National Science Foundation |
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly $5.47 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 40,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. The NSF also awards over $200 million in professional and service contracts yearly. |
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Physical changes, including rising air and seawater temperatures and decreasing seasonal ice cover, appear to be the cause of a series of biological changes in the northern Bering Sea ecosystem that could have long-range and irreversible effects on the animals that live there and on the people who depend on them for their livelihoods. |
11 June 2006 |
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In a step toward making cars that can run on hydrogen rather than gasoline a reality, chemists at UCLA and the University of Michigan have announced a new 'crystal sponge' material that can store in its pores nearly three times more hydrogen than any substance known previously. |
11 June 2006 |
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Researchers studying supplies of copper, zinc and other metals have determined that these finite resources, even if recycled, may not meet the needs of the global population forever. According to the study, if all nations were to use the same services enjoyed in developed nations, even the full extraction of metals from the Earth's crust and extensive recycling programs may not meet future demand. |
11 June 2006 |
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Humidity sensors monitor fire danger in remote areas. Nitrate sensors detect agricultural runoff in rivers and streams. Seismic monitors provide early warnings of earthquakes. |
10 June 2006 |
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Today, the nation's most-advanced research aircraft will take flight on its first science mission. Scientists aboard will study a severe type of atmospheric turbulence that forms near mountains and endangers planes flying in the vicinity. |
10 June 2006 |
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Scientists from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom have demonstrated a new way to combine microelectronics and optical fibers, a development that opens up potential applications in fields as diverse as medicine, computing and remote sensing. |
10 June 2006 |
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Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new, ultra-fast chemical-analysis system, with potential applications that range from sniffing luggage for explosive residues to detecting molecular disease markers in urine samples. |
09 June 2006 |
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New data suggest that molecular communication between the plant sexes is more complicated than originally thought. Plants, like animals, avoid inbreeding to maximize genetic diversity and the associated chances for survival. For decades, scientists have sought to fully understand the plant's molecular system for recognizing and rejecting 'self' so that inbreeding does not occur. |
09 June 2006 |
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Using a relatively new planet-hunting technique that can spot worlds one-tenth the mass of our own, researchers have discovered a potentially rocky, icy body that may be the smallest planet yet found orbiting a star outside our solar system.
The discovery suggests the technique, gravitational microlensing, may be an exceptional technology for finding distant planets with traits that could support life. |
09 June 2006 |
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Scientists have sequenced and compared the genomes of planktonic microbes living throughout the water column in the Pacific Ocean. The pioneering study yielded insight into the specialization of microbial communities at each depth, ranging from 40 to more than 13,000 feet. |
08 June 2006 |
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A trip to the neighborhood florist is proof positive that flowers have an array of scents to pique our senses, but researchers are also investigating the myriad other functions of these aromas--known to scientists as 'plant volatiles.' Typically liquid substances that evaporate easily at average temperatures, plant volatiles play important ecological roles from attracting pollinators to repulsing herbivores and from destroying microorganisms to dispersing seed. |
08 June 2006 |
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The same medical technology used to image brain tumors and torn knee ligaments is now taking the field of marine biology to a new dimension: anyone with Internet access will be able to look at fish as never before. |
08 June 2006 |
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Ice sheets covering both the Arctic and Antarctic could melt more quickly than expected this century, according to two studies that blend computer modeling with paleoclimate records. Led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Arizona, the studies show that by 2100, Arctic summers may be as warm as they were nearly 130,000 years ago when sea levels rose to 20 feet (6 meters) higher than they are today. |
07 June 2006 |
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As Alaska's Augustine Volcano erupts and sends a plume of ash more than 40,000 feet into the air, instruments on the ground are recording rumblings at the volcano's surface. The data collected will provide new insights into the inner workings of volcanoes along the Pacific rim. |
07 June 2006 |
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An analysis of seven tropical forests around the world has found that nature encourages species diversity by selecting for less common trees as the trees mature. The landmark study, which was conducted by 33 ecologists from 12 countries and published in this week's issue of the journal Science, conclusively demonstrates that diversity matters and has ecological importance to tropical forests. |
07 June 2006 |
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Whether it's used in chemical laboratories or the fuel tanks of advanced automobiles, hydrogen is mostly produced from natural gas and other fossil fuels. However, to isolate the tiny hydrogen molecules, engineers must first remove impurities, and the currently available methods can require substantial equipment or toxic chemicals. |
06 June 2006 |
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Scientists have discovered a new genus and species of dinosaur, which is also the oldest-known and most-primitive tyrannosaur. Guanlong wucaii, the newly discovered dinosaur, was much smaller, however, than its gigantic and legendary relative, the 15-foot tall, 40-foot long Tyrannosaurus rex. |
06 June 2006 |
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New evidence from open-sea experiments shows there's a constant shuffling of genetic material going on among the ocean's tiny plankton. It happens via ocean-dwelling viruses, scientists report this week in the journal Science. |
06 June 2006 |
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For the first time, researchers have visualized the changing atomic structure of a virus by calculating how each of the virus' one million atoms interacted with each other every femtosecond, or one-millionth-of-a-billionth of a second. A better understanding of viral structures and mechanisms may one day allow researchers to design improved strategies to combat viral infections in plants, animals and even humans. |
05 June 2006 |
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A decrease in Rocky Mountain snowfall has slowed the release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas from forest soils into the atmosphere during the dead of winter, according to results of a new study. |
05 June 2006 |
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In most explosions, there's the flash and then the 'bang.' But in the exploding stars known as supernovae, it may be just the opposite. In fact, according to new computer simulations carried out by University of Arizona astronomer Adam Burrows and his colleagues, the bang actually makes the flash. |
05 June 2006 |
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Researchers have demonstrated a new laser-based technique for stripping hydrogen atoms from the surface of silicon, an advance that could significantly reduce the cost and improve the quality of computer chips, solar cells and a wide variety of other semiconductor devices. |
04 June 2006 |
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The glue one species of water-loving bacteria uses to grip its surroundings may be the strongest natural adhesive known to science. If engineers can find a way to mass-produce the material, it could have uses in medicine, marine technology and a range of other applications. |
04 June 2006 |
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By using ultra-short laser pulses to spin a cyanide molecule like a propeller, chemists at the University of Southern California and Brown University have achieved the first known demonstration of near-frictionless motion in water. Although the discovery has no immediate practical use, says USC chemist Stephen Bradforth, 'it impacts how we think about the vast majority of chemical reactions', 90 percent of which take place in liquid solutions. |
04 June 2006 |
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Looking back in time some 450 million years, researchers at the University of Oregon have reconstructed the evolution of two hormone molecules and their 'receptors': the precisely shaped protein molecules that allow the body's cells to respond to the hormones. |
03 June 2006 |
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By attaching strands of 'antisense' DNA to nanometer-scale particles made of gold, scientists at Northwestern University have significantly enhanced the strands' ability to suppress the production of dangerous proteins, such as those that cause cancer. |
03 June 2006 |
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A globe-spanning constellation of six satellites expected to improve weather forecasts, monitor climate change, and enhance space weather research will head into orbit on Fri. April 14, 2006. Barring delays, a Minotaur rocket is scheduled to launch the array at 5:10 p.m. Pacific time from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central Calif. coast. |
03 June 2006 |
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Earth's plant life will not be able to 'store' excess carbon from rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as well as scientists once thought because plants likely cannot get enough nutrients, such as nitrogen, when there are higher levels of carbon dioxide, according to scientists publishing in this week's issue of the journal Nature. |
02 June 2006 |
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The plant species, Amborella trichopoda, which first appeared on Earth 130 million years ago, has a unique reproductive structure, evidence this so-called 'living fossil' may represent a crucial link between modern flowering plants and their predecessors. |
02 June 2006 |
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Working in rocks more than 375 million years old far above the Arctic Circle, paleontologists have discovered a remarkable new fossil species that represents the most compelling evidence yet of an intermediate stage between fish and early limbed animals. |
02 June 2006 |
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The National Science Foundation has issued four awards totaling $600,000 to the University of North Texas to lead a multi-university collaboration to develop a geographically distributed, secure test bed to analyze vulnerabilities in Voice over Internet Protocol, an increasingly popular technology that turns audio signals into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet |
01 June 2006 |
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Researchers at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences have developed a new algorithm that makes it much easier to detect certain cancer genes, and as a test, have applied it to map a set of tumor-suppressor genes involved in lung cancer. |
01 June 2006 |
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A team of scientists working in an eastern Ethiopian desert has discovered fossil bones and teeth from individuals they believe link the genus Australopithecus precursors of humans to a decidedly more ape-like animal of the genus Ardipithicus. Because the fossils were found in areas known to contain evidence of both older and younger specimens, the scientists say evidence of when the three hominid types existed will provide valuable information about human evolution. |
01 June 2006 |
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Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have crafted tiny nanowires that generate electricity when they vibrate. Just like the quartz crystal in a watch, the zinc-oxide nanowires are piezoelectric, which means bending causes them to produce an electrical charge. |
31 May 2006 |
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Scientists have reported the first direct evidence that cooperative behavior in side-blotched male lizards arises from their genes. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by University of California, Santa Cruz's Barry Sinervo and colleagues, represent some 20 years of research into the altruistic or 'self-sacrificing' behavior. |
31 May 2006 |
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Using the power of modern computing combined with innovative theoretical tools, an international team of researchers has determined how a one-way electrical valve, or diode, made of only a single molecule does its job. |
31 May 2006 |
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By sending a high-intensity beam of subatomic particles known as neutrinos from a laboratory in Batavia, Ill., to a particle detector located deep in a mine in Soudan, Minn., scientists have confirmed the neutrinos really do 'oscillate,' changing from one kind to another as they fly along. |
30 May 2006 |
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A research consortium funded by the National Science Foundation and led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, has successfully sent a fleet of aerial drones through the pollution-filled skies over the Indian Ocean, thereby achieving an important milestone in the tracking of pollutants responsible for dimming Earth's atmosphere. |
30 May 2006 |
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The Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy, a joint venture of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois, was created by moving the six 10-meter telescopes at Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory, along with nine 6-meter telescopes at the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association array, to a new location at Cedar Flat in the Inyo Mountains near Bishop, Calif. |
29 May 2006 |
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Scientists aboard the research drilling ship JOIDES Resolution have, for the first time, drilled into a fossil magma chamber under intact ocean crust. There, 1.4 kilometers beneath the sea floor, they have recovered samples of gabbro: a hard, black rock that forms when molten magma is trapped beneath Earth's surface and cools slowly. |
29 May 2006 |
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A common and widespread species of freshwater plankton, called a copepod, forms new species at an uncommonly high rate, scientists have discovered. Indeed, a new study has revealed that what was once believed to be a single copepod species is really a collection of many species. |
29 May 2006 |
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As spring turns into summer, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., and other institutions will fly a C-130 research aircraft over Colorado's Front Range this May and again in July to measure how much carbon dioxide mountain forests remove from the air. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation. The researchers are developing new methods for assessing carbon uptake over complex terrain on regional scales. Accurate assessments could help show to what extent carbon dioxide storage in Western mountain forests, a potentially important 'sink' for the greenhouse gas, may be slowing down as the ongoing drought affects tree growth. |
30 April 2006 |
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The convergence of information and communication technologies into a national 'cyberinfrastructure' is poised to revolutionize the environmental sciences and many other disciplines in the coming years, according to researchers presenting at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle. The two Feb. 13 sessions on cyberinfrastructure were organized by the heads of two National Science Foundation directorates. |
13 February 2006 |
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Inspired by the way most solids form in nature, with free-floating molecules spontaneously assembling themselves into a rigid, highly uniform array, researchers from Columbia University and IBM have learned how to create a whole new family of intricate structures out of artificial nanoscale crystals. |
16 January 2006 |
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In a discovery that could lead to potent new 'shock absorbers' and 'gate-opening springs' for molecular-scale nanomachines, as well as a new understanding of mechanical processes within living cells, researchers from Duke University have shown that a component of many natural proteins can act as one of the most powerful and resilient molecular springs in nature. |
15 January 2006 |
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Newly published research results provide evidence that global climate change may have quickly disrupted ocean processes and lead to drastic shifts in environments around the world. |
04 January 2006 |
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Computer scientists and engineers work more than mathematicians or psychologists do, and biologists and agricultural scientists work more than everyone, says an NSF survey of the average work weeks of doctoral scientists and engineers. |
03 January 2006 |
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Researchers using a customized atomic force microscope have discovered new evidence for how the fibrous scaffolding within our cells, which is made of the protein actin, responds to obstacles in its environment. |
27 December 2005 |
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Using a new laser 'virtual star' at the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii, astronomers have taken the first clear picture of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, including the environs of a supermassive black hole at its very center. |
23 December 2005 |
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Researchers recently discovered that the sea lamprey, a modern representative of ancient jawless vertebrates, fights invading pathogens by generating up to 100 trillion unique receptors. These receptors, referred to as VLRs, are proteins and function like antibodies and T-cell receptors, sentinels of the immune system in all jawed vertebrates, including humans. |
23 December 2005 |
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A population of genetically identical cells can exhibit random differences or 'noise' in gene activity that may ultimately contribute to differences in the physical characteristics of the so-called 'identical' cells. Such noise, which chimes in when cellular activity is out of sync among a population of cells, has been a nuisance to scientists studying the role genes play in a number of processes. |
22 December 2005 |
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Until now, the genetics underlying human skin pigmentation have remained a mystery. But while studying the zebrafish, a fish common to household aquariums and research laboratories, a team of interdisciplinary scientists found a gene that plays a major role in human coloration. |
15 December 2005 |
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Using nothing more than a container of loosely packed sand and a falling marble, a research team led by University of Chicago physicist Heinrich Jaeger has discovered a new state of fluid matter. |
15 December 2005 |
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According to a model developed by atmospheric scientist Judah Cohen of Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., temperatures during Dec., Jan., and Feb. will be cold in the eastern United States and warm west of the Mississippi River. |
15 December 2005 |
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According to a new study in the Nov.-Dec. issue of Annals of Family Medicine, primary care physicians were able to answer more clinical questions when they used a new online resource, the Dynamic Medical Information System, or DynaMed, than if they relied solely upon other resources. |
06 December 2005 |
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The holiday season is notorious for the emotional stress it evokes. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have come up with a non-invasive way to see the effects of psychological stress in an area of the brain linked to anxiety and depression. This research has important implications for how practitioners treat the numerous long-term health consequences of chronic stress. |
22 November 2005 |
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Plants use light not only for energy during photosynthesis, light also helps govern basic processes such as seed germination, growth, flowering, and, in autumn, dropping of leaves. Now, in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Nature, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reveal the 3-D structure of the light-detecting protein, phytochrome. |
17 November 2005 |
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By comparing the genetic code retrieved from 6,000-year-old remains of Adelie penguins in Antarctica with that of modern Adelies living at the same site as their ancestors, an international team of researchers has shown that microevolution, the process of evolutionary change at or below the species level, has taken place in the population. They also speculate that the remarkable lack of genetic differentiation among Adelie populations from around Antarctica may have been prompted by changes in migration patterns caused by giant icebergs. |
16 November 2005 |
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Marine scientists from the University of Georgia have shown for the first time that temperature affects the biological activity of microbes that degrade organic carbon in marine sediments. Warming global temperatures could therefore cause shifts in the balance of organic carbon that is recycled into the atmosphere or buried in sediments that serve as reservoirs for the substance. |
14 November 2005 |
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The National Science Foundation has announced the first round of grants in 'cyber-enabled chemistry,' a program developed by its chemistry division to explore how researchers and educators in that field can fully exploit the potential of cyberinfrastructure. |
01 November 2005 |
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A newly developed method that detects tiny bits of zircon in rock reliably predicts the age of ocean crust more than 99 percent of the time, making the technique the most accurate so far. |
28 October 2005 |
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Scientists now have direct evidence that the north Pacific salmon shark maintains its red muscle at 68-86 degrees Fahrenheit, much warmer than the 47 F water in which it lives. The elevated muscle temperature presumably helps the salmon shark survive the cold waters of the north Pacific and take advantage of the abundant food supply there. The heat also appears to factor into the fish's impressive swimming ability. |
27 October 2005 |
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Researchers have discovered the 90-million-year-old fossil remains of a previously unknown dinosaur species in Patagonia. Buitreraptor (pronounced bwee-tree-rap-tor) gonzalezorum, the oldest member ever found in South America of the group of dinosaurs that includes the carnivorous Velociraptor,was about the size of a very large rooster, but with a long head and very long tail. |
12 October 2005 |
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Advanced technologies now available at the National Science Foundation's Dunn Solar Telescope at Sunspot, NM, are revealing striking details on the surface of the Sun. |
06 October 2005 |
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Scientists monitoring ocean heat and circulation in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have a new understanding of how these tropical storms can gain intensity so quickly: The Gulf of Mexico's 'Loop Current' is likely intensifying hurricanes that pass over eddies of warm water that spin off the main current. |
03 October 2005 |
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'Snowball Earth' proponents, who say that Earth's oceans were long ago covered by thick ice, explain the survival of life by hypothesizing the existence of small warm spots, or refugia. On the other side, supporters of a 'Slushball Earth' say the planet included large areas of thin ice or open ocean, particularly around the equator. |
27 September 2005 |
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The National Science Foundation has established two new Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers at Yale University and the University of Washington, with a combined NSF investment of up to $14 million over the next six years. The centers will also receive substantial support from the participating academic institutions, state governments and industry. |
27 September 2005 |
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Publishing in the Sept. 2005 issue of the Journal of Virology, the researchers show that HIV in the temporal lobe mutates at a rate 100 times faster than in other parts of the body, triggering white blood cells to continually swarm to attack the infection. The associated overcrowding and inflammation appear to cause the dementia. |
27 September 2005 |
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Ocean scientists are planning for the first time to use a high-definition television camera for live views of an area of the sea floor that has been twisted by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and is dotted with eerie spires and chimneys venting water as hot as 700 degrees Fahrenheit. |
23 September 2005 |
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For decades, the 'other' genetic material, ribonucleic acid, was thought to play a supporting role to its more famous counterpart, DNA. After all, protein production requires DNA-based genetic information to be converted to transient RNA molecules, which cells use as blueprints to build the proteins, in a process that relegates RNA to its subsidiary reputation. |
01 September 2005 |
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Real-time radar data and high-tech communications were the keystones to success this past weekend as the Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment project began its research with Hurricane Katrina. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation. |
30 August 2005 |
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The National Science Foundation has named a second round of fellows to its Discovery Corps: a pilot program that is exploring innovative ways for scientists to combine their research expertise with service to society as a whole. |
26 August 2005 |
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'This new way of studying the ocean crust is the equivalent of a new telescope in astronomy,' said Bruce Malfait, head of the National Science Foundation marine geosciences section, which funded the research. 'It allows us to look at Earth processes and composition at a remarkable new level of detail.' |
25 August 2005 |
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While some geochemists have argued that parts of the deep mantle have remained unchanged since the formation of the Earth, some geophysicists and others have believed that the entire mantle has been moving throughout geologic time. The question of whether the deep-Earth changes is central to scientists' understanding of the process of heat loss from deep beneath the surface. |
25 August 2005 |
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Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have demonstrated a new technique for nano-manufacturing that could make it significantly easier to create high-precision components for nanoscale electronics, sensing devices and the like. |
25 August 2005 |
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By applying electric current through a thin film of oil molecules, engineers have developed a new method to precisely carve arrays of tiny holes only 10 nanometers wide into sheets of gold. The new system, called Electric Pen Lithography, uses a scanning-tunneling microscope, fitted with a tip sharpened to the size of a single atom, to deliver the charge through the dielectric oil to the target surface. |
17 August 2005 |
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Renowned for their ability to walk up walls like miniature Spider-Men, or even to hang from the ceiling by one toe, the colorful lizards of the gecko family owe their wall-crawling prowess to their remarkable footpads. Each five-toed foot is covered with microscopic elastic hairs called setae, which are themselves split at the ends to form a forest of nanoscale fibers known as spatulas. So when a gecko steps on almost anything, these nano-hairs make such extremely close contact with the surface that they form intermolecular bonds, thus holding the foot in place. |
15 August 2005 |
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While most ancient cultures recorded civil matters and business transactions by inscribing characters on 2-dimensional sheets, new evidence shows Peru's original inhabitants used a 3-dimensional system of knotted strings to keep track of things. |
11 August 2005 |
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How does a multi-cellular organism with specialized organs and tissues develop from a single cell? A team of genomics researchers has moved closer to answering this question by creating the first comprehensive diagram of the molecular interactions that orchestrate early embryo development. |
10 August 2005 |
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By combining one natural component of a cell with the synthetic analog of another component, researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have created a nanoscale hybrid they call the 'smart bio-nanotube': a novel structure that could one day become a vehicle for ultra-precise drug or therapeutic gene delivery. |
09 August 2005 |
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Scientists will soon begin one of the largest research projects ever undertaken to better understand dramatic, rapid changes in hurricane intensity. These changes have baffled forecasters for decades. |
08 August 2005 |
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Geologists affiliated with the EarthScope Project have successfully drilled a hole 2 miles deep into the San Andreas Fault, an 800-mile-long rift. The entire borehole will be lined with steel and concrete so sensitive instruments can be installed underground. |
03 August 2005 |
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National Science Foundation programs and policies have helped increase the participation of women, minorities and people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to a new report prepared by the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering. Yet despite measurable gains, the report, Broadening Participation in America's Science and Engineering Workforce, notes that progress has been slow and uneven across underrepresented groups and the various science and engineering fields. |
21 July 2005 |
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Researchers have invented so-called optoelectronic tweezers that can maneuver microscopic particles as small as living cells without damaging them. The tool uses optical energy from a low-intensity laser beam to create an electric field on a photoconductive glass slide. Similar to magnets sticking together or pushing apart according to their orientation, a particle inside the charged electric field is attracted or repelled depending on its own charge. Moving the laser beam moves the electric field, taking the object along with it. |
20 July 2005 |
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Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center now has it own 'Big Ben', only this technological bellwether rings out in teraflops. PSC acquired Big Ben, the first XT3 system to be shipped from Cray, Inc., with a $9.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation. |
20 July 2005 |
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By firing rapid pulses of polarized light at corn, spinach and other crops, researchers have uncovered a picture of plant health that is invisible to the naked eye. Using a portable light source and detector technology, the researchers can differentiate minute differences in leaf colors, indicators of over- or under-fertilization, crop-nutrient levels and perhaps even disease. |
19 July 2005 |
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Chemists at UCLA have created the first reversible nano-valve: a molecular machine that they can open and close like a faucet whenever they want. Among the many potential applications are nanoscale drug delivery systems that could release pharmaceuticals at very precise points within the body, or even within a single cell. |
19 July 2005 |
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Working with platinum nanowires 100 times thinner than a human hair, and using blood vessels as conduits to guide the wires, a team of U.S. and Japanese researchers has demonstrated a technique that may one day allow doctors to monitor individual brain cells and perhaps provide new treatments for neurological diseases such as Parkinson's. |
07 July 2005 |
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Researchers have reported new information about how certain bacteria propel themselves from one place to another. Insight into bacterial micro-movement will benefit scientists and engineers developing nano-scale mechanical devices that may one day push fluids and transport molecules without the aid of pumps or electrical charges. |
30 June 2005 |
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In another step to decipher information in the human genome, scientists have discovered the location and sequence of over 10,000 DNA regions that function as genetic on-off switches, or 'promoters' in human fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are relatively generic, easily maintained, human cells that form connective tissues throughout the body. By knowing the specific sequences of DNA that control the nearly 8,000 active genes in fibroblasts, scientists can tease apart the biochemical regulation system these cells use to turn genes on and off during normal growth. |
29 June 2005 |
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Hummingbirds are masters of the air, unique among birds for their ability to hover for long periods of time. Using a sophisticated digital imaging technique, scientists have now determined the aerodynamics of hummingbird flight. These latest data disprove conclusions from numerous earlier studies that hummingbirds hovered like insects despite their profound muscle and skeletal differences. |
22 June 2005 |
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Taking a major step forward in the search for Earth-like planets beyond our own solar system, a team of astronomers has announced the discovery of the smallest extrasolar planet yet detected. About seven-and-a-half times as massive as Earth, with about twice the radius, it may be the first rocky planet ever found orbiting a normal star not much different from our Sun. |
13 June 2005 |
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After years of intense work, researchers have discovered the 3-dimensional structure of a miniscule, yet mighty, region of a protein that forms deleterious rope-like structures in the brain. Known as amyloid fibrils, the proteins are associated with the degenerative brain disorders Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, and so-called prion diseases like mad cow. This particular region of the protein catalyzes the formation of a 'molecular zipper,' which pulls proteins together to form the stubbornly stable clumps. |
08 June 2005 |
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With shellfish beds from Maine to Cape Cod closed from the largest outbreak of red tide in 12 years in Massachusetts Bay, scientists are studying the algae that causes these 'red tides' and providing information to coastal managers using new molecular techniques and oceanographic models. |
03 June 2005 |
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In a report published in the June 3, 2005, issue of the journal Science, Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist at NCSU and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and her colleagues state that the presence of this particular tissue provides evidence of the dinosaur's gender, and a connection between dinosaurs and living birds. |
02 June 2005 |
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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have taken another big step toward complex, nanoscale electronic devices that can be directed to assemble themselves automatically, a development that would allow manufacturers to mass-produce 'nanochips' having circuit elements only a few molecules across, roughly 10 times smaller than the features in current-generation chips. |
02 June 2005 |
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A new Doppler radar instrument that can scan tornadoes every five to 10 seconds is prowling the Great Plains this spring in search of its first close-up twister. Newly enhanced for season-long thunderstorm tracking, the radar promises the most complete picture to date of tornado evolution, allowing for better tornado prediction in the future. |
01 June 2005 |
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A team of scientists led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, has discovered an active underwater volcano near the Samoan Island chain. During a research cruise to study the Samoan hot spot, scientists uncovered a submarine volcano growing within the summit crater of another larger underwater volcano called Vailulu'u. Researchers exploring a unique biological community surrounding the site were amazed to find an 'Eel City' , a community of hundreds of slithering eels. |
27 May 2005 |
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New research links a particular magnetic structure on the Sun with the genesis of powerful solar storms that can buffet Earth's atmosphere. The research may enable scientists to create more accurate computer models of the solar storms, known as coronal mass ejections, and could eventually point the way to forecasting the storms days before they occur. |
26 May 2005 |
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Two research teams working independently in Tanzania have discovered a monkey that had eluded scientists despite decades of research in the region. The 'highland mangabey' is the first monkey species to be described in Africa since 1984. The entire known range for the highland mangabey totals a mere 28 square miles (73 square kilometers). Due to the combined threats of logging, charcoal-making, poaching and excessive removal of forest resources, this rare animal is at great risk of extinction, and the researchers estimate only a few hundred of the monkeys remain. |
19 May 2005 |
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Researchers at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. have produced 10-carat, half-inch thick single-crystal diamonds at rapid growth rates (100 micrometers per hour) using a chemical vapor deposition process. The size is approximately five times that of commercially available diamonds produced by the standard high-pressure/high-temperature method and other CVD techniques. |
16 May 2005 |
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Complex cells, from single-celled fungi to those in humans, are equipped with a sophisticated transportation infrastructure. Motor proteins haul molecular cargo to and from different locations inside cells by traveling along a network of protein fibers called microtubules. Enzymes inside cells frequently add or remove different molecules from the surfaces of microtubules. And although scientists have known of such modifications for many years, figuring out what these molecular tags do and how they are formed has been difficult, until now. |
13 May 2005 |
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Using some of the same manufacturing techniques that produce microchips, researchers have created a porous-silicon diode that may lead to improved betavoltaics. Such devices convert low levels of radiation into electricity and can have useful lives spanning several decades. While producing as little as one-thousandth of the power of conventional chemical batteries, the new 'BetaBattery' concept is more efficient and potentially less expensive than similar designs and should be easier to manufacture. If the new diode proves successful when incorporated into a finished battery, it could help power such hard-to-service, long-life systems as structural sensors on bridges, climate monitoring equipment and satellites. |
10 May 2005 |
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Sea squirts around the world are breathing a sigh of relief, as they no longer run the risk of being harvested for their natural disease-fighting substances. Scientists recently discovered that the bacterium Prochloron didemnii, which lives symbiotically inside the sea squirt, actually produces the desired patellamides, compounds that may one day be used in cancer treatment. |
09 May 2005 |
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Using a newly developed thermometer made of zircon, researchers have found evidence that environmental conditions on early Earth, within 200 million years of the solar system's formation, were characterized by liquid-water oceans and continental crust similar to those of the present day. |
05 May 2005 |
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As the ever-increasing power of computer chips brings us closer and closer to the limits of silicon technology, many researchers are betting that the future will belong to 'spintronics': a nanoscale technology in which information is carried not by the electron's charge, as it is in conventional microchips, but by the electron's intrinsic spin. If a reliable way can be found to control and manipulate the spins, these researchers argue, spintronic devices could offer higher data processing speeds, lower electric consumption, and many other advantages over conventional chips, including, perhaps, the ability to carry out radically new quantum computations. |
04 May 2005 |
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Kids have always had a fascination with the other-worldly images produced by a scanning electron microscope: ants sitting on microchip picnic tables, salt crystals in gritty detail, the scales of a butterfly wing. Now, a team of researchers and educators has created a CD-ROM and Web-based software to generate some of the capabilities, and teaching potential, of an SEM using personal computers in a classroom. 'Our goal is to develop next-generation virtual laboratory technology to provide educators access to advanced analytical instruments rarely found in a high school, or even a college,' says Gary Casuccio of the RJ Lee Group, principal investigator on the iSEM Project. 'The iSEM represents our first step in this direction.' |
02 May 2005 |
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The deep, cobalt-blue waters of Lake Tahoe can mean different things to different people. For residents and tourists of the popular resort destination in the western United States, the lake's waters are a primary component of the area's serenity and beauty. For scientists, the lake's depth and rich color are an impediment to studying several important geological characteristics beneath the lake's basin. |
27 April 2005 |
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For decades, scientists have been studying how external information gets transmitted from outside of cells to the control centers inside them that trigger particular responses. But cell signaling networks are so complex that mapping them has been a slow, arduous process. |
21 April 2005 |
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A research team has discovered a new active 'thrust fault' at the base of the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal. The new fault likely accommodates some of the subterranean pressure caused by the continuing collision of the Indian subcontinent with Asia. The fault's discovery has led scientists to study how the speed of mountain-building in the Himalayas may be related to the counter-forces of erosion. |
20 April 2005 |
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Researchers say a bizarre group of microbes found living inside rocks in an inhospitable geothermal environment at Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park could provide tantalizing new clues about ancient life on Earth and help steer the hunt for evidence of life on Mars. |
20 April 2005 |
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Accelerating environmental changes have presented humanity with significant scientific and engineering challenges, according to the new National Science Foundation report, Pathways to the Future: Complex Environmental Systems: Synthesis for Earth, Life and Society in the 21st Century. |
13 April 2005 |
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Scientists affiliated with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program and seeking the elusive 'Moho', the boundary, which geologists refer to as the Mohorovicic discontinuity, between Earth's brittle outer crust and its hotter, softer mantle, have created the third deepest hole ever drilled into the ocean bottom's crust. |
05 April 2005 |
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A diving trip always reveals amazing undersea creatures, but in 2000, while helping a film crew in the waters off an Indonesian island, a University of California, Berkeley, biologist did a double take when she saw an octopus walk by on two arms! Further exploration of tropical waters revealed that at least two octopus species can raise six of their arms and walk backward on the remaining two. |
24 March 2005 |
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In a new approach to assembling nanotechnology's atomic-scale machines, a team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has successfully crafted tiny bio-electronic circuits out of live bacteria. Among the potential applications is a new class of sensors that could rapidly detect dangerous biological agents such as anthrax. |
17 March 2005 |
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University of Connecticut Health Center scientist, Robert Reenan, has uncovered new rules of RNA recoding, a genetic editing method cells use to expand the number of proteins assembled from a single DNA code. According to his work, the shape a particular RNA adopts solely determines how editing enzymes modify the information molecule inside cells. The study may help explain the remarkable adaptability and evolution of animal nervous systems, including the human brain. |
16 March 2005 |
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Every time a cell divides, the tips of its chromosomes become shorter. That process is part of normal aging but is reversed in some groups of rapidly dividing cells by an enzyme known as telomerase. That ability also makes telomerase a key player in the spread of most cancers. |
14 March 2005 |
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The interlocked cells on the surface of a plant leaf form a pattern that looks like a finished jigsaw puzzle. But how the cells develop their wavy outlines has been a long-standing question for plant biologists. Now, in the March 11 issue of the journal Cell, scientists discover an important missing piece: the interplay of two opposing biochemical processes gives these cells their characteristic and essential shape. |
11 March 2005 |
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Seismologists have long relied on earthquakes or expensive tools like explosives to help create images of Earth's interior, but a new method created by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers will produce quicker, cheaper and clearer images. |
10 March 2005 |
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As the holidays approach and travelers hit the roads, traffic congestion becomes a hot topic around the country, even in places where rush hour is not very rushed at all. |
08 March 2005 |
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Using a 600-mile line of sensors stretching across the desert Southwest, researchers have generated the most-detailed, subsurface map yet of a geologic fissure beneath the Rio Grande that reaches to 400 miles beneath the planet's surface. The results help explain how tectonic forces have shaped the Rio Grande and its surrounding region over tens of millions of years, and provide scientists with clues as to how continental rifts evolve through time. |
01 March 2005 |
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UCLA scientists supported by the National Science Foundation have created a nanoscale mechanism to control the function of virtually any protein. These new 'spring-loaded' molecules will give deeper insight into proteins' molecular architecture, and could lead to a new generation of targeted, smart pharmaceuticals that are active only in cells where a certain gene is expressed. |
25 February 2005 |
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At a Feb. 17 media briefing during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, members of three independent research teams jointly unveiled a new breed of powered, energy efficient, two-legged robots with a surprisingly human gait. |
17 February 2005 |
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A consortium of researchers has reported that very young children's interactions with TV and computers are a mixed bag of opportunities and cautions, while teenagers' Internet use has changed so much that the myths of several years ago need to be debunked. |
11 February 2005 |
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Scientists are one step closer to understanding how plants synthesize the fibrous carbohydrates that make up their cell walls. Cell-wall polysaccharides, as they are known, constitute a major source of dietary fiber and have numerous commercial applications. Yet despite great interest and extensive efforts, scientists haven't identified many of the enzymes that link sugar molecules into these lengthy fibers, until now. Using a powerful method, researchers have characterized a family of these enzymes derived from rice and the mustard plant, Arabidopsis. |
11 February 2005 |
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The so-called Bt protein, produced by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, is toxic to insects and widely used as an alternative to chemical pesticides in organic farming and in other crops. Because the mechanism the toxin uses to enter insect cells is not fully understood, strategies to prevent insects from becoming resistant to it are difficult to develop. |
10 February 2005 |
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Using their novel bio-bar-code amplification technology, researchers analyzing fluid from around the brain and spinal cord have detected a protein linked in recent studies to Alzheimer's disease. |
31 January 2005 |
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Researchers are developing new technologies that may give robots the visual-sensing edge they need to monitor dimly lit airports, pilot vehicles in extreme weather and direct unmanned combat vehicles. |
12 January 2005 |
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Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a novel carbon-nanotube-based material that chokes vibration and may have applications for both large and small devices. |
12 January 2005 |
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Most days, MIT chemist Keith Nelson and his team do cutting-edge research with femtosecond laser pulses, flashes of light that last about a thousandth-of-a-trillionth (10-15) of a second, or roughly the amount of time it takes a light beam to cross from one circuit feature to the next in a conventional computer chip. |
23 December 2004 |
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Scientists from around the globe will present research results on more than 200 discoveries made possible through scientific ocean drilling at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco from December 13-17, 2004. These papers, which draw upon three generations of ocean drilling programs supported in part by the National Science Foundation, provide new knowledge related to topics ranging from paleoclimatology to ocean sciences to volcanology. |
13 December 2004 |
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Scientists have discovered evidence of microbial activity in a rock glacier high above tree line in the Rocky Mountains, a barren environment previously thought to be devoid of life. |
13 December 2004 |
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Nanotechnology researchers at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated a tiny, implantable detector that could one day allow diabetics to monitor their glucose levels continuously, without ever having to draw a blood sample. |
13 December 2004 |
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Philadelphia kindergarten teacher, Varnelle Moore, is teaching her youngest students to understand spatial experiences, story content and how to talk out ideas. Moore is able to do this because of her access to resources and hands-on support from the Math Forum at Drexel University, a partner of the Mathematical Association of America's Mathematical Sciences Digital Library. Part of the National Science Foundation's National Science Digital Library, the project makes it simple for Moore and other teachers to take full advantage of a new bridge between math, science and education. |
07 October 2004 |
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Early humans lived in northern China about 1.66 million years ago, according to research reported in the journal Nature this week. The finding suggests humans, characterized by their making and use of stone tools, inhabited upper Asia almost 340,000 years before previous estimates placed them there, surviving in a pretty hostile environment. |
29 September 2004 |
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A new upgrade for home theater enthusiasts provides as many as eight listeners with the same surround-sound experience. The new system is one of the first to apply 'fuzzy logic' to audio, assigning rules to sound wave data and providing a processor with instructions so that it can prioritize information. |
29 September 2004 |
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According to a new report, complex cells like those in the human body probably resulted from the fusion of genomes from an ancient bacterium and a simpler microbe, Archaea, best known for its ability to withstand extreme temperatures and hostile environments. The finding provides strong evidence that complex cells arose from combinations of simpler organisms in a symbiotic effort to survive. |
28 September 2004 |
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Scientists are a step closer to understanding the health benefits of drinking red wine. Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation and affiliated with the Salk Institute in San Diego, Calif., have succeeded in converting chalcone synthase, a biosynthetic protein enzyme found in all higher plants, into an efficient resveratrol synthase. |
17 September 2004 |
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It started with tennis balls. As a former collegiate tennis player, Daniela Rus habitually rolls two tennis balls around in her hand as she paces her office. As a robotics researcher at Dartmouth College, she wondered why the tennis balls shouldn't be able to roll themselves around. |
16 September 2004 |
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A team of researchers led by scientists from the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pa., has discovered that streamside (or riparian) forests play a critical, and previously unacknowledged, role in protecting the world's fresh water. |
13 September 2004 |
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Using integrated circuit fabrication techniques, a team of researchers from Yale University has bound a single photon to a superconducting device engineered to behave like a single atom, forming an artificial molecule. It's the first experimental result in a field Yale professors Robert Schoelkopf and Steven Girvin have dubbed Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics. |
08 September 2004 |
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The 4Pi-Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope is world's most advanced light-based microscope, capable of revealing the structure of genetic material within a cell in three dimensions. The first such instrument is now coming to the United States, thanks to a National Science Foundation grant to a Maine interdisciplinary biophysical research program. |
08 September 2004 |
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Using pulsed lasers, researchers have coaxed the metal nickel to self-assemble into arrays of nanodots, each spot a mere seven nanometers (seven billionths of a meter) across, one-tenth the diameter of nickel nanodots and on par with the world's smallest. |
31 August 2004 |
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Days when the air temperature dips below freezing will become increasingly less common across much of the world by the late 21st century, according to a modeling study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The reduction in days with freezes (frost days) is projected to be most dramatic across the western parts of North America and Europe. The study is the first to examine trends in frost days using a global climate model. |
25 August 2004 |
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Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, supported in part by the National Science Foundation, have created the first artificial analogs of nature's molecular 'pores, the tiny, hollow channels that perform a multitude of essential tasks in living cells. Writing in the August 12, 2004, issue of the journal Nature, Penn chemist Virgil Percec and his colleagues note that natural pores are used by the cell to transport certain molecules across the cell membrane, as well as to generate chemical energy, guide the shape of newly-made proteins, and even puncture holes in the cell walls of hostile bacteria. To create the new artificial pores, the authors add, they developed a series of small, protein-like molecules that assemble themselves into molecular channels spontaneously. Potential applications range from the extraction of fresh water from seawater, to an entirely new class of antibiotics. |
11 August 2004 |
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Researchers have coaxed RNA to self-assemble into 3-D arrays, a potential backbone for nanotech scaffolds. These RNA structures can form a wider variety of shapes than double-stranded DNA can and are easier to manipulate than many protein alternatives. Peixuan Guo of Purdue University and his colleagues report the findings in the August 11, 2004, issue of the journal Nano Letters. RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules are best known for implementing the genetic information encoded in deoxyribonucleic acid. However, instead of using the long molecular strings to carry information, the researchers have achieved new control over RNA and created novel arrays. |
11 August 2004 |
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The National Science Foundation will provide funding for the vehicle through a cooperative agreement with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. A 2004 National Research Council report, Future Needs of Deep Submergence Science, recommended construction of a new, more capable HOV as part of a suite of tools for ocean research, which includes remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles. The preliminary report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy also points to the importance of research and exploration of the deep seafloor, and to the excitement emanating from such missions to the depths of the ocean. |
06 August 2004 |
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After 40 years of scientific voyages, the research submersible Alvin will be replaced by a new, deeper-diving submersible, known as a human-occupied vehicle. Studies from Alvin have resulted in the discovery of new life forms, led to confirmation of the theory of plate tectonics, and stimulated and enthralled schoolchildren around the world with seafloor images and video. |
04 August 2004 |
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In the first study to directly measure when and how quickly rivers outside of growing mountain ranges cut through rock, geologists at the University of Vermont have determined that it was about 35,000 years ago that the Potomac and Susquehanna rivers, respectively, began carving out the Great Falls of the Potomac and Holtwood Gorge. Great Falls, located about 15 miles outside of Washington, D.C., hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year; Holtwood Gorge lies along the Susquehanna River, near Harrisburg, Penn. |
22 July 2004 |
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The new specimen was found by a field party from the U.S. Antarctic Search for Meteorites program on Dec. 15, 2003, on an icefield in the Miller Range of the Transantarctic Mountains, roughly 750 kilometers (466 miles) from the South Pole. This 715.2 gram (1.5 pound) black rock, officially designated MIL 03346, was one of 1358 meteorites collected by ANSMET during the 2003-2004 austral summer. |
20 July 2004 |
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Scientists from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York State have developed the first-ever map of water depth in Lake Vostok, which lies between 3,700 and 4,300 meters (more than 2 miles) below the continental Antarctic ice sheet. The new comprehensive measurements of the lake, roughly the size of North America's Lake Ontario, indicate it is divided into two distinct basins that may have different water chemistry and other characteristics. The findings have important implications for the diversity of microbial life in Lake Vostok and provide a strategy for how scientists study the lake's different ecosystems should international scientific consensus approve exploration of the pristine and ancient environment. |
07 July 2004 |
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By twisting fiber optic strands into helical shapes, researchers have created unique structures that can precisely filter, polarize or scatter light. Compatible with standard fiber optic lines, these hair-like structures may replace bulky components in sensors, gyroscopes and other devices. While researchers are still probing the unusual properties of the new fibers, tests show the strands impart a chiral, or 'handed,' character to light by polarizing photons according to certain physical properties. |
01 July 2004 |
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The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., is unveiling a powerful new version of a supercomputer-based system to model Earth's climate and to project global temperature rise in coming decades. Scientists will contribute results to the next assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international research body that advises policymakers on the likely impacts of climate change. The system, known as the Community Climate System Model, version 3, indicates in a preliminary finding that global temperatures may rise more than the previous version had projected if societies continue to emit large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. |
22 June 2004 |
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A new instrument developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., has captured landmark imagery of fast-evolving magnetic structures in the solar atmosphere. Steven Tomczyk of NCAR's High Altitude Observatory will present the images Monday, May 31, at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Denver, Colo. Animations from the coronal multichannel polarimeter, or COMP, reveal turbulent, high-velocity magnetic features spewing outward from the Sun's surface. The National Science Foundation, NCAR's primary sponsor, funded the instrument. |
31 May 2004 |
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A new report in the May 24 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences announces a mathematical model that will help researchers understand 'cell signaling' and learn how single atoms travel along the circuitous pathways in a cell. The model is a new approach to look at percolation, the flow of a liquid or small particle through a porous material. In the simulation, materials pass through fields of complex, three-dimensional shapes, a scenario that is closer to real-world environments than existing two-dimensional models and models incorporating simpler shapes. |
27 May 2004 |
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Chemists and biochemists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, supported in part by the National Science Foundation, have discovered a new chink in the armor of the bacterial family that causes diseases such as tuberculosis and leprosy. The researchers' findings, which are reported today in the online edition of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, could lead to the development of a new family of antibiotics to treat those afflictions, which claim up to 3 million lives around the world every year. This prospect is especially welcome given the rapid spread of tuberculosis strains that are resistant to existing drugs. |
09 May 2004 |
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Duke University engineers have demonstrated that enzymes can be used to create nanoscale patterns on a gold surface. Since many enzymes are already commercially available and well characterized, the potential for writing with enzyme 'ink' represents an important advance in nanomanufacturing. |
22 April 2004 |
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Derived in part from green tea, a new biodegradable machining compound for computer hard drive manufacturing is three to four times more effective than toxic counterparts. In an industry where more than 161 million hard drives leave assembly lines each year, the new compound could significantly improve manufacturing efficiency and minimize environmental risks. |
19 April 2004 |
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Researchers have developed a new plastic that conducts electricity, may be simpler to manufacture than industry counterparts and easily accommodates chemical attachments to create new materials. Developed by TDA Research in Wheat Ridge, Colo., Oligotron polymers are made of tiny bits of material that possess a conducting center and two, non-conducting end pieces. The end pieces allow the plastic bits to dissolve in solvents and accommodate specialized molecules. |
12 April 2004 |
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Humans are social creatures, but robots, for the most part, are not. To help emergency response personnel in the trenches, a team of researchers is writing the playbook to turn a group of robots into a single well-oiled machine. Led by Nikos Papanikolopoulos, researchers at the University of Minnesota, the University of Pennsylvania and Caltech are devising software that will allow small robots to coordinate their actions and carry out complex commands from a human operator. The work is supported by a $2.6 million Information Technology Research award from the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. |
12 April 2004 |
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How land-living animals evolved from fish has long been a scientific puzzle. A key missing piece has been knowledge of how the fins of fish transformed into the arms and legs of our ancestors. In this week's issue of the journal Science, paleontologists Neil Shubin and Michael Coates from the University of Chicago and Ted Daeschler from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, describe a remarkable fossil that bridges the gap between fish and amphibian and provides a glimpse of the structure and function changes from fin to limb. |
01 April 2004 |
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Researchers have crafted miniature cooling systems similar in concept to the silent fans now available to filter and circulate the air in homes, but the miniscule 'fans' are only microns (millionths of a meter) across. Using minute voltages, the devices generate ions that discharge to create small breezes, perfect for cooling cell phones, laptop computers, and the tiniest devices. |
31 March 2004 |
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Chuanbing Tang, a graduate student working with Professor Tomasz Kowalewski, will describe carbon-based structures created from polymer mixtures applied to a substrate. After the mixtures organize themselves into ordered films, the researchers crosslink the polymers to lock in the structure, and then carefully burn off selected material. Kowalewski's group, funded as part of an NSF Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team, believes this technique can be adapted to construct nanosensors, electron emitters for flat panel displays, and solar cells. |
28 March 2004 |
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The buildup of ice on airplanes in flight is a major winter hazard for small and commuter planes. But scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., are testing a new system this month that may pinpoint water droplets in clouds that cause icing, potentially enabling pilots to avoid dangerous areas. |
10 March 2004 |
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An international research team has identified a family of corals found only in the Atlantic Ocean, a first for such classifications in that ocean, in a study that could transform how corals are viewed and classified. The scientists, who will publish their results in the Feb. 26 issue of the journal Nature, say the findings are also important for future decisions about coral conservation and the preservation of threatened biodiversity regions. |
25 February 2004 |
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Producing a material that is harder than natural diamond has been a goal of materials science for decades. Now a group headed by scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, D.C., has produced gem-sized diamonds that are harder than any other crystals and at a rate up to 100 times faster than other methods used to date. The process opens up an entirely new way of producing diamond crystals for electronics, cutting tools and other industrial applications. |
25 February 2004 |
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Examining life extracted from toxic runoff at a northern California mine, researchers for the first time have reconstructed multiple individual genomes from a microbial community taken from an environmental sample rather than from a laboratory culture. |
01 February 2004 |
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Researchers have discovered a mineral gel created when rocks abrade each other under earthquake-like conditions. If present in faults during a quake, the gel may reduce friction to nearly zero in some situations, resulting in larger energy releases that could cause more damage. |
29 January 2004 |
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Researchers at the Pennsylvania State University are announcing the possible discovery of an entirely new phase of matter: an ultra-cold, 'supersolid' form of helium-4. |
14 January 2004 |
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Researchers have discovered that iron in seawater is the key binding agent in the super-strong glues of the common blue mussel, Mytilus edulis. This is the first time researchers have determined that a metal such as iron is critical to forming an amorphous, biological material. In addition to using the knowledge to develop safer alternatives for surgical and household glues, the researchers are looking at how to combat the glue to prevent damage to shipping vessels and the accidental transport of invasive species, such as the zebra mussel that has ravaged the midwestern United States. |
12 January 2004 |
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Studies on common baker's yeast have led to the discovery of what may be a long-sought mechanism in the life cycle of retroviruses, including the human immunodeficiency virus. Knowing the details of this step in the infection process could help pinpoint targets for new classes of drugs to fight HIV. |
08 January 2004 |
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'The universe is always more complicated than our cosmological theories would have it,' says Nigel Sharp, program officer for extra-galactic astronomy and cosmology at the National Science Foundation. Witness a collection of new and recently announced discoveries that, taken together, suggest a considerably more active and fast-moving epoch of galaxy formation in the early universe than prevailing theories had called for. |
08 January 2004 |
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Science and technology on the scale of a nanometer, one billionth of a meter, is revolutionary. Nanotechnology refers to the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules, making it possible to build machines on the scale of human cells or create materials and structures from the bottom up with novel properties. Nanotechnology could change the way almost everything is designed and made, from automobile tires to vaccines to objects not yet imagined. |
01 April 2003 |
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