Mars update for MAVEN's arrival

I led Space news from the University of Colorado with a preview of MAVEN's arrival at Mars.  I'll write about that even later.  Until then, I'm marking the occasion with the the Mars news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Blair Mountain and Labor Day), which makes this the first update about the Red Planet since Curiosity and other Mars news from the past two weeks more than a month ago.

Red Orbit: Signs of Life: How NASA JPL Uses Big Data to Explore Mars

In 60 minutes, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory accelerates discovery by 840% and explores Mars more quickly

High-performance computing in the cloud has enhanced the close collaboration between mission control and IT. As expert users of infrastructure-rather than simply infrastructure experts-IT has become tightly integrated into the mission teams. 

Research at the speed of light with big data cloud computing

The vast red plains and pink sky of Mars hint that volcanoes, meteors, and flash floods once shaped the landscape. Today, a number of robots, sent by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explore the atmosphere and surface of Mars. These rovers are on a quest to find out whether the red planet is, or ever was, an environment able to support life.

However, giving instructions to a Mars rover is more difficult than most people realize. Unfortunately, there's no joystick controller a scientist can use to move the rover around. In fact, there's no real-time communication at all. Scientists are only able to communicate with the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover during short windows that occur once or twice a day. And transmissions that travel at the speed of light still take between 7 and 20 minutes to reach the rover itself.

Yes, this is an ad, which is why I have the corporate PR label. It's still good space news.

Follow over the jump from more from Red Orbit and Florida State University.

Research from BCS Championship universities

Tonight is the BCS National Championship Game, which gives me the perfect opportunity to feature all of the science, health, technology, and environment stories from the participating schools since I posted Sustainability, science, and technology on a football field and Health research and outreach from KPBS and campuses on the campaign trail.  Before I do that, it's time to present a video from an outlet I haven't used in such a long time that its YouTube channel has changed names--Next Media Animation's English service, which is now TomoNews US.

2014 BCS National Championship: Florida State vs Auburn, winner takes all

The top-ranked Florida State Seminoles and second-ranked Auburn Tigers will meet in Pasadena on Jan. 6 for the 2014 BCS National Championship Game sponsored by Vizio at the famous Rose Bowl Stadium.

If I want to watch the game, I'll have to do it in the bedroom.  There has not been enough signal for the TV in the living room since yesterday afternoon because of snow in the satellite dish.  I blame the DVR.

Follow over the jump for the past two month's stories from Auburn University that I've used on Overnight News Digest on Daily Kos but haven't already appeared here, starting with a demonstration of why the school describes themselves as "The Tigers who say 'War Eagle'" followed by some stories from Florida State University that I haven't used anywhere else.

Health and education news about Latinos from campuses on the campaign trail

Before I decided to add the passage from Nate Silver to The importance of the Latino vote from Purdue University and Nate Silver, I was going to conclude the entry with the following research findings about Latinos from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Change in the weather edition). Since I'm an environmentalist and will recycle, especially if I didn't get to use it the first time, here they are.

The research, led by College of Social Work Professor and Associate Dean Amy L. Ai, evaluated the physical and behavioral health, as well as the health care service usage, of all three major Latino subgroups in the United States.

Florida State University: Study reveals differences in overall health of Latino-American subgroups
Jeffery Seay
10/02/2012 4:33 pm

Despite a shared Latino heritage, there are significant differences in the overall health and the use of health care services among Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Puerto Rican-Americans — even between men and women in the same subgroup — according to two recently published studies by Florida State University researchers.

The authors, led by College of Social Work Professor and Associate Dean Amy L. Ai, evaluated the physical and behavioral health, as well as the health care service usage, of all three major Latino subgroups in the United States. Collectively, these have been the fastest-growing ethnic minority in recent decades and are today the nation’s largest ethnic minority, comprising more than 15 percent of the nation’s population, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. The source of the studies’ data was the National Latino and Asian-American Study, the first nationally representative study of Latino-Americans.

“Within Latino groups, cross-subcultural differences may contribute to the different patterns in both physical and mental health,” Ai said. “There are interesting pattern differences between men and women. The patterns for Latino men are rather uniform, with Puerto Rican-Americans dominating most chronic conditions and behavorial health issues. The patterns for Latino women are more diverse in terms of overall health.”

University of Kentucky: UK Researchers Find Teachers, School Climate Key to Latino Immigrants’ Academic Success
Oct. 3, 2012

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A new study by researchers at the University of Kentucky found that teachers and schools that value diversity have a big impact on the academic experiences of Latino immigrant children living in predominantly White communities. The study appears in a special section of the September/October 2012 issue of Child Development on children from immigrant families.

The researchers discovered that children who had a teacher who valued diversity felt more positively about their ethnicity than children who had a teacher who felt uncomfortable with diversity.

“This is important because feeling positively about their ethnicity was associated with children valuing school more, enjoying school more, feeling like they belonged at school more and getting better grades,” said Christia Spears Brown, associate professor in the UK Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky, who led the study.

Teachers who valued diversity also seemed to establish classroom norms that discouraged peers from teasing others because of their ethnicity.

Much more about the U.S.'s fastest growing ethnicity, at least in terms of absolute numbers,* at the links in the subject lines.

*In terms of percentage increase, Asian-Americans are the U.S.'s fastest growing racial or ethnic group.

Endeavour's last flight and other space and astronomy news

I've delayed long enough in posting the space and astronomy news from last week's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (2012 IgNobel Prizes edition) on Daily Kos, so here it is. The top story is the transcontinental flight of space shuttle Endeavour to its new home in a California museum.

NASA Television on YouTube: Endeavour Goes Cross-Country on This Week @NASA

Atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Endeavour completes its journey from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Los Angeles, where it'll go on display at the California Science Center next month. Also, Shuttle Social, Curiosity Cruises, Helping Hangout, Ride Remembered, and more.

I have more from the University of Arizona on YouTube, which was fortunate enough to have a flyover by request.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Flies Over UA Mall
 

On it's way to retirement at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the space shuttle Endeavour few over the University of Arizona as thousands of students, faculty and staff looked on. Mark Kelly, the last person to command a mission aboard the shuttle, requested the UA visit in honor of his wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Viewers on the UA Mall cheered and took photographs of the shuttle as it passed.

This completes the previous chapter in human space flight by the U.S. May there be another one so that our society does not act out the tragic science fiction plot of losing the ability to travel to space as a sign of a declining technological civilization.

More news from the asteroid belt to college campuses over the jump