Science News

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have discovered what looks like a jet contrail, possibly left behind by a dwarf star traveling through interstellar space.

• share
• favorite_border

The uncertainty of climate change because of global warming is much greater than previously thought, and as a result, policy-makers should adopt a robust, adaptive-decision strategy to cope with potential consequences.

• share
• favorite_border

Some of the nation's leading satellite, meteorology and oceanography experts will be in Madison, Wis., Oct. 15-18 for a discussions and presentations in their field.

• share
• favorite_border

Wisconsin scientists have a new theory about why autumn leaves turn scarlet and why the hues are more vibrant some years than others. They say that the red pigments -- called anthocyanins -- are meant to act like sunscreen.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Science Foundation awarded eight grants this week to engineering and social science researchers to conduct post-disaster assessments at the terrorist attack sites. The university-based teams will use the federal funds to collect and analyze data on structural engineering and damage assessment while debris is being removed. They will also analyze the emergency response and management.

• share
• favorite_border

Big books of mug shots at the police station have made an important contribution to crime fighting for years. Now police officers may be able to access this essential crime-solving tool much more efficiently.

• share
• favorite_border

Flying into the largest storms on Earth is all in a day's work for pilots on a NASA mission to explore hurricanes.

• share
• favorite_border

The Bush administration is committed to reviving nuclear power. This is not surprising, says a University of Michigan professor of environmental policy. "Nuclear plants now provide about 21 percent of the electricity in the United States and Canada. There's no way they can or will be mothballed any time soon."

• share
• favorite_border

Engineers are working across traditional disciplines and collaborating with other professionals as a necessary means to address complex challenges and solve the problems of today's modern technological era, according to a new study by ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

• share
• favorite_border

Science tips from Iowa State University include: 1) Helping buildings withstand attacks; 2) New methods of vaccine delivery; 3) Simulations reduce time and cost of chemical reactors.

• share
• favorite_border

Welcome to the bottom of the deep-sea food chain. The rock bottom, that is. In the current edition of Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, a team of researchers uncovers and characterizes a process that is commonplace below the ocean bottom.

• share
• favorite_border

Two Florida State University scientists have discovered that magnetic fields, if powerful enough, can significantly alter certain brain functions. The findings pose questions about the safe upper limits to the field strengths of MRI machines so widely used in medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

According to a new study from the National Center for Atmospheric Science, the atmosphere redistributes annually as much heat from the tropics to the poles as would be produced by five million of the world's biggest power stations, generating 1,000 megawatts each. This is far more than the oceans carry poleward.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A project supported by the National Science Foundation to determine the nature of dark matter in the halo of the Milky Way has yielded a treasure trove of data on 73 million stars. Many of them are variable stars, whose brightness varies over time and which are particularly useful for astronomical research. The database, created by an international team in Australia and the United States, has been made available to astronomers worldwide via the World Wide Web.

• share
• favorite_border

Amidst mounting concern over the threat of biological warfare, researchers are developing a new breed of early-warning sensors capable of detecting an attack in a matter of minutes.

• share
• favorite_border

Today's hackers are like the hot rodders of old, as they fiddle with the software in the digital car to improve its performance.

• share
• favorite_border

The first detailed global mapping of the asteroid 433 Eros has found that that most of the larger rocks strewn across the body were ejected from a single crater in a meteorite collision perhaps a billion years ago, Cornell University astronomers say.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the University of California have found that sunlight plays an important role in cycling iron in the ocean and making it available to marine life.

• share
• favorite_border

Against all odds, NASA's Deep Space 1 not only survived its daring encounter with Comet Borrelly but also returned stunning pictures of the comet's hidden nucleus.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have discovered what is believed to be a novel method in yeast for governing gene expression at the end, rather than the beginning, of transcription, the process of reading DNA to make RNA.

• share
• favorite_border

Purdue University researchers have discovered how to harness the light-emitting properties of porous silicon to stabilize the material's surface and direct it to respond to specific chemical environments or cues. The development may allow scientists to create new types of drug-delivery systems, or biological and chemical sensors for use in medicine and manufacturing.

• share
• favorite_border

The professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University, will receive the Chinese government's 2001 Friendship Award for his geophysics work in Project INDEPTH (International Deep Profiling of Tibet and the Himalaya).

• share
• favorite_border

The National Science Foundation announced three - year awards totaling almost $12M for development of "middleware" to help scientists and researchers use the Internet to effectively share instruments, laboratories and data, and to collaborate with their colleagues. Middleware is software that connects two or more otherwise separate applications across the Internet.

• share
• favorite_border

Beneath the sandy shore of Nags Head, N.C. lies a river system that flowed across the continental shelf to the ocean during the last ice age, according to a UA researcher. Such geology still influences the present and future of the barrier islands.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Science Foundation announced 309 awards designed to preserve America's position as the world leader of computer science and its applications. The projects will receive more than $156M from NSF's Information Technology Research (ITR) priority area, which spurs fundamental research and innovative uses of IT in science and engineering.

• share
• favorite_border

The volatile debate over research with human embryonic stem cells and the politics and science that surround it will be discussed by UCSD and Salk Institute researchers at a free lecture for the public October 19th on the UCSD campus in La Jolla.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Human Genome Research Institute has awarded two grants of $15M each for the next phase of research into understanding how the human genome functions. One project will seek effective and economical ways to determine individual differences in the genome from one person to another. The other project will examine the operation of cells through new modular microscale devices.

• share
• favorite_border

Faraway astronauts must yearn sometimes for the simple comforts of Earth -- like a refreshing soda or a beer after work. But one wonders: Would the cheerful bubbles of a space-soda rise to the top and tickle one's nose?

• share
• favorite_border

Milkweeds growing in cornfields sometimes support monarch butterfly larvae at the same time the corn is shedding its pollen. Thus, monarchs feeding next to corn genetically engineered to contain the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticide could be exposed to the toxin.

• share
• favorite_border

A technique that will greatly improve the study of nanostructures and help shorten the development time for quantum computers and similar devices has been demonstrated by a team of University of Michigan researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

Using cutting-edge supercomputers to help solve mapping problems, Colorado State University atmospheric scientists will superimpose a geodesic grid on the earth's lands, ocean and atmosphere to better simulate climate factors.

• share
• favorite_border

This summer, a team of meteorologists predicted that the current resurgence in North Atlantic hurricane activity will continue for at least the next 10 to 40 years. That's only a small part of a complex tropical storm picture, NC State researchers say.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Arkansas researchers have developed a novel membrane that can reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of filtration, a critical process in industries ranging from foods and pharmaceuticals to petrochemicals and paint.

• share
• favorite_border

Comparing bumps in a rug to boxes dragged across the floor and to earthquake fault zones, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed new calculations to demonstrate that the mechanics of friction can be the same, no matter what the size of the materials involved.

• share
• favorite_border

From Moby Dick to Shamu, whales have long fascinated humans. Their remarkable status as ocean-dwelling mammals, along with dolphins and porpoises, at once makes them related to us and yet inconceivably different from us. Thus their evolution -- the developmental steps required to leave solid ground for a life in the water -- has long fascinated scientists.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Purdue University have linked two tiny structures -- quantum dots -- in such a way that is essential for the creation of quantum computers, which could be faster and provide more memory than conventional technology.

• share
• favorite_border

A group of Purdue University undergraduates have built an industrial riding lawn mower that's a cut above the rest. The students have created what is thought to be the first vehicle that uses water in all of its hydraulic systems.

• share
• favorite_border

New findings show that the most commonly used types of genetically engineered corn have no adverse effects on Monarch butterfly larvae, according to a University of Maryland scientist and member of the international team that has been studying the issue.

• share
• favorite_border

Ten colleges and universities across the country will receive $2M in grants from The Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign at the Center for Academic Transformation at Rensselaer. The grants were announced by the executive director of the Center.

• share
• favorite_border

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., was selected by the National Science Foundation to receive $10M to develop one of six Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers.

• share
• favorite_border

Partial skeletons of ancient whales found in Pakistan last year resolve a longstanding controversy over the origin of whales, confirming that the giant sea creatures evolved from early ancestors of sheep, deer and hippopotami and suggesting that hippos may be the closest living relatives of whales.

• share
• favorite_border

In light of the recent U.S. tragedy, the international conference on exercise and arthritis set for Sept. 21-22, 2001, in St. Louis is postponed. A new date for the conference will be set soon.

• share
• favorite_border

When a hurricane or severe storm hits North Carolina, South Carolina or Virginia weather forecasters now anticipate delivering more accurate flood and flash flood warnings. Scientists are testing new advanced weather technology in a pilot program from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory, NOAA's National Sea Grant College Program and North Carolina and South Carolina Sea Grant state programs.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Research at the nanoscale is needed to advance the development of the ultra-small technology that will transform electronics, materials, medicine and many other fields. The National Science Foundation announced awards estimated to total $65M over five years to fund six major centers in nanoscale science and engineering.

• share
• favorite_border

NASA Deep Space 1 (DS1) is no ordinary spacecraft. It's bristling with exotic technology and is a veteran of more than one nail-biting space adventure. But DS1's previous exploits may be no match for what it is about to do this weekend: plunge into the unknown maelstrom of a comet.

• share
• favorite_border

An assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, has been awarded a $239,992 research grant by The Whitaker Foundation to study the human thumb, research aimed at understanding the biomechanics, neuromuscular control and clinical rehabilitation of hand function.

• share
• favorite_border

Through a newly funded Department of Energy project, astrophysicists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and around the United States hope to gain a better understanding of what happens when stars die in spectacular explosions called core collapse supernovae.

• share
• favorite_border

Our planet's Antarctic ozone hole is opening once again as Spring approaches in the southern hemisphere -- and scientists say it's a big one.