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Tetris-like game called Numberbonds, in which bars of different lengths fall down the screen

select a block of the correct size to fill out a row

emphasizes spatial relationships, which some dyscalculics also struggle with.

The Number Sense games, including a snazzy-looking iPhone version of Numberbonds, are intended to nurture the abilities that

contends, are the root of numerical cognition and the core deficit of dyscalculia — manipulating precise quantities.

In a game called Dots to Track, for example, children must ascribe an Arabic numeral to a pattern of dots, similar to those on dice.

When they enter the wrong value — and they often do — the game asks the children to add or remove dots to achieve the correct answer.

Other students are improving more slowly, but it is not easy to say why

Dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder are common among dyscalculics, and it can be difficult to untangle these problems,

with the right practice and attention from teachers and parents, dyscalculic children can thrive,

computer games are a supplement, not a replacement, for one-on-one tutoring.

in 2009 that Number Race, a game his group developed, modestly improved the ability of 15 dyscalculic kindergarten children to discern the larger of two numbers, but that it had no effect on their arithmetic or counting

a Swiss team reported in 2011 that a game that involves placing a spaceship on a number line helped eight- to ten-year-old dyscalculics with arithmetic

studied the children in an fMRI scanner during a task that involved arranging numbers.

one month after training, the children showed increased activation in the intraparietal sulcus and reduced neural activation elsewhere in the parietal lobes — a hint that their improvements in arithmetic were related to changes involving brain areas that respond to number.

hopes to monitor the brains of students such as Christopher as they practice Number Sense, to see if their parietal lobes are indeed changing

turned down by every funding source he has applied to

dyscalculia, like other learning disabilities, takes a toll on productivity

it doesn't attract much attention or money

In the United States, for example, the National Institutes of Health spent $2 million studying dyscalculia between 2000 and 2011, compared with more than $107 million on dyslexia.

innovative app for iPads and iPhones

available for free

brought together faculty and students in astrophysics, art, and technology for a summer institute last year

team quickly settled on the idea to create an app, and also developed it into an exhibit that provides additional information and shows the app's output on a large screen

scheduled for long-term installation in the Lick Observatory visitors gallery later this month

Kepler Explorer starts with drop-down menus listing all the Kepler-discovered planetary systems, plus our own solar system

selected system is displayed in a view that shows the planet or planets in their orbits around the host star

Shown in real time the planets look motionless, but moving a slider increases the speed until the planets zip around their star

lets users zoom in and move around the system, and tapping on an individual planet brings it up for further exploration. Another view shows the relative sizes of the individual planets compared to their host star

when viewing individual planets

The user can manipulate the composition of the planet and its atmosphere and see which mixtures of components (iron, rock, water, and hydrogen) are consistent with Kepler's observations

represents graphically the type of in-depth analysis that Fortney does for the Kepler Mission

the app allows anyone to explore the properties of many different planets very quickly

only measures the radius of a planet, or how big it is. In most cases, the mass of the planet is unknown

there may be different combinations of components that result in a planet of a given size

's interactive graphics show how this works

sliders for different components and how they are partitioned in the core and the atmosphere, and as you move the sliders the image of the planet grows and shrinks, based on hundreds of calculations

the app tells you when the size of your planet matches the observations

calculations involved took hours of computer time, but the results are stored in tables so the app can use them on the fly.

The result is a near standard–size removable insole that weighs less than five ounces, including a battery pack, and charges electronics via USB.

current version, to be released later this year, requires a lengthy 15-mile walk to charge a smartphone.

the company is working toward a design that can charge an iPhone after less than five miles of hiking and withstand about 100 million footsteps of wear and tear. 

How It Works

1) A drivetrain converts the energy of heel strikes into rotational energy, spinning magnetic rotors

2) The motion of the rotors induces an electrical current within coils of wire

3) Electricity travels along a wire and into a lithium-ion polymer battery pack on a wearer’s shoelaces.