Bytemarks

Each week I pore through Google alerts to find Hawaii’s science and tech news. These are the finds for February 15th:

• Northrop Grumman Foundation Congratulates CyberPatriot IV Finalists – MarketWatch – Northrop Grumman Foundation, the presenting sponsor for CyberPatriot IV, congratulates the 24 teams from across the country that have successfully battled three rounds of virtual competition to advance to the national finals showdown, to be held in Washington, D.C., on March 23.
• Mānoa: Student-built satellite selected for NASA launch | University of Hawaii News – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced today that a nanosatellite designed by a team of University of Hawai`i at Mānoa electrical and mechanical engineering students is one of 33 selected to fly as auxiliary cargo on NASA missions planned during 2013 and 2014.
• SHARK TREK TO HAWAII IS BOON TO RESEARCH | UTSanDiego.com – An electronic ID tag from a rare shark spotted off the county’s coast in June has popped to the surface near Hawaii, providing local marine researchers with an unprecedented look into the long-distance movements of the second-largest known fish.
• International Group Tests RFID for Food Safety to Hawaii – RFID Journal – The project is using radio frequency identification and GPS technologies to track the temperature and location of produce as it is shipped from Taiwan and California to Armstrong Produce, a food company in Honolulu.
• Molokai Science Projects Wow Judges | Molokai Dispatch – Molokai students have proved themselves to be some of state’s brightest minds. Seventeen Molokai High School students and 15 Molokai Middle students represented the island at this year’s Maui Schools’ Science and Engineering Fair on Maui.
• Hula Girls Revive Quake-Hit Fukushima Town at Hawaii Theme Park – Businessweek – A Hawaiian theme park that propped up the economy of a rural Japanese town in Fukushima prefecture for 45 years was forced to close after the March 11 earthquake. Almost a year later, the hula girls have returned.
• Abercrombie, Korea in smart grid development deal | Hawaii 24/7 – Government officials and private sector leaders on Friday joined Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Choi Kyu-Chong, Director of the Electricity Market and Smart Grid Division at the Republic of Korea Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE), at the Hawaii State Capitol as the two leaders signed a letter of intent to pursue mutual interests in smart grid development in the Hawaiian Islands.
• High-tech models help guide restoration efforts to save threatened plants – A team of scientists from the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) and two universities will begin research using sophisticated topographic models to identify areas within dry forests that have the most potential for ecological restoration.
• NASA Study Solves Case of Earth’s ‘Missing Energy’ – Two years ago, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, released a study claiming that inconsistencies between satellite observations of Earth’s heat and measurements of ocean heating amounted to evidence of “missing energy” in the planet’s system.