Posts Tagged ‘Research’
U.S. Is Urged to Raise Teachers’ Status
16
Mar
An international education study says the United States must improve the way it recruits, trains and pays teachers.
Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl!
18
Jan
A border collie knows 1,022 nouns, a record that displays the unexpected depths of the canine mind.
We’re Running Out of Chocolate [Chocolate]
09
Nov
Survey: Americans Are Crazy About Text Messaging
10
Sep
Despite rising costs of text messaging, the impersonal method of communication has proven vastly popular in the United States, where handset users are sending more messages than ever, according to a recent survey.
The survey, conducted by the Wireless Association, kept track of the number of text messages sent over the month of June. In that month alone, U.S. handset users sent 75 billion SMS text messages, averaging about 2.5 billion messages a day. This represents a significant growth from June 2007, when handset users sent about 29 billion text messages.
That's a whole lot of money being poured into handset carriers with just text messaging alone -- considering that text messaging has inflated to about 20 cents per message. CNET even compares rising text-message costs to inflating gas prices.
(Photo credit: pouwerkerk/Flickr )
U.S. text usage hits record despite price increases [CNET]
World’s Most Powerful Magnet Under Construction in Florida [Magnets]
02
Sep
You have probably heard stories about patient injuries or deaths occurring when someone introduces a heavy metal object into the same room as an MRI machine. Obviously, we are talking about some seriously powerful magnets here. However, the $10 million magnet currently under construction at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida is expected to reach 100 tesla when finished—about 67 times more powerful than a typical MRI machine.
That is just the kind of power needed to test the properties of high-temperature superconductors like iron oxyarsenide, which may result in better, cheaper MRI machines and high-voltage power lines. It could also be used for certain zero-gravity experiments and magnetic propulsion systems that could eliminate the need for traditional rockets down the line. Researchers have been able to create magnetic fields over 100 T for years, but if successful, this would be the first magnet that could repeatedly hold up to the strain. According to Greg Boebinger, director of the Magnet Lab, the magnet will have to resist Lorentz forces “equivalent to the explosive force of 200 sticks of dynamite packed into a volume of space the size of a marble.†[IEEE Spectrum Online via New Launches via Dvice]