Science News

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MEDICAL -- Special Delivery MUSIC -- Pickin' and grinnin' COMPUTING -- Perfect memory ENVIRONMENT -- New spin on laundry

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Meet CooLN2Car. A car that runs on air. Developed by an interdisciplinary team of scientists at the University of North Texas, CooLN2Car is a nitrogen-powered, zero-emissions vehicle.

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The American system of farming grain-fed livestock consumes resources far out of proportion to the yield, accelerates soil erosion, affects world food supply and will have to change in the future, ccording to a Cornell University ecologist.

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Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working with Honeywell Solid State Electronisc Center and Nonvolatile Electronics to refine a new type of computer memory that can survive power interruptions.

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In a classic ground war, hordes of Argentine ants are now on the march, from coastal California citrus groves to city kitchens, through suburban backyards and into nearby natural habitats.

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The National Science Board (NSB) will meet August 20 and 21, 1997 at the National Science Foundation, Room 1235, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia. The sessions open to the public are scheduled for 2:15 p.m.-4:15 p.m. on Thursday, August 21.

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TIPSHEET from NSF for August 8, 1997: 1- College tuitions rose uniformly; 2- Lessons learned from the 1994 Northridge, CA, earthquake; 3- Measuring heavy rains for anticipating flash floods.

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Balloons intended to tell us something about weather and climate may pose a hazard to whales, seals and omther marine life, according to scientist Gerald K. Eddlemon at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have devised an environmentally friendly method for preventing steam explosions, a leading cause of deaths and serious injuries among workers int he metal-casting industry worldwide.

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Fly ash is going from coal cars to racing cars thanks to new research from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The Wilkes University School of Science & Engineering , UGI Utilities Inc. and Falcon Racing Services Ltd, are developing components for the auto-racing industry manufactured from anthracite coal-fly ash, a by-product of coal combustion. Falcon Racing is already testing some of the products on their Formula Ford 2000 racing cars. The components: downdraft wings, nose cones and heat shields.

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When continental plates come together to form mountain ranges, the impact from the collision bends microscopic grains in rocks more than 1,200 miles away. Evidence shows that seemingly quiet mid-continent areas are highly sensitive recorders of plate tectonic activity.

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The "greening" of American backyards -- as more people turn to composting food scraps -- is turning some dogs a bilious shade of green. Certain microorganisms and the toxins they produce can sicken or even kill dogs that get into unprotected compost piles, a Cornell University veterinary toxicologist is warning.

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Corn growers, crop consultants and agronomists faced with tough production challenges can identify problems and find appropriate solutions using a new CD-ROM developed at Purdue University.

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The weather pattern known as El NiÃ’o is re-emerging in the Pacific Ocean, and that could bring a change in weather for next winter, and perhaps for the next few years.

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Press release of issue dated 9 August for New Scientist, the international science and technology weekly news magazine.

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After dirty skies ended its star-gazing days--and drove it away from its observatory--a decade ago, a 30-inch Beck telescope will return to Agnes Scott College in early August. Its new mission? Ironically, to study atmospheric pollution.

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Developed by research scientists in the University of Michigan College of Engineering's Mobile Robotics Laboratory, the GuideCane is a computerized, sonar-equipped navigation aid for the blind which detects obstacles in the user's path and automatically steers around them.

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Drawing on 25 years of data from Gombe National Park in Tanzania, University of Minnesota researchers Anne Pusey and Jennifer Williams, along with Jane Goodall, have shown that even a weak social hierarchy can have a profound impact on individual chimpanzees' reproductive success.

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A Cornell entomologist confirmed the summer's first adult Asian long-horned beetles have emerged from their larval stage and have been found in Amityville, N.Y. The beetles kill hardwood trees, such as Norway maples, and pose a possible threat to industries dependent upon hardwood.

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Cornell/Yale study finds Graduate Record Examination (GRE) fails to predict success or failure in graduate school for psychology and probably other fields as well.

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A mathematically predictable form known as a fractal can describe the activity of individual cells as well as complex physiological systems, report scientists of Boston Universityís College of Engineering in a paper which appears in todayís Journal of Neuroscience.

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An engine developed by The Bessemer Gas Engine Company at the turn of the century, which allowed steam engines on oil drilling sites to be converted to more efficient gasoline-powered systems, has been cited for historical significance by ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

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Clark Throssell, professor of agronomy at Purdue University, says golf courses are environmentally friendly, and golfers who are concerned about contact with the chemicals can take a few simple precautions to reduce exposure.

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Cornell scientists are developing a biological approach to remediate compacted soils that involves rotating with deep-rooted cover crops that break up compacted soil layers and produce abundant organic matter. U.S. Department of Agriculture officials will tour Cornell's Homer C. Thompson Vegetable Research Farm in Freeville, N.Y., on Aug. 1, 1997, to see the fields used in testing the bioremediation procedures.

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Remarkable results lay groundwork to achieve sustainable fusion reactions, and provide data to test US defenses without physically exploding large-scale nuclear devices.

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Preview the products and technologies that will change the way we live and work at ìPhotonics: Driving the Economy of the Future,î an inaugural symposium at the Boston University Photonics Center, on Thursday, October 23, 1997. Experts will represent industries from telecommunications to health care.

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Peering deep into the heart of comet Hyakutake, scientists have found evidence that small, evaporating ice particles in the tail and surrounding the nucleus of the comet are producing most of the water and other gases seen from Earth.--Embargoed For 4 P.M. EDT Release July 31, 1997

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Press release of issue dated August 2 for New Scientist, the international science and technology weekly news magazine

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Technologies developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have claimed three of the top 100 slots in R&D magazine's list of the most significant innovations of the past year.

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Michigan State University is putting into action a battle plan to control an invasive wetland weed that has beetles as warriors and children and teachers as generals. The enemy, purple loosestrife, should be quaking in its roots.

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Two technologies developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will make it more difficult for smugglers to slip illicit items past border enforcement agents.

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Fusarium head blight, a plant disease also known as wheat scab, has taken aim at America's breadbasket and is now seriously threatening New York State's $30 million wheat-growing industry, according to Cornell plant pathologists. The plant scientists will be speaking on new ways to solving this threat at the American Phytopathological Society annual meeting, in Rochester, N.Y., Aug. 9-13.

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A three-dimensional view of the fine bones, nerves, and hollow spaces in the human ear--from any vantage point inside or outside the organ-- is now possible, thanks to a virtual model constructed by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The model--explored using a wand and a special pair of eyeglasses while facing a 20-square-foot screen--allows surgeons to familiarize themselves with the complex spatial relationships of structures composing the ear.

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At a recent conference on "data mining" at the University of Illinois at Chicago, experts from around the world witnessed a first in the use of the next generation of network communications. The demonstration of data mining--the automatic search for patterns, asociations, and changes in large databases--is important because it showed data mining shows data mining can be done over a wide geographic area.

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Disabling sophisticated bombs without getting hurt is what a small team of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories knows how to do best. Now Sandia is sharing its technology and expertise in the occult art of bomb disablement with members of the worldís most elite bomb squads during an eight-day, hands-on training conference in Albuquerque Aug. 11-18.

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Washington, D.C., July 24 -- Four high school chemistry students, representing the USA in the 29th International Chemistry Olympiad, returned home from Montreal, Canada, with four medals-- and one California student earns the highest finish ever for a U.S. student.

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Three Tips from Los Alamos: 1) This Won't Hurt a Bit--new laser analysis of lead poisoning; 2) Taking a Calculated Risk--software program aids emergency response to chemical spills; 3) Another Bright Idea--new type of fluorescent light bulb

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1) Immigrant Scientists And Engineers Decline; 2) NSF & NASA Launch Satellite Assessment; 3) Researchers Recommend Changes In Census' Racial Identifications

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A computer model developed by a Johns Hopkins biomedical engineer mimics the way a heart works, down to the sub-cellular level, and can be used to mathematically "test" drugs for various heart disorders.

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Researchers have discovered that packrats seem to save a little of everything-- including clues in fossilized packrat urine from prehistoric dens--that can help scientists more accurately determine the age of water and other materials.

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Press release of issue dated 26 July for New Scientist, the international science and technology weekly news magazine.

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Remote islands of surreal beauty, the foggy, windswept Aleutians are thousands of miles from heavily populated areas. Even so, the islands harbor a nasty reminder of human activity: Sea otters and bald eagle eggs from the western Aleutians carry potentially harmful levels of DDT and other contaminants.

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Researchers from Southern Illinois University have discovered the oldest African or Asian monkey skull yet found. Their account of their find appears in the July 24 issue of ìNature.î

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UCSD Chemists Create Polymer "Mirror" for a variety of "Time Reversal" Optical Tasks.

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Researchers have found a way of controlling a tailor-made version of a protein that gives the glow to the Pacific Northwest jellyfish. The discovery not only sheds light on the inner workings of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, it also suggests a potential new way for storing and accessing computer memories in packages the size of a single molecule.

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Using electron-beam lithography, researchers at the Cornell University Nanofabrication Facility have built what they believe are the world's smallest mechanical devices, including a Fabry-Perot interferometer and, for fun, the world's smallest guitar, carved out of crystalline silicon and no larger than a single cell. The technology that could have a variety of uses in fiber optics, displays, sensors and electronics. Mechanical force probes can be made much smaller than a single cell, and forces associated with single biological molecules could be measured.

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El Nino is a warming of surface waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean with far- reaching climatic consequences. This Tip Sheet describes an upcoming scientific meeting on El Nino, the relation between El Nino and global warming, and a new El Nino book, and lists El Nino experts and Web sites.

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Continuing its leadership in optical networking, Lucent Technologies has demonstrated a record-breaking experimental ultra-wideband optical-fiber amplifier that can boost lightwave signals carried simultaneously over 100 or more channels, or wavelengths, of light. The experiment underscores the potential of optical networks to deliver unprecedented network capacity. The optical amplifier spans 80 nanometers of the lightwave spectrum.

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The first ASME Asia Congress and Exhibition, sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), will be held in Singapore, September 30 to October 2, 1997, at the Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre. This conference provides a forum for engineers to examine environmental issues and technological advancements relevant to this region's industries, particularly those involved in power generation, offshore technology, oil and gas.

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The M.W. Kellogg Company in Houston has pledged $100,000 to a foundation operated by ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), a gift which will be put toward programs to enhance science, technology and engineering throughout the world.