Latest news with #BrownUniversity
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
How much should a Tsinghua university graduate be making?
As China's talent pool broadens and society becomes more diverse, that linkage is being shaken. A Tsinghua diploma is no longer so special, says the writer. It's post-graduation season in China. Tiger Moms are naturally comparing notes on the salaries of fresh alumni from top universities. What kind of return might they expect, after spending years – and sometimes a fortune – demanding academic excellence from their offspring? A doctor friend told me recently that her son got a job at Huawei Technologies, considered one of the most prestigious employers in China. The young man studied computer science at Tsinghua University and then Brown University in the US. Huawei is starting him at 400,000 yuan (US$55,689) a year, the parent beamed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Dust devils on Mars leave 'fingerprints' that can guide future Red Planet missions
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Martian dust devils are fleeting, but the footprints they leave behind can endure for months. Now, researchers have used those tracks to learn about the whirlwinds and potentially guide future mission planning. As wind swirls across the landscape on both Mars and Earth, it sweeps up ground particles that reveal the dry columns. The whirlwinds dance across the landscape, leaving a path revealed by excavated particles. On the active surface of Earth, such paths are hard to spot. But on the nearly inactive surface of Mars, they can remain for months, long after the devils' minutes-long lifetimes. "Dust devils themselves are difficult to capture in images because they are so short-lived," Ingrid Daubar, a planetary scientist at Brown University and lead author of the study, told by email. "The tracks they leave behind last longer, so we are able to observe them more thoroughly." Dusting off the fingerprints On warm, windy days in Earth's deserts, vortices of sand and debris can form suddenly and move unpredictably. (This author distinctly recalls being "chased" by one such devil in the Mojave Desert as a child in 1990.) Similar conditions on Mars can also produce dust devils. But the whirls on the Red Planet tend to be both wider and taller than their counterparts on Earth, and scientists aren't sure why. Questions like these led Dauber and her colleagues to study images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — the highest-resolution photos of the planet snapped from space. HiRISE can capture features as small as 3 feet (1 meter). But its detailed perspective comes at a price: Its images cover only a small percentage of the Martian surface and are taken by request, though most latitudes and longitudes are well sampled. Dauber's team studied 21,475 HiRISE images taken between January 2014 and April 2018 — roughly a quarter of the snapshots captured by the instrument as of autumn 2024. Tracks appear in only 798 of those, or just under 4%. Dust devil tracks (DDTs) suggest dust devils are more common at high northern and southern latitudes and are especially active in each hemisphere's summer, peaking in the southern hemisphere's summer. According to the researchers, Mars' significant orbital eccentricity, or deviation from a perfect circle, causes the atmosphere in the southern summer to circulate more energetically, creating conditions ideal for vortex formation. That, combined with less dust accumulation in the North, makes the southern hemisphere summer an almost perfect storm for dust devils. The observations reflect peak DDT preservation more than dust devil formation, the researchers cautioned, but the culmination coincides with the peak observed by NASA's Spirit rover at Gusev crater, along with global observations of the sand spouts. The researchers also realized that DDTs most commonly form and are preserved in regions of mixed sand, rocks and bedrock, with little bright dust, the most common surface type identified on Mars. Bright dust scooped up from the surface leaves behind trails that are dark from the underlying landscape. "The material on the ground is critical to the formation of the DDTs," Dauber said. Dusty missions The first Martian dust devil tracks appeared in images sent back from NASA's Mariner 9 mission in 1972 (although they weren't discovered until the images were analyzed in 2014). But it wasn't until 1998, when higher-resolution images were captured by Mars Global Surveyor, that the tracks could be seriously analyzed. RELATED STORIES —Dust devils on Mars may spark lightning — possibly threatening NASA's Perseverance rover —NASA's Perseverance rover watches as 2 Mars dust devils merge into 1 (video) —Perseverance Mars rover figures out how devils and winds fill the Red Planet's skies with dust Dust has hindered past ground missions. Mars rovers take their energy from the sun via solar panels. Over time, dust builds up on the panels, limiting their efficacy. The blockage has shuttered missions like NASA's Opportunity rover, which explored the surface for 14.5 years. NASA's InSight lander also succumbed to a dust-related death after four years. The high winds that birth dust devils can also revitalize robots, however. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, got a second lease on life after a Martian whirlwind cleaned its solar arrays back in 2005. Understanding where dust devils are most active can help in the selection of landing sites for future missions. High-latitude bands where DDTs and their progenitors occur more frequently could help to scour solar panels and thus enable a more enduring exploration. "It depends on the mission — every mission is unique," Daubar said. There are many requirements for landing sites and exploration, including regions that will allow for a safe touchdown, alongside complex scientific goals. "It could be that there are only a few places where the specific science goals can be achieved, and then perhaps this could be a deciding factor between those sites," she said. A new study of dust devils on Mars was published in May 2025 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Solve the daily Crossword
Bloomberg
11 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
How Much Should a Tsinghua Graduate Be Making?
It's post-graduation season in China. Tiger Moms are naturally comparing notes on the salaries of fresh alumni from top universities. What kind of return might they expect, after spending years — and sometimes a fortune — demanding academic excellence from their offspring? A doctor friend told me recently that her son got a job at Huawei Technologies Co., considered one of the most prestigious employers in China. The young man studied computer science at Tsinghua University and then Brown University in the US. Huawei is starting him at 400,000 yuan ($55,689) a year, the parent beamed.
Cosmopolitan
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
Emma Watson Is Banned From Driving for 6 Months After Speeding
Unfortunately, magic can't get Harry Potter star Emma Watson out of a recent blunder. According to the BBC, the actor is temporarily banned from driving after a speeding incident in Oxford last summer. In July 2024, Emma was caught going 38 miles per hour in an area where the speed limit was 30. Because she reportedly had nine points on her driver's license before speeding, she's facing the consequences nearly a year later. On Wednesday, July 16, she was ordered to pay a fine of £1,044 (or $1,396) and was banned from driving for six months at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court in the U.K. Though she didn't attend the five-minute hearing, the BBC reports that her lawyer, Mark Haslam, relayed the message that Emma 'is in a position to pay the fine.' The Bling Ring star has maintained a relatively low-key profile over the years, as she stepped back from the spotlight to pursue a higher education. On top of earning a degree in English Literature from Brown University in 2014, Emma is currently studying at Oxford University for a master's degree in Creative Writing. While her last movie role was in Greta Gerwig's 2019 remake of Little Women, Emma has also made her directorial debut for Prada's Paradoxe fragrance campaign in August 2022. 'When Prada asked me to be the face of their new fragrance campaign, I asked if I could direct it,' she shared on Instagram at the time. 'Months later, and I'm able to share the results of the faith they shared in me, with all of you. I can't wait to share this piece of my art, and hope that you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.'
India.com
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- India.com
Harry Potter Star Emma Watson BANNED From Driving For Six Months
English actress Emma Watson has been ordered to stay off the wheel. The actress has been temporarily banned from driving as a result of a 2024 speeding incident. The 'Harry Potter' alum was ordered not to drive for six months on Wednesday, nearly a year after a camera caught her going 38 mph in a 30 mph zone in Oxford, England, reports 'People' magazine. Watson is most widely known for her starring role as Hermione Granger in all eight Harry Potter films, beginning in 2001 and ending in 2011. As per 'People', the actress has taken a step back from the spotlight in recent years, even enrolling in a master's program in creative writing at Oxford University in September 2024. In a December 2023 interview with 'British Vogue', Watson said she was "so glad that I (took a break from acting) because I have this feeling of having my own voice and creative space and sovereignty in some way that I don't think I did before — more autonomy'. 'I'm so glad that I allowed things to be messy for a minute and to really allow myself to not know (what's next), because the knowing that I've come to, I wouldn't trade that for anything,', she added. Watson's most recent rare public appearances came on Feb. 14, when she attended the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game in Oakland, California, and later at the Cannes Film Festival in May. A source said that the Little Women actress was "very low-key" during the night out at the basketball game in February, and seemed "excited to be there'. Pursuits in recent years for Watson have included continuing her education at Oxford after earning a degree in English Literature from Brown University in 2014. She also made her directorial debut with the Prada Paradoxe campaign in 2022. --IANS aa/ The 'Harry Potter' alum was ordered not to drive for six months on Wednesday, nearly a year after a camera caught her going 38 mph in a 30 mph zone in Oxford, England, reports 'People' magazine. Watson is most widely known for her starring role as Hermione Granger in all eight Harry Potter films, beginning in 2001 and ending in 2011. Watson's most recent rare public appearances came on Feb. 14, when she attended the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game in Oakland, California, and later at the Cannes Film Festival in May. A source said that the Little Women actress was "very low-key" during the night out at the basketball game in February, and seemed "excited to be there'. Pursuits in recent years for Watson have included continuing her education at Oxford after earning a degree in English Literature from Brown University in 2014. She also made her directorial debut with the Prada Paradoxe campaign in 2022.
