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Saturday, October 12, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Juno slingshots past Earth on its way to Jupiter
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Public release date: 8-Oct-2013
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Contact: Gary Galluzzo
gary-galluzzo@uiowa.edu
319-384-0009
University of Iowa
Spacecraft with UI instrument makes closest Earth encounter Oct. 9
If you've ever whirled a ball attached to a string around your head and then let it go, you know the great speed that can be achieved through a slingshot maneuver.
Similarly, NASA's Juno spacecraft will be passing within some 350 miles of Earth's surface at 3:21p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 9, before it slingshots off into space on a historic exploration of Jupiter.
It's all part of a scientific investigation that began with an August 2011 launch. The mission will begin in earnest when Juno arrives at Jupiter in July 2016. Bill Kurth, University of Iowa research scientist and lead investigator for one of Juno's nine scientific instruments, the Waves instrument, says that the two years spent moving outward past the orbit of Mars before swinging past the Earth makes the trip to Jupiter possible.
"Juno will be really smoking as it passes Earth at a speed of about 25 miles per second relative to the sun. But it will need every bit of this speed to get to Jupiter for its July 4, 2016 capture into polar orbit about Jupiter," says Kurth, who has been involved with the mission since the beginning. "The first half of its journey has been simply to set up this gravity assist with Earth."
"One of Juno's activities during the Earth flyby will be to make a movie of the Earth-moon system that will be the first to show Earth spinning on its axis from a distance," says Scott Bolton, principal investigator for the Juno mission from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
Kurth and colleagues UI Professor Don Gurnett and research scientist George Hospodarsky note that the real science will begin when Juno begins orbiting Jupiter some 33 times over the course of a year. Juno will be the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter over its poles. The orbit will be highly eccentric, taking Juno from just above the cloud tops to a distance of about 1.75 million miles from Jupiter, every 11 days.
The UI-designed-and-built Waves instrument will examine a variety of phenomena within Jupiter's polar magnetosphere by measuring radio and plasma waves. It's one of nine experiments to be undertaken of the gas giant.
In particular, Juno will explore the solar system's most powerful aurorasJupiter's northern and southern lightsby flying directly through the electrical current systems that generate them.
"Jupiter has the largest and most energetic magnetosphere, and to finally get an opportunity to study the nature of its auroras and the role radio and plasma waves play in their generation makes Juno a really exciting mission for me," says Kurth.
Juno's other major objectives are to understand the origin and evolution of the solar system's largest planet by:
- Determining the amount of water and ammonia present in the atmosphere.
- Observing the dynamics of Jupiter's upper atmosphere.
- Mapping the planet's magnetic and gravity fields to learn more about its deep interior including the size of its core.
Gurnett, a world leader in the field of space plasma physics, says the Juno spacecraft and its unique orbit will expand upon Jupiter data gathered by previous UI instruments.
Juno's destiny is a fiery entry into Jupiter's atmosphere at the end of its one-year science phase as a means of guaranteeing it doesn't impact Europa and possibly contaminate that icy world with microbes from Earth. This would jeopardize future missions to that moon designed to determine whether life had begun there on its own.
The Juno Waves instrument will be the eighth UI instrument to make the trek to Jupiter. Previous Iowa instruments were carried aboard Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, Galileo (including two UI instruments), and Cassini, currently in orbit around Saturn.
The Waves instrument was built at the UI by a group of about a dozen scientists, engineers, and technicians, led by research engineer Donald Kirchner. Terry Averkamp, Chris Piker, and William Robinson assist in the operation of the Waves instrument and in the data processing.
The Juno project is a collaborative enterprise, led by Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, including the UI and many other organizations and individuals.
###
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Bolton. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built and operates the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission was the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Contacts:
Bill Kurth, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 319-530-8312 (cell).
Don Gurnett, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 319-335-1697.
Gary Galluzzo, University Communication and Marketing, 319-384-0009.
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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.
Public release date: 8-Oct-2013
[
|
Share]
Contact: Gary Galluzzo
gary-galluzzo@uiowa.edu
319-384-0009
University of Iowa
Spacecraft with UI instrument makes closest Earth encounter Oct. 9
If you've ever whirled a ball attached to a string around your head and then let it go, you know the great speed that can be achieved through a slingshot maneuver.
Similarly, NASA's Juno spacecraft will be passing within some 350 miles of Earth's surface at 3:21p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 9, before it slingshots off into space on a historic exploration of Jupiter.
It's all part of a scientific investigation that began with an August 2011 launch. The mission will begin in earnest when Juno arrives at Jupiter in July 2016. Bill Kurth, University of Iowa research scientist and lead investigator for one of Juno's nine scientific instruments, the Waves instrument, says that the two years spent moving outward past the orbit of Mars before swinging past the Earth makes the trip to Jupiter possible.
"Juno will be really smoking as it passes Earth at a speed of about 25 miles per second relative to the sun. But it will need every bit of this speed to get to Jupiter for its July 4, 2016 capture into polar orbit about Jupiter," says Kurth, who has been involved with the mission since the beginning. "The first half of its journey has been simply to set up this gravity assist with Earth."
"One of Juno's activities during the Earth flyby will be to make a movie of the Earth-moon system that will be the first to show Earth spinning on its axis from a distance," says Scott Bolton, principal investigator for the Juno mission from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
Kurth and colleagues UI Professor Don Gurnett and research scientist George Hospodarsky note that the real science will begin when Juno begins orbiting Jupiter some 33 times over the course of a year. Juno will be the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter over its poles. The orbit will be highly eccentric, taking Juno from just above the cloud tops to a distance of about 1.75 million miles from Jupiter, every 11 days.
The UI-designed-and-built Waves instrument will examine a variety of phenomena within Jupiter's polar magnetosphere by measuring radio and plasma waves. It's one of nine experiments to be undertaken of the gas giant.
In particular, Juno will explore the solar system's most powerful aurorasJupiter's northern and southern lightsby flying directly through the electrical current systems that generate them.
"Jupiter has the largest and most energetic magnetosphere, and to finally get an opportunity to study the nature of its auroras and the role radio and plasma waves play in their generation makes Juno a really exciting mission for me," says Kurth.
Juno's other major objectives are to understand the origin and evolution of the solar system's largest planet by:
- Determining the amount of water and ammonia present in the atmosphere.
- Observing the dynamics of Jupiter's upper atmosphere.
- Mapping the planet's magnetic and gravity fields to learn more about its deep interior including the size of its core.
Gurnett, a world leader in the field of space plasma physics, says the Juno spacecraft and its unique orbit will expand upon Jupiter data gathered by previous UI instruments.
Juno's destiny is a fiery entry into Jupiter's atmosphere at the end of its one-year science phase as a means of guaranteeing it doesn't impact Europa and possibly contaminate that icy world with microbes from Earth. This would jeopardize future missions to that moon designed to determine whether life had begun there on its own.
The Juno Waves instrument will be the eighth UI instrument to make the trek to Jupiter. Previous Iowa instruments were carried aboard Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, Galileo (including two UI instruments), and Cassini, currently in orbit around Saturn.
The Waves instrument was built at the UI by a group of about a dozen scientists, engineers, and technicians, led by research engineer Donald Kirchner. Terry Averkamp, Chris Piker, and William Robinson assist in the operation of the Waves instrument and in the data processing.
The Juno project is a collaborative enterprise, led by Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, including the UI and many other organizations and individuals.
###
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Bolton. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built and operates the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission was the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Contacts:
Bill Kurth, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 319-530-8312 (cell).
Don Gurnett, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 319-335-1697.
Gary Galluzzo, University Communication and Marketing, 319-384-0009.
[
|
Share]
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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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Research enables fishermen to harvest lucrative shellfish on Georges Bank
Public release date: 10-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: WHOI Media Relations
media@whoi.edu
508-289-3340
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Combined research efforts by scientists involved in the Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project, funded by NOAA's Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) program, and administered by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), have led to enhanced understanding of toxic algal blooms on Georges Bank. This new information, coupled with an at-sea and dockside testing protocol developed through collaboration between GOMTOX and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigators, has allowed fishermen to harvest ocean quahogs and surf clams in these offshore waters for the first time in more than two decades.
The shellfish industry estimates the Georges Bank fishery can produce up to 1 million bushels of surf clams and ocean quahogs a year, valued $10 15 million annually. "There is a billion dollars' worth of shellfish product on Georges Bank that is property of the United States but that can't be harvested because of the threat of toxicity, and 99.9% of the time, it is good wholesome product," says Dave Wallace of North Atlantic Clam Association and a GOMTOX participant. "In an unusual and unique partnership, we worked with GOMTOX scientists, the FDA, and the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Delaware and now that huge resource can go into commerce, which helps the entire country."
"We are extremely pleased that research funded by NOAA can provide such an economic boost to New England shellfisheries," says Robert Magnien, Director of NCCOS' Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. "It is a clear example of how research authorized by the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act can protect both public health and local economies through collaborations between academic scientists, state and federal regulatory agencies, and the shellfish industry."
An elevated area of the sea floor between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, Georges Bank is one of the best fishing grounds on Earth. But since 1990, it has been closed to harvesting of surf clams and ocean quahogs after harmful algal blooms (also referred to as "red tides") caused paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) that sickened fishermen. For decades scientists speculated the blooms on Georges Bank were fueled by coastal blooms in the Gulf of Maine.
More recent research by GOMTOX investigators, however, has shown that Georges Bank is home to a separate and distinct population of the toxic algae, which is described in a recently published paper by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist Dennis McGillicuddy and other members of the GOMTOX team.
It has been known for many years that the phytoplankton Alexandrium fundyense is the cause of the harmful algal blooms that occur to varying severity each spring and summer along the coastal Gulf of Maine, sometimes extending as far south as Cape Cod and the adjacent islands. The algae's seed populations or "cysts" germinate from seabeds starting in early spring and bloom at the sea surface, until all of the necessary nutrients in the water are consumed. As the nutrients run out, the cells form cysts and fall to the seafloor, as seed for the following spring. High concentrations of the toxic algae can cause closure of shellfish beds and cost the region many millions of dollars.
Precisely why the blooms vary in severity has been much more difficult to determine, and has involved extensive seasonal sampling of water and sediments, study of coastal currents, environmental and oceanographic conditions, availability of nutrients, and the development of a computer program to model all of the variables.
Researchers got the first signal that something very different was happening on Georges Bank during a research cruise to count Alexandrium cells in sea water samples in spring/summer 2007. "We devised our sampling strategy to look at the cells' transport pathways from coastal waters onto the Bank," says McGillicuddy. Throughout the coastal Gulf of Maine, the numbers were very low. But when the research team started sampling at Georges Bank, they found very high concentrations of Alexandrium in the water, despite the fact that the bloom had not really begun along the coast of Maine.
"I'll never forget the moment we hit a big patch of cells on Georges Bank," says Dave Townsend, a GOMTOX scientist from the University of Maine and co-author of the paper. "We extended our sampling to go all the way across Georges Bank and we were still hitting them. We had to turn around and completely reorganize our sampling strategy based on what we were seeing in the microscope."
For such a large bloom to occur, the researchers reasoned the number of cysts on Georges Bank must be similar to the quantities needed to initiate a bloom along the coast. Yet, their fall 2007 survey to map the cyst distribution in the seabed on the Bank found very few cysts quantities not likely to cause a large bloom along the coast.
In the three-year course of intensive study on Georges Bank since then, blooms have occurred every year, in concentrations that would typically lead to toxicities in coastal shellfish beds. Yet, a parallel effort by the fishing industry and federal testing labs to analyze shellfish samples from Georges Bank found the bivalves to be clean of toxins. So while toxins were produced at and near the surface, they were not delivered to the surf clams and ocean quahogs in the seabed in quantities sufficient to threaten human health.
The system on Georges Bank was indeed a riddle: Few cysts, yet large blooms; a large bloom, yet little to no toxicity in the shellfish. Applying the same detailed analyses to the offshore population of Alexandrium that they applied to coastal populations, the scientists discovered the optimum growing conditions for Alexandrium on Georges Bank were colder and saltier than those of their coastal relatives. Their analysis uncovered how the currents in the region can isolate Georges Bank to create colder and saltier conditions. If the conditions are favorable, the researchers say, Alexandrium populations can double every three days, and in a month's time, grow from concentrations of 10 cells per liter to 10,000.
Further setting the Georges Bank population apart was the finding by GOMTOX colleagues at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), working in collaboration with the FDA, who determined that the toxin content of algae on Georges Bank was different than the coastal Gulf of Maine populations. "The toxins present in Alexandrium cells from Georges Bank were, on average, two times lower than those in the coastal Gulf of Maine," said Chrissy Petitpas, a doctoral student working in Professor Jefferson Turner's lab at SMAST.
Despite this new information and the knowledge that the clams have been shown to be safe for humans to eat at the present time, the fact remains that concentrations of the toxins in the clams on Georges Bank in 1989 and 1990 did reach dangerous levels. Scientists know that coastal shellfish populations are directly exposed to the toxins when the blooms make landfall, but they remain uncertain about the conduit for toxicity from the surface ocean to the deep shellfish beds on Georges Bank, located at about 50m depth.
But, thanks to an innovative screening protocol and regulatory structure developed collaboratively by the FDA, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, the fishing industry, and testing labs approved by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program, a system is now in place to monitor, test, and verify that clams harvested from Georges Bank are safe. The clams are checked by fishermen at sea using the newly available test kit, and re-checked by regulators when the fishing vessels reach the dock. Combined with the weekly monitoring of shellfish beds along the coast during the bloom season to protect human health, these monitoring systems are extremely effective at keeping toxic shellfish off the market.
"Toxin levels in shellfish on Georges Bank have been very low over the last few years. We are confident that this new testing protocol will serve to protect public health should toxin levels rise again in the future," said Stacey DeGrasse, seafood research coordinator in the FDA's Office of Regulatory Science and a major participant in the development of the new offshore testing protocol. "We intend to continue to work closely with NOAA to ensure that the shellfish from this region are harvested safely."
"I've run over 2,500 samples from Georges Bank since mid-March, and all of them have been clean of toxin," says Darcie Couture, a former manager of the marine biotoxins program at the Maine Department of Marine Resources, who now operates the federally permitted testing lab. "We've been fortunate in finding a way that we can safely harvest that product out there."
"Although we can't predict when conditions on Georges Bank will favor a large bloom, our knowledge of the bloom dynamics was used in establishing a suitable management approach," says Don Anderson, a senior scientist at WHOI and the lead investigator on the GOMTOX project.
For the scientists, the work to understand the dynamics of the Georges Bank population continues. New DNA evidence uncovered by Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health researchers Deana Erdner (University of Texas) and Mindy Richlen from Don Anderson's laboratory at WHOI, suggests the Georges Bank Alexandrium population is genetically distinct.
"We thought the Georges Bank population was just the little toe at the end of the coastal population, but it's not. It is separate, and it occupies a distinct niche from the rest of the Alexandrium in this region," says McGillicuddy. "This was a big surprise to us."
###
The research was funded, in part, by NOAA's NCCOS, with additional support provided by NSF and NIEHS through the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the changing global environment.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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.
Public release date: 10-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: WHOI Media Relations
media@whoi.edu
508-289-3340
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Combined research efforts by scientists involved in the Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project, funded by NOAA's Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) program, and administered by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), have led to enhanced understanding of toxic algal blooms on Georges Bank. This new information, coupled with an at-sea and dockside testing protocol developed through collaboration between GOMTOX and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigators, has allowed fishermen to harvest ocean quahogs and surf clams in these offshore waters for the first time in more than two decades.
The shellfish industry estimates the Georges Bank fishery can produce up to 1 million bushels of surf clams and ocean quahogs a year, valued $10 15 million annually. "There is a billion dollars' worth of shellfish product on Georges Bank that is property of the United States but that can't be harvested because of the threat of toxicity, and 99.9% of the time, it is good wholesome product," says Dave Wallace of North Atlantic Clam Association and a GOMTOX participant. "In an unusual and unique partnership, we worked with GOMTOX scientists, the FDA, and the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Delaware and now that huge resource can go into commerce, which helps the entire country."
"We are extremely pleased that research funded by NOAA can provide such an economic boost to New England shellfisheries," says Robert Magnien, Director of NCCOS' Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. "It is a clear example of how research authorized by the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act can protect both public health and local economies through collaborations between academic scientists, state and federal regulatory agencies, and the shellfish industry."
An elevated area of the sea floor between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, Georges Bank is one of the best fishing grounds on Earth. But since 1990, it has been closed to harvesting of surf clams and ocean quahogs after harmful algal blooms (also referred to as "red tides") caused paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) that sickened fishermen. For decades scientists speculated the blooms on Georges Bank were fueled by coastal blooms in the Gulf of Maine.
More recent research by GOMTOX investigators, however, has shown that Georges Bank is home to a separate and distinct population of the toxic algae, which is described in a recently published paper by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist Dennis McGillicuddy and other members of the GOMTOX team.
It has been known for many years that the phytoplankton Alexandrium fundyense is the cause of the harmful algal blooms that occur to varying severity each spring and summer along the coastal Gulf of Maine, sometimes extending as far south as Cape Cod and the adjacent islands. The algae's seed populations or "cysts" germinate from seabeds starting in early spring and bloom at the sea surface, until all of the necessary nutrients in the water are consumed. As the nutrients run out, the cells form cysts and fall to the seafloor, as seed for the following spring. High concentrations of the toxic algae can cause closure of shellfish beds and cost the region many millions of dollars.
Precisely why the blooms vary in severity has been much more difficult to determine, and has involved extensive seasonal sampling of water and sediments, study of coastal currents, environmental and oceanographic conditions, availability of nutrients, and the development of a computer program to model all of the variables.
Researchers got the first signal that something very different was happening on Georges Bank during a research cruise to count Alexandrium cells in sea water samples in spring/summer 2007. "We devised our sampling strategy to look at the cells' transport pathways from coastal waters onto the Bank," says McGillicuddy. Throughout the coastal Gulf of Maine, the numbers were very low. But when the research team started sampling at Georges Bank, they found very high concentrations of Alexandrium in the water, despite the fact that the bloom had not really begun along the coast of Maine.
"I'll never forget the moment we hit a big patch of cells on Georges Bank," says Dave Townsend, a GOMTOX scientist from the University of Maine and co-author of the paper. "We extended our sampling to go all the way across Georges Bank and we were still hitting them. We had to turn around and completely reorganize our sampling strategy based on what we were seeing in the microscope."
For such a large bloom to occur, the researchers reasoned the number of cysts on Georges Bank must be similar to the quantities needed to initiate a bloom along the coast. Yet, their fall 2007 survey to map the cyst distribution in the seabed on the Bank found very few cysts quantities not likely to cause a large bloom along the coast.
In the three-year course of intensive study on Georges Bank since then, blooms have occurred every year, in concentrations that would typically lead to toxicities in coastal shellfish beds. Yet, a parallel effort by the fishing industry and federal testing labs to analyze shellfish samples from Georges Bank found the bivalves to be clean of toxins. So while toxins were produced at and near the surface, they were not delivered to the surf clams and ocean quahogs in the seabed in quantities sufficient to threaten human health.
The system on Georges Bank was indeed a riddle: Few cysts, yet large blooms; a large bloom, yet little to no toxicity in the shellfish. Applying the same detailed analyses to the offshore population of Alexandrium that they applied to coastal populations, the scientists discovered the optimum growing conditions for Alexandrium on Georges Bank were colder and saltier than those of their coastal relatives. Their analysis uncovered how the currents in the region can isolate Georges Bank to create colder and saltier conditions. If the conditions are favorable, the researchers say, Alexandrium populations can double every three days, and in a month's time, grow from concentrations of 10 cells per liter to 10,000.
Further setting the Georges Bank population apart was the finding by GOMTOX colleagues at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), working in collaboration with the FDA, who determined that the toxin content of algae on Georges Bank was different than the coastal Gulf of Maine populations. "The toxins present in Alexandrium cells from Georges Bank were, on average, two times lower than those in the coastal Gulf of Maine," said Chrissy Petitpas, a doctoral student working in Professor Jefferson Turner's lab at SMAST.
Despite this new information and the knowledge that the clams have been shown to be safe for humans to eat at the present time, the fact remains that concentrations of the toxins in the clams on Georges Bank in 1989 and 1990 did reach dangerous levels. Scientists know that coastal shellfish populations are directly exposed to the toxins when the blooms make landfall, but they remain uncertain about the conduit for toxicity from the surface ocean to the deep shellfish beds on Georges Bank, located at about 50m depth.
But, thanks to an innovative screening protocol and regulatory structure developed collaboratively by the FDA, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, the fishing industry, and testing labs approved by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program, a system is now in place to monitor, test, and verify that clams harvested from Georges Bank are safe. The clams are checked by fishermen at sea using the newly available test kit, and re-checked by regulators when the fishing vessels reach the dock. Combined with the weekly monitoring of shellfish beds along the coast during the bloom season to protect human health, these monitoring systems are extremely effective at keeping toxic shellfish off the market.
"Toxin levels in shellfish on Georges Bank have been very low over the last few years. We are confident that this new testing protocol will serve to protect public health should toxin levels rise again in the future," said Stacey DeGrasse, seafood research coordinator in the FDA's Office of Regulatory Science and a major participant in the development of the new offshore testing protocol. "We intend to continue to work closely with NOAA to ensure that the shellfish from this region are harvested safely."
"I've run over 2,500 samples from Georges Bank since mid-March, and all of them have been clean of toxin," says Darcie Couture, a former manager of the marine biotoxins program at the Maine Department of Marine Resources, who now operates the federally permitted testing lab. "We've been fortunate in finding a way that we can safely harvest that product out there."
"Although we can't predict when conditions on Georges Bank will favor a large bloom, our knowledge of the bloom dynamics was used in establishing a suitable management approach," says Don Anderson, a senior scientist at WHOI and the lead investigator on the GOMTOX project.
For the scientists, the work to understand the dynamics of the Georges Bank population continues. New DNA evidence uncovered by Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health researchers Deana Erdner (University of Texas) and Mindy Richlen from Don Anderson's laboratory at WHOI, suggests the Georges Bank Alexandrium population is genetically distinct.
"We thought the Georges Bank population was just the little toe at the end of the coastal population, but it's not. It is separate, and it occupies a distinct niche from the rest of the Alexandrium in this region," says McGillicuddy. "This was a big surprise to us."
###
The research was funded, in part, by NOAA's NCCOS, with additional support provided by NSF and NIEHS through the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the changing global environment.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/whoi-ref041013.php
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Rise of Computer Programming Jobs | US Hispanics
Demand for Computer & Software Jobs Offers
2nd Career Opportunity
?You Don?t Have to be a Math Whiz to Learn,?
Says Trainer/Programmer
There are?plenty?or good jobs to be found on sites like Monster and Craigslist, says Mark Lassoff, a self-described computer geek and founder of LearnToProgram, Inc. (www.LearnToProgram.tv). The problem is, the glut of unemployed, college-educated professionals available to fill them aren?t qualified, he says.
?American companies will post positions for jobs like developing mobile apps and video games ? good, high-paying jobs with benefits ? but there just aren?t enough qualified computer programmers out there so, after a few weeks, they send these jobs overseas,? says Lassoff, who has trained employees at the Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin and Discover Card Services.
Computer programming jobs are expected to grow by 12 percent by 2020, while software developer jobs are forecast to grow by 30 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2010, the median salary for software developers were earning more than $90,500.?
There aren?t enough people to fill these jobs because technology and the job market are moving much faster than education in high schools and colleges, says Lassoff, who develops online courses, books and other materials for people who want to learn programming.
?People think you have to go back to school to learn programming and other computer skills, but you don?t,? he says. ?There?s also the myth that you have to be some kind of math or science genius to learn it. Not true. You just need to learn the process, and then practice it. You can build a portfolio by doing volunteer work for a church or charity.?
What types of people are ripe for skills like web development through an online course ? and landing a great new job?
??Career-hoppers with an IT background:?Current and former Information Technology workers are fast learners when it comes to new computer skills. If their current job is in customer service or corporate support, getting the tools to unleash their creativity may be the ticket not only to better pay but to a more gratifying career.
??Retirees:?The clich? is that older folks are so far behind on tech knowledge, they struggle with email. However, many retirees are highly motivated, curious and have plenty of time for the business of learning. They may even have worked with early computers in their careers. ?I know seniors who learned programming later in life and they like staying stimulated and challenged, and having an in-demand skill,? Lassoff says.
??The kid who plans to study computer science:?Junior high and high school curricula are still woefully behind when it comes to preparing kids for careers in computer technology. Ambitious kids who want to take their relationship with technology to the next level are thoroughly engaged by web, mobile and gaming code classes ? and they do very well.?
??The good-idea person:?Very often, someone has a great idea for a mobile app, but no idea what to do with it. A basic understanding of mobile app coding can start turning that great idea into an entrepreneurial adventure.
Courses for these training programs do not have to be expensive ? high quality yet affordable programs can be found for less than $200, he says
Source: http://www.ushispanics.com/2013/04/rise-of-computer-programming-jobs/
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To be taken seriously, should advice giving innovation consultants ...
Gregg Fraley and I both are? of the opinion that a non-creative innovation consultant who knows the theory, but doesn?t get his hands dirty, has no business in giving game-changing advice.
Via Gregg Fraley in response to this article about creativity gurus:
Interesting that even the experts don?t really know how, exactly, to be more creative. A nicely written, humorous, and thoughtful piece.
When I saw his response, I couldn?t help myself and not respond. Here is my on-going response with Gregg (from Facebook):
Not difficult to separate the posers from the rest. Litmus test question: If you are not innovative with self, then how you can you help others become innovative?
I respect people who walk the talk. If you behave this way, it means you are not afraid to fail. How much is a non-creative creativity consultant risking by regurgitating what is being said in books and everywhere else? Nothing.
Also, innovation is about making things better, and if the person who is advising/challenging you on how to make things better doesn?t act this way, then he/she has no business giving advice on what they don?t do themselves.
I know a couple of people in my neck of the woods who ?sell innovation? and know for a fact that they are running around with frameworks from other people. For me, if you are truly committed to innovation, then you have to challenge the status-quo. That means best practices. And, if you can?t identify when you are simply regurgitating best practices, then why would I expect you to challenge and stretch my thinking?
YES! I?ve never had a great idea come out of using frameworks and tools. Nor have I heard of any game-changing business be born in a strategic planning session where frameworks were used. I understand their value in helping people think, but, true advantage is cognitive.
Tools don?t make a great mind, but a fluid and adaptable mind makes frameworks irrelevant.
Of course, this is a daunting challenge for anyone and even more daunting for an organization.
Do you think creativity/innovation consultants should be held to a higher standard?
Source: http://www.game-changer.net/2013/04/09/should-innovation-consultants-be-innovators-themselves/
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Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Microsoft to build first innovation center in China, has software development in mind
Microsoft's relatively often finding ways to encourage software development in various fields, and the company's latest venture has it setting footsteps near the Great Wall. According to a report by news agency Xinhua, the software (and hardware) company has reached a deal with China's Hainan government that will see it build an innovation center in this territory. Focusing on IT development and skills in tourism and agriculture, this new property will be the first of its type in China, and Microsoft has high hopes that the joint efforts can, aside from becoming a crossroads of knowledge, also "boost the region's efforts to become a major international tourist destination." Frankly, seeing as to how the highly populated nation doesn't appear to be slowing down its all-around growth anytime soon, it wouldn't surprise us if Redmond decides to start setting up more of these in the years to come.
Via: ZDNet
Source: China Daily
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/GO6LQAjl9og/
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North Korea suspends last project with South, Putin cites Chernobyl
By Christine Kim
PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea suspended its sole remaining major project with the South on Monday, after weeks of threats against the United States and South Korea, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said any nuclear conflict could make Chernobyl look like a fairy tale.
Reclusive North Korea's decision to all but close the Kaesong industrial park coincided with speculation that it will carry out some sort of provocative action - another nuclear weapons test or missile launch - in what has become one of the most serious crises on the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
Tension has been rising since the United Nations imposed new sanctions against the North in response to its third test of a nuclear weapon in February. Pyongyang has been further angered by weeks of joint military exercises by South Korean and U.S. forces and threatened both countries with nuclear attack.
Putin said conflict on the peninsula could cause greater devastation than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
"I would make no secret about it, we are worried about the escalation on the Korean peninsula, because we are neighbors," he told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a visit to a trade fair in Germany.
"And if, God forbid, something happens, Chernobyl which we all know a lot about, may seem like a child's fairy tale. Is there such a threat or not? I think there is... I would urge everyone to calm down... and start to resolve the problems that have piled up for many years there at the negotiating table."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said North Korea could not go on "confronting" the authority of the Security Council and challenging the international community.
"I sincerely hope that they will fully comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions. This is an urgent and earnest appeal from the international community, including myself."
A senior North Korean official, quoted by the official KCNA news agency, said after a visit to Kaesong that authorities would withdraw North Korean workers and then decide on whether it would continue to operate.
North Koreans attend a rally held to gather their willingness for a victory in a possible war against the United States and South Korea in Nampo, North Korea, April 3, 2013 in this picture released by... more? North Koreans attend a rally held to gather their willingness for a victory in a possible war against the United States and South Korea in Nampo, North Korea, April 3, 2013 in this picture released by the North's official KCNA news agency in Pyongyang on Wednesday. REUTERS/KCNA (NORTH KOREA - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PICTURE IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A RVICE TO CLIENTS. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS less? ?"It will temporarily suspend the operations in the zone and examine the issue of whether it will allow its (continued) existence or close it," KCNA quoted Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, as saying.
KCNA said leaders in South Korea, a major U.S. ally, were "running the whole gamut of intrigues to find a pretext for igniting a war against (North Korea) after reducing the Kaesong Industrial zone to a theatre of confrontation".
Seoul, it said, was trying to "turn the zone into a hotbed of war" against the North.
The North last week barred South Koreans from entering the zone and South Koreans had been leaving the zone gradually in the past week as raw materials and food begin to run out.
Analysts had suggested Pyongyang would continue to allow Kaesong to operate as it accounted for some $2 billion in annual trade, with 50,000 North Koreans working in the zone making household goods for 123 South Korean companies.
It also generates more than $80 million a year in cash in wages - paid to the state rather than to workers.
About 475 South Koreans workers remain in Kaesong. Thirteen factories have stopped operations due to lack of raw materials, according to the South's Unification Ministry.
"North Korea's unilateral decision to push ahead with this measure cannot be justified in any way and North Korea will be held responsible for all the consequences," the ministry said in a statement.
"The Korean government will calmly but firmly handle North Korea's indiscreet action and we will do our best to secure the safety of our people and the protection of our property."
"PREENING, POSTURING"
Bruce Cumings, a historian and author of "North Korea: Another Country", said in a report Pyongyang was behaving to a pattern.
"Nothing is more characteristic of this regime than its preening, posturing, overweening desire for the world to pay it attention, while simultaneously threatening destruction in all directions and assuring through draconian repression that its people know next to nothing about that same world," he wrote.
The zone was the last shared link between the two Koreas as the North cut off three telephone "hot lines" and declared it was tearing up the armistice that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Earlier on Monday, the South's Defence Ministry denied suggestions that a nuclear arms test was imminent in North Korea, saying reported movements around the reclusive country's atomic site were routine, contradicting earlier government comments.
China's Foreign Ministry said it wanted to see nuclear-free peace on the Korean peninsula. Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a Beijing briefing that China "believes that the only way to realize denuclearization is dialogue among all the parties concerned".
North Korean authorities told embassies in Pyongyang they could not guarantee their safety from Wednesday - after saying conflict was inevitable amid the joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end of the month. No diplomats appear to have left the North Korean capital.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Seoul this week and the North holds celebrations and possibly military demonstrations next Monday to mark the birth date of its founder, Kim Il-Sung - grandfather of the current leader, 30-year-old Kim Jong-un.
The turmoil has hit South Korean financial markets, long used to upsets over the North. Shares in Seoul dipped to near a four-month low as the rhetoric prompted selling by foreigners after substantial losses on Friday.
Pyongyang has shown no sign of preparing its 1.2 million-strong army for war, indicating the threats are partly intended for domestic purposes to bolster Kim, the third in his family dynasty to rule North Korea.
But it has moved what appears to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast, according to media reports last week.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed aerial footage of what it said were ballistic missile interceptors being deployed near Tokyo in response to North Korea's threats and actions.
Japan in the past has deployed ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptors, as well as Aegis radar-equipped destroyers carrying Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors in the run-up to North Korean missile launches.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to comment on the reports.
"Unveiling specific actions by the Self-Defence Forces is tantamount to putting down our cards on the table," Suga told a news conference. "I would like to refrain from commenting."
(Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park in Seoul, Terril Yue Jones in Beijing, David Morgan, Aruna Viswanatha and Mark Felsenthal in Washington, Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo and Alexei Anishchuk in Hanover; Writing by Nick Macfie)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/n-korea-may-preparing-nuclear-test-report-042700809.html
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