Researcher touts workload managers to aid busy drivers

Instead of setting safety standards for the use of electronics in cars, Transportation Research Institute senior research scientist Paul Green suggests using a computer to determine the demands and capabilities on a driver at a given time called "workload managers," which would then be sent to the driver.

Distractions, including radios, cell phones and navigational devices, cause numerous accidents, according to evidence from Japan that Green studied.

Following a ban on the use of cell phones while driving in 1999, the number of cell phone-related crashes dropped 75 percent in Japan.

Another study also showed that cell phones make the risk for a crash four times greater than without a phone.

Soot a top cause of global warming

Soot is one of the leading causes of the rise in temperatures around the world, according to Mark Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford University.

The study, which appeared in the journal "Nature," shows that the number two cause of global warming could be soot, behind carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas.

According to Jacobson"s article, reduction in the emission of soot, produced during the use of fossil fuels and burning of wood, could lessen the effects of global warming.

Jacobson"s findings closely follow a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control, which predicted that the average temperature on the Earth"s surface will increase by 10.4 degrees by the end of this century. This increase would melt glaciers, flood shorelines and cause massive drought periods.

According to the IPCC, byproducts of fossil fuel burning are to blame for global warming not soot.

In Jacobsons" studies, he shows that mixtures containing black carbon, such as soot, release two times the heat as pure black carbon molecules, which could significantly effect global warming.

Researchers have proposed computer models for further exploration.

Scientists develop powersave device

Researchers at the University of Florida are currently looking at a new device to combat power crises such as the recent blackouts in California.

According to an article published in "Applied Physics Letters," the team of engineering researchers are building a rectifier, an electronic switch composed of galium nitride, which can withstand 10kV of energy. The minimum for the switch to be used in residential power lines is 13.8kV.

The current power lines use mechanical switches, causing problems, including the transmission of electrical spikes, which can cause electronics to shut down.

To avoid this shutdown, cities operate at a lower capacity, and power lines carry less electricity, which can cause blackouts in areas where the power supply is small.

Advantages to the new switches include providing more electricity to people in power-starved areas, shortening outages and assuring people of uninterrupted electricity.

Philosophy profs. start online journal

In the hope of extending journal accessibility, philosophy Profs. Stephen Darwall and J. David Velleman will act as editors of a free online journal, titled "Philosophers" Imprint," which will be published by the University of Michigan"s Digital Library.

The site, created due to a significant rise in journal subscription costs, features a prototype article, titled "The Dear Self" by Princeton University philosophy Prof. Harry Frankfurt.

The journal plans on publishing journals at irregular intervals and to apply high standards to submissions before they are published.

Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Lisa Hoffman