NSF News

3-D Laser Map Shows Earthquake Zone Before and After

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:34:00 EST

Geologists have a new tool to study how earthquakes change the landscape--down to a few inches. It's giving scientists insights into how earthquake faults behave.

In this week's issue of the journal Science, a team of scientists from the United States, Mexico and China reports the most comprehensive before-and-after picture yet of an earthquake zone, using data from the magnitude 7.2 event that struck near Mexicali, Mexico, in April 2010.

"We can learn so much about ...

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National Science Foundation Presents FY 2013 Budget Request

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:19:00 EST

National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Subra Suresh will present the president's fiscal year 2013 NSF budget request to Congress at 3:30 p.m. EST on February 13 at NSF's headquarters at 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Va.

The presentation will consist of a briefing that provides details about the funding request and the Administration's initiatives. For the first time, NSF will webcast the briefing. Immediately following the presentation, Suresh will be available for media interviews ...

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NSF Provides Additional $5.9 Million to Support Five New BREAD Program Projects

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:52:00 EST

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded five grants in the second year of the Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) program.

Established in 2010, the five-year BREAD program is jointly funded with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through the partnership between the Gates Foundation and the BREAD program, NSF supports international research projects at the proof-of-concept stage, with funding provided to both U.S. institutions and their ...

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NSF Forum: The Challenge of a Sustainable Future: Long-Term Ecological Research Offers New Answers

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:08:00 EST

From Canada to Chile, from Kazakhstan to Kansas, we are witnessing a fast-changing planet. What will it look like in the years, decades and centuries to come?

How far, and in what ways, can Earth's systems be stressed before they undergo transitions to new states--with unforeseen consequences?

For most of its history, Earth experienced vast alterations in response to natural, planetary variations, says Saran Twombly, program director for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) ...

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Live Chat About the Science of Love on February 9

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:21:00 EST

Do you want to understand what makes "good chemistry" in relationships--literally? If so, on February 9 at 3 p.m. EST, please participate in a live, online chat about the huge influence of certain attachment-promoting brain hormones on:

Relationships between people--including relationships between romantic partners, between parents and their children and even between people and their pets.
The different bonding/pairing styles of various wildlife ...

More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123109&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

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Why Bad Immunity Genes Survive

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:39:00 EST

Biologists have found new evidence of why mice, people and other vertebrate animals carry thousands of varieties of genes to make immune-system proteins named MHCs--even though some of those genes make vertebrate animals susceptible to infections and to autoimmune diseases.

"Major histocompatibility complex" (MHC) proteins are found on the surfaces of most cells in vertebrate animals. They distinguish proteins like themselves from foreign proteins, and trigger an immune ...

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Engineering Safer Drinking Water in Africa

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Community outreach helps technology solve water problems in Africa

Full story at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/africandrinkingwater.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

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Global Extinction: Gradual Doom as Bad as Abrupt

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:02:00 EST

The deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth's marine life--and it killed in stages--according to a newly published report.

It shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events.

Thomas Algeo, a geologist at the University of Cincinnati, and 13 colleagues have produced a high-resolution look at the geology of a Permian-Triassic boundary section on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic.

Their analysis, published today in the ...

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Domestic Cats, and Wild Bobcats and Pumas, Living in Same Area Have Same Diseases

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:35:00 EST

Domestic cats, wild bobcats and pumas that live in the same area share the same diseases.

And domestic cats may bring them into human homes, according to results of a study of what happens when big and small cats cross paths.

Initial results of the multi-year study are published today in the scientific journal PLoS One by a group of 14 authors.

The joint National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ecology and Evolution of ...

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Castaway Lizards Offer New Look at Evolutionary Processes

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:35:00 EST

Biologists who released lizards on tiny uninhabited islands in the Bahamas have uncovered a seldom-observed interaction between evolutionary processes.

Jason Kolbe, a biologist at the University of Rhode Island (URI)--along with colleagues at Duke University, Harvard University and the University of California, Davis--found that the lizards' genetic and morphological (form and structural) traits were determined by both natural selection and a phenomenon called the founder ...

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2011 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners Announced

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:25:00 EST

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 the ninth annual International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

Illustrators, photographers, computer programmers and designers from around the world submitted visualizations to a once-a-year challenge designed to celebrate and encourage the visual communication of science for ...

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A Spider Web's Strength Lies in More Than its Silk

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:47:00 EST

While researchers have long known of the incredible strength of spider silk, the robust nature of the tiny filaments cannot alone explain how webs survive multiple tears and winds that exceed hurricane strength.

Now, a study that combines experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations shows that web durability depends not only on silk strength, but on how the overall web design compensates for damage and the response of individual strands to continuously ...

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National Science Board to Meet February 2-3 at NSF Headquarters

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST

The National Science Board (NSB) will meet on February 2 and 3, 2012, to address science and engineering, as well as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education issues of interest to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The meeting will be webcast as well.

Members of the media and the public are invited to open portions of the meeting. Please go to the NSB website for the webcast link and full agenda.

Some of the ...

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Electronic Tattoo Monitors Brain, Heart and Muscles

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Elastic electronics offer less invasive, more convenient medical treatment

Full story at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/skinmountedelectronics.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

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Researchers Show How New Viruses Evolve, and in Some Cases, Become Deadly

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:29:00 EST

Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have demonstrated how a new virus evolves, shedding light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Science.

The scientists showed for the first time how the virus called "Lambda" evolved to find a new way to attack host cells, an innovation that took four mutations to accomplish. This virus infects bacteria, in particular the common E. ...

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