Rockefeller University

Program for the Human Environment

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Community College Research Center 20th anniversary with Jill Biden

During 1996, on behalf of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Jesse Ausubel helped Prof. Thomas Bailey establish the Community College Research Center at Teachers College.   The influential center celebrated its 20th anniversary on 17 November 2016 with a symposium highlighted by a talk by Dr. Jill Biden, 2nd Lady of the USA and professor at Northern Virginia Community College.  For Jesse’s role, please watch minutes 10 to 18 of this video:

 https://livestream.com/teacherscollegecolumbiauniversity/CCRC20

 Below are TC President Susan Fuhrman, Prof. Bailey, Prof. Biden, Anne Ausubel (who worked at TC during the late 1960s and early 1970s), and Jesse Ausubel.jesseanneausubel

Dutch life hours worked

“The reduction in life hours of work  since 1850: estimates for Dutch males” by Jaap de Koning follows the 1995 paper by Jesse Ausubel and Arnulf Gruebler Working less and living longer: Long-term trends in working time and time budgets.

de Koning finds the number of hours Dutchmen work during their lives gradually diminished. Men born in 1840 worked on average 118 thousands hours, while it is only 67 thousands hours for the 1950 cohort.   As a percent of total number of hours available to a man, the decline is from 23% for the 1840 birth cohort to 9%for the 1950 birth cohort.  The finding resembles what Jesse and Arnulf found for American males.  Technology lifts productivity and lengthens lives, and the changed ratio of work to life explains many of the benefits and worries of modern societies.

National Ocean Exploration Forum

A Press Release describes recent discoveries by ocean explorers and the 2016 National Ocean Exploration Forum, organized by Jesse Ausubel (Rockefeller University) and Paul Gaffney (Monmouth University). Thanks to the 110 participants and for great preparation by Alan Curry, Doris Manville, Karl Vilacoba, and Danica Simmons.

News reports of the recent discoveries:

Remotely operated vehicles expand reach for ocean researchers

WorkBoat (blog)–Oct 20, 2016

“A lot of the difficulty with ocean exploration since Ulysses is we move slowly at sea,” said Jesse Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human …

Strange purple sea creatures found in deep ocean trenches
BBC News–Oct 20, 2016

 500 ‘Champagne’ Methane Seeps Discovered Off Pacific Coast
Live Science–Oct 20, 2016

 Methane leak along the West Coast that could contribute to global …
Daily Mail–Oct 20, 2016

 There’s an Enormous Natural Gas Seep Along the West Coast
Gizmodo India–15 hours ago

Animation of eruptions, earthquakes, emissions

Deep Carbon Observatory researchers have created an eye-popping animation that shows volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and associated emissions since 1960…and reveals the seamy structure of the Earth.  See the press release about Exhaling Earth and the 70-second E3 animation.

Coverage includes

Washington Post

Watch Earth pulse with earthquakes and eruptions in this stunning visualization

 

Daily Mail

Global system could help predict cataclysmic supervolcano eruptions

BBC

Volcano insight: Fifty years of eruptions revealed

EFE

Una aplicación compila todas las erupciones volcánicas desde 1960

ANSI

Eruzioni e terremoti, 50 anni di dati in un’app

New York Times

What 50 Years of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions Look Like

Congratulations to Liz Cottrell, Tobias Fischer, Marie Edmonds and Co. on super science!

Seasons USA theatre release schedule

Distributor Music Box Films has posted the release schedule in USA theatres of the new Jacques Perrin documentary film about forests and forest fauna, The Seasons. Here is a photo with Kathleen Townsend, Jacques Perrin, and Jesse Ausubel at the dinner in honor of the film at the home of the French ambassador in Washington DC.

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See also the earlier entries below.

Short videos of Galatee’s The Seasons

The Seasons 2-minute teaser

 

 

Burg visit

During September, PHE welcomed a guest, Dr. David Burg, a biostatistician based at the Golan Research Institute in Katzrin, Israel, as a visiting researcher.  Dr. Burg is working with PHE on a number of projects including the development of online software for statistical analysis of time series data as well as studies applying biological models to social and technical phenomena.  We were fortunate enough to have the participation of many, if not all, the PHE members involved in the joint research.  Pictured below with New York City in the background from left to right are: Jason, Mark, Jesse, Doris, Perrin, Iddo, and David Burg.

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