The National Science Foundation (NSF) is accepting requests from professional journalists to visit Antarctica during the 1997-1998 field season to report on research by the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP).
A miniature forest of robotically controlled optical fibers has sprouted from the end of the 120-inch Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory near San Jose, letting astronomers capture and analyze faint rays of light from dozens of distant stars or galaxies at the same time.
The commonly used methods for measuring the efficiency of soil to remove viruses from human waste may be providing inaccurate and misleading information about virus retention and transport in the subsurface, says Dr. Yan Jin of the University of Delaware.
The hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used to replace the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) banned by the Montreal Protocol have low or no potential to deplete ozone in the stratosphere, but they may contribute to climatic change, says Dr. Garry D. Hayman of the National Environmental Technology Centre in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
The catalytic converter in your automobile may be removing most of the air pollutants in the car's exhaust gases, but it is also emitting a fine dust containing platinum, a precious metal that is the key ingredient in making the converter effective in controlling air pollution, according to Dr. R. R. Barefoot of the University of Toronto.
Mutagens have long been known to be present in urban air, but their detection and potency has mostly been measured with a bacterial test. However, extrapolating the observed mutagenic effects from bacteria to humans continually leads to questions about the relevance of bacterial assays. New research represents the first time a human cell mutation assay has been applied to an atmospheric particle monitoring network.
First there was "channel surfing." Then came "surfing the Net." A Purdue University researcher now has found that spacecraft might be able to "surf" through space. Her efforts could help lower costs of planetary missions.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced the outline for the PresidentÃs fiscal year 1998 budget request to provide the agency with $3.367 billion, a three percent rise over the current yearÃs estimate.
A red seaweed that wiped out native species as it proliferated in European and African waters has now taken root for the first time in the northeastern United States. The seaweed was discovered by two marine biologists in Rhode Island.
The USGS FY 98 budget calls for increasing the availability of water quality information, for expanding earthquake monitoring to reduce hazards and support the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, and for increasing biological science in support of Federal land managers.
Cornell leads a new national center in power systems research established by the National Science Foundation.
Sandia scientist Dr. Charles 'Jack' Jakowatz has been selected to receive a 1996 Ernest O. Lawrence Award, one of the Department of Energy's top prizes, for achievements that advance the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to detect exceptionally small changes in landscape.
Research Triangle Institute and Adams Consulting Group, Inc. have announced the availability of a tool that will help organizations evaluate whether Virtual Reality (VR) training programs are appropriate for specific training needs. VR Training Decision Tool gives managers and professionals in training, performance improvement, information technology, human resources, multimedia development, safety, manufacturing and other fields a way of quantifying the decision to use VR. This tool is available free of charge.
Faulty human eyesight can be corrected with glasses, but itÃs a different matter to fix vision problems that afflict instruments used by scientists who explore the microcosmos. Two Oregon scientists conducting research with National Science Foundation (NSF)-support, however, have found a way to do it. As with many problems in human eyesight, the culprit in the world of microscopes is the lens.
Fourteen of the most widely used global climate models, which are used by scientists to predict global climate change and by policy makers to formulate appropriate environmental policy, were less prescient than expected in a major test designed to determine their accuracy in predicting global warming or cooling.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will release the PresidentÃs Budget Request for Fiscal Year 1998 on the morning of February 6.
A Cornell University rocket scientist, in cooperation with NASA and a local science museum, will be available online via the Internet to "chat" live with anyone who wants to learn about what they are up to in a remote part of Alaska blasting rockets into the upper atmosphere.
Global warming notwithstanding, the average temperature in Alabama has dropped by almost two degrees Fahrenheit over the past 65 years, according to a new analysis of daily temperature reports from about 50 spots around the state.
A transistor that stores a single electron to represent one bit of information and could revolutionize the way computers work has been designed and fabricated by University of Minnesota researchers. A transistor that stores a single electron to represent one bit of information and could revolutionize the way computers work has been designed and fabricated by University of Minnesota researchers.
Government officials and experts from the business, environmental and research communities will gather at Resources for the Future on February 10, 1997, to discuss and debate the scientific basis, political and economic realities, and policy implications of the Environmental Protection Agency's proposals to revise the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ground-level ozone and particulates.
The 1997 International Joint Power Generation Conference and Exposition will be held Nov. 3-5, at the Adams Mark Hotel in Denver, Colo., it is announced by ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).
Researchers across the country rely on PRIME Lab in a wide variety of investigations, from studying soil erosion and weather patterns to tracking aluminum absorption in humans to dating ancient glaciers, archaeological artifacts and meteorite falls.
The latest in fuzzy logic, intelligent systems, remote sensing, global positioning systems, robotic space exploraton and other technologies developed for use in future space missions will be the focus of the 1997 NASA University Research Centers' Technical Conference on Education, Aeronautics, Space, Autonomy Earth and Environment scheduled for Feb. 16-19 at the Sheraton Uptown in Albuquerque, NM.
The National Institute of Justice announced this week that it has signed an agreement with Sandia National Laboratories to research and develop security technologies. In the past 20 years, Sandia has developed state-of-the- art physical security technologies-- design, and implementation of detection, entry control, delay, and response technologies-- as well as explosives detection and bomb disablement.
Parents of adopted children in New York are overwhelmingly in favor of laws that allow adult adoptees access to information in their birth certificates about their birth parents, according to a new Cornell University study.
The resentment public officials feared would prevent a watershed agreement between New York City and municipalities along the Hudson River watershed was not very deep, a Cornell University study has found.
Changes in the magnetic structure of minerals at high pressures might have significant implications for the structure and evolution of the Earth, and may have a significant impact on the planetÃs magnetic field.
A satellite-based positioning system used by hikers, farmers, pilots and scientists could double in size if Alfred Leick, University of Maine professor of spatial information science and engineering, can solve a problem stemming from the Cold War.
ATHENS, Ga. -- The Southern Ocean -- that vast expanse of water that surrounds the frozen continent of Antarctica -- has been reluctant to give up it wealth of scientific secrets. But new information gathered from a voyage to the bottom of the world could have a major impact on how scientists view the role oceans play in the global carbon and nitrogen cycle. Dr. Deborah Bronk, a biological oceanographer from the University of Georgia, undertook a six-week voyage to the Southern Ocean and to Antarctica's Ross Sea.
Students are becoming ëscientific consultantsà to the Indonesian government, working together to help track down rare plants that may hold a cure for cancer or discover why a vital cash crop is refusing to produce fruit.
A roundup of NC State University research, teaching and outreach activities. For use by the media as briefs or as background for stories. Stories include: From Fish, Come Clues on Sexual Behavior; Paper From Cornstalks; Better Housing for Migrant Workers; Nanotubes May Pave Way for Space Elevator; Edible Film Fights Food-Borne Disease; and more.
Testing a new aircraft can be costly and risk. But a new scale-model, remote-piloted test plane developed at NC State University with funding from the U.S. Navy may help reduce those risks and costs by letting researchers identify potential problems before they occur in manned flights. The test plane, a 17.5 percent scale version of the U.S. Navy's newly updated F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet strike fighter, was developed by a team of NC State researchers led by Drs. Charles Hall and John Perkins.
Scientists are rethinking what they know about bacteria: it turns out that the organisms tell time. Scientists affiliated with the NSFÃs H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site in Oregon may have found part of the answer for how deforestation affects global carbon cycles. A Memorandum of Agreement between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense (DOD) designates the Air National Guard to provide air logistics support to the U.S. Antarctic Program, which is run by NSF.
Today at Energy Week π97, in Houston, Dr. Richard J. Goldstein, president of ASME International, posited how government and industry ≥can radically alter the status quo and influence the worldπs future.≤
Children who benefit from child support payments seem to fare better in cognitive development and educational attainment than those who obtain the same amount of money from welfare, according to a Cornell University study. And when child support stems from an agreement between parents rather than a court-ordered one, the children do even better, according to Elizabeth Peters, Cornell professor of consumer economics and housing.
When the 20th anniversity edition of Star Wars opens in theaters Jan. 31, will Generation X, raised on the murky paranoia of The X-Files and state-of-the-art special effects of blockbusters like Independence Day, embrace a sweet-tempered film about a hero in white, a plucky princess and a mystical power called The Force? It's a good bet they will, says Dr. John Kessel, an award-winning science fiction writer at NC State University. "Star Wars is a larger-than- life, quasi-medieval, Errol Flynn swashbuckler with non-stop action and special effects, and a core message that good always triumphs over evil. You couldn't ask for anything more."
Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Carnegie-Mellon University have identified a diamond-shaped structure at the active site of bacterial methane monooxygenase. Understanding how the iron-based structure works could help in developing new processes to make plastics and other chemicals, as well as in making methanol.
A Purdue University engineering program that could become a national model is helping community agencies track and assist the homeless and others who need services. Working through an engineering course, a team of undergraduate engineering students is developing a data base for the Homelessness Prevention Network. Color photo available.
ATHENS, Ga. -- Managing for a single endangered species may put other species at risk and is no longer a reasonable policy option, according to a paper published today in the journal Science. Knowing which species are most vulnerable and which human activities threaten them is crucial to saving species, according to an article by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Dr. Ron Pulliam, director of the National Biological Service and science advisor to Secretary Babbitt.
Throughout the 12-state Northeast region, temperatures were well above normal during December. The region reported an average temperature departure of 6 degrees above normal, which was warm enough to make it the fourth warmest December on record, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. The normal average temperature for the region is 27.5 degrees, while weather observers measured 33.5 degrees this year.
An unlikely tool to save tropical forest biodiversity may be the chainsaw, according to conservationists attending a forest diversity workshop, organized by the Wildlife Conservation Society, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo. With worldwide logging regimes owning more forest land than all national parks combined, conservationists are looking toward forest departments and their production forests to complement existing reserves. PHOTOS AVAILABLE
COLLEGE STATION -- The pathway in legumes -- such as soybeans and alfalfa -- that controls the formation of nitrogen-packed nodules on roots has been identified by researchers at Texas A&M University. The finding, reported in today's issue of Science magazine, could help scientists better understand how to manipulate the growth of such unique plant organs which are vital to the Earth's ecological health.
Researchers from Resources for the Future in the United States and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand today announce the start of their collaborative investigation of a proposed dam's impact on local forest communities -- an impact that is often not accounted for in development planning in Southeast Asia.
Johns Hopkins geophysicists have developed a model that may explain recent findings suggesting that the Earth's solid inner core rotates faster than the rest of the planet.
The plastic bottle you throw in the recycling bin today may be in your gas tank tomorrow. That type of reclamation of waste material is now possible, according to Dr. Joseph Shabtai of the University of Utah. The results of his work appear in the January/February issue of Energy & Fuels, a bimonthly publication of the American Chemical Society.
Four tips from Los Alamos: * four-color laser * a membrane reactor for ultrapure hydrogen * new method for forming metallic glasses * high-precision carbon monoxide sensor
The Pinatubo eruption has helped validate a Los Alamos 3-d computer model of Earth's atmosphere, which accurately modeled the cooling and impact on Arctic ozone and the polar vortex caused by the volcano's infusion of aersols into the upper atmosphere.
An endocrinologist and reproductive in Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, has been studying the dramatic seasonal cycles that profoundly alter the groundhog's reproductive activity, food intake, basal metabolism, body fat and total body weight from season to season. Groundhogs have more dramatic annual biological rhythms than nearly all other mammals and may provide key clues into better understanding cancer and cancer treatment, blood cell functions, brain activity and mental health.
Unless the world's food-growing nations improve their resource-management practices, life in the 21st century will be as tough as it is now in the 80 countries that already suffer serious water shortages, a new Cornell University study warns. As a start, governments should end irrigation subsidies that encourage inefficient use of water and instead reward conservation.
Cornell University researchers, using non-linear laser-microscope technology developed at Cornell, have produced images displaying the neurotransmitter serotonin in live cells in real time, and they have for the first time measured the concentration of serotonin in secretory granules. Embargoed: 01/23/97 4 p.m.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right