The question of how animals distinguish different smells is kicking up a stink again. Do moths respond to a "coding" process to discern the smell of sex pheromones or do they process each random odor in their brains? It appears the latter is true. (Nature, 3-22-01)
Fast-moving solar eruptions that overtake and devour their slower-moving kin can trigger long-lasting geomagnetic storms --and dazzling auroras-- when they strike Earth's magnetosphere.
As whales go, the minke is not as popular as, say, the humpback, the blue or even the killer whale. A marine biologist at Florida State University thinks that may change with the publication of an article on the minke whale in the April issue of National Geographic magazine.
Researchers at the University of Arkansas have examined tree rings from the little-known, old-growth blue oak forests of California and connected their history to that of the San Francisco Bay, demonstrating that recent salinity levels are higher than at any time in the past 400 years. (Eos)
1)Dollhouses Feature Flashing Lights and Rubber Ducks; 2)Antarctic Neutrino Detector Works!; 3)Federal Obligations For Academic Science & Engineering Sees; 4)Double-Digit Increase In 1999
1)Temple's receives $1M Microsoft award; 2)Program at Temple provides support for minority science students; 3)Mathematics professor at Temple one of only two that won national award; 4) Temple professor made the American Physical Society's list in 2000.
For 30 years, plant scientists have searched for the source of the compound that plants use to create oil. The mystery may have been solved by researchers at Iowa State University.
Nine LSU researchers recently spent three months at a U.S. research station in Antarctica, trying to detect cosmic rays by sending a special instrument into the atmosphere via a giant helium balloon. They conducted their experiment to learn how cosmic rays are powered.
Through his most recent research involving the cloning of mastodon genes obtained from DNA found in the intestinal tract of this ancient mammal, a Ohio Wesleyan University Botany/Microbiology professor is discovering important evolutionary linkages.
Changes in farming practices have played a major role in improving water quality in Lake Erie, a recent study at Ohio State suggests. Farm-based pollution has dropped by as much as 50 percent in the region.
A 90-million-year-old tick recently found in the heart of New Jersey has left entomologists scratching their heads. The tick is the oldest representative of the order Parasitiformes, increasing the order's age by 50 million years. The finding also casts doubt on theories that ticks originated in South America. (Annals of the Entomological Society of America)
Researchers at Ohio State have found a way to accurately measure the friction that plagues microdevices that could one day move inside microscopic medical implants in the body. They also found a way to bake lubricant onto the surface of microdevices at temperatures as high as 150°C to oil the tiny moving parts. (Proceedings of the NATO Institute on Tribology, 3-01)
The latest version of the widely used shock wave physics computer code, CTH, developed by Sandia National Laboratories, will soon be available to customers nationwide. The code simulates high-speed impact and penetration phenomena involving a variety of materials.
A team of LSU veterinarians recently delivered two cloned calves by caesarean section at the university's School of Veterinary Medicine. The calves were cloned by Cyagra Inc. of Manhattan, Kan., under a trial procedure Cyagra is filing as a new patent.
This March, for the first time, an Oscar was awarded for computer science; IEEE Spectrum profiles the three winners and the technology they developed.
In a bid to find water on Mars and redemption in the public eye on Earth, NASA is launching a mission to the Red Planet on 7 April.
Advanced skin and end-stage kidney cancer patients may have a better chance of survival with drugs developed from a new synthetic enzyme that significantly improves the effectiveness of existing interleukin-2 (IL-2) cancer therapy.
Solar power collected in space and beamed to Earth could be an environmentally friendly solution to our planet's growing energy problems.
Researchers at universities and government labs are testing new software that aims to provide data-transmission rates of 100 megabits per second. Web100 is a joint effort by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
Using flying insects, scientists have discovered the details of how airborne odors dictate brain activity and behavior. Although moths have antennae that are a million times more sensitive to odor than is the human nose, researchers believe that the basic principles of this model olfactory system apply to all animals, including humans. (Nature, 3-22-01)
In a strange new world where hot air doesn't rise and heat doesn't conduct, the International Space Station's thermal control systems maintain a delicate balance between the deep-freeze of space and the Sun's blazing heat.
A University of Arkansas researcher has received almost $1.2M for the purchase and operation of a powerful mass spectrometer, creating a critical mass of equipment at the University that will allow scientists from all over the nation to run one-of-a-kind experiments.
The recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is having a devastating impact on Great Britain and is putting other western European nations on high alert. What are the chances of it showing up in the United States? What are some of the other consequences of this disease?
Scientists at North Carolina State University have found new ways to make protective fabrics -- such as those used in flame-retardant children's clothing or odor-inhibiting socks and shirts -- last longer and work better.
Brain scans are an important tool for medical science, basic research and education, but this expensive technology is often out of reach for many institutions. Now a team at Dartmouth College has developed a repository for images of human brain scans that is available free to researchers and educators worldwide.
During a nine-nation study of Asian pollution this spring, the National Center for Atmospheric Research will guide aircraft, enhance climate models, and untangle the mysteries of highly toxic atmospheric mercury.
Time and the sea are taking apart the remains of the USS Monitor. Teams of divers, led by UNC Wilmington's National Undersea Research Center, will soon begin the final stages of retrieving major portions of the wreck for permanent display in a safer home ashore.
A star survey by an international team of astronomers has concluded that part of the dark matter that forms an invisible halo around the Milky Way galaxy is made up of something very prosaic: dead stars, dim celestial objects called cool white dwarfs. (Science, 3-23-01)
Whether they're wings, fins or legs, those appendages generally known as limbs play a critical role for lifting, grasping, moving and other activities needed to sustain life. (Cell)
Trees in old-growth tropical forests in the Amazon region of Brazil live longer than previously thought, which adds to their importance in the effort to control increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, UC Irvine researchers have found. (Nature, 3-22-01)
1)Eathquake research reveals new information; 2) Limited Damage from Seattle area's "nisqually" earthquake due to its deep "hypocenter"; 3)Underground infrastructure vulnerable to quakes; 4)Scientists look further, see deeper into Seattle "nisqually" quake; 5)Recon teams hit the ground running to learn from quakes; 6)Seattle quake offers new research opportunities; 7)Virtual displays pinpoint quake centers.
Snakes faking dangerous colors to protect themselves from predators can successfully get away with this strategy -- but only in areas where truly deadly snakes are found, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The research adds new weight to the evidence for natural selection. (Nature, 3-15-01)
There appears to be a new crack in the Antarctic's icy armor. The massive iceberg-to-be was captured by a NASA satellite that's also tracing hidden continental features that shape the future of the world's largest ice sheets.
Dip a chunk of a gold and silver alloy into acid, and the silver quickly dissolves. This process leaves behind an unusual form of gold with a spongelike surface. Now researchers have solved this materials science mystery. (Nature, 3-22-01)
The world's largest particle detector, located deep in the Antarctic ice cap, has yielded data on high-energy neutrinos--among the lightest and most elusive particles in the universe--that can provide a greater understanding of the cataclysmic activity of quasars, gamma ray bursts and other cosmic turbulence. (Nature, 3-22-01)
A scientific expedition on a submarine in the Arctic has found the footprints of ancient floating ice sheets -- possibly the largest masses of ice ever to cover the earth's oceans. (Nature, 3-22-01)
Biologists placed male moths in small wind tunnels and let them smell the odor of female moths' sexual attractant in a study that revealed clues about how odors are converted into nerve impulses in the brain. (Nature, 3-22-01)
Scientists working in Kenya have found the skull and partial jaw of a new genus and species of early human relative. The fossils raise the question of whether modern humans descended from the new species or from the species typified by the fossil known as Lucy. (Nature, 3-22-01)
The University of Washington's research into understanding and finding life in the universe received a major boost with a multimillion-dollar grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and membership in NASA's Astrobiology Institute.
Blue mussels cling to life by a thread, and a URI professor is investigating the strength of those threads in the face of violent storms and increasingly stronger waves caused by global warming.
Concerned by a critical shortage of engineers, leading CEOs and educators will gather at Smith College -- home to the first engineering program at a women's college -- to forefront the need for more women in the engineering pipeline.
NASA's latest mission to Mars, an orbiter scheduled for launch on April 7, 2001, will seek out underground water-ice and explore space weather around the Red Planet -- and that's not all!
To biologists, they have been one of the most enigmatic groups of animals in the world. They're the parasitic horsehair worms of the phylum Nematomorpha. Until last year, no one had a clue about their life cycle, which has been unraveled by research to indicate a cyst carries the worm from larva to host.
Jere E. Goyan, Ph.D., Past-President of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and former FDA Commissioner, declared AAPS' support for the continual efforts to increase the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget by 16.5 percent for Fiscal Year 2002.
Using portable fiber optic biosensors, lasers and a computer, researchers at the University of South Florida can immediately find diseases that can threaten public health, including those caused by E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, Cryptosporidium and Camphylobacter. (National Food Processors Association Journal, 10-00)
Using mathematical equations, a Cornell University scientist and his colleagues have found evidence of a fourth spatial dimension in plants. In short, size matters. (PNAS, forthcoming)
Building on recent discovery of a potent potential antibiotic, University of Michigan College of Pharmacy researchers have found a previously unknown family of metal-requiring enzymes in bacteria. The antibiotic compound inhibits enzymes in this family. (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 3-16-01)
By measuring how long it takes phonons (lattice vibrations) to travel through a thin crystal, University of Illinois researchers have found experimental evidence of an unusual spin-density-wave ground state in lead superconductors.
Millions of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico were killed this month, but there are conflicting reports whether humans or Mother Nature are to blame, says a leader of Monarch Watch.
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