We live in a most magnificent time for learning how to program useful machines. Chad Jenkins, associate professor of computer science and engineering at Brown University, found computer science when he was 7. He will talk with interested youngsters about robots and computing during a “Cool Jobs” session Sunday at the World Science Festival in New York.
Heat from a volcano erupting beneath an immense glacier would have created large lakes of liquid water on Mars in the relatively recent past. And where there’s water, there is also the possibility of life. A recent paper by Brown University researchers calculates how much water may have been present near the Arsia Mons volcano and how long it may have remained.
Billions of years ago, volcanoes sent material from inside planetary bodies to the surface. Subsequent impacts have covered those original deposits. Jennifer Whitten, who receives her Ph.D. in geological sciences this year, has figured out a way to study those “hidden seas” and learn more about the early volcanic history the Moon and Mercury.
People who are “locked in” by paralysis may have lots to say but no way to say it. Assistive communications devices can create a communications channel from the slightest remaining ability for expressing intent: the blink of an eye, the twitch of a muscle. New designs for assistive technologies was the whole point of a recent two-day “makeathon” at Brown University.
Homes already have intelligent devices beyond the TV remote — garage door openers, coffee makers, laundry machines, lights, HVAC — but each has its own arcane steps for programming. User research now shows that “trigger-action programming” could give users a reliable and simple way to control everything, as easy as “If this, then that.”
Bits of plant life encapsulated in molten glass by asteroid and comet impacts millions of years ago give geologists information about climate and life forms on the ancient Earth. Scientists exploring large fields of impact glass in Argentina suggest that what happened on Earth might well have happened on Mars millions of years ago. Martian impact glass could hold traces of organic compounds.
In steel making, two desirable qualities — strength and ductility — tend to be at odds: Stronger steel is less ductile, and more ductile steel is not as strong. Engineers at Brown University, three Chinese universities, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have shown that when cylinders of steel are twisted, their strength is improved without sacrificing ductility.
Students from elementary grades through high school — and their parents, the public, and elected officials — met working robots and roboticists on the basketball floor at Brown University on Saturday, April 5. They high-fived PR2, checked out Baxter, looked over robotic kayaks, and considered robotics as both a career and an eventual source of help for a variety of tasks.
By analyzing the speed of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, scientists have shown that temperature differences deep within Earth’s
mantle control the elevation and volcanic activity along mid-ocean
ridges, the colossal mountain ranges that line the ocean floor. Recent research sheds new light on how temperature in the depths of the mantle influences the contours of the Earth’s crust.
Mercury was long thought to be lacking volatile compounds that cause explosive volcanism. That view started to change when the MESSENGER spacecraft returned pictures of pyroclastic deposits — the telltale signature of volcanic explosions. Now more detailed data from MESSENGER shows that volcanoes exploded on Mercury for a substantial portion of the planet’s history. The findings suggest Mercury not only had volatiles but held on to them for longer than scientists had expected.
