NSF Announces $26 Million Solicitation for Projects That Advance Innovative Computational Thinking

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a solicitation for projects to advance innovative computational thinking, the newest multidisciplinary, multiyear initiative called Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI). CDI research outcomes are expected to produce paradigm shifts in our understanding of a wide range of science and engineering phenomena and socio-technical innovations that create new wealth and enhance the national quality of life. Funding for this first p More ...

Species Have Come and Gone at Different Rates than Previously Believed

Diversity among the ancestors of such marine creatures as clams, sand dollars and lobsters showed only a modest rise beginning 144 million years ago with no clear trend afterwards, according to an international team of researchers. This contradicts previous work showing dramatic increases beginning 248 million years ago and may shed light on future diversity."Some of the time periods in the past are analogies for what is happening today from global warming," says Jocelyn ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111785&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

In Unique Stellar Laboratory, Einstein's Theory Passes Strict, New Test

Taking advantage of a unique cosmic configuration, astronomers have measured an effect predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity in the extremely strong gravity of a pair of superdense neutron stars. Essentially, the famed physicist's 93-year-old theory passed yet another test.Scientists at McGill University used the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to do a four-year study of a double-star system unlike any other known in the ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111831&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Radicals Shake Up Molecules in a Tug o' War

Until now, it was commonly thought that colliding molecules get the shakes as the result of energy transfer solely from the smashing of the molecules, but some new research adds a second means by which colliding molecules become vibrationally excited--it is being called the "Tug o' War Mechanism."The new experiment, transforming the textbook story, was performed in the lab of Richard Zare, chair of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. This work on energy ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111861&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

NSF Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Department of Defense for National Security Research

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Defense (DoD) that would allow researchers to apply for grants to study subjects that may be of interest to U.S. national security.Officials anticipate the MOU will fund work leading to new knowledge about topics such as religious fundamentalism, terrorism and cultural change. The results may have uses for U.S. armed forces and other DoD agencies."To secure the ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111829&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Crossed (Evolutionary) Signals?

What do humans and single-celled choanoflagellates have in common? More than you'd think. New research into the choanoflagellate genome shows these ancient organisms have similar levels of proteins that cells in more complex organisms, including humans, use to communicate with each other.According to a paper published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, these findings help confirm choanoflagellates' role as an evolutionary link between ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111825&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

The Day the World Changed

"The NSFNET Backbone has reached a state where we would like to more officially let operational traffic on."Twenty years ago, a network engineer named Hans-Werner Braun started an e-mail message to the users of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) fledgling NSFNET project with that sentence to announce that the network's main lines, or backbone, had been upgraded. Although they received little notice at the time, those simple words announced the birth of the modern ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111824&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Despite Frustrations, Americans Are Pretty Darned Happy

We're number 16 ... in world happiness. Feel the joy.The United States ranks ahead of more than 80 countries, but below 15 others in happiness levels, according to new World Values Survey data released in the July issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.The World Values Survey (WVS) is the work of a global network of social scientists who perform periodic surveys addressing a number of issues. The latest surveys, taken in the United States and in ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111725&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Lasers, Software and the Devil's Slide

Running for more than 1,000 kilometers along picturesque coastline, California's Highway 1 is easy prey for many of the natural hazards plaguing the region, including landslides.The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is currently building a kilometer-long tunnel to bypass one of the most landslide-prone stretches of the highway, the Devil's Slide, to help ensure drivers' safe passage.Using a new software package developed by researchers at Virginia Tech in ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111776&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Metals Shape Up with a Little Help from Friends

For 5,000 years the only way to shape metal has been by the "heat and beat" technique. Even with modern nanotechnology, metalworking involves carving metals with electron beams or etching them with acid.Now Cornell researchers have developed a method to self-assemble metals into complex configurations with structural details about 100 times smaller than a bacterial cell by guiding metal particles into the desired form using soft polymers."I think this is ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111787&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

July 15 Deadline to Apply for High-Performance Computational Time on Teragrid

Scientists, engineers and other U.S. researchers may apply by July 15 (12:00 midnight local times) for allocations of high-performance computer time, storage and systems resources available through the TeraGrid, a partnership of 11 nationwide sites, sponsored by the Office of Cyberinfrastructure of the National Science Foundation (NSF).For this allocation period, Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009, researchers may request medium allocations, or large allocations greater than 500,000 ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111767&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

What It's Like to Be a Bat

Not many people think about what it's like to be a bat, but for those who do, it's enlightening and potentially groundbreaking for understanding aspects of the human brain and nervous system.Cynthia Moss, a member of the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science program at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., is one of few researchers who spend time trying to get into the heads of bats.Her new research suggests there is more to studying bats than figuring out how they ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111763&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Where Are You Now, My Love?

Having a good nose is essential to a Japanese beetle's survival. The beetle's sense of smell helps it avoid enemies and zero in on a mate. Meanwhile, the potential mate is programmed to release sex pheromones in exactly the right proportions. Like cheap perfume, there is such a thing as too much: Excessive pheromones can get the attention of a passing fly, leading her to the beetle. The fly can then lay her eggs on the beetle's back, setting up emerging fly larvae for their first meal (fresh ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111760&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Microscopic "Clutch" Puts Flagellum in Neutral

It has been long been known that bacteria swim by rotating their tail-like structure called the flagellum. (See the swimming bacteria in the figure.) The rotating motion of the flagellum is powered by a molecular engine located at the base of the flagellum. Just as engaging the clutch of a car connects its gear to its engine and delivers power to its wheels, engaging the molecular clutch of a bacterium connects its gear to its engine and delivers power to its flagellum. Now, a paper ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111737&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Newly Born Twin Stars Are Far From Identical

Two stars, each with the same mass and in orbit around each other, are twins that one would expect to be identical. So astronomers were surprised when they discovered that twin stars in the Orion Nebula, a well-known stellar nursery 1,500 light years away, were not identical at all. In fact, these stars exhibited significant differences in brightness, surface temperature and possibly even size.The study, which is published in the June 19 issue of the journal Nature, suggests ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111724&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

The Mystery of Mass Extinctions Is No Longer Murky

If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits.But a new study, published June 15, 2008, in the journal Nature, suggests that it is the ocean, and in particular the epic ebbs and flows of sea level and sediment over the course of geologic time, that is the primary cause of the world's periodic mass extinctions ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111722&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest, and No One Is Around to Hear It, Does Climate Change?

There are roughly 42 million square kilometers of forest on Earth, a swath that covers almost a third of the land surface, and those wooded environments play a key role in both mitigating and enhancing global warming.In a review paper appearing in this week's Forest Ecology special issue of Science, atmospheric scientist Gordon Bonan of the Natinoal Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111694&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Field Project Seeks Clues to Climate Change in Remote Atmospheric Region

Scientists are deploying an advanced research aircraft to study a region of the atmosphere that influences climate change by affecting the amount of solar heat that reaches Earth's surface.Findings from the project, based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., will be used by researchers worldwide to improve computer models of global climate in preparation for the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The project, ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111633&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Diamonds Are Forever Revealing New Insights into Earth's Development

Diamonds will take center stage this month in countless wedding ceremonies and other celebrations. In addition to their usual role as symbols of enduring love and fidelity, diamonds are now also helping geologists unravel clues about how the earth's precious metal mineralization was formed and why diamonds and some of these metals are found in only a few places around the world.In a research paper published in this week's journal Nature, researchers from the Carnegie ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111695&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

LSU Center for Computation & Technology Director To Head National Science Foundation's Office of Cyberinfrastructure

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected astrophysicist Edward Seidel as its director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure. This office awards competitive, merit-based grants to researchers who demonstrate cutting-edge information technology that can lead to breakthroughs in science, engineering and other academic disciplines.Seidel, who is Floating Point Systems Professor in the Louisiana State University (LSU) Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Computer Science and ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111689&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.