Science Matters

1. Sea otters keep remaining California kelp forests alive Sea otters: they're among the public's favorite ocean creatures.

Climate change problem solvers: startups with solutions Startups funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation are creating technologies intended to reduce the impact of climate change.

By Geri Richmond, National Science Board member This past winter, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a story made the rounds on social media: A science professor was forced to stop in the middle…

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The beginning It took seven years to construct the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, designed to search for nearly massless subatomic particles called neutrinos. However, planning began much earlier.

Though other pandemics have affected the U.S. over the past 100 years, COVID-19 has been compared most often to the 1918 influenza pandemic in terms of its impact.

The Broader Impacts statement is a critical component of any research proposal submitted to NSF. Broader impacts strengthen the relationship between the science community and society.

Antarctica’s massive Thwaites Glacier is melting because of climate change, and a collapse of the glacier could raise sea levels significantly around the world.

1. Climate change forcing a rethinking of conservation biology planning Creating and managing protected areas is key for biodiversity conservation.

1970s and 1980s NSF began funding research on the development of gravitational wave detectors in the late 1970s, using a technique called interferometry.