New Scientist Tip Sheet for 11-19-97
New ScientistNew Scientist Tip Sheet for 11-19-97
New Scientist Tip Sheet for 11-19-97
The picture of life on the streets for children in the late 20th century drawn from a University of Washington psychologist is a horrifying one. Violence in ;the form of physical and sexual abuse are rampant, as are suicide attempts, mental and emotional disorders, and drug and alcohol abuse. But those conditions may be an improvement over those found at home.
WASHINGTON -- The chemical analysis of a 9000-foot core taken from the Greenland ice sheet has now uncovered unequivocal evidence of large-scale atmospheric lead pollution in the Northern Hemisphere dating to 300 A.D. And the source has been traced to ancient Carthaginian and Roman mines in Spain, according to Dr. Kevin J. Rosman of the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. Rosman's group, along with colleagues from the Domaine Universitaire in France, report their results in the December issue of Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
A University of Delaware researcher has joined forces with a Lincoln University colleague to win a major U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant that ultimately may help improve the accuracy of global warming predictions.
From science fairs to spelling bees, children's efforts are often propelled by the desire to win against others. A new study suggests that a child's level of masculinity is central to determining his or her response to competition.
Primate researcher Jane Goodall will speak to the nation's first college Roots and Shoots environmental summit to be held at Texas Christian University Nov. 21-23. The summit, organized by students at TCU, will bring 50 delegates from colleges and universities around the nation to learn more about environmental issues and how to start Roots and Shoots chapters on their own campuses.
With twin goals of furthering her research in mathematics and pushing out the frontiers of education for inner-city children, Katherine Okikiolu of the University of California, San Diego, has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
The following research articles will appear in the December issue of Environmental Science & Technology, a monthly peer-reviewed journal published by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society: 1. Sunflowers Filter Uranium, Clean Up Contaminated Ground Water, 2. Mother Nature's Outdoor Air Cleaner Proves a Health Problem For Indoor Offices, 3. Mexican Auto Emissions Improve, but Problems Still Exist, 4. Exposure to PCBs In Residential Indoor Air near a Superfund Site
A coating that detects Sarin, nuclear weapons scientists design an artifical foot, and a detector that makes evidence blink is all part of research at Sandia Natonal Laboroyaries.
A Michigan State University scientist has shown that corn isn't just a food that sits on the sob waiting to be salted. Kris Berglund has discovered a way to turn corn into a salt substitute that lacks both sodium or the bitter taste that plagues other salt substitutes.
The study of immunology, traditionally left to immunologists and biologists, is becoming a significant part of research in the University of New Mexico Computer Science Department.
Men may have more dependent personalities than women have. So says Robert F. Bornstein, professor of psychology at Gettysburg College, PA. He has completed two studies on that topic: Dependent Personality Disorders in the DSM-IV and Beyond, which appers in the Summer 1997 issue of Clinical Psychology and Practice; and Sex Differences in Objective and Projective Dependency Tests: A Meta-Analytic Review, which appeared in the Winter 1995 issue of Assessment.
NASA sounding rockets carrying research payloads, including an experiment from Cornell to study the dynamics and composition of the ionosphere, will blast off next winter from Puerto Rico in a scientific campaign known as Coqui II.
Los Alamos is leading an effort to build unique imagers that will provide 3-D stereoscopic movies of Earth's magnetosphere when they are launched into orbit early next century.
Food Chemistry Tip Sheet (from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry): Health Benefits of Sugar Found in Garlic Include Lower Cholesterol and Reduced Tooth Decay & Using Chemistry to Make Cultivated Shrimp Taste Wild
A joint NASA and Japanese space mission studying tropical rainfall and "El Nino" weather patterns scheduled for launch on Tuesday, Nov. 18 will contain a micro-chip designed by the University of New Mexico Microelectronics Research Center.
A combination of natural wanderlust and bad public image has caused African wild dogs to plummet to just 3,000 individuals -- making them as endangered as black rhinos, according to an IUCN report.
The Administration has stated that it supports the continued privatization and commercialization of the Internet and is committed to completing the transition to private sector governance. The National Science Board (NSB) agrees, and has issued a resolution that the NSF should no longer be involved in domain name registration.
The missing link in the chain of molecules that tells cells to die has been found, which may enable scientists to create more effective drugs for cancer, Parkinson's disease and stroke. The discovery by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas is reported in the Nov. 14 issue of Cell.
Using compelling visuals, Goldin will lead the audience on a journey into the future. Focusing on the steps NASA is taking to revolutionize engineering, Goldin will discuss his vision for the future.
WHO: 125 Dallas middle school students, 10 teachers and engineers WHAT: Devote a day to hands-on learning experience, including egg drop contest WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 20, 10:00 a.m. to 1:50 p.m. WHERE: Wyndam Anatole Hotel, 2201 Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, Khmer Pavilion WHY: Photo opportunity/interview opportunity/background information
NC State News Tips: A roundup of NC State University research and outreach activities. For use by the media as briefs or as background for stories.
Holidays can be a torturous time for those trying to maintain a healthy weight. However, the next few weeks do not have to be torture, if you plan ahead, says a Purdue University nutrition expert.
New information gathered last summer shows that diseases on Florida's coral reefs have dramatically increased with potential long-term consequences for the coral reef ecosystem.
A team of Harvard Medical School researchers has isolated a gene, Crx, that appears to play a key regulatory role in photoreceptor development. The findings, which could someday help prevent blindness in people with retinal disease, were made in mouse and rat tissue. The study is published in the November 14 Cell.
A book by a North Carolina State University political science professor could become required reading for international policy makers who are serious about protecting the air we breathe. Dr. Marvin Soroos' timely book, The Endangered Atmosphere: Preserving Global Commons
The Chicago area's largest university, the university of Illinois at Chicago, has created a department of bioengineering, giving significant new emphasis to the burgeoning field and combining UIC's strengths in engineering and medicine. The new department head says bioengineering is not just biotechnology.
The proposition that the Earth's little understood inner core is a frozen yet white hot globe of curiously laid out iron crystals, spinning independently of the rest of the planet, is confirmed by University of Washington geophysicist Kenneth Creager in tomorrow's Science.
New Scientist Tip Sheet for 11-12-97
The days of senior citizens simply adding up their pensions, grabbing their gold watches and flocking to Florida are over. A Michigan State University study shows that during retirement seniors tend to be found where friends abound.
After testing emissions from buses and heavy-duty vehicles in 32 cities researchers at WVU have found that alternative fuels have a strong potential to reduce particulate matter and other pollutants in urban areas. Results of the study were recently published in Environmental Science and Technology, the journal of the American Chemical Society.
Science and math learning are in the forefront of the agendas of President Clinton, Congress and concerned parents and teachers, as well as American business representatives.
Electrical engineers at the University of Missouri-Rolla -- working with private computer companies -- are creating a software program to keep electromagnetic glitches out of the printed circuit boards used in computers, automotive parts and other electronic products.
Texas Christian University's engineering researchers are tiny thinkers. Edward S. Kolesar, professor of engineering, and his research assistants are making microscopic machines. Microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, are tiny gadgets too small to see with the naked eye. But if Kolesar is right, MEMS someday will be a vital part of almost everything. The researchers are developing projects now for Lockheed Martin and for possible use in prosthetic lenses for the human eye.
An international team of astronomers led by Steve Howell of the University of Wyoming is reporting the discovery of a new type of star.
University of Michigan geochemists have made the most accurate estimate yet of the age of our moon and discovered that it formed later in the development of the solar system than many scientists believed---almost certainly as the result of a collision between Earth and another planet at least as large as Mars.
Scientists at the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new class of large, organic molecules which could one day be used for focusing and converting sunlight into electricity. They're called dendrimer supermolecules and can harvest and convert sunlight with great efficiency.
Evidence is mounting that the sun's magnetic field looks more like a wild cyclone than a tidy lawn sprinkler---the image scientists had accepted for almost 40 years. The cyclone-like shape comes from a mathematical model first proposed last year by University of Michigan space scientist Len Fisk.
A late-model lander and rover, equipped with a Cornell University scientific instrument package called Athena, will roam and study a large corridor of the Martian highlands and ancient terrain. The mission, to be launched in April 2001, will seek out the geological record of ancient Martian waterways and possible biology.
Cornell University scientists have discovered a wild tomato's chemical secret for repelling insect pests: a complex, waxy substance that commercially grown tomatoes have "forgotten" how to make. A simplified formulation of the wild tomatoes' chemical has been granted a U.S. patent on "Non-cyclic Esters for Pest Control" and could become the next-generation nontoxic insect repellent for a long list of crops.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 -- New technologies and scientific research are finding innovative ways to detect, attack and prevent food safety problems caused by the microorganisms that are linked with some 90 percent of all food-related contamination outbreaks, according to an article published in the Nov. 10 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
A New handbook, "Leading the Way," co-authored by Cornell gerontologist Karl Pillemer, helps nursing supervisors in long-term care facilities develop leadership skills.
Intelligence test scores among racial and socio-economic segments of American society are not growing ever wider, contrary to arguments in The Bell Curve, but are, in fact, converging, say Cornell University psychologists Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci, based on analyses of national data sets of mental test scores. This is contrary to often-reported arguments that Americans are getting dumber because low-IQ parents are outbreeding high-IQ parents.
A new research season is underway in Antarctica, encompassing 175 research projects supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the federal agency that funds and manages the U.S. Antarctic Program.
George Avrunin, professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Massachusetts, has received a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation for research on the effective linking of computer systems. He is working in conjunction with UMass computer science professors Lori Clarke and Leon Osterweil. The group's research could eventually be used in the development of computer systems used in areas such as air traffic control, airline reservation systems, and the monitoring of hospital patients.
The National Science Foundation has appointed University of Washington Professor Mark Haselkorn to coordinate its external efforts to address the year 2000 computer problem.
Spurred by predictions that we may have only 90 years of high-quality rock phosphate fertilizer left, Purdue University researchers have taken a step toward helping plants get the nutrient out of soil. They were the first to isolate genes that help plant roots take up phosphate, a common form of phosphorus.
Faculty in the Purdue University School of Agriculture give a better-than-educated guess of what the future holds for American food and fiber industries with a new book and video set entitled "FoodSystem 21: Gearing Up for the New Millennium." Purdue Agricultural economist Mike Boehlje calls it "a frank and brutal look" at where farms, input suppliers, processors and consumers are heading.
Highlights of New Scientist for Nov 6, 1997.
The National Science Board (NSB) will meet on Wednesday, November 12 through Friday, November 14, 1997 at National Science Foundation headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Sessions open to the public include: Thursday, November 13, from 2:20 p.m.-5:45 p.m. and Friday, November 14 from 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.