Asteroid vs. Volcano
Was it an asteroid impact or a volcanic eruption that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago? Probably both, a new Drexel study says. A group of geoscientists led by Drexel volcanologist Loÿc Vanderkluysen hypothesize — in the October issue of the journal Science — that the asteroid’s impact ignited volcanoes around the globe, most catastrophically in India. The team believes that together, these catastrophes would have blanketed the planet with dust and noxious fumes, drastically altering the climate and wiping out many land and marine animals, including the dinosaurs.
In the Mood for Love
How can you get a woman to become more receptive to romance? Feed her!
A new Drexel study shows that men are not alone in the one-way street from stomach to heart when it comes to love. Drexel’s Michael Lowe, a psychology professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Alice Ely ’14, who earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Drexel, collaborated on research finding that women’s brains respond more to romantic cues on a full stomach than on an empty one. The study explored brain circuitry in hungry versus satiated states among women who were past-dieters and those who had never dieted. Ely says the results are contrary to previous studies that showed people typically demonstrate greater sensitivity to rewarding stimuli like food, money and drugs when they are hungry.
How to Kill a ‘Biodiversity Hotspot’
The understory layer of Ghana’s Upper Guinea rain forests is considered one of the world’s 25 “biodiversity hotspots,” and it’s facing a serious threat. A new study co-authored by scientists at Drexel reveals the devastating impact of illegal logging on bird communities in this area, where an estimated 80 percent of Ghana’s illegal timber harvesting occurs. Lead author Nicole Arcilla, a postdoctoral research associate in the College of Arts and Sciences, says the team’s most disturbing finding was that more than half of all understory birds had vanished in only 15 years.
Burning Rubber
Researchers from Drexel’s College of Engineering and their collaborators have figured out a way to turn rubber from the nearly 300 million tires discarded each year in the United States into material that can store energy. Their research suggests that about 50 percent of a tire’s mass could be converted to carbon powder, and then used in batteries and supercapacitors. The process includes pretreating the tires and heating them in a special tube-shaped furnace then depositing the resultant carbon on a thin film.
Welcome Back, Brooktrout
New York’s Brooktrout Lake, one of hundreds of lakes and ponds in the state’s Adirondack Mountain region, was once teeming with the fish that helped earn its name. By the 1980s, acid rain had killed them all. Fortunately, the Clean Air Act and its amendments in the 1990s helped to restore the ecosystem. Two Drexel scientists, Frank Acker and Donald Charles, were part of a recent evaluation of the lake’s phytoplankton (floating algae), a valuable indicator of water quality. Their evaluation was followed by a successful reintroduction of the fish back into the restored lake.