Science News

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The recent national election created qualms about voting systems, but Internet voting may not be any better.

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California's electricity crisis--rolling blackouts, soaring prices, utilities at the brink of bankrupty, charges of profiteering--is being watched with mounting alarm in the other states that are reorganizing and deregulating their electric power systems.

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The University of Minnesota will host a national conference to debate policies concerning genetically modified organisms.

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Purdue University researchers have developed a method to quickly sort and isolate chemical compounds, to identify the most biologically active compounds among millions of drug candidates. The new method is four to 12 times faster than current methods and promises to simplify and speed the drug discovery process. (Angewandte Chemie, 12-15-00)

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Purdue engineers are the first to figure out the mathematics behind a problem plaguing machines that emit drops of liquid from a nozzle, findings that have potentially broad applications, from improved inkjet printers to more precise pharmaceutical research. A research paper appeared in Physical Review Letters.

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Research currently underway at the University of Arkansas may have a billion-dollar impact on the semiconductor industry. Scott Mason, has received a grant from Semiconductor Research Corporation for work that may revolutionize the fabrication of semiconductor wafers.

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Archaea, one of three separate domains of life on our planet, were undiscovered until 1970. Since then, they had been found mostly in extreme environments such as high-temperature volcanic vents on the ocean floor, continental hot springs and fumeroles, and highly salty or acidic waters.

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Major construction projects to improve the electrical generating capacity and communications links at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station were completed this month, despite extreme weather conditions in Antarctica that have hampered cargo flights.

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1)Better CPR a heartbeat away? 2)Safer skies; 3) Ocean's biology under spotlight; 4)Driving dangerously.

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Who wrote the Jon-Benet Ramsey ransom note? A computer program developed at the University at Buffalo that is 98 percent effective in determining authorship of handwritten documents soon may be able to assist in answering such questions.

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Scheduled this year for Feb. 16-19, 2001, the 4th annual Great Backyard Bird Count asks computer users to log on and tell scientists where the birds are.

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A group of organizations concerned about staggering human and economic losses caused by natural hazards is asking the incoming administration to take a new national approach to disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires.

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Fossilized remains of a bizarre, dog-sized predatory dinosaur were recently recovered on the island of Madagascar. The discovery, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, was announced this week by a team of researchers. (Nature, 1-01)

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University of Utah physicists have shown that "plastic" light-emitting diodes (LEDs) made of electrically conducting polymers can produce more light and less heat than thought. (Nature 1-25-01)

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Last year NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft spotted mysterious layered regions on Mars. If the layers are sedimentary deposits that formed underwater, as some scientists suspect, they could be the best places to hunt for elusive Martian fossils.

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Thirteen leading researchers have joined the Department of International Health at Boston University School of Public Health, bringing to the school a wealth of international public health knowledge and the well-respected Applied Research on Child Health Program.

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We don't always remember things how they actually occurred, especially over time. However, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia now can distinguish between true and "false" memories, which could lead to a better understanding of how human memory works and fails. (Cognitive Neuroscience, 1-01)

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Cassini's recent pictures of Jupiter are providing scientists with never-before-seen images of the giant planet's magnetosphere and underlying dynamics.

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If humans had radio antennas instead of ears, we would hear a remarkable symphony of strange noises coming from our own planet. An online receiver at the Marshall Space Flight Center is playing these songs of Earth so anyone can listen.

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In a series of pioneering studies, researchers at North Carolina State University have shown that wireless signal fluctuations can be tracked and predicted far ahead of when they occur.

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The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has announced that its interactive online program, "PE Online Review," is now available. The updated version of this web-based study course is designed to assist engineers in preparing for the professional engineering licensing examination to be administered on April 20, 2001.

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Millions of bacteria are busily converting food waste into methane gas and soil nutrients in a pilot project at the Lycoming County landfill to determine if a full-scale plant could cut up to 70 percent the amount of organic waste being buried.

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To help you sort out ramifications of the California power crisis and related energy issues for your readers and viewers, here are some University of Wisconsin-Madison experts who can offer information and viewpoints on a range of energy topics.

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The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has signed and agreement with Reciprocal, Inc., to create a new online publishing outlet. This initiative will enable many of ASME's codes and standards to be purchased and securely downloaded directly to a user's personal computer.

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Is your asparagus ailing? Can your melons be suffering a malady? Find out what's hurting your corn and cucurbits at Vegetable MD Online, a free service of the Cornell University plant pathology department.

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Purdue Research Park instrument maker SpectraCode Inc. has developed a new, cost-effective method to analyze black plastics for recycling purposes. SpectraCode's new technology enables the instant point-and-shoot identification of black plastics, extracting a definitive signature from most black plastics in half a second or less.

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Cornell University undergraduate researchers are distributing qVIX, a free, open-source videoconferencing application that provides full-motion, 30-frame-per-second video in full color on Linux-based computers, based on an improved video compression algorithm developed by a Cornell professor.

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Purdue researchers believe that by locating the genes for aggressive behavior in hogs, they can make the boss hog into a more sensitive soul, and less ... well, piggy. The director of Purdue's genome sequencing facility, says keeping hogs happy could increase their lean growth by as much as 25 percent.

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The Hessian fly, the world's No. 1 pest of wheat, has a curious genetic link to its favorite meal. But the fly's genetic tricks may be its undoing because a Purdue University entomologist plans to use that genetic information against it to prevent future outbreaks of the pest.

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While Earth as a whole has warmed during the last half-century, much of the continental United States has grown slightly colder. The trend toward cooler temperatures in the central and eastern United States is due to warmer ocean temperatures.

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The Clinton Administration has announced a long term plan for dealing with the problem of the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, a growing area of the ocean that no longer supports life because of pollution that results in low levels of dissolved oxygen.

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Established by the American Chemical Society in 1955, the James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public is designed "to recognize, encourage and stimulate outstanding reporting, which materially increases the public's knowledge and understanding of chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields."

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While surface temperatures across most of the globe are on the rise, the eastern U.S. appears to be slowly cooling.

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1) Earliest direct evidence of crop cultivation in the Americas, 2) Students study Belize's barrier reef

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Although they may not know it, most consumers want integrated passives (IPs), according to a University of Arkansas researcher. IPs can reduce the weight and size of consumer electronics such as cell phones and portable computers while increasing their reliability and performance. (IEEE Circuits and Devices)

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Sunlight, snow and sea salt are sometimes used to illustrate nature at its best. But new scientific evidence shows that, when combined, these forces provide a potent mixture for destroying ozone. (Science, 1-19-01)

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Trash in a municipal landfill could decompose nearly 10 to 20 times faster than it normally does through a system that keeps the trash continuously wet, new research at Ohio State suggests. (Applied Engineering in Agriculture)

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that a quarter of the homes within 500 feet of the U.S. coast could be lost to erosion in the next 50 years. In response to this dilemma, structural engineers with the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering are embarking on a new study to determine the best ways to stabilize these fragile cliffs.

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Tiny zircon crystals found in ancient stream deposits suggest that Earth harbored continents and liquid water remarkably soon after our planet formed.

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Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have demonstrated, in a study of the songs and genetics of a series of interbreeding populations of warblers in central Asia, how one species can diverge into two. (Nature, 1-18-01)

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With input from schoolchildren, and donated high-tech equipment, students in Smith College's all-women engineering program are developing technology-based toys that appeal to girls and boys alike.

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The Spanish term "El Nino" has been used for centuries by South American fishermen to describe the annual occurrence of warm, southward-flowing oceanic current waters off the coast of Ecuador and Peru around Christmas. El Nino, or the child, specifically refers to the Christ child.

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Water is a deeply mysterious substance. It expands as it cools, moves more freely as it is squeezed and exhibits a host of other odd behaviors that have eluded quantitative explanation for centuries. Scientists have now shown how these anomalies arise from water's propensity for organization and structure. (Nature, 1-18-01)

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If oil companies have any hope of meeting tough new federal standards for cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel fuel, they will need to find faster and better ways to identify pollutants in crude oil.

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Veterinary medicine researchers at NC State University are investigating new forms of epilepsy treatment that could provide dogs with a better quality of life, and pet owners with an easier and potentially cheaper means of controlling the seizures.

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The right side of the brain helps people recognize themselves in a picture, say researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. (Nature, 1-18-01)

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Florida leads with the highest annual average costs for major weather disasters; Louisiana and Texas rank second and third in the 2001 edition of the Web-based Extreme Weather Sourcebook, created at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. New data on lightning and other severe weather appear in this 2001 update.

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New evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggests that a known pulsar is the present-day leftover from a stellar explosion witnessed by Chinese astronomers in 386 AD.

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Engineers at Johns Hopkins have invented a globe-shaped motor capable of rotating in any direction. The device, which uses electromagnets controlled by a computer, could give robotic arms greater flexibility and precision.

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After more than two years in space, NASA's Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite has provided radio astronomers with one definite conclusion about the clouds of gas and dust that make up the bulk of the mass in our galaxy, the Milky Way: water vapor and oxygen are scarce.