National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities Award New Grants to Document Endangered Languages

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced the award of 18 institutional grants and nine fellowships in their Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) partnership. A workshop on language recording techniques also will be supported. This is the third round of their multiyear campaign to preserve records of languages threatened with extinction. Experts estimate that more than half of the approximately 7,000 currently used human langua More ...

New Technique Reveals Subtle Force-induced Changes in Biomolecule's Conformation

Scientists studying biological systems at the molecular level now have a new hybrid technique to probe the dynamics of the Holliday junction. The Holliday junction is a four-stranded DNA structure that forms during a process known as homologous recombination, which occurs when damaged DNA is repaired. Understanding how DNA repairs itself is an essential step in ultimately developing therapies for genetic disorders.The hybrid technique is described by principal investigator Taekjip Ha a More ...

Technology to the RESCUE

A well-planned and coordinated response to disasters and emergencies can minimize injuries and prevent the loss of life. Responding to these disasters in a timely and effective manner is crucial, but in order to successfully respond to a crisis, first responders and local government officials need to process a flood of information and communications so they can make sound decisions quickly.The Responding to Crises and Unexpected Events (RESCUE) project is working to transform h More ...

Scientists Sequence Genome of Soil-Dwelling Green Alga

More than 100 scientists have reported an analysis of the genome of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in the October 12 issue of the journal Science.From a plethora of data on this one-celled soil-dweller, the researchers have found clues to the evolution of plants and animals, especially to the evolution of photosynthesis and of flagella, slender projections from a cell that propel it. More ...

NSF Awards 26 New Grants to Seed Plant Systems Biology

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made 26 new awards totaling $85.8 million during the tenth year of its Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP). These awards--which cover two to five years and range from $400,000 to $7.9 million--support research and tool development to further knowledge of genome structure and function. They will also increase understanding of gene function and interactions between genomes and the environment in economically vital crop plants such as co More ...

Explorers Club to Honor NSF-Funded Researchers and Glaciologist for Climate-Science Breakthroughs

Two National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded scientists, a U.S. Antarctic Program glaciologist and a recipient of the national Medal of Science, will receive the Lowell Thomas Award from the New York-based Explorers Club on Oct. 18 in recognition of their work at the frontiers of climate research.The awards are presented by the president of the Explorers Club to groups of outstanding explorers who have distinguished themselves in a particular field. Five of thi More ...

Genetically Engineered Corn May Harm Stream Ecosystems

A new study indicates that a popular type of genetically engineered corn--called Bt corn--may damage the ecology of streams draining Bt corn fields in ways that have not been previously considered by regulators. The study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, appears in the Oct. 8 edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This study provides the first evidence that toxins from Bt corn may travel long distances in streams and may harm strea More ...

Scientists to Sick Plants: Take Two Doses of an Aspirin-Like Hormone and Call Me in the Morning

Scientists have finally identified a key component in the disease-fighting process in plants that activates plant-wide defenses after a pathogen attack. It has long been known that plants often develop a state of heightened resistance, called systemic acquired resistance, following pathogen infection; this phenomenon requires the movement of a signal from the infected leaf to uninfected parts of the plant. Until now, however, no one knew wha More ...

Opening New Possibilities for Deaf Students in Computer Science

This summer a group of college-age students traveled to Seattle to work on projects such as creating complex computer animations and other high-tech challenges. These activities may sound like many computer science summer programs that take place at elite engineering schools and universities, but this program was truly unique--all of the students were deaf or hard of hearing.The first annual Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing, created by the Univ More ...

National Science Foundation and ResearchChannel Form Programming Partnership

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today it will partner with ResearchChannel to develop programs with science themes for national and international distribution via cable television, the Internet and other media. "The partnership provides an ideal mechanism for NSF to inform the public about the countless scientific research efforts and discoveries NSF supports," said Jeff Nesbit, director of NSF's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs. "ResearchChannel More ...

NSF Provides Funding to Transform Computing Education

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has completed awarding grants for its CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH) program, an initiative that aims to transform undergraduate computing education on a national scale. More than 25 institutions across the county received grants totaling $6 million.The awards come at time when the computing field in the United States is at a cr More ...

Geologists Recover Rocks from San Andreas Fault

For the first time, geologists have extracted intact rock samples from two miles beneath the surface of the San Andreas Fault, the infamous rupture that runs 800 miles along the length of California.Never before have so-called "cores" from deep inside an actively moving tectonic boundary been available to study. Now, scientists hope to answer long-standing questions about the fault's composition and properties.Altogether, the geologists retrieved 135 feet of 4- More ...

Research and Development Bolsters U.S. Economic Growth

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be nearly 3 percent higher each year between 1959 and 2004--$284 billion higher in 2004 alone--if research and development (R&D) spending was treated as investment in the U.S. national income and product accounts, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on Friday. BEA and NSF partnered to produce these estimates as part of an ongoing activity to illustrate how spending on R&D affects U.S. GDP. More ...

Oxygen on Earth: 50 to 100 Million Years Earlier Than Scientists Thought

Scientists have found that traces of oxygen appeared in Earth's atmosphere 50 to 100 million years earlier than previously thought--before what geologists call the "Great Oxidation Event."This event happened between 2.3 and 2.4 billion years ago, when most geoscientists think atmospheric oxygen rose sharply from very low levels. The amount of oxygen before that time has been uncertain.Analyzing layers of sedimentary rock in a kilometer-long core sample from the More ...

2007 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners Announced

The National Science Foundation (NSF) along with the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), today announced the winners of their fifth annual International Science and Technology Visualization Challenge. Illustrators, photographers, computer programmers, and graphics specialists from around the world were invited to submit visualizations that would intri More ...

Program Provides Blueprint for Recruiting Minorities to Science and Engineering

The Model Institutions for Excellence Program (MIE) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a body of work over the past 11 years demonstrating successful strategies for recruiting underrepresented minority students to science and engineering fields and supporting their successful completion of science degrees.Five minority-serving institutions--Bowie State University in Maryland, Spelman College More ...

NSF and Department of Homeland Security Partner to Drive Frontier Research in Nuclear Detection

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Engineering and the Department of Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office announced they are awarding 25 grants to support fundamental research in nuclear science and engineering, studies that will help strengthen nuclear detection efforts well into the future.The awards, funded through the Academic Research Initiative (ARI) program, will bolster radiological and nuclear detection studies at 23 un More ...

Nutrient Pollution Drives Frog Deformities by Ramping Up Infections

High levels of nutrients used in farming and ranching activities fuel parasite infections that have caused highly publicized frog deformities in ponds and lakes across North America, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.The study showed increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus cause sharp hikes in the abundance and reproduction of a snail species that hosts microscopic parasites known as trematodes, said Pieter Johnson of the University of Co More ...

"Earth & Sky" Launches Spanish-language Radio Series

While Hispanic-Americans make up a large and growing percentage of the U.S. population, they fall behind other minorities in choosing science as a career. To attract more Hispanics to the sciences, the producers of one of the longest-running science radio shows, "Earth & Sky," is launching a Spanish-language version on September 24. A major grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) is making it possible to produce 600 one-minute science radio spots in Spanish over More ...

There Goes the Neighborhood: Interbreeding Between Invasive and Native Salamander Species Creating Hardy Hybrids Likely to Replace Parental Populations

Interbreeding between the California Tiger Salamander--which is a native, endangered species--and the invasive Barred Tiger Salamander has produced a swarm of hybrid salamanders that is more likely to survive than either parent species, according to a new study.Found in Salinas, California, the swarm of hybridized salamanders may comprise the first population of sustainable hybrids created by an interbreeding involving an endangered species, and is among the first known sustainable pop More ...