstract concepts: divergence, ongoing evolution, shared ancestry. Our main goal is to use visualization to present that information and knowledge correctly to people who are not familiar with these concepts."
In addition to the software programs that run on the table, the user interface itself is crucial to the learning experience. In the chaos of a museum setting, where multiple participants constantly arrive and leave the table, it's important that the interface be able to handle conflicting inputthe clicks and swipes of excited fingersin a meaningful manner.
"One of the advantages of a multitouch table is that everyone can touch it at oncebut that's also a disadvantage if you don't build it into your design. When one person taps something on the screen, we don't want the whole tree to change," explains Shen. "We've designed the interface very carefully to work with the way people really use it."
The FlowBlocks interface (named after Florian Block, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS who was lead author for this portion of the research) is the product of hundreds of hours of user observation. Presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology and IEEE Information Visualization conferences last fall, the FlowBlocks interface works on the premise that most touches on the screen should have a start point and an end point.
User operations that change the entire tree display are therefore only enacted with a deliberate drag-and-drop movement. Such an exaggerated motion is also visible to other participants around the table, allowing for a collaborative learning process.
"If you see my arm moving to make a change in the Build-A-Tree game, you can stop me halfway if you don't agree with me," says Shen. "We did that very intentionally."
The team also constantly works on making the table simple to use for all generations of visitors. Noticing that older visitors tend to prefer tapping motions, while younger visitors who are accustomed to touch-screen technology often incorporate swiping motions, the team designed the interface so that both approaches result in intuitive interactions.
Perched at the interface between evolutionary biology, human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, and learning sciences, the Life on Earth exhibit results from the collaboration of many sharp minds at Harvard SEAS (Shen, Block, and Brenda Phillips), the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Judy Diamond), the University of Michigan (Margaret Evans), and Northwestern University (Michael Horn, previously a postdoctoral researcher at SEAS). The idea to use the Tree of Life as the focal learning activity for the exhibits and activities originated with James Hanken (Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biology at Harvard and now a science adviser for Life on Earth), who described the challenges involved in visualizing the principles and processes of evolution during an auspicious visit to Shen's lab in 2008.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is one of only four museums in the country to have the Life on Earth exhibit. Other touch tables are on display at the University of Nebraska State Museum and at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The Field Museum of Chicago will open their Life on Earth touch table in April.
Jane Pickering, Executive Director of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, greeted some 60 scientists and museum members at the exhibit opening on March 5.
"The Tree of Life is the central organizing principle for biology, but it is not easy for the general public to understand," Pickering said. "This exhibit gives users the opportunity to interact playfully with new technology first hand to explore the Tree of Life and to visualize instantly how all life on Earth is related."
###
See it yourself: The Harvard Museum of Natural History, one of the four museums of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture consortium, is located at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Mass., a 7 minute walk from the Harvard Square T station. The Museum is handicapped accessible. Museum hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, 361 days per year. Admission is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors and students; and $8 for youth 3-18. Harvard ID holders and one guest are admitted free with ID. For general information please call (617) 495-3045 or visit http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Museum exhibit developed at Harvard SEAS puts evolution at visitors' fingertipsPublic release date: 25-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caroline Perry cperry@seas.harvard.edu 617-496-1351 Harvard University
Massively detailed, interactive Tree of Life visualization at Harvard Museum of Natural History illustrates the processes of evolution
With a quick swipe of the finger, the Tree of Life became a blur of branches flying past, zooming away from the root through deep history until finally, at the end of a twig, the human species Homo sapiens appeared. Engaging with an exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences last fall, a young visitor could hardly contain his awe at how far he had traveled: "Whoa, 3.5 billion years agothat's a long time." The boy's mother then pointed to a pair of connecting lines and told him gleefully, "You're related to a banana!"
Now, visitors to the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) in Cambridge, Mass., can experience and interact with the same computerized tabletop exhibit, while learning about evolution and the history of life on Earth.
The result of a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation and based at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Life on Earth exhibit represents the cutting edge of tabletop computing technology. Its multitouch surface and programming allow museum visitors to zoom and scroll through the Tree of Life, the immense tree diagram biologists use to represent the evolutionary history of millions of related species.
The educational feat of illustrating the accumulation of subtle changes over the course of billions of yearssomething biologists and museums alike have struggled to show in the pastis as notable as the underlying technology.
"We animate the whole process of opening up the tree, showing so many interactions, so many diversifications, and giving a real sense of the magnitude of biodiversity," explains Chia Shen, Senior Research Fellow in Computer Science at SEAS, who led the project from its conception to this culmination in the Evolution hall of the Museum.
Shen, director of the Scientists' Discovery Room Lab at SEAS, is the principal investigator of the multi-institutional Life on Earth project, the goal of which was to develop learning activities to advance the public's understanding of the history of life on Earth and biodiversity, in both formal and informal educational settings.
HMNH has been a longtime partner to the Life on Earth project, accommodating and assisting with the research, observation, and evaluation stages of the activities' development.
The exhibit, which opened at HMNH on March 5 showcases one of the multitouch tables and two activities.
The DeepTree software (video: http://youtu.be/dpo9iK26el8) allows users to fly through the evolutionary relationships of over 70,000 named species and learn how they are related through shared derived traits. The FloTree program (video: http://youtu.be/cb279wqU9QA) is a simulation of evolution in action. Branching lineages of organisms progress up the screen, until some environmental changeyour hand, placed on the tabletopprevents them from interbreeding. These lineages continue to multiply around and above your hand, propagating genetic variations and diverging into new species over many generations. DeepTree and FloTree run on the same exhibit table, highlighting the relationship between life's evolutionary history and the speciation process that underlies this diversity.
As Shen explains, "These are very abstract concepts: divergence, ongoing evolution, shared ancestry. Our main goal is to use visualization to present that information and knowledge correctly to people who are not familiar with these concepts."
In addition to the software programs that run on the table, the user interface itself is crucial to the learning experience. In the chaos of a museum setting, where multiple participants constantly arrive and leave the table, it's important that the interface be able to handle conflicting inputthe clicks and swipes of excited fingersin a meaningful manner.
"One of the advantages of a multitouch table is that everyone can touch it at oncebut that's also a disadvantage if you don't build it into your design. When one person taps something on the screen, we don't want the whole tree to change," explains Shen. "We've designed the interface very carefully to work with the way people really use it."
The FlowBlocks interface (named after Florian Block, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS who was lead author for this portion of the research) is the product of hundreds of hours of user observation. Presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology and IEEE Information Visualization conferences last fall, the FlowBlocks interface works on the premise that most touches on the screen should have a start point and an end point.
User operations that change the entire tree display are therefore only enacted with a deliberate drag-and-drop movement. Such an exaggerated motion is also visible to other participants around the table, allowing for a collaborative learning process.
"If you see my arm moving to make a change in the Build-A-Tree game, you can stop me halfway if you don't agree with me," says Shen. "We did that very intentionally."
The team also constantly works on making the table simple to use for all generations of visitors. Noticing that older visitors tend to prefer tapping motions, while younger visitors who are accustomed to touch-screen technology often incorporate swiping motions, the team designed the interface so that both approaches result in intuitive interactions.
Perched at the interface between evolutionary biology, human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, and learning sciences, the Life on Earth exhibit results from the collaboration of many sharp minds at Harvard SEAS (Shen, Block, and Brenda Phillips), the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Judy Diamond), the University of Michigan (Margaret Evans), and Northwestern University (Michael Horn, previously a postdoctoral researcher at SEAS). The idea to use the Tree of Life as the focal learning activity for the exhibits and activities originated with James Hanken (Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biology at Harvard and now a science adviser for Life on Earth), who described the challenges involved in visualizing the principles and processes of evolution during an auspicious visit to Shen's lab in 2008.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is one of only four museums in the country to have the Life on Earth exhibit. Other touch tables are on display at the University of Nebraska State Museum and at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The Field Museum of Chicago will open their Life on Earth touch table in April.
Jane Pickering, Executive Director of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, greeted some 60 scientists and museum members at the exhibit opening on March 5.
"The Tree of Life is the central organizing principle for biology, but it is not easy for the general public to understand," Pickering said. "This exhibit gives users the opportunity to interact playfully with new technology first hand to explore the Tree of Life and to visualize instantly how all life on Earth is related."
###
See it yourself: The Harvard Museum of Natural History, one of the four museums of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture consortium, is located at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Mass., a 7 minute walk from the Harvard Square T station. The Museum is handicapped accessible. Museum hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, 361 days per year. Admission is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors and students; and $8 for youth 3-18. Harvard ID holders and one guest are admitted free with ID. For general information please call (617) 495-3045 or visit http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 25-Mar-2013
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