mcshiggits - Slashdot User

Submission + - Mystery of the Missing Sunspots, Solved? (nasa.gov)

Submitted by PRB_Ohio on Wednesday June 17, 2009 @04:57PM

PRB_Ohio writes: The sun is in the pits of a century-class solar minimum, and sunspots have been puzzlingly scarce for more than two years. Now, for the first time, solar physicists might understand why. The gist is that there is a 'jet stream' like phenomena about 7,000km below the surface of the sun. The streams migrate slowly from the poles to the equator and when a jet stream reaches the critical latitude of 22 degrees, new-cycle sunspots begin to appear. Scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, used a technique called helioseismology to track and analyze the streams.

Comment Yourmomium (Score 1) 461

by mcshiggits on Thursday June 11, 2009 @12:55PM (#28295965) Attached to: Periodic Table Gets a New, Unnamed Element

I feel very strongly that the heaviest element should always be known as yourmomium.

Robotic Surgery On a Beating Heart 54

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday October 21, 2008 @05:27PM from the got-a-good-beat-you-can-dance-to-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Serious heart surgery usually involves stopping the organ and keeping the patient alive with a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. But this risks brain damage and requires a long recuperation. Scientists at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston have now developed a device that lets surgeons operate on a beating heart with a steady hand. The 'robotic' device uses 3-D ultrasound images to predict and compensate for the motion of the heart so that the surgeon can work on a faulty valve as it moves. The approach should improve recovery times and give a surgeon instant feedback on the success of the procedure, the researchers say. Here's a (slightly gory) video of the device in action."

Helping Some Students May Harm High Achievers 1114

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 19, 2008 @05:20AM from the stop-dragging-us-down dept.

palegray.net writes "According to a new study performed by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, increased emphasis on helping students with a history of lower academic achievement results in lower performance for high achievers. This trend appears to be related to the No Child Left Behind Act. Essentially, programs designed to devote a large number of resources to assisting students who are deemed to be 'significantly behind' leave little room for encouraging continued academic growth for higher-performing students."

Unlock Internet or Risk Losing Staff? 519

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday August 23, 2006 @09:06AM from the productivity-still-the-bottom-line dept.

Dan Warne writes "People don't want to work for employers who heavily restrict internet access, a senior Microsoft executive said in a keynote speech at the opening of Tech.Ed 2006 Sydney today. From the article: 'These kids are saying: forget it! I don't want to work with you. I don't want to work at a place where I can't be freely online during the day," said Microsoft Senior Design Anthropologist Ann Kiera. She dubbed internet-wary employers "digital immigrants" and said the new wave of younger workers were "digital natives".'"

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