Filters close
Released: 13-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Dreaming of a white Christmas? Check the chart
Cornell University

The Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University has released this year's statistical probabilities chart for a white Christmas for major metropolitan areas and other selected cities in the Northeast. It is not a forecast.

Released: 13-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Vanderbilt University engineers developing robotic insects
Vanderbilt University

Nashville, Tenn. - Two Vanderbilt University mechanical engineering professors are developing a tiny insect-like robot, about a third the size of a credit card, which will have applications for military and intelligence-gathering missions.

Released: 12-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
The Incredible Shrinking CD gets big squeeze at Uof Minnesota
University of Minnesota

A really compact disk, the size of a penny, that packs as much information as 30 current CDs could be on the horizon if technology developed by Stephen Chou becomes commercialized. The University of Minnesota electrical engineering professor has found a way to store 400 billion bits (or 400 gigabits) of information in a square inch of CD space; this is 800 times the storage capacity of current CDs, which carry only half a gigabit per square inch.

Released: 12-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
University of Georgia team compiling first complete map of south Florida's national parks and preserves
University of Georgia

Only one area of the continental U.S. has not been mapped --the Everglades. Now a team from the U.S. Park Service and the University of Georgia are in the final year of a mapping project.

Released: 12-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Size Doesn't Matter When It Comes to a Notice of Admission
Dick Jones Communications

It used to be a rule that a thick envelope from a college was good news and a thin envelope was bad. That's no longer the case. Smaller schools are trying to keep the process as personal as possible.

Released: 12-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
A "Novel" Approach to College Preparation
Dick Jones Communications

Many high schools and colleges prepare lists of books and plays that they recommend students read in order to be better prepared for a college curriculum. Here are some suggestions for a literary hot sheet from colleges and universities around the nation.

Released: 12-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Model Shows Certain Gasses Could Stimulate Global Cooling
University of Michigan

New computer modeling suggests that global warming might not be entirely a product of human activity. The research shows that carbon and sulfur emissions can have the reverse effect, serving to cool down the planet.

Released: 11-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Got milk ads are working well, ag economist says
Cornell University

Got milk? Yes, you do. Those television commercials in which some poor dupe gets too little milk too late are working well. A Cornell University study to be published in December indicates that thanks to heavy doses of advertising, more and more American consumers are buying fluid milk.

Released: 11-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
MSU Study reveals seat belts play only cameo roles in top films
Michigan State University

East Lansing, Mich. -- Someone call Tom Cruise. Based on safety belt use in the top movies of 1996, buckling up on the silver screen seems like "Mission: Impossible."

Released: 11-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Air could be the Secret to Faster Computers
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are creating and studying aerogels, substances so porous they are more air than solid material. When used as insulators on computer chips, these porous materials could more than double computing speeds.

Released: 11-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
UT Southwestern Researchers Learn How G Proteins Activate Their Enzymes
UT Southwestern Medical Center

Researchers have answered a fundamental question about how G proteins, the cell's message relay switch, coordinate and control signals that determine cell activities. By looking at the crystal structure of one type of G protein (Gs-alpha) bound to its target, an enzyme found in heart tissue, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas scientists also uncovered a possible target for cardiac drugs.

Released: 11-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
ORNL DNA biochip provides answers in matter of minutes
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A new "DNA" biochip developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could revolutionize the way the medical profession performs tests on blood.

Released: 11-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Lower party loyalty, newspapers, affect elections
Fairfield University

The decline in political party loyalty and the influence of newspapers versus television are influencing political elections, making the results more volatile than in the past.

Released: 11-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Biogenic Emissions Higher Than Expected Over African Savanna
National Science Foundation (NSF)

Air-pollution-related hydrocarbon emissions from vegetation are much higher than expected over the African savanna (flat tropical grasslands), while those coming from the rain forests are somewhat lower than prior estimates, according to scientists. The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research team is mapping natural and human-caused trace gas emissions across the African continent in a project is called EXPRESSO, the Experiment for Regional Sources and Sinks of Oxidants.

11-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
3-D Simulation Predicts Earth's Coronal Mass Ejections
University of Michigan

New ultra-high speed computer software can simulate the effects of solar surface eruptions on the Earth's magnetosphere. 3-D models of eruptions are created far faster than real time---meaning the simulation might some day predict the effects of space weather phenomena on Earth in ample time to prepare for them.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Preventing family violence in the armed forces
Cornell University

Cornell university abuse experts have developed programs for the Army and Marines to enhance family stability, promote personal growth and responsibility and prevent family violence.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Enterotoxemia type D vaccination of lambs
Cornell University

Young lambs may not need inoculation against enterotoxemia type D -- otherwise known as "overeating disease" -- until past the age of 6 weeks, according to Cornell University animal scientists.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
New book looks at abusive families
Cornell University

In the new book "Understanding Abusive Families," Cornell University professors of human development James Garbarino and John Eckenrode explore why families become abusive and what it takes to help such families care for their children or, failing that, to protect children from harm.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
West Virginia University , FBI Join Forces
West Virginia University - Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

West Virginia University and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have signed a unique agreement that will allow the school to offer the world's first degree programs in forensic identification.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Nonproliferation Satellite Details Lightning Activity
Los Alamos National Laboratory

First results from a satellite launched to advance technology for nuclear weapons detection show thousands times more lightning from thunderstorms than anything previously detected.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Investing in the Rain Forest: Living Off the Interest While Preserving the Principal
New York Botanical Garden

Researchers at The New York Botanical Garden are working in a community forestry project in West Kalimantan, Indonesia to invest in the rain forest: developing sustainable ways to exploit forest resources - harvesting only the annual growth, (that is, interest), and safeguarding the basic stock of plant resources, (that is, principal), for the future.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
In the Tropics, traditional agricultural systems yield models for sustainable farming all over the world
New York Botanical Garden

Research Highlights from the New York Botanical Garden - In the tropics, traditional agricultural systems yield models for sustainable farming all over the world.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Story Ideas from Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Tips from Oak Ridge National Laboratory: 1) Energy - What's Your R-Value? 2) Technology Transfer - The Long Arm Of ORCMT, 3) Environmental Management - Giving Waste The Cold Shoulder, 4) Computing - New 'Super'-Life For Old Computers

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Intellectual Capital: no longer just for business
Fairfield University

Leif Edvinsson, the first ever director of Intellectual Capital (at Skandia AFS in Stockholm, Sweden) and the world's leading expert on Intellectual Capital says there are applications for Intellectual Capital beyond business. He is meeting with MBA students at Fairfield University to discuss how Intellectual Capital can be used to improve the communities in which we live.

   
Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
The Taj Mahal Garden View May Be Restored in All its 17th-Century Glory
New York Botanical Garden

Thanks to the work of ethnobotanists who study the uses of plants by ancient cultures, the garden of the Mughal emperors near the Taj Mahal may bloom again. The Mehtab Bagh or "Moonlight Garden" is a 1000-square-foot garden built around the 17th century on the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra, India. It blossomed across the river from the Taj Mahal, the world- famous mausoleum built in 1632 by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his favorite empress.

Released: 10-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Study Shows Earth Warming Since 1500, Most In Last 100 Years
University of Michigan

A new 300-site survey of borehole temperatures spanning four continents and five centuries has confirmed what most scientists already believe---the Earth is getting warmer and the rate of warming has been accelerating rapidly since 1900.

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Giant snowballs in space? No, says researcher, they're simply black snow on the TV screen
University of Washington

Last May University of Iowa space physicist Louis Frank claimed to have discovered 20- to 40-ton cosmic snowballs, the size of houses, pelting the Earth at the rate of 30,000 a day. Now University of Washington geophysicist George Parks has analyzed Frank's ultraviolet (UV) camera images and has concluded that the white snow in space is no more than black "snow" on the television screen. Parks and his collaborators are certain that Frank has been looking at "instrument noise."

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
LSU scientists to speed up Human Genome project
Louisiana State University

Using $1.5 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, LSU chemist Steven Soper is on the verge of saving researchers with the Human Genome Project millions of dollars and years of work.

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
How Small Can a Satellite Be?
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Researchers say constellations of satellites as small as a half an ounce each be used for a variety of important new space missions. They presented their study and a satellite controller prototype at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
ASM Journals Tipsheet: December 1997
American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

Tipsheet for the December 1997 Journals of the American Society for Microbiology: 1) New Antibody Test for Ulcer Bug, 2) Pine Cleaners Contribute to Antibiotic Resistance, 3) Naturally Occurring Antibiotic Resitance

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
In Uganda's Impenetrable Forest, a New Census for Mountain Gorillas
Wildlife Conservation Society

A team of scientists has counted nearly 300 mountain gorillas living in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, bringing the total to around 600 for this most endangered gorilla sub-species.

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Sediment Study 'Good News' for Quake-Prone Southern California
National Science Foundation (NSF)

The Los Angeles basin's sediments seem to lessen the ground motion that threatens single-story and low-rise buildings in a severe earthquake, a new study of data from the 1994 Northridge quake has revealed. The study was conducted through the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Southern California Earthquake Center.

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Lucent Technologies Announces the Next Generation in Internet Security
Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs

Lucent Technologies announces a neew Internet firewall that is designed to be the industry's most secure, expandable and easy-to-use hardware and software platform for protecting customers' data networks.

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Iowa State Physicists to Collaborate on Next Generation Particle Collider
Iowa State University

Two Iowa State University physicists are part of an international team of scientists who will be designing and building detectors for the Large Hadron Collider, a high-energy particle accelerator, at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Asian industrial smog: it's increasingly blowing in the wind across the U.S. West Coast
University of Washington

It seems that Americans are not entirely to blame for the chemical smog that hangs over cities along the U.S. West Coast. A new study indicates that about 10 percent of the ozone and other pollutants are arriving from the industrialized nations of East Asia. After measuring pollutants from a remote Olympic Peninsula research station, a researcher concludes that Asian pollution is affecting much of the U.S.West Coast, with Washington and Oregon affected slightly more because of wind patterns.

Released: 9-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Researchers puzzle over the source of mysterious, high-energy X-rays recorded above the Earth
University of Washington

The flight of a balloon sent aloft by scientists over Kiruna, Sweden, seemed uneventful -- until researchers started examining the data. What was found by three graduate students has scientists scrambling for an explanation: an intense stream of X-rays, occurring in seven bursts, each separated by only a few minutes and lasting for a total of half an hour. The evidence is that the bursts came not from space, but from the Earth's upper atmosphere.

Released: 6-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Natural variability is key to river restoration
Cornell University

The key to managing river ecosystems is to return them to their natural flow patterns, as much as possible. That is the conclusion of a six-university panel of river experts whose report, "The Natural Flow Regime: A Paradigm for River Conservation and Restoration," is published in the December 1997 issue (Vol. 47, pp. 769-784) of the journal BioScience.

Released: 6-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Biodiversity worth $2.9 trillion
Cornell University

The annual economic and environmental benefits of biodiversity total approximately $300 billion in the United States and $2.928 trillion worldwide, according to an new analysis by Cornell University biologists, as reported in the December 1997 issue of BioScience.

Released: 6-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
High Tech in the North Woods
University of Minnesota Duluth Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI)

Researchers from the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota Duluth are developing a computer model to simulate animal foraging. Currently, the model is being used to study the effects of moose eating habits on plant growth in an effort to better manage moose populations. EASE, which stands for Energy Activity and Simulation Environment, uniquely combines four submodels into one and was designed specifically for ruminantsóanimals that initially eat great quantities of food and later regurgitate it from their ìfermenterî stomachs to completely digest the food.

Released: 6-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
National Science Foundation Tipsheet -- December 5, 1997
National Science Foundation (NSF)

National Science Foundation Tips: 1) Children's Author on A South Pole Adventure, 2) Team in Himalayas Retrieves Ice Core from Highest-Ever Altitude, 3) U. Vermont Wires "Smartest Bridge in the World"

Released: 6-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
New Book Dissects Mathematical Puzzles and Their History
Purdue University

A new book by Purdue University Professor Greg Frederickson may reshape the way you think about mathematical puzzles. In the book, Frederickson explores the challenges of geometric dissections, the mathematical art of cutting figures into the fewest number of pieces that can be rearranged to form other figures.

Released: 5-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Pathfinder photos show role of water on Mars
Cornell University

After studying more than 9,500 images taken during the acclaimed Mars Pathfinder mission, scientists report in Science (Dec. 5) that surface photographs provide strong geological and geochemical evidence that fluid water was once present on the red planet.

Released: 5-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Science Board Calls for Systematic R&D Priority-Setting
National Science Foundation (NSF)

The National Science Board (NSB), concerned about the future state of scientific research in the U.S., is calling for further study on how to set priorities. In a working paper titled Government Funding of Scientific Research, the Board calls for "high-level coordination" of federally financed scientific research, leading toward "systematic ways to reach and prioritize decisions."

Released: 5-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Harvard Medical School Researchers Map Prevalence of Gambling Disorders in North America
Harvard Medical School

A Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions study has found that the prevalence of gambling disorders among adults in the United States and Canada has increased during the past two decades.

Released: 4-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
New Scientist Tip Sheet for 12-3-97
New Scientist

New Scientist Tip Sheet for 12-3-97

Released: 4-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Student Evaluations don't get a passing grade: Easy-grading professors get too-high marks, new UW study shows
University of Washington

As millions of students are about to rate the teaching abilities of their professor, researchers say such evaluations are flawed and often misused. Science, math and engineering instructors, who teach demanding classes, are often penalized with undeservedly low ratings, while teachers of easier courses are often rewarded with unfairly high ratings.

Released: 4-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
That green slime in swimming-pools is worth $500 a kilogram
Louisiana State University

LSU researchers have developed a method of continuously producing microalgae. Commercial production of their system should slash costs in commercial aquaculture, especially for shellfish.

Released: 4-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Adapting to global warming
Louisiana State University

LSU researchers are part of a team examining how global climate change might affect economically important fisheries.

Released: 4-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
3D visualization software to help with information overload
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Starlight, an advanced three-dimensional visualization technology, has been developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., to help solve the problem of information overload. Already in use by the U.S. intelligence community, Starlight can be applied to a variety of other fields, such as medical data analysis, environmental security and current events monitoring.

Released: 4-Dec-1997 12:00 AM EST
Benefits of Biodiversity Confirmed at University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota

Working with communities of microbes, University of Minnesota ecologists have shown that having more species at each level- -such as green plants, decomposers, herbivores and predators--improves the reliability of ecosystem functioning. The research supports the idea that preservation of a diversity of species is important, even if certain species appear to have no direct benefit to humans.



close
5.64269