_ . 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