SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - NASA plans to follow-up its Mars rover Curiosity mission with a duplicate rover that could collect and store samples for return to Earth, the agency's lead scientist said on Tuesday.
The new rover will use spare parts and engineering models developed for Curiosity, which is four months into a planned $2.5 billion, two-year mission on Mars to look for habitats that could have supported microbial life.
Replicating the rover's chassis, sky-crane landing system and other gear will enable NASA to cut the cost of the new mission to about $1.5 billion, John Grunsfeld, the U.S. space agency's associate administrator for science, said at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.
Budget shortfalls forced NASA to pull out of a series of joint missions with Europe, designed to return rock and soil samples from Mars in the 2020s. Europe instead will partner with Russia for the launch vehicle and other equipment that was to have been provided by NASA.
Grunsfeld said NASA will provide a key organics experiment for Europe's ExoMars rover, as well as engineering and mission support under the agency's proposed budget for the year beginning October 1, 2013.
Details about what science instruments would be included on the new rover, whether or not it would have a cache for samples, and the landing site have not yet been determined.
NASA plans to set up a team of scientists to refine plans for the rover and issue a solicitation next summer.
The National Academy of Sciences last year ranked a Mars sample return mission as its top priority in planetary science for the next decade.
"The (science) community already has come forward with a very clear message about what the content of the next Mars surface mission should be, and that is to cache the samples that will come back to Earth," said Steve Squyres with Cornell University.
"That's really a necessary part of having this mission," he said.
Facebook today announced that it's opening up Facebook Messenger to folks who don't actually use Facebook. Going forward, all you'll need to use the Messenger app is a name and phone number, and you'll be able to hit up your mobile contacts. The obvious play is to get non-Facebook users to stick a toe into the water -- and not into the pools of cross-platform competitors such as Whatsapp. Whether the Facebook name remains too much of a deterrent, we'll just have to see.
Facebook says an update to the Android client should be rolling out today (it's not live as of this writing).
VIENNA/DUBLIN (Reuters) - An Austrian student group plans to go to court in a bid to make Facebook Inc, the world's biggest social network, do more to protect the privacy of its hundreds of millions of members.
Campaign group europe-v-facebook, which has been lobbying for reforms at the U.S. company for more than a year, said it would appeal against decisions by the data protection regulator in Ireland, where Facebook has its international headquarters.
The group has filed 22 separate complaints against Facebook, winning some concessions including pushing the social network to switch off its facial recognition feature in Europe.
But it said on Tuesday the changes did not go far enough and it was disappointed with the results of an audit carried out by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) in response to its complaints, which it now plans to challenge in court.
"We'll be fighting Facebook via the DPC," the group's founder, Max Schrems, told Reuters.
The move is one of a number of campaigns against the giants of the internet, who are under pressure from investors to generate more revenue from their huge user bases but also face criticism for storing and sharing personal information.
Internet search engine Google, for example, has been told by the European Union to make changes to a new policy that pools data collected on users of its services including YouTube, gmail and Google+, from which users cannot opt out.
Facebook's shares have dropped 40 percent in value since the company's record-breaking $104 billion initial public offering in May as revenue growth has slowed.
Facebook, due to hold a conference call later on Tuesday to answer customer concerns about its privacy policy, said its data protection policies exceeded European requirements.
"The latest Data Protection report demonstrates not only how Facebook adheres to European data protection law but also how we go beyond it, in achieving best practice," a Facebook spokesman said in an emailed comment.
"Nonetheless we have some vocal critics who will never be happy whatever we do and whatever the DPC concludes."
TECHNOLOGY HUB
Last month, Facebook proposed to combine its user data with that of its recently acquired photo-sharing service Instagram, loosen restrictions on emails between its members and share data with other businesses and affiliates that it owns.
Late on Monday, it invited users to vote on the proposed changes to its policies, which have generated almost 90,000 user comments as well as concerns from some privacy-advocacy groups and a request for more information from the DPC.
Ian Maude, an analyst at London-based technology and media analysis firm Enders Analysis, said privacy concerns were not stopping more and more people from using social networks.
"Every time Facebook gets its wrist slapped, they make some adjustments to their privacy policy," he added.
Among its complaints, europe-v-facebook said more than 40,000 Facebook users who had requested a copy of the data Facebook was holding on them had not received anything several months after making a request.
Ireland has become a hub for the international operations of U.S. technology firms including Google and Microsoft, who are attracted by a generous tax regime and in return create employment for thousands.
Gary Davies, Ireland's deputy data protection commissioner, denied Facebook's investment in Ireland had influenced regulation of the company.
"We have handled this in a highly professional and focused way and we have brought about huge changes in the way Facebook handles personal data," he told Reuters.
Europe-v-facebook said it believed its Irish battle had the potential to become a test case for data protection law and had a good chance of landing up in the European Court of Justice.
Schrems said the case could cost the group around 100,000 euros ($130,000), which it hoped to raise via crowd-funding - money provided by a collection of individuals - on the Internet.
(Additional reporting by Stephen Mangan in Dublin; Editing by Mark Potter)
The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
Rewriting personal history by inventing racist roads not takenPublic release date: 4-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Betsy Berger b-berger@kellogg.northwestern.edu 847-467-3108 Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Kellogg School of Management research finds that foregone racist behavior provides license to behave in questionable ways
Evanston, Ill. (December 4, 2012) In 2008, research showed that expressing support for Barack Obama increased people's comfort in subsequently saying or doing things that might be considered racist. Researchers argued that endorsing a black political figure made people feel as if they had "non-racist credentials" that reduced their concern about subsequently seeming prejudiced. Now this same research group has identified a mental trick that people play to convince themselves that they have these same non-racist credentials: convincing themselves that they were presented with but passed up opportunities to act in racially insensitive ways in the past.
In a series of new studies from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, researchers report two new findings. First, when people worry that their behavior could seem racist, they point to past opportunities for racism they had been faced with but passed upthe "racist road not taken"that ironically increases people's willingness to express less racially sensitive views. Second, people actually distort their memories and convince themselves that they previously passed up opportunities for racismopportunities that did not, in fact, exist.
"Our research suggests that people demonstrate remarkable flexibility when it comes to convincing themselves that they have proven their lack of prejudice," said Daniel A. Effron, lead author of the studies and visiting assistant professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School of Management. "The ability to point to blatantly racist behaviors that they didn't perform seems sufficient for people to feel that they have non-racist credentialseven if virtually no one would have chosen to perform those racist behaviors. People are essentially willing to make a mountain of proof out of a molehill of evidence.
"What's more, our results show that people are willing to go even farther and invent the molehill, convincing themselves that they passed up opportunities for racism that they didn't actually have," continued Effron.
The researchers conducted a series of six experiments. The first three established that participants are more likely to express less racially sensitive views such as saying they would prefer to hire white people instead of black people for a hypothetical job, or allocating funds to an organization serving a white community at the expense of one serving a black community if they have specific examples of racist behavior they have foregone.
The last three focused on the memory distortion of participantstheir invention of racist alternatives to their actions that they could have taken but did not.
One such experiment asked participants to identify a criminal from a lineup of suspects. The evidence clearly pointed to one particular suspect who was white. All participants accused this suspect, but one participant group was also given the opportunity to accuse a clearly innocent black suspect instead. This group later felt more comfortable expressing less racial sensitivity in response to additional scenarios since they had been faced with, but not taken, a racist viewpoint.
In a follow-up study, participants all passed up five opportunities to accuse a clearly innocent black suspect of a crimethat is, they could point to five racist roads not taken. But when participants were later made to worry about feeling prejudiced, they "remembered," on average, that they had passed up nine opportunities for racismin effect claiming that their past contained nearly twice as many racists roads not taken than it actually did.
"Inventing racist roads not taken seems to be a strategy for convincing yourself that you're not prejudiced," said Effron. "Thinking about these roads not taken can subsequently make people feel licensed to relax their vigilance in trying to avoid future prejudiced actions. There is concern that this may allow people to express truly prejudiced views. On a more optimistic note, though, there may be some cases where this ability allows people to have frank, constructive conversations about race without worrying about being misinterpreted as prejudiced."
###
The paper, "Inventing Racist Roads Not Taken: The Licensing Effect of Immoral Counterfactual Behaviors," was co-authored by Dale T. Miller of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and Benot Monin, a professor in the business school and the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford, along with Effron of Kellogg. The research is featured in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Rewriting personal history by inventing racist roads not takenPublic release date: 4-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Betsy Berger b-berger@kellogg.northwestern.edu 847-467-3108 Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Kellogg School of Management research finds that foregone racist behavior provides license to behave in questionable ways
Evanston, Ill. (December 4, 2012) In 2008, research showed that expressing support for Barack Obama increased people's comfort in subsequently saying or doing things that might be considered racist. Researchers argued that endorsing a black political figure made people feel as if they had "non-racist credentials" that reduced their concern about subsequently seeming prejudiced. Now this same research group has identified a mental trick that people play to convince themselves that they have these same non-racist credentials: convincing themselves that they were presented with but passed up opportunities to act in racially insensitive ways in the past.
In a series of new studies from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, researchers report two new findings. First, when people worry that their behavior could seem racist, they point to past opportunities for racism they had been faced with but passed upthe "racist road not taken"that ironically increases people's willingness to express less racially sensitive views. Second, people actually distort their memories and convince themselves that they previously passed up opportunities for racismopportunities that did not, in fact, exist.
"Our research suggests that people demonstrate remarkable flexibility when it comes to convincing themselves that they have proven their lack of prejudice," said Daniel A. Effron, lead author of the studies and visiting assistant professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School of Management. "The ability to point to blatantly racist behaviors that they didn't perform seems sufficient for people to feel that they have non-racist credentialseven if virtually no one would have chosen to perform those racist behaviors. People are essentially willing to make a mountain of proof out of a molehill of evidence.
"What's more, our results show that people are willing to go even farther and invent the molehill, convincing themselves that they passed up opportunities for racism that they didn't actually have," continued Effron.
The researchers conducted a series of six experiments. The first three established that participants are more likely to express less racially sensitive views such as saying they would prefer to hire white people instead of black people for a hypothetical job, or allocating funds to an organization serving a white community at the expense of one serving a black community if they have specific examples of racist behavior they have foregone.
The last three focused on the memory distortion of participantstheir invention of racist alternatives to their actions that they could have taken but did not.
One such experiment asked participants to identify a criminal from a lineup of suspects. The evidence clearly pointed to one particular suspect who was white. All participants accused this suspect, but one participant group was also given the opportunity to accuse a clearly innocent black suspect instead. This group later felt more comfortable expressing less racial sensitivity in response to additional scenarios since they had been faced with, but not taken, a racist viewpoint.
In a follow-up study, participants all passed up five opportunities to accuse a clearly innocent black suspect of a crimethat is, they could point to five racist roads not taken. But when participants were later made to worry about feeling prejudiced, they "remembered," on average, that they had passed up nine opportunities for racismin effect claiming that their past contained nearly twice as many racists roads not taken than it actually did.
"Inventing racist roads not taken seems to be a strategy for convincing yourself that you're not prejudiced," said Effron. "Thinking about these roads not taken can subsequently make people feel licensed to relax their vigilance in trying to avoid future prejudiced actions. There is concern that this may allow people to express truly prejudiced views. On a more optimistic note, though, there may be some cases where this ability allows people to have frank, constructive conversations about race without worrying about being misinterpreted as prejudiced."
###
The paper, "Inventing Racist Roads Not Taken: The Licensing Effect of Immoral Counterfactual Behaviors," was co-authored by Dale T. Miller of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and Benot Monin, a professor in the business school and the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford, along with Effron of Kellogg. The research is featured in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Empirical evidence of gender bias in higher education ? and the sciences in particular ? continues to stack up. For scientists, that data cannot be ignored. One might like to think that more educated people are somehow above discrimination, but the evidence suggests the contrary. That poses a challenge to America?s universities and colleges that must be faced head-on, and the challenge is not simply an academic problem. It?s crucial to America?s future leadership in science and technology, and to generating the jobs that they have historically produced.
A peer-reviewed report, published in September by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that science professors at American research universities demonstrated bias against women in hiring. As the abstract explains: ?In a randomized double-blind study (n = 127), science faculty from research-intensive universities rated the application materials of a student?who was randomly assigned either a male or female name?for a laboratory manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant? The gender of the faculty participants did not affect responses, such that female and male faculty were equally likely to exhibit bias against the female student.?
A peer-reviewed study of top U.S. graduate programs in the sciences ? titled ?Gender Segregation in Elite Academic Science? ? was funded by the National Academy of Sciences and published in the October issue of Gender and Society. Rice University, where the study?s lead author and principal investigator, Elaine Howard Ecklund, is Associate Professor of Sociology, explained the research as follows: ?The study surveyed 2,500 biologists and physicists at elite institutions of higher education in the United States? The study?s key finding is that both male and female scientists view gender discrimination as a factor in women?s decision not to choose a science career at all or to choose biology over physics. However, the two sexes still have differences in opinion about when discrimination occurs.?
As Professor Ecklund elaborates, ?During interviews, men almost never mentioned present-day discrimination, believing that any discrimination in physical science classes likely took place early in the educational history (primary school), which they believe explains women?s predisposition to biological sciences. However, female scientists believe that discrimination is still occurring in present-day universities and departments.?
The study in Proceedings clearly supports that latter perspective, as does a look at faculty salaries by gender. According to a report by the American Association of University Professors ? titled ?Persistent Inequity: Gender and Academic Employment?? ?recent reports from the Modern Language Association (2009) and University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers (Misra, et al., 2011) confirm that women are less likely to be promoted than men, and when they are promoted, the process takes longer? Women earn less than men, on average, at each faculty rank and at all types of institutions? Because women are overrepresented at the lowest ranks and at the lowest-paying institutions, women?s overall average salary has remained at around 80 percent of the average for men since the mid-1970s.?
It?s easy for science faculty members, convinced of their own high ethical standards, to assume that gender discrimination lies outside of their actions: earlier in the pipeline; in other fields; at other types of institutions. I found myself, as a former dean of natural sciences at a liberal arts college, reacting to these studies in just that way. My initial reaction was: that may be true of universities, but it wasn?t my experience at a liberal arts college.
I asked some colleagues to analyze the percentage of women with professorships (assistant, associate, visiting, or full professors) at the 30 highest-ranked liberal arts colleges, according to U.S. News & World Report. The analysis reveals great disparity in the percentage of women professors (of all ranks) among fields ? with biology at 45%, chemistry at 35%, astronomy at 33%, and physics at 25%.
The total for physics is interestingly below the national average (28%, according to the U.S. Department of Education) for full professors at all U.S. postsecondary institutions across all fields ? not just the sciences. And the physics percentage reflects all ranks ? not just full professors.
Gender bias must be ended, and the disparities across fields offer a clue to how to do it. Those disparities are quite pronounced in some cases and more subtle in others. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, ?Engineering and teaching are among the most lopsided disciplines in academe?s gender split. In 2010, women received 80 percent of the undergraduate degrees awarded in education, the U.S. Education Department reports. And they earned 77 percent of the master?s and 67 percent of the doctoral degrees in that field. In engineering, by contrast, women earned just 18 percent of undergraduate, 22 percent of master?s, and 23 percent of doctoral degrees? Perhaps nowhere has the gender gap been more pronounced ? than in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics?the STEM fields. Women are still a minority in those fields? Not surprisingly, the gender distribution of professors in the STEM disciplines is similarly skewed.?
Gender bias should be tackled not only by institutions of higher education but by fields, and within those fields by individual departments. Every department chair should assess the department?s role in gender bias and how it can be changed ? in hiring, salary, and promotion decisions for the faculty but also in numbers of students, summer job opportunities, and scholarships. Department chairs are key to solving the problem, and they should lead the effort within their own departments, while also working with deans and provosts to ensure that this persistent problem is discussed on campuses with faculty and students.
In the 21st century, America will not compete successfully with the rest of the world in the STEM fields if we do not take full advantage of the intellectual powers of more than half of our population.
Heart-warming memories: Nostalgia can make you feel warmerPublic release date: 3-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Becky Attwood r.attwood@soton.ac.uk 44-023-805-95457 University of Southampton
As the nights draw in and the temperature begins to drop, many of us will be thinking of ways to warm up on the dark winter nights. However, few would think that remembering days gone by would be an effective way of keeping warm.
But research from the University of Southampton has shown that feeling nostalgic can make us feel warmer.
The study, published in the journal Emotion, investigated the effects of nostalgic feelings on reaction to cold and the perception of warmth. The volunteers, from universities in China and the Netherlands, took part in one of five studies.
The first asked participants to keep an account of their nostalgic feelings over 30 days. Results showed they felt more nostalgic on colder days. The second study put participants in one of three rooms: cold (20?C), comfortable (24?C) and hot (28?C), and then measured how nostalgic they felt. Participants felt more nostalgic in the cold room than in the comfortable and hot rooms. The volunteers in the comfortable and hot rooms did not differ.
The third study, which was conducted online, used music to evoke nostalgia to see if it was linked to warmth. The participants who said the music made them feel nostalgic also tended to say that the music made them feel physically warmer.
The fourth study tested the effect of nostalgia on physical warmth by placing participants in a cold room and instructing them to recall either a nostalgic or ordinary event from their past. They were then asked to guess the temperature of the room. Those who recalled a nostalgic event perceived the room they were in to be warmer.
Study five again instructed participants to recall either a nostalgic or ordinary event from their past. They then placed their hand in ice-cold water to see how long they could stand it. Findings showed that the volunteers who indulged in nostalgia held their hand in the water for longer.
Dr Tim Wildschut, senior lecturer at the University of Southampton and co-author of the study, comments: "Nostalgia is experienced frequently and virtually by everyone and we know that it can maintain psychological comfort. For example, nostalgic reverie can combat loneliness. We wanted to take that a step further and assess whether it can also maintain physiological comfort.
"Our study has shown that nostalgia serves a homeostatic function, allowing the mental simulation of previously enjoyed states, including states of bodily comfort; in this case making us feel warmer or increasing our tolerance of cold. More research is now needed to see if nostalgia can combat other forms of physical discomfort, besides low temperature."
###
The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers from Sun Yat-Sen University and Tilburg University. It was funded by grants from the Key Program and General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China, 985-3 Research Program of Sun Yat-Sen University and the Economic and Social Research Council.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Heart-warming memories: Nostalgia can make you feel warmerPublic release date: 3-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Becky Attwood r.attwood@soton.ac.uk 44-023-805-95457 University of Southampton
As the nights draw in and the temperature begins to drop, many of us will be thinking of ways to warm up on the dark winter nights. However, few would think that remembering days gone by would be an effective way of keeping warm.
But research from the University of Southampton has shown that feeling nostalgic can make us feel warmer.
The study, published in the journal Emotion, investigated the effects of nostalgic feelings on reaction to cold and the perception of warmth. The volunteers, from universities in China and the Netherlands, took part in one of five studies.
The first asked participants to keep an account of their nostalgic feelings over 30 days. Results showed they felt more nostalgic on colder days. The second study put participants in one of three rooms: cold (20?C), comfortable (24?C) and hot (28?C), and then measured how nostalgic they felt. Participants felt more nostalgic in the cold room than in the comfortable and hot rooms. The volunteers in the comfortable and hot rooms did not differ.
The third study, which was conducted online, used music to evoke nostalgia to see if it was linked to warmth. The participants who said the music made them feel nostalgic also tended to say that the music made them feel physically warmer.
The fourth study tested the effect of nostalgia on physical warmth by placing participants in a cold room and instructing them to recall either a nostalgic or ordinary event from their past. They were then asked to guess the temperature of the room. Those who recalled a nostalgic event perceived the room they were in to be warmer.
Study five again instructed participants to recall either a nostalgic or ordinary event from their past. They then placed their hand in ice-cold water to see how long they could stand it. Findings showed that the volunteers who indulged in nostalgia held their hand in the water for longer.
Dr Tim Wildschut, senior lecturer at the University of Southampton and co-author of the study, comments: "Nostalgia is experienced frequently and virtually by everyone and we know that it can maintain psychological comfort. For example, nostalgic reverie can combat loneliness. We wanted to take that a step further and assess whether it can also maintain physiological comfort.
"Our study has shown that nostalgia serves a homeostatic function, allowing the mental simulation of previously enjoyed states, including states of bodily comfort; in this case making us feel warmer or increasing our tolerance of cold. More research is now needed to see if nostalgia can combat other forms of physical discomfort, besides low temperature."
###
The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers from Sun Yat-Sen University and Tilburg University. It was funded by grants from the Key Program and General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China, 985-3 Research Program of Sun Yat-Sen University and the Economic and Social Research Council.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t5oYwvuXXRsU3w8eEUdC7nXBHevwVSEwS9HXIqD5I9ixlOq2RSwtfXXMefmbeTUvlNs83mWtKVjkzUzNooUuKmdnTCmJtKOHVsMbqCdSI=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 4-Dec-2012
Share ] 
A peer-reviewed report, published in September by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that science professors at American research universities demonstrated bias against women in hiring. As the abstract explains: ?In a randomized double-blind study (n = 127), science faculty from research-intensive universities rated the application materials of a student?who was randomly assigned either a male or female name?for a laboratory manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant? The gender of the faculty participants did not affect responses, such that female and male faculty were equally likely to exhibit bias against the female student.?