News From the Field - Archive

More NSF research news--links to what institutions, organizations and others are reporting about NSF-supported research and education.

2006

		December 27, 2006 New Research Could Lead to "Invisible" Electronics Researchers have demonstrated that, by combining organic and inorganic materials, they have produced transparent, high-performance transistors that can be assembled inexpensively on both glass and plastics. The results of this breakthrough bring futuristic high-quality displays such as a car windshield that displays a map to your destination, military goggles with targets and instructions displayed right before a soldier's eyes, or a billboard that doubles as a window, closer to reality. Full story Source: Northwestern University

		December 26, 2006 NSF Grant Bolsters Earth System Science Education NSF has awarded $3 million to support earth system science education. Full story Source: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

		December 22, 2006 Global Strategy for Investigating Earth's Geodynamics Emerges from International Meeting Earth scientists representing 51 countries have forged a global strategy for advancing understanding of the movements of continents. Full story Source: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program

		December 22, 2006 The Heartbeat of the Oligocene Climate System Earth's orbital variations had a prolonged influence on climate in the distant past. Full story Source: Joint Oceanographic Institutions

		December 22, 2006 New "Chemical Factory" Will Help Scientists Understand Red Wine's Beneficial Effects Laboratory animals may soon be able to produce beneficial compound found in red wine. Full story Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

		December 22, 2006 Squirrels Winning at Outwitting Trees' Survival Strategy Squirrels are winning over trees in the game of evolutionary biology. Full story Source: Michigan State University

		December 19, 2006 Genetic Analysis of Marine Animal Sheds Light on Spread of Disease A new study traces the spread of disease through the accidental introduction of invasive snails containing parasitic worms. Full story Source: University of California, Santa Barbara

		December 11, 2006 Stanford Researchers Predict a New State of Matter in Semiconductors Physicists have now theorized a new state of matter that may pave the way for electronic devices that dissipate less energy and generate less heat. The researchers proposed the existence of the so-called "quantum spin Hall state," which has extraordinary properties. Full story Source: Stanford University

		December 11, 2006 Research Shows Asian Americans Less Likely to Seek Social Support During times of stress, Asian Americans are far less likely than other people to seek emotional support, advice or help from their social networks. Full story Source: University of California, Santa Barbara

		December 11, 2006 Researchers Discover Brain Areas Associated with the Recognition of Gender, Ethnicity and the Identity of Faces Researchers have found evidence of neurons in an area of the brain not previously thought to be associated with face processing. Full story Source: University of Southern California

		December 7, 2006 Immigrants of a Feather Don’t Necessarily Flock Together The traditional idea that immigrants cluster together in neighborhoods with their countrymen after coming to the United States and move away after achieving economic success is far from universal. New research indicates that who immigrants marry or partner with has a strong influence on where they live. Full story Source: University of Washington

		December 5, 2006 Consumers Neutral on Risks, Benefits of Nano The largest and most comprehensive survey of public perceptions of nanotechnology products finds that U.S. consumers are willing to use specific nano-containing products -- even if there are health and safety risks -- when the potential benefits are high. Full story Source: Rice University

		December 4, 2006 Vanishing Beetle Horns Have Surprise Function Biologists have discovered the function of a beetle's horns. Full story Source: Indiana University

		December 1, 2006 Negative Vibes From Space Astronomers have discovered the first negatively charged molecule in space, identifying it from radio signals that were a mystery until now. While about 130 neutral and 14 positively charged molecules are known to exist in interstellar space, this is the first negative molecule, or anion, to be found. Full story Source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

		December 1, 2006 Seagrass Ecosystems at a 'Global Crisis' An international team of scientists is calling for a targeted global conservation effort to preserve seagrasses and their ecological services for the world's coastal ecosystems, according to an article published in the December issue of Bioscience. Full story Source: U. of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

		November 24, 2006 Plants Give New Meaning to Phrase "Older than Dirt" Carbon from the first plants to regrow after the last Ice Age has been accumulating for 11,000 years in the forests of British Columbia, Canada. Full story Source: University of Washington

		November 24, 2006 Serengeti Patrols Cut Poaching of Buffalo, Elephants, Rhinos A technique used to estimate fish abundance has been applied to studying enforcement patrols in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Full story Source: University of Washington

		November 23, 2006 Shift from Simple to Complex Marine Systems Occurred 250 Million Years Ago The mass extinction of 250 million years ago fundamentally changed the basic ecology of the world's oceans. Full story Source: Field Museum of Chicago

		November 23, 2006 Seismologists Measure Heat Flow In Earth's Mantle For the first time, scientists have measured heat transfer within our planet's mantle. Full story Source: University of Califonia, Santa Cruz

		November 21, 2006 Proteins Anchor Memories in Our Brains A new study shows that memories are held in our brains by certain "anchor" proteins. Full story Source: University of Utah

		November 20, 2006 Dragonfly's Metabolic Disease Provides Clues about Human Obesity Dragonflies suffer the same metabolic disorders that have led to an epidemic of obesity and type-2 diabetes in humans. Full story Source: Penn State

		November 17, 2006 Geologists Find New Origins of Appalachian Mountains Geologists have developed a new theory to explain how and when the Appalachian Mountain range was created. Their research redraws the map of the planet from 420 million years ago. Full story Source: Ohio University

		November 16, 2006 $3.2 Million Grant Will Fund Polar Expedition To Siberian Lake, Led by UMass Amherst Scientist Scientists will look for clues to past climate in a remote Siberian lake. Full story Source: University of Massachusetts at Amherst

		November 16, 2006 Pressured by Predators, Lizards Evolve Faster Lizard evolution is a work-in-progress hastened by predators. Full story Source: Harvard University

		November 16, 2006 Brain, Behavior May Have Changed as Social Insect Colonies Evolved A new study suggests that brain and behavior relationships may have changed in a profound way as larger, more complex insect societies evolved from smaller, simpler ones. Full story Source: University of Washington

		November 15, 2006 Princeton Physicists Test the Physics of Star Formation in the Laboratory Currently, scientists do not understand the required conditions and the accretion, or matter collection process, involved in star and planet formation. New research suggests that it is virtually impossible for one suggested mechanism, hydrodynamic turbulence, to generate effective accretion to form stars and planets. Full story Source: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

		November 15, 2006 Observations of Double Asteroid Stress Arecibo Radar's Vital Role in Identifying Threats in Earth's Vicinity Researchers using the Arecibo Observatory's powerful radar have made the most detailed observations ever of a binary near-Earth asteroid (NEA) -- two clusters of rubble circling each other -- offering new clues about how such systems formed, the properties they share and the dynamics of their motion. Full story Source: Cornell University

		November 14, 2006 Sticky Proteins Provide New Insight Into Drug Action How certain drugs work depends on proteins. Full story Source: Medical College of Georgia

		November 12, 2006 Scientists Capture Nanoscale Images with Short, Intense x-ray Laser Scientists for the first time have validated the idea of using extremely short and intense x-ray pulses to capture images of objects such as proteins before the X-rays destroy the sample. Full story Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

		November 10, 2006 Proteins Glue Semiconductor Nanowires Together New implantable biomedical devices that can act as artificial nerve cells, control severe pain, or allow otherwise paralyzed muscles to be moved, might one day be possible thanks to developments in materials science. Full story Source: University of Michigan/nanotechweb.org

		November 9, 2006 Varied Diet of Early African Hominid Casts Doubt on Extinction Theory Direct ancestors of modern humans had a far more diverse diet than once believed, clouding the notion that they were driven to extinction by their picky eating habits as the African continent dried. Full story Source: University of Colorado at Boulder

		November 9, 2006 Scientists Find New Way to Search for Origin of Life Mineral surfaces may have played a critical role in activiting molecules essential to life. Full story Source: Carnegie Institution of Washington

		November 6, 2006 Himalayan Mega-Earthquakes Occur Every Thousand or So Years Geologists have found that Himalayan mega-earthquakes occur every 1,000 or so years. Full story Source: University of Colorado at Boulder

		November 6, 2006 New Techniques Pave Way for Carbon Nanotubes in Electronic Devices Many of the vaunted applications of carbon nanotubes require the ability to attach these super-tiny cylinders to electrically conductive surfaces, but to date, researchers have only been successful in creating high-resistance interfaces between nanotubes and substrates. Now a team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute reports two new techniques, each following a different approach, for placing carbon nanotube patterns on metal surfaces of just about any shape and size. Full story Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

		November 6, 2006 Scientists Crack Rhino Horn Riddle Researchers have explained how the rhinoceros develops its horn. Full story Source: Ohio University

		November 3, 2006 University of Pennsylvania Researcher Shows that DNA Gets Kinky Easily at the Nanoscale Scientists have answered a long-standing molecular stumper regarding DNA: How can parts of such a rigid molecule bend and coil without requiring large amounts of force? According to a team of researchers from the United States and the Netherlands, led by a physicist from the University of Pennsylvania, DNA is much more flexible than previously believed when examined over extremely small lengths. Full story Source: University of Pennsylvania

		November 2, 2006 Pulsating Gels Could Power Tiny Robots When certain gels are put into a solution, they will not only expand, but also repeatedly contract again. Researchers have now formulated the first general model to study large-scale shape changes in such responsive gels. Full story Source: University of Pittsburgh

		November 2, 2006 VLA Discovers Giant Rings Around Galaxy Cluster Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope have discovered giant, ring-like structures around a cluster of galaxies. The discovery provides tantalizing new information about how such galaxy clusters are assembled, about magnetic fields in the vast spaces between galaxy clusters, and possibly about the origin of cosmic rays. Full story Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

		November 2, 2006 Ocean Creatures Linked to Cloud Cover Increases Plant plankton in the oceans may influence cloud formation in the atmosphere. Full story Source: Georgia Tech

		November 2, 2006 Researchers Teach Computers How to Name Images by 'Thinking' Penn State researchers have "taught" computers how to interpret images using vocabulary of up to 330 English words, so that a computer can describe a photograph of two polo players, for instance, as "sport," "people," "horse" or "polo." Full story Source: Penn State

		October 30, 2006 Biologists Study Plant and Animal Response to Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion Biologists study plants and animals near Chernobyl nuclear explosion. Full story Source: Texas Tech University

		October 30, 2006 Researchers Discover Evolutionary Oddity in Flamingoes Researchers have discovered an anatomical oddity that helps flamingoes eat. Full story Source: Ohio University

		October 27, 2006 NCSA Visualizations Featured in Upcoming NOVA Special High-resolution scientific visualizations created at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) will artfully illustrate the latest black hole research in the PBS NOVA special "Monster of the Milky Way," which debuts Oct. 31. Full story Source: National Center for Supercomputing Applications

		October 25, 2006 Hive Mentality: Buzz Over Bee Genetics Evolution may have taught old genes new tricks in the development of social behavior in honeybees. Full story Source: Arizona State University

		October 25, 2006 Biodiversity Controls Ecological 'Services,' Report Scientists in Comprehensive Analysis Preservation of biodiversity -- both the number and type of species -- is needed to maintain ecological balance. Full story Source: University of California, Santa Barbara

		October 24, 2006 Ultraviolet Light Reveals Secrets of Nanoscale Electronic Materials An international team of scientists has used a novel technique to measure, for the first time, the precise conditions at which certain ultrathin materials spontaneously become electrically polarized. Full story Source: Penn State

		October 24, 2006 Weight Gain of U.S. Drivers Has Increased Nation's Fuel Consumption As American waistlines have expanded since 1960, so has their consumption of gasoline, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University say. Full story Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University

		October 24, 2006 New Hands-On Science Demos Teach Young Students How Volcanoes 'Blow Their Tops,' Spew Lava A popular volcano demonstration in grade school science class rivets students' attention as it spews bubbly liquid over a tabletop, but it comes up short in explaining all the ways that volcanoes form and evolve. Full story Source: Rutgers State University

		October 23, 2006 Tiny 'Housekeeper' Crabs Help Prevent Coral Death in South Pacific Tiny crabs that live in South Pacific coral help prevent the coral from dying by providing regular cleaning "services" that may be critical. Full story Source: University of California, Santa Barbara

		October 20, 2006 Two Miles Underground, Bacteria Thrive Bacteria are thriving two miles underground in a South African gold mine, researchers have found. Full story Source: Princeton University

		October 19, 2006 Mars May Be Cozy Place for Hardy Microbes A class of especially hardy microbes that live in some of the harshest Earthly environments could flourish on cold Mars and other chilly planets, according to a research team of astronomers and microbiologists. Full story Source: Space Telescope Science Institute

		October 19, 2006 Expect a Warmer, Wetter World this Century The world will face an increased risk of heat waves and other weather extremes in the decades ahead. Full story Source: National Center for Atmospheric Research

		October 18, 2006 "Embryo Project" Studies Social Impacts on Science Scientists are taking a look at how society, culture and technology have affected the course of science. Full story Source: Arizona State University

		October 18, 2006 EERI Seeks to Identify Lessons from the Kona, Hawaii, Earthquake The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), an Oakland-based professional association dedicated to reducing earthquake risk, is carrying out a field reconnaissance investigation to gather preliminary lessons from Sunday’s M 6.7 earthquake offshore of the island of Hawaii. Full story Source: Earthquake Engineering Research Institute

		October 16, 2006 Cosmic Bubble Image Wins NRAO Contest A striking image of an enormous bubble blown into the dusty gas disk of our own Milky Way galaxy has won first place in the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's second annual Radio Astronomy Image Contest. Full story Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

		October 12, 2006 How Can we Make Nanoscale Capacitors Even Smaller? Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have discovered what limits our ability to reduce the size of capacitors, often the largest components in integrated circuits, down to the nanoscale. Full story Source: University of California, Santa Barbara

		October 12, 2006 Antique Whale Oil Provides Insights into Origin of Preindustrial Chemicals One of the last remaining New England whaling ships has provided unexpected insights into the origin of halogenated organic compounds. Full story Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

		October 12, 2006 Rapid Growth of Huge Northern Bog Complex May Have Helped Kick-Start Past Global Warming Methane gas released by peat bogs in the northern-most third of the globe probably helped fuel the last major round of global warming between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago. Full story Source: University of California, Los Angeles

		October 12, 2006 Possible Evidence of Cell Division, Differentiation Found in Oldest Known Embryo Fossils A group of 15 scientists from five countries has discovered evidence of cell differentiation in fossil embryos that are more than 550 million years old. Full story Source: Virginia Tech

		October 10, 2006 Paleontologists Overturn Claim that "Cannibal" Dinosaurs Ate Their Own Kind Paleontologists have overturned a 1950s claim that a dinosaur ate juveniles of its own kind. Full story Source: American Museum of Natural History

		October 10, 2006 Prototype Fiber Optic Seismometer Modern seismometers throughout the world rely on electronic displacement transducers to sense motions whenever the earth's surface moves. New advances in optical fiber technology are providing an alternative to this type of modern observatory grade seismometer. Full story Source: High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network

		October 9, 2006 New Optical Fiber Infrasound Sensor Deployment at Camp Elliot Optical fiber infrasound sensors (OFIS) are long, compliant tubes wrapped with two optical fibers that interferometrically measure atmospheric pressure along the length of the tube. The University of California, San Diego OFIS team is building a multi-arm OFIS array at the Camp Elliot field station. Full story Source: High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network

		October 5, 2006 Fossils Pinpoint Tropics as Earth's Most Fruitful Biodiversity Spawning Ground Scientists have completed a study that explains why the tropics are so much richer in biodiversity than high latitudes. Full story Source: University of Chicago

		October 5, 2006 Tabletop Experiment Yields Bubbly Surprise: Physicists Study Equations Governing Texture of Everyday Life University of Chicago physicists have discovered a new class of behavior in air bubbles rising from an underwater nozzle. In this surprising behavior, the bubbles tear apart in sharp jerks instead of pinching off. Full story Source: University of Chicago

		October 5, 2006 Alaska Study Offers Strategies to Mitigate Climate Warming Using Interior Alaska's boreal forests as a case study, a team of scientists led by University of Alaska-Fairbanks ecologist F. Stuart (Terry) Chapin III, recently offered four policy strategies for sustaining people and the environment as both face a dramatically warming climate. Full story Source: University of Alaska-Fairbanks

		October 4, 2006 UD Scientists Use Carbon Nanotubes to Detect Defects in Composites Two University of Delaware researchers have discovered a means to detect and identify damage within advanced composite materials by using a network of tiny carbon nanotubes, which act in much the same manner as human nerves. Full story Source: University of Delaware

		October 4, 2006 NSF Awards Harvard Forest $4.9 Million to Study Landscape Change NSF has awarded Harvard Forest a grant to study landscape change in New England. Full story Source: Harvard University

		October 4, 2006 Supernova Radioisoptopes Show Sun was Born in Star Cluster, Scientists Say The death of a massive, nearby star billions of years ago offers evidence the sun was born in a star cluster, say astronomers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rather than being an only child, the sun could have hundreds or thousands of celestial siblings, now dispersed across the heavens. Full story Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

		October 3, 2006 New Window of Universe Opens at Griffith; Unprecedented Image from Palomar Caltech scientists have produced the largest astronomical image ever in order to inspire the public with the wonders of space exploration. The image has been reproduced as a giant mural in the new exhibit hall of the landmark Griffith Observatory, which will reopen November 3, after several years of renovation. Full story Source: California Institute of Technology

		October 3, 2006 Largest 3D Map of Galaxies A team of American, Australian and British astronomers has released maps from the largest full-sky, three-dimensional survey of galaxies ever conducted. Full story Source: Royal Astronomical Society

		October 3, 2006 OSU Leading Major Research Effort to Track Carbon, Identify Dead Zone Processes Oceanographers conduct research on dead zone off Oregon. Full story Source: Oregon State University

		October 3, 2006 Unique Gene Regulation Gives Chilly Bugs Survival Advantage at Bottom of the World The larvae of Antarctic midges never stop producing special proteins that minimize environmental stress, allowing them to withstand a range of intense environmental conditions in one of the world’s harshest environments. Full story Source: Ohio State University

		September 29, 2006 Manganese Keeps Toxic Hydrogen Sulfide Zones in Check Manganese is important in waterways, where it can keep toxic hydrogen sulfide in check. Full story Source: University of Delaware

		September 27, 2006 What, Spend Your Summer Vacation Doing Physics at CHESS? Sixteen college students had very non-traditional summer vacations, opting to fill the halls of Cornell's Newman and Wilson laboratories with their smiling faces and ten weeks of intense physics. Full story Source: Cornell University

		September 27, 2006 With Record Resolution and Sensitivity, Tool Images How the Chemistry of Life Organizes in a Cell Membrane What's the difference between a lifeless sack of chemicals and a living cell? It's all in the way they're organized, according to Stanford biophysical chemist Steven Boxer. He and colleagues have developed a way to image cell membranes with unprecedented resolution. Full story Source: Stanford University

		September 26, 2006 Michigan State University Open Source Project Fuels Bottom-up Teaching Innovation The LearningOnline Network with Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach, or LON-CAPA, is an innovative Michigan State University Web-based service allowing educators to easily create and share course material across a range of subjects. Full story Source: Michigan State University

		September 25, 2006 Dinosaurs' Climate Shifted Earlier Than Thought Ancient rocks from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean suggest dramatic climate change during the dinosaur-dominated Mesozoic Era, a time once thought to be monotonously hot and humid.. Full story Source: Indiana University

		September 25, 2006 Using Synthetic DNA, Cornell Researchers Fashion Low-cost, Biodegradable Hydrogels for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering Using synthetic DNA formed into crosses, Y's and T's, Cornell researchers have created biocompatible, biodegradable, inexpensive hydrogels that can be easily formed into any desired shape for biomedical applications. Full story Source: Cornell University

		September 25, 2006 Cornell Launches $3.3 Million NSF Program to Build 'Critical Mass' of Women Faculty in Engineering and Sciences To increase the number of women faculty in engineering and the sciences, Cornell will use a $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to work on recruiting, retaining and promoting more women in leadership positions. The grant also will create a new center called ACCEL (Advancing Cornell's Commitment to Excellence and Leadership). Full story Source: Cornell University

		September 20, 2006 New Instruments Connect Mount St.Helens to National Monitoring Network A network of 17 new instruments will be installed at Mount St. Helens to monitor ongoing activity at the volcano. Full story Source: Gifford Pinchot National Forest

		September 20, 2006 Knotty Problem Puzzles Protein Researchers A team at MIT has discovered the most complicated knot ever seen in a protein, and they believe it may be linked to the protein's function as a rescue agent for proteins marked for destruction. Full story Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

		September 19, 2006 MIT Bioengineer Wins MacArthur 'Genius' Award Professor Linda Griffith, a noted biotechnologist, has won a 2006 MacArthur Fellowship, more commonly known as a "genius" grant. Griffith was honored for "shaping the frontiers of tissue engineering and synthetic regenerative technologies," according to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Full story Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

		September 19, 2006 Climate Secrets – Past, Present and Future Revealed with New Tool At the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, a new high-tech tool will find answers to historic climate changes from earth and marine sediment core samples. Full story Source: University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

		September 18, 2006 'Out of the Blue,' A MacArthur Award for Aeronautics Scholar Claire Tomlin Claire Tomlin, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and, by courtesy, of electrical engineering, studies control theory and practice. A phone call on Sept. 12 told her she'd won a MacArthur Fellowship, a "no strings attached" award of $500,000 that supports people, not projects. Full story Source: Stanford University

		September 18, 2006 Jupiter-Sized Transiting Planet Found by Astronomers Using Novel Telescope Network An international team of astronomers has detected a planet slightly larger than Jupiter that orbits a star 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. The humble telescopes used in the discovery consist of mostly amateur-astronomy components and off-the-shelf 4-inch camera lenses. Full story Source: High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network

		September 18, 2006 MIT Tames Tricky Carbon Nanotubes Based on a new theory, MIT scientists may be able to manipulate carbon nanotubes -- one of the strongest known materials and one of the trickiest to work with -- without destroying their extraordinary electrical properties. Full story Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

		September 18, 2006 Evolutionary Software to be Released Free of Charge New software developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, allows scientists to more effectively analyze and compare both sequence and structure data from a growing library of proteins and nucleic acids. Full story Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

		September 18, 2006 Bird Moms Manipulate Birth Order to Protect Sons Protecting her kids is the job of every good mother, even house finches. Full story Source: University of Arizona

September 14, 2006 Stratospheric Injections Could Help Cool Earth Stabilizing climate with cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as well as injections of climate-cooling sulfates could prove more effective than either approach used separately. Full story Source: National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospher