houck2040/artisci huggingface dataset:
the daylong conference (see schedule) annually organized and hosted by texas a&m arts and sciences outreach will feature a keynote presentation by kimberly hambuchen acting deputy of the international space station (iss) systems engineering and integration office at nasa as an expert in developing novel methods for remote supervision of space robots over intermediate time delays she has been working to make them more usable by humans for more than two decades a career into which she says she fell backwards hambuchen will present an honest look at the experience of being one of few women in a sea of male colleagues and the perspective of seeing a transformative change during the course of her career that has seen a number of female colleagues joining her field the complete list of speakers includes two former students from lonza which is a corporate sponsor of the conference and a representative from dow as well as various professors from the texas a&m college of agriculture and life sciences school of architecture and college of arts and sciences the conference is named in honor of the late dr susan m arseven 75 one of the leading strategists in information technology during a career spanning several disciplines and a pioneering example of aggie leadership thanks to generous funding from a permanent endowment established 20 years ago in support of the conference on its 10th anniversary in 2002 through the texas a&m foundation by arsevens husband biostatistician and 1974 texas a&m statistics phd graduate dr ersen arseven the event also showcases the susan m arseven make-a-difference memorial award two $1 000 awards presented to graduate students pursuing masters or doctoral degrees in science engineering or technology as part of the conference the conference registration fee is $50 ($35 for students) and includes a pre-conference reception on friday feb 24 at benjamin knox gallery and a conference swag bag participants are encouraged to register online before the feb 22 deadline the texas a&m good bull fund is generously sponsoring registration fees for the first 80 students additionally interested parties are encouraged to check with their respective academic departments several of which also cover registration fees women in science and engineering (wise) at texas a&m is a university-recognized organization of graduate students postdoctoral researchers faculty and staff from various science and engineering backgrounds the group was created to address specific problems faced by women in non-traditional fields for more information about the conference or other outreach events and womens programs in the college of arts and sciences visit https://artscioutreachtamuedu
the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) is the worlds largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal science as well as science translational medicine; science signaling; a digital open-access journal science advances; science immunology; and science robotics aaas was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science serving 10 million individuals the nonprofit aaas is open to all and fulfills its mission to advance science and serve society through initiatives in science policy international programs science education public engagement and more for additional information about aaas see wwwaaasorg
a team of researchers led by a texas a&m university professor has identified the manis bone projectile point as the oldest weapon made of bone ever found in the americas at 13 900 years michael waters distinguished professor of anthropology and director of texas a&ms center for the study of first americans led the team whose findings were published this week in science advances the team studied bone fragments embedded in a mastodon rib bone first discovered by carl gustafson who conducted an excavation at the manis site in washington state from 1977 to 1979 using a ct scan and 3d software waters and his team isolated all the bone fragments to show it was the tip of a weapon a projectile made from the bone of mastodon prehistoric relatives of elephants
we isolated the bone fragments printed them out and assembled them waters said this clearly showed this was the tip of a bone projectile point this is this the oldest bone projectile point in the americas and represents the oldest direct evidence of mastodon hunting in the americas waters said at 13 900 years old the manis point is 900 years older than projectile points found to be associated with the clovis people whose stone tools he has also studied dating from 13 050 to 12 750 years ago clovis spear points have been found in texas and several other sites across the country what is important about manis is that its the first and only bone tool that dates older than clovis at the other pre-clovis site only stone tools are found waters said this shows that the first americans made and used bone weapons and likely other types of bone tools he said the only reason the manis specimen was preserved is because the hunter missed and the projectile got stuck in the mastodons rib we show that the bone used to make the point appears to have come from the leg bone of another mastodon and was intentionally shaped into a projectile point form waters said the spear with the bone point was thrown at the mastodon it penetrated the hide and tissue and eventually came into contact with the rib the objective of the hunter was to get between the ribs and impair lung function but the hunter missed and hit the rib
waters studied the rib bone previously presenting findings in a 2011 paper published in science in which radiocarbon dating determined the bones age while a genetic study of the bone fragments determined that they were mastodon in our new study we set out to isolate the bone fragments using ct images and 3d software he said we were able to create 3d images of each fragment and print them out at six times scale then we fit the pieces back together to show what the specimen looked like before it entered and splintered in the rib
it is looking like the first people that came to the americas arrived by boat he said they took a coastal route along the north pacific and moved south they eventually got past the ice sheets that covered canada and made landfall in the pacific northwest it is interesting to note that in idaho there is the 16 000-years-old coopers ferry site in oregon is the 14 100-year-old site of paisley caves and here we report on the 13 900-year-old manis site so there appears to be a cluster of early sites in the northwestern part of the united states that date from 16 000 to 14 000 years ago that predate clovis these sites likely represent the first people and their descendants that entered the americas at the end of the last ice age
hongcai joe zhou professor of chemistry at texas a&m university has been selected to receive a carl friedrich von siemens research award from the alexander von humboldt foundation in recognition of his career achievement and impact on the global chemistry community an international pioneer in inorganic chemistry as well as ligand design and synthesis zhou is a world leader in the design of framework materials very small precisely arranged and highly porous polymer-based structures that include metal-organic frameworks (mofs) porous polymer networks (ppns) and covalent-organic frameworks (cofs) these highly tunable adaptable compounds hold promise in a variety of energy and environment-related areas and applications from fuel and energy storage to emissions controls and drug delivery established in 2015 the carl friedrich von siemens research award is bestowed in recognition of the award winners entire academic record to date it carries a cash prize of $65 000 euros (approximately $73 000) and a travel stipend to spend up to one year in germany collaborating with colleagues on a long-term research project of the recipients choosing zhou plans to travel to germany later this year where he will collaborate with his nominator and longtime collaborator roland a fischer a professor at the technical university of munich on the application of the synthetic tools for pore modification discovered in zhous lab in vectorial catalysis a field fischer pioneered the collaboration may lead to new catalysts for sustainable energy and environmental protection
a 2000 texas a&m chemistry phd graduate zhou joined the department of chemistry faculty in 2008 and is holder of the robert a welch chair in chemistry in addition to serving as director of the center for electrochemical systems and hydrogen research he also is a member of the texas a&m energy institute and an affiliated faculty member in the department of materials science and engineering in addition to being a prolific researcher and esteemed teacher zhou is recognized as a valued mentor having played a critical role in kickstarting the careers of dozens of texas a&m master's and phd graduates in chemistry during the past two decades "i am delighted that joe has been recognized with this award " said simon w north john w bevan professor of chemistry and head of the department of chemistry "he is a pioneer in the area of metal-organic frameworks and continues to be one of the most prolific cited researchers in the field" a fellow of the american chemical society (acs) the royal society of chemistry and the american association for the advancement of science zhou has authored 480-plus peer-reviewed papers and articles to date and been listed as a thomson reuters/clarivate analytics highly cited researcher for nine consecutive years since 2014 he has received many previous career accolades including the research corporation for science advancements research innovation award (2003) and cottrell scholar award (2005) a national science foundation career award (2004-2009) the miami university distinguished scholar-young investigator award (2006) the air products faculty excellence award (2007) the us department of energy hydrogen program special recognition award (2010) and a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research (2017) zhou also has served since 2013 as an associate editor for the acs journal inorganic chemistry each year the humboldt foundation invites a select number of internationally renowned academics to spend up to one year cooperating on long-term research projects with specialist colleagues in germany in an effort to further promote international scientific collaboration irrespective of academic disciplines or nationalities i feel truly honored and humbled at the same time to join this exclusive list of humboldt research awardees which is essentially a list ofwho is who in research worldwide including many nobel laureates " zhou said learn more about the humboldt foundation and its award programs at https://wwwhumboldt-foundationde/en/ for additional information about zhou and his research go to https://wwwchemtamuedu/rgroup/zhou/
most people associate hurricanes with high winds intense rain and rapid flooding on land but these storms can also change the chemistry of coastal waters such shifts are less visible than damage on land but they can have dire consequences for marine life and coastal ocean ecosystems we are oceanographers who study the effects of ocean acidification including on organisms like oysters and corals in a recent study we examined how stormwater runoff from hurricane harvey in 2017 affected the water chemistry of galveston bay and the health of the bays oyster reefs we wanted to understand how extreme rainfall and runoff from hurricanes influenced acidification of bay waters and how long these changes could last our findings were startling hurricane harvey which generated massive rainfall in the houston metropolitan area delivered a huge pulse of fresh water into galveston bay as a result the bay was two to four times more acidic than normal for at least three weeks after the storm this made bay water corrosive enough to damage oyster shells in the estuary because oyster growth and recovery rely on many factors it is hard to tie specific changes to acidification however increased acidification certainly would have made it harder for oyster reefs damaged by hurricane harvey to recover and while our study focused on galveston bay we suspect that similar processes may be occurring in other coastal areas
vast quantities of water scientists predict that climate change will make hurricanes stronger and increase the amount of rain they produce over the next several decades changes in ocean chemistry caused by runoff from these storms are becoming an increasing threat to many marine ecosystems especially coastal reefs built by oysters and corals coastal estuaries like galveston bay where rivers meet the sea are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world galveston bay is the largest bay on the texas coast and one of the largest in the us; it covers about 600 square miles roughly half the size of rhode island its extensive oyster reefs provide about 9% of the national oyster harvest hurricane harvey the wettest tropical cyclone in us history made landfall on the texas coast as a category 4 hurricane on aug 26 2017 harvey stalled at the coast for four days sitting over both land and ocean maintaining contact with warm gulf of mexico waters fueled the storm with both energy and rainfall allowing it to persist and drop extreme amounts of rain directly onto houston and surrounding areas up to 50 inches in four days all of that rain and floodwater had to go somewhere and much of it flowed into galveston bay
climate change and ocean acidification the ocean acidification issues that we study are a well-known effect related to climate change human activities mainly burning fossil fuel emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere the ocean absorbs about one-third of these emissions which alters ocean chemistry making seawater more acidic acidification can harm many forms of marine life it is especially dangerous for animals that build their shells and skeletons out of calcium carbonate such as oysters and corals as seawater becomes more acidic it makes these structures harder to build and easier to erode oysters fuse together as they grow creating large rocklike underwater reefs that protect shorelines from wave erosion these reefs provide habitat for other creatures such as barnacles anemones and mussels which in turn serve as food sources for many fish species rising atmospheric co₂ levels are acidifying oceans worldwide as our study shows local events like tropical cyclones can add to global acidification
stormwater from harvey caused extreme coastal acidification the main cause of the unprecedented acidification that occurred after hurricane harvey was the excessive amount of rainfall and runoff that entered galveston bay to help manage large-scale flooding in the houston area the city released large volumes of water from reservoirs for more than two months after harvey these releases extended the time during which stormwater entered galveston bay and increased its acidity scientists use the ph scale to measure how acidic or basic (alkaline) water is a ph value of 7 is neutral; higher values are basic and lower values are acidic the ph scale is logarithmic so a decrease of one full unit say from 8 to 7 represents a tenfold increase in acidity rainwater is more acidic than either river water or seawater which pick up minerals from soil that are slightly basic and can balance out absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere rainwaters ph is around 56 compared with between 65 and 82 for rivers and about 81 for seawater
galveston bay contains a mix of fresh water from rivers and salty seawater from the gulf of mexico oysters preferred habitat we collected water samples in the bay two weeks after harvey and found that the bay was made up almost entirely of river water and rainwater from the storm since rainwater river water and seawater all have different chemistries we were able to calculate that rainwater made up almost 50% of the water in the bay this means that acidic rainwater from harvey replaced the basic seawater within the bay after the storm the average bay water ph had dropped from 8 to 76 a 25-fold increase in acidity some zones had ph even as low as 74 four times more acidic than normal
this extreme acidification lasted for more than three weeks bay waters became corrosive not only to more sensitive larval and juvenile oyster shells but to adult oyster shells as well scientists had predicted that increasing co₂ could cause this scale of coastal acidification but did not expect to see it until around the year 2100 the fresh water from harvey also caused a severe oyster die-off in the bay because oysters need slightly salty water to survive harvey struck in the middle of oyster spawning season and acidification may have slowed reef recovery by making it harder for young oysters to form new shells officials at the texas parks and wildlife department have told us that four years later in late 2021 some galveston bay oyster reefs still showed very low additions of new oysters other coastal areas at risk only a few studies including ours have analyzed how tropical cyclones affect coastal acidification in our view however it is highly possible that other storms have caused the kind of extreme acidification that we detected in the wake of harvey we reviewed the 10 wettest tropical cyclones in the us since 1900 and found that nine including harvey caused large amounts of rain and flooding in coastal areas with bay or estuary ecosystems other storms didnt produce as much rainfall as harvey but some of the affected bays were much smaller than galveston bay so less rain would have been needed to replace seawater in the bay and cause a similar level of acidification to what harvey produced we think that this likely has already occurred in other places struck by hurricanes but went unrecorded because scientists werent able to measure acidification before and after the storms as climate change continues to make tropical cyclones larger and wetter we see storm-induced acidification as a significant threat to coastal ecosystems this story was originally published by the conversation
nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor and regents professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a 2023 fellow of the american astronomical society (aas) the major organization of professional astronomers astronomy educators and amateur astronomers in north america the aas fellows program was created in 2019 to recognize original research and publications innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation significant contributions to education and public outreach and noteworthy service to astronomy and the society itself suntzeff an observational astronomer specializing in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation is one of 22 aas members honored in 2023 for enhancing and sharing humanitys scientific understanding of the universe through personal achievement and extraordinary service to the astronomical sciences and to the aas each will receive a certificate and a lapel pin it is a joy to celebrate the dedication and accomplishments of these extraordinary members of our community said aas president kelsey johnson a professor in the department of astronomy at the university of virginia we are so fortunate to have colleagues and role models who have invested so deeply in moving astrophysics forward suntzeff is cited for his transformational leadership in the foundation of supernova cosmology the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe and precision measurements of the hubble–lemaître flow; for his service to the national and international astronomical communities; for considerable efforts on behalf of human rights especially the lgbtq community both within astronomy and globally; and for establishing the astronomy program at texas a&m university" suntzeff joined the department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in 2013 as a university distinguished professor the highest level of achievement for faculty recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields in 2017 he was named a regents professor by the texas a&m university system a perpetual title celebrating employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of texas
prior to coming to texas a&m suntzeff spent 20 years as a staff astronomer at the national optical astronomy observatory cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena chile rising to the rank of associate director for science at noao in 1994 with dr brian schmidt he co-founded the high-z supernova search team that in 1998 discovered acceleration and the presence of dark energy in the universe the finding was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines and earned a host of prestigious international awards including the 2006 shaw prize the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology the 2011 nobel prize in physics and the 2015 breakthrough prize in fundamental physics he was also a co-founder of the calan/tololo supernova survey that established type ia supernovae as the most precise markers for measuring cosmological distances i have been lucky to have lived during a time of great opportunities in my 45 years as an astronomer and to share these discoveries with my creative collaborators " suntzeff said "as i look back i am most proud of the success we have had in establishing an astronomy program at texas a&m with the support of the university and the generous support of the mitchell family the munnerlyn family and ersen arseven '74 we have a world-class faculty in astronomy and astrophysics with an exciting future using the giant magellan telescope suntzeff's previous awards include the 2013 bush excellence award for international research and a 2012 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a past vice president of the american astronomical society he spent most of 2011 in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever national academy of sciences jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and a phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz and lick observatory in 1980 to learn more about suntzeff and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments visit https://physicstamuedu/directory/nsuntzeff/ for more information on the american astronomical society or the aas fellows program visit at https://wwwapsorg see a profile on suntzeff's pioneering career from battalion reporter jack lee '24
three departments in the college of arts and sciences at texas a&m university are teaming up to host the life on a dynamic planet symposium set for friday feb 17 from 8 am to 3:30 pm in rudder tower a poster session will follow concluding at 5 pm developed by the heads of the departments of anthropology biology and geology and geophysics and funded by the colleges merger grants program the symposium aims to show the interconnection among the three areas of study biology department head alex c keene collaborated with geology and geophysics department head julie newman and anthropology department head darryl de ruiter to bring this vision to life the three of us knew each other and had an interest in each others work keene said there are some overlapping areas of expertise in our fields and we thought the merger grant was a great opportunity to get people together