http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. At least a dozen Alberta high-school calculus classrooms were exposed to the West Nile virus recently. http://www.physorg.com/news180012327.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:50:02 EST news180012327 (PhysOrg.com) -- Thanks to the Internet and online social networks (OSNs) news and gossip now spread literally like wildfire -- uncontrollably and seemingly without any order. But according to one Ryerson researcher, there is method to the madness. With the right mathematical model, you could spot when and where a story starts, then watch as it skips across the Internet. One day, similar models could even detect and track terrorist cells within OSNs. http://www.physorg.com/news179607879.html Other Sciences Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:20:01 EST news179607879 A mathematical model has explained some of the remarkable features of mosquito hearing. In particular, the male can hear the faintest beats of the female's wings and yet is not deafened by loud noises. http://www.physorg.com/news177918117.html Other Sciences Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:42:41 EST news177918117 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Association for Women in Mathematics has named Hannah Alpert, a third-year mathematics major at the University of Chicago, a co-winner of the 2010 Alice T. Schafer Prize for excellence in mathematics by an undergraduate woman. Alpert will receive the award in January at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco. http://www.physorg.com/news177780944.html Other Sciences Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:10:01 EST news177780944 Mathematics is driven by the quest to solve problems and today the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) announces a new tool to help attack those questions. Research problems can take decades or centuries to answer, with partial solutions spawning new problems along the way. Keeping track of all the problems is difficult, even for experts. Sometimes the solution needs an idea from another field, and it can take a long time for someone to notice the connection. http://www.physorg.com/news177658007.html Other Sciences Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:40:02 EST news177658007 (PhysOrg.com) -- Computer scientists have spent decades developing techniques for answering a single question: How long does a given calculation take to perform? Constantinos Daskalakis, an assistant professor in MIT`s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, has exported those techniques to game theory, a branch of mathematics with applications in economics, traffic management -- on both the Internet and the interstate -- and biology, among other things. By showing that some common game-theoretical problems are so hard that they`d take the lifetime of the universe to solve, Daskalakis is suggesting that they can`t accurately represent what happens in the real world. http://www.physorg.com/news176978473.html Technology Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:20:01 EST news176978473 In the 1995 Halloween episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson finds a portal to the mysterious Third Dimension behind a bookcase, and desperate to escape his in-laws, he plunges through. He finds himself wandering across a dark surface etched with green gridlines and strewn with geometric shapes, above which hover strange equations. One of these is the deceptively simple assertion that P = NP. http://www.physorg.com/news176037013.html Technology Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:10:40 EST news176037013 (PhysOrg.com) -- It took a one-tonne computer the size of a room to run a simple mathematics program in 1948 - but now computer scientists have made it available on your mobile. http://www.physorg.com/news175857600.html Technology Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:40:01 EST news175857600 Mathematicians from North America, Europe, Australia, and South America have resolved the first one trillion cases of an ancient mathematics problem. The advance was made possible by a clever technique for multiplying large numbers. The numbers involved are so enormous that if their digits were written out by hand they would stretch to the moon and back. The biggest challenge was that these numbers could not even fit into the main memory of the available computers, so the researchers had to make extensive use of the computers' hard drives. http://www.physorg.com/news172819291.html Other Sciences Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:22:23 EST news172819291 The introduction of K-12 engineering education has the potential to improve student learning and achievement in science and mathematics, increase awareness about what engineers do and of engineering as a potential career, and boost students' technological literacy, according to a new report from the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council. The report examines the status and nature of efforts to teach engineering in U.S. schools. http://www.physorg.com/news171634139.html Other Sciences Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:20:02 EST news171634139 A researcher from the University of Bath has found a new approach to an old geometric problem of modelling the most efficient way of packing shapes to form a foam. http://www.physorg.com/news171114233.html Other Sciences Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:46:07 EST news171114233 (PhysOrg.com) -- Here's a question. How many gumballs of different sizes can fit in one of those containers at the mall so as to reward a well-spent quarter? It's hard to believe that most people never consider it even when guessing the number of candies in a bowl at Halloween. http://www.physorg.com/news168534811.html Other Sciences Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:14:18 EST news168534811 As mathematics continues to become an increasingly important component in undergraduate biology programs, a more comprehensive understanding of the use of algebraic models is needed by the next generation of biologists to facilitate new advances in the life sciences, according to researchers at Sweet Briar College and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech. http://www.physorg.com/news168183447.html Other Sciences Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:10:05 EST news168183447 Concerns about dwindling fossil fuel resources, current levels of petroleum consumption, and growing pressure to shift to more sustainable energy sources are among the many factors prompting the transition from our current energy infrastructure to one that uses less carbon and requires the efficient conversion of energy. This necessitates collecting energy from ambient sources including wind, solar, and geothermal power, and converting it into appropriate forms for distributing electricity. While it is possible for this electric power to be distributed efficiently, conversion is necessary for use in automobiles and large-scale storage is problematic. http://www.physorg.com/news167659860.html Other Sciences Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:30:01 EST news167659860 Emeralds, rubies and the like are referred to as colored gemstones by experts. They sparkle and shine with varying intensity, depending on the cut. A new machine can achieve the best possible cut and extract up to 30 percent more precious stone from the raw material. http://www.physorg.com/news165145069.html Technology Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:43:34 EST news165145069 The effect of anxiety on academic performance is not always obvious but new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council suggests that there may be hidden costs. The research found that anxious individuals find it harder to avoid distractions and take more time to turn their attention from one task to the next than their less anxious peers. http://www.physorg.com/news164962655.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:10:01 EST news164962655 When students working with educational software get stymied, they often try to find fault with the computer or the software, rather than look to their own mistakes, according to a new dissertation at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. http://www.physorg.com/news163416188.html Other Sciences Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:23:43 EST news163416188 (PhysOrg.com) -- An academic from Queen Mary, University of London has launched a series of videos featuring magic tricks that are conjured from a mathematical perspective. http://www.physorg.com/news163261772.html Other Sciences Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:30:15 EST news163261772 Women with advanced degrees in math, science and engineering are more likely than men to be chosen for faculty positions and promotions -- when they apply. http://www.physorg.com/news163184096.html Other Sciences Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:55:33 EST news163184096 After donning a navy lab coat, Huava Xiong moves through a 3M Co. lab like an old pro as he cuts strips of pressure-sensitive adhesives for testing. http://www.physorg.com/news161615160.html Other Sciences Fri, 15 May 2009 14:07:09 EST news161615160 Mark Levi, professor of mathematics at Penn State, has authored a book titled "The Mathematical Mechanic: Using Physical Reasoning to Solve Problems," soon to be published by Princeton University Press. The book, which is written for a general audience with some knowledge of precalculus and basic geometry, treats readers to a host of entertaining problems and mind-bending puzzles to amuse and inspire their inner physicist. http://www.physorg.com/news159642754.html Other Sciences Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:13:47 EST news159642754 By combining the trusty old book, pen and paper with the possibilities offered by the computer and the interactive whiteboard, ICT can help to improve students` understanding in maths education. So conclude a team of researchers led by Koeno Gravemeijer and Paul Drijvers from the Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (Utrecht University, The Netherlands). http://www.physorg.com/news156704752.html Other Sciences Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:06:55 EST news156704752 An educational initiative between Rice University computer scientists and Indian educators will enable schools in rural India to be some of the first to benefit from Rice's revolutionary, low-energy computer chips. http://www.physorg.com/news155939346.html Electronics Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:29:46 EST news155939346 Greek mathematics is considered one of the great intellectual achievements of antiquity. It has been decisive to the academic and cultural development of Western civilisation. The three Roman authors Varro, Cicero and Vitruvius were all, in their own way, influenced by Greek knowledge and transferred it to Roman literature. In his dissertation, Erik Bohlin, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, studied the traces of Greek influence on these authors with regard to the mathematical branch of geometry. http://www.physorg.com/news155141057.html Other Sciences Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:45:05 EST news155141057 Gesturing helps students develop new ways of understanding mathematics, according to research at the University of Chicago. http://www.physorg.com/news154701906.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:45:36 EST news154701906 (PhysOrg.com) -- How many different sudokus are there? How many different ways are there to color in the countries on a map? And how do atoms behave in a solid? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and at Cornell University (Ithaca, USA) have now developed a new method that quickly provides an answer to these questions. http://www.physorg.com/news153588084.html Other Sciences Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:22:12 EST news153588084 A paper written by four students from High Technology High School in Lincroft, New Jersey, entitled Ethanol: Not All It Seems To Be has been published in the January 2009 issue of The Mathematical Association of America's College Mathematics Journal. http://www.physorg.com/news151241766.html Other Sciences Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:36:06 EST news151241766 The reproductive spores of many species of fungi have evolved remarkably drag-minimizing shapes, according to new research by mycologists and applied mathematicians at Harvard University. http://www.physorg.com/news149252872.html Other Sciences Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:07:52 EST news149252872 New computer tools have the potential to revolutionize the practice of mathematics by providing far more-reliable proofs of mathematical results than have ever been possible in the history of humankind. These computer tools, based on the notion of "formal proof", have in recent years been used to provide nearly infallible proofs of many important results in mathematics. A ground-breaking collection of four articles by leading experts, published today in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, explores new developments in the use of formal proof in mathematics. http://www.physorg.com/news145200777.html Other Sciences Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:32:57 EST news145200777 Knowing how precisely a high school freshman can estimate the number of objects in a group gives you a good idea how well he has done in math as far back as kindergarten, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University found. http://www.physorg.com/news140013359.html Medicine & Health Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:35:59 EST news140013359