New Planet Discovered Around Nearby Star

Astronomers funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced their discovery of a fifth planet around the nearby star 55 Cancri, making it the only star aside from the sun known to have five planets.The research results have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Lead author Debra Fischer, assistant professor of astronomy at San Francisco State University, said the fifth planet is within the star's habitable zone, in which wa More ...

Risking Wildfire

Why do people live in places like southern California where homes intermingle with wooded areas and the risk of wildfire is so great? Leading social scientists have a surprising answer: because the emotional benefits interfere with their ability to assess the risks.Recent fire activity in the state of California supports this unusual theory offered by researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). According to the U.S. Forest Service, October wildfires destroyed 2,000 hom More ...

Beginning Scientists Receive Presidential Awards

Twenty young scientists from among those taking part in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) have received an additional distinction as winners of Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for the 2006 competition.The PECASE program recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers who, early in their careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge. This Presidential More ...

Wildfire Drives Carbon Levels in Northern Forests

Far removed from streams of gas-thirsty cars and pollution-belching factories lies another key player in global climate change. Circling the northern hemisphere, the conifer-dominated boreal forests--one of the largest ecosystems on earth--act as a vast natural regulator of atmospheric carbon levels.Forest ecologists are studying how environmental factors such as forest fires and climate influence carbon levels in this forest system. Their most recent fi More ...

Paleontologists Discover Ancient Jurassic Mammal with New Type of Teeth

A team of Chinese and American scientists has discovered a new mammal from the 165 million-year-old lakebeds of the Jurassic Period in Northern China.The find is reported in the November 1st issue of the journal Nature. It sheds light on the earliest mammalian evolution, especially the convergent evolution of teeth among early mammals, and leads scientists to think that mammals were far more diverse in the age of dinosaurs than previously thought."T More ...

World's Smallest Radio Fits in the Palm of the Hand . . . of an Ant

Harnessing the electrical and mechanical properties of the carbon nanotube, a team of researchers has crafted a working radio from a single fiber of that material.Fixed between two electrodes, the vibrating tube successfully performed the four critical roles of a radio--antenna, tunable filter, amplifier and demodulator--to tune in a radio signal generated in the room and play it back through an attached speaker. Functional across a bandwidth widely used for commercial radio, th More ...

U.S. Fires Release Enormous Amounts of Carbon Dioxide

Large-scale fires in western and southeastern states can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a few weeks as the states' entire motor vehicle traffic in a year, according to newly published research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.Their paper, "Estimates of CO2 from fires in the United States: implications for carbon management," is being published online today in the journal Carb More ...

Digital Eyes in the Sky Play Key Role in Battling Flames in Southern California

Video and still images captured in real time have informed fire crews and local residents in the San Diego area about the location and severity of threats to life and property since fires broke out earlier this month. Accident investigators from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) have requested these images that were captured by the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN).P More ...

Fossil Record Reveals Jellyfish More than 500 Million Years Old

Scientists have described the oldest definitive jellyfish ever found, using recently discovered "fossil snapshots" found in rocks more than 500 million years old.The jellyfish are unique because they push the known occurrence of jellyfish back from 300 million to 505 million years.The research will be published on October 31 in the journal PLoS ONE."This study clearly shows what paleontologists have long suspected--that jellyfish have a his More ...

New Type of Retinol Cell Discovered in Primates

Scientists are one step closer to understanding how the retinas of humans and primates turn incoming light into coded messages communicated to the brain. A team of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently reported their discovery of a type of cell in the output (ganglion cell) layer of the retina that likely plays a key role in transforming visual images, received by the rods and cones, into coded messages headed to the brain. Ultimately, their research could help More ...

NSF, NIH Award Ecology of Infectious Diseases Grants

Over the last several decades, environmental changes have coincided with the emergence and re-emergence of numerous infectious diseases around the world.To address this problem, the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Directorates for Biological Sciences and Geosciences and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s Fogarty International Center (FIC) and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have announced funding for eight projects under the Ecology of Infectious Diseases More ...

Researchers View Swimming Tactics of Tiny Aquatic Predators

By applying state-of-the-art holographic microscopy to a major marine biology challenge, researchers have identified the swimming and attack patterns of two tiny but deadly microbes linked to fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways.The study, published in the October 22-26 online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focused on the aquatic hunting tactics of two single-celled creatures known as dinoflagellates. Scientists are con More ...

William T. Golden: Appreciation

Although he never worked as a scientist and didn't receive his master's degree in biology until age 70, William T. Golden, who died Oct. 7, 2007, a few weeks short of his 98th birthday, was one of the most influential figures in post-World War II American science. As a government advisor, trustee for museums and scientific organizations, and philanthropist, he helped shape the infrastructure for American science during the second half of the 20th Century. Best kn More ...

Seismologists See Earth's Dynamic Interior as Interplay of Temperature, Pressure, Chemistry

Seismologists have recast their understanding of the inner workings of Earth from a relatively homogeneous environment to one that is highly dynamic and chemically diverse.The research, conducted by scientists Nicholas Schmerr and Edward Garnero of Arizona State University in Tempe, is published in the October 26 issue of the journal Science.This view of Earth's inner workings depicts the inner planet as a living organism where events that happen deep within can More ...

Newly Created Forms of Magnesium and Aluminum

How many neutrons can an atomic nucleus hold? Possibly a lot more than current scientific models predict. That's the conclusion a team of physicists--funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)--reached after creating three ultra-heavy isotopes of magnesium and aluminum. The research results appear in the Oct. 25 journal of Nature. Lead author Thomas Baumann and his colleagues created the isotopes at Michigan State University's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory More ...

Solar Telescope Reaches 120,000 Feet on Jumbo Jet-Sized Balloon

In a landmark test flight, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., and a team of research partners this month successfully launched a solar telescope to an altitude of 120,000 feet, borne by a balloon larger than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.The test clears the way for long-duration polar balloon flights beginning in 2009 that will capture unprecedented details of the Sun's surface."This unique research project will enable us to view feature More ...

Study of Lions and Wildebeest Finds Being Social Stabilizes Ecosystems

Breaking with 80 years of ecological theory, scientists at the University of Minnesota and the Universities of Guelph and British Columbia have found that the best way to spot a sustainable relationship between social predators and prey is to count not the animals, but the groups they form.The study may help explain the rise of humans -- the most social predator -- and suggests the need to curb activities that break up animals' social structure. The work appears in the October 25 issu More ...

Photonic Gel Films Hold Promise

By alternating layers of two different polymers - one rigid and glassy, the other soft and easily swollen with liquid or vapor - researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) report they've created photonic gel crystals that can be tuned to reflect light of many different colors across the visible and near-infrared spectrum.The research results, reported in the Oct. 21 online issue of Nature Materials by Principal Investigator Edwin Thomas and his colleag More ...

Cultivating Math and Science Teachers for High-need School Districts

Like doctors in training, future math and science teachers in New York University's (NYU) Teaching and Learning Residency program get real-life exposure to the demands of their profession while learning their craft from a team of experts. Recruited from among undergraduate science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors, the prospective teachers are placed in exemplary New York City math and science classrooms in high-needs secondary schools and also attend weekly seminars des More ...

California Wolf Center Takes Wolves Into Classrooms During National Awareness Week

To celebrate National Wolf Awareness Week, the California Wolf Center, located in rural San Diego County, approximately four miles from Julian, is bringing its wolves to classrooms throughout the world. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds HPWREN, an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional University of California, San Diego, research and education program in order to assess the feasibility of wireless data networking technologies. Its connectivity is now used for a varie More ...