_ . Behrend Beacon ■■ October 16, 2009 L j I J 1 f"“ www.thebehrendbeacon.com "Moving Cloud computing takes technology towards new industry model Computers are becoming increas ingly integrated into our daily lives. The newest and most recent advance ment in computing is moving into the ‘cloud.’ Moving towards cloud com puting is the next step in the evolution of personal computing. The average student today spends a large part of their day either just hav ing used a computer, using a com puter, or traveling with the intent of using a computer. Cell phones? Minia ture computers with transceivers at tached to them. Xboxes? Computers with hardware that has been special ized towards gaming. Toasters? Well they aren't computers at a 11... yet. The idea of Cloud Computing is ac tually very simple [See Cloud Com puting at right]. It refers to a computer model where all of the ‘heavy lifting’ is done elsewhere. In the simplest and most extreme case of this model, a computer user might possess a device, the only pur pose of which is to upload instructions to a computer that is “in the cloud,” and download the results of previous Chemistry National Chemistry Week is upon us again! This years’ events and activi ties, scheduled from Oct 18-24, are based upon the theme “Chemistry- It’s Elemental.” The activities will high light the elements as we use them in our daily lives as well as celebrate the 140th anniversary of the creation of the periodic table of the elements by contributed photo Tracy Halmi, a senior lecturer in Chemistry at Penn State Behrend, put on a presentation at the Blasco Library during National Chemistry Week in 2008. uploads. In effect, they would be hold ing nothing more than a remote con trol to a more powerful computer, but with all the interface of a normal com puter. The ‘cloud’ can be thought of as any communications network which en ables information transmission, but it is most commonly synonymous with the internet. A more moderate case of the model MAX DELISO is something you’ve probably seen around campus: a netbook. Netbooks are simply mobile inter net devices, and little else, and they are great examples of the increasing trend towards cloud computing. Al though technically they are still inde pendent computers, few would have a use for them if they were not able to connect to the internet. This idea is re inforced by the name they have been given. computer writer What this means for you, the end user, is more and more information and processing being done on a server somewhere, and less and less on your hard drive and local machine. With the continued development of increasingly sophisticated and perva sive wireless networks, it is very likely that personal computers will become less and less powerful themselves, and depend more and more on the ‘cloud’ for compute resources. As technology steadily marches forward, so do the possibilities for this new way of looking at computers. Cloud computing is changing the way we think about and use personal computers. By turning computers into Week brings events to Behrend Dmitri Mendeleev. MARIE EBNER The elements, as many have learned in their general chemistry classes, not only make up all of the chemical com ponents that we come in contact with but make up ourselves! We also come in contact with individual elements in our daily lives. They can be everywhere: from the graphite made of carbon sheets that you use to take all of your wonderful chemistry notes, to the millions of pennies made of chomistrv writt'r into the cloud" remote processing devices, someone may only own an interface to their ‘ef fective’ computer. Computing be comes less expensive and can be paid for on a case by case basis. A variety of new possibilities emerge as a result of this growing trend. It will be inter esting to see which of these will be come the most important in the coming years. contributed photo Tracy Halmi, a senior lecturer in Chemistry at Penn State Behrend, put on a presen tation at the Blasco Library during National Chemistry Week in 2008. copper that you pay for your lovely chemistry class each semester, to the aluminum cans full of energy drink that help you get through it all. These National Chemistry Week events are sponsored by the American Chemical Society and are organized and designed by the Committee on Community Activities. The program chair for National Chemistry Week at the national as well as local level is Tracy A. Halmi, senior lecturer here at Penn State Behrend. Halmi has been the national program chair for a total of three years, and the local chair for a total of ten years. The committee not only organizes the events but creates annual themes for national chemistry week such as the “Chemistry-It’s Elemental” theme this year and previous themes such as “Having a Ball with Chemistry” and “The Joys of Toys.” The local chapter of the American Chemical Society will be sponsoring three events within our Community. These events are made possible by the local section of ACS as well as volun teering students and faculty from not only Penn State Behrend, but also Al legheny College, Edinboro University, Gannon University, Mercyhurst Col lege, and University of Pittsburgh at Titusville. All of the activities will be “kid friendly” element based activities such as showing that by touching a penny, you are actually touching an element, and there will be free museum admis sion during the event hours courtesy of the John Nesbit Rees and Sarah Henne Rees Charitable Foundation. Available at each of the events is a free hands on activity newspaper which re volves around the theme of the year, elements. It includes puzzles for kids, at home experiments, and an article on the Elementeo Chemistry Card Game for kids. The really dangerous, fire-ball mak ing, you-should-not-try-this-at-home experiments will be shown during the Behrend-Exclusive Demo Show put on by the Chemistry Club on Wednes day, October 21 in 101 OBS at 7:00 p.m. Chemistry Club will also be spon soring the painting of the glass win- Further Reading: Want to know more about cloud computing? Tech site www.ltiloworld.com has an article further explaining cloud computing and its real-life application. Visit the website and search “Cloud Computing.” National Chemistry Week events Monday, Oct 26 What; Halloween-themed chemistry demonstrations When: 6:30 p.m. Whom Masco Library Saturday, Nov. 21 What: Hands-on, element-based chemistry activities Whan; 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Whom; ExpEßlEnce Children’s Museum, 420 French St. Erie Wednesday, Oct 21 What; Demo Show for Behrend students When i 7:00 p.m. When: 101 OBS dows of Otto Behrend Science (OBS) Building for National Chemistry Week with the names of the elements, as they do every year. Given this year’s theme, though, the event carries its own special significance. Elements impact our daily lives by making it possible; make sure to stop by one of the National Chemistry Week events to learn just how impor tant they are to you. Top Science News: SPACE The largest rings in the solar sys tem have been found around Saturn. This new ring is 128-207 times the ra dius of Saturn and 2.4 million kilo meters thick. The discovery is thanks to NASA’s Spitzer Space Tele scope, which detected the warm dust’s infrared glow. Even though this ring is so large, the particles are so diffused that it is difficult to see with light. "It's so faint you could look right through it," said team member Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland in College Park. HEALTH Pet dogs are becoming the new lab rats in cancer research. Dogs that have cancer are now entitled to test experiment cancer treatments before humans. Already, there have been 12 trials that show good results. Scien tists believe dogs are a better animal to test drugs on because unlike lab mice, who maintain a consistent lab environment, dogs experience cancer in a closer way to humans. ENVIRONMENT The legendary biodiversity of Madagascar is under threat due to criminal organizations that have taken advantage of the lack of gov ernment. Since the President was forced to resign in March, much of the foreign aid has been withdrawn and biologist and conservationist have seen groups of criminals come in and strip the countries beautiful forest of both plant and animal diver sity. Scientist of the Week: Albrecht Von Haller This Swiss biologist was a large contributor to physiology, anatomy, botany, embryology, poetry, and sci entific bibliography. He was the first scientist to recognize the au- tonomous function of the heart as well as how respiration works. He used his knowledge to write descrip tion of embryonic development as well as anatomical descriptions of genitals, the brain and the heart. Upcoming Math Events: Tuesday, Oct. 20 3:30 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Joseph Previte Presentation: The Distance Between Two Partitions Thursday, Oct. 29 2:30 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Amos Ong Subject: The finite group GL(3,2) Tuesday, Nov. 3 3:30 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Kevin Drees (unaffili ated speaker) Subject: A Nagata-like Theorem for Cp(X,Z) Tuesday, Nov. 10 3:30 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Matt Clay - Allegheny College Subject: TBD Tuesday, Nov. 17 3:30 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Emily H. Sprague - Edinboro University of Pennsylvania Background: An application of uni form integrability Beacon Science Staff Science Editor Physics Writer Brian Carlson Heather Wagner Co-Editors Computer Writer Andrea Adams Max Deliso Chase Weaver Chemistry Writer Biology Writers Marie Ebner Andrea Adams Math Writer Chase Weaver Nichole Buczynski
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers