NSF News From the Field

Shape Perception in Brain Develops by Itself

African nomads and Westerners show the same ability to discriminate between shapes, a new study in Psychological Science reports. Authors suggest that the brain's shape perception develops without deliberate training.

Full story at http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/brain_has_innate_sense_of_geometry.html

Source
University of Southern California

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

UT's Kraken Named World's Third Fastest Computer, ORNL's Jaguar is No. 1

East Tennessee is now home to two of the world's three fastest computers, according to new rankings released today. The Top 500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers places the University of Tennessee's supercomputer Kraken in third place, where it also holds the title of world's fastest academic supercomputer, while Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jaguar computer took first place overall.

Full story at http://www.tennessee.edu/media/releases/111609_top500.html

Source
University of Tennessee at Knoxville

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

Warmer Means Windier on World's Biggest Lake

Rising water temperatures are kicking up more powerful winds on Lake Superior, with consequences for currents, biological cycles, pollution and more on the world's largest lake and its smaller brethren.

Full story at http://www.news.wisc.edu/17364

Source
University of Wisconsin-Madison

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

MIT Scientists Pinpoint Origin of Dissolved Arsenic in Bangladesh Drinking Water

Researchers at MIT's department of civil and environmental engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists, world health agencies and the Bangladeshi government for nearly 30 years.

Full story at http://web.mit.edu/press/2009/arsenic-groundwater.html

Source
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

One Small Step for Women, One Giant Leap for Polar Science

The moon landing. Woodstock. These weren't the only landmark events of 1969. On Nov. 12, 1969, a group of female scientists and a journalist became the first women to set foot at the South Pole. These first pioneers heralded a new era of polar research as women continue to contribute to the scientific work taking place at the bottom of the world.

Full story at http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contenthandler.cfm?id=1946

Source
U.S. Antarctic Program

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

UT Southwestern Receives $42 Million in Recovery Act Stimulus Funding

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has been awarded more than $42 million to date for basic and patient-oriented research from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the $787 billion stimulus package President Barack Obama signed into law in February.

Full story at http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/cda/dept353744/files/562418.html

Source
UT Southwestern Medical Center

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

Record-high Temperatures Far Outpace Record Lows Across U.S.

Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb.

Full story at http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2009/maxmin.jsp

Source
National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

New Brain Findings on Dyslexic Children

The vast majority of school-aged children can focus on the voice of a teacher amid the cacophony of the typical classroom thanks to a brain that automatically focuses on relevant, predictable and repeating auditory information, according to new research from Northwestern University. But for children with developmental dyslexia, the teacher's voice may get lost in the background noise of banging lockers, whispering children, playground screams and scraping chairs, researchers say.

Full story at http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2009/10/dyslexia.html

Source
Northwestern University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

Partnership with Chemists in Ireland, Italy Yields New Discovery

Researchers recently made a discovery about the non-uniform chemical compositions of ionic liquids that could lead to greater understanding and manipulation of these multi-purpose, designer solvents. Originally invented to replace volatile and toxic solvents such as benzene, ionic liquids are now used in high-efficiency solar cells, as cheaper, more environmentally friendly rocket fuel additives, and to more effectively dissolve plant materials into biofuels.

Full story at http://today.ttu.edu/2009/11/researchers-make-ionic-liquid-discovery/

Source
Texas Tech University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

Understanding Mechanical Properties of Silicon Nanowires Paves Way for Nanodevices

Silicon nanowires are attracting attention from the electronics industry due to the drive for smaller devices, from cell phones to computers. The operation of these devices, and an array of additional applications, will depend on the mechanical properties of these nanowires. Research from North Carolina State University shows that silicon nanowires are far more resilient than their larger counterparts.

Full story at http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wmszhunanowires/

Source
North Carolina State University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

Study Shows Brief Training in Meditation May Help Manage Pain

An experimental study examining the perception of pain and the effects of various mental training techniques has found that a relatively short and simple meditation method can have a significantly positive effect on pain management.

Full story at http://www.publicrelations.uncc.edu/default.asp?id=15&objId=602

Source
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

New 'FinFETS' Promising for Smaller Transistors, More Powerful Chips

Purdue University researchers are making progress in developing a new type of transistor that uses a fin-like structure instead of the conventional flat design, possibly enabling engineers to create faster and more compact circuits and computer chips.

Full story at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009b/091110YeFinfets.doc.html

Source
Purdue University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

Iowa State University Researcher Discovers Key to Vital DNA, Protein Interaction

Adam Bogdanove, associate professor in plant pathology, was researching the molecular basis of bacterial diseases of rice when he discovered how a group of proteins from plant pathogenic bacteria interact with DNA in the plant cell, opening up the possibility for what he calls a "cascade of advances."

Full story at http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2009/nov/bogdanove

Source
Iowa State University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

Hundreds of Genes Distinguish Patients Likely to Survive Advanced Melanoma

Some patients can live for years with melanoma that has spread beyond the skin to other organs. Now it may be possible to identify which patients are more likely to survive by analyzing the activity of hundreds of genes involved in the immune response and gene proliferation, according New York University Langone Medical Center scientists.

Full story at http://communications.med.nyu.edu/news/2009/hundreds-genes-distinguish-patients-likely-survive-advanced-melanoma

Source
NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine

This is an NSF News From the Field item.

Iowa State Scientist Develops Lab Machine to Study Glacial Sliding Related to Rising Sea Levels

Neal Iverson has created a glacier in a freezer that could help scientists understand how glaciers slide across their beds. That could help researchers predict how climate change accelerates glacier sliding and contributes to rising sea levels.

Full story at http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2009/nov/glacier

Source
Iowa State University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.