In the wake of NASA's successful Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous space mission, a University of Arkansas researcher is putting together a team of scientists to take asteroid research to the next level -- bringing asteroid samples back to Earth.
Recently, two LSU geology professors took their research to new depths -- 7,000 feet down into the Gulf of Mexico, to be exact -- to study hydrocarbon seeps, gas hydrates and the single-celled micro-organisms called foraminifera that live in those environments.
Researchers at Whitehead Institute and Corning Inc. have invented a powerful new microarray technique that can decipher the function of master switches in a cell by identifying the set of genes they control. The technique allows researchers to unravel in a week what takes years to achieve by conventional methods. (Science, 12-22-00)
Certain types of bacteria on Earth are atomic engineers -- atom by atom they build tiny magnetic crystals to help themselves follow our planet's magnetic field.
Recent books from the National Center for Atmospheric Research offer insights into a range of environmental issues, including the challenge of translating environmental science into policy and the state of our knowledge about El Nino, severe storms, the carbon cycle, and the weather impacts of a changing climate.
Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin presented a report offering new geophysical clues to a cataclysmic event that may have killed off the dinosaurs.
Two astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin, working with an international team of collaborators, have shown that they can provide reliable measurements of black hole masses for active galactic nuclei such as quasars even at great distances.
Professor of engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, has received the $450,000 Japan Prize for his discoveries of the materials critical to the development of lightweight rechargeable batteries.
Bioinformatics experts from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (USA) and the European Media Laboratory (Germany) have joined forces to develop a software for simulating biochemical networks. It will be offered free to academic researchers and also available to businesses.
Like a computer virus eating away software, chronic alcohol abuse can change the programming of critical areas of the human brain on the molecular level, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered. (Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 12-00)
In the classic debate of nature versus nurture, University of Tulsa researchers have scored one for heredity -- at least when it comes to cliff swallows. They say their study shows that genes guide the birds when they select the size of colony in which to live. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 12-19-00)
One of the most contentious debates during the recent climate talks in Hague centered on the possible use of forests as credit towards reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Researchers at the University of Illinois have fabricated silicon thin-film transistors - critical components of numerous sensor and display technologies - using soft lithographic block-printing techniques and polymer inks in place of photolithography. (Chemistry of Materials)
Scientists seeking to confirm earlier measurements of the strange quark's contribution to the proton's magnetic moment have found several surprises, instead. (Science, 12-15-00)
Current techniques for lead detection require sophisticated equipment or complicated sample treatment. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a simple and inexpensive method that permits real-time, on-site detection of lead ions. (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 8-25-00)
Scientists at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, a research unit of the University of Georgia, have found that a compound derived by simple enzymatic conversion from starch is successful in laboratory studies in assisting with the extraction of certain underground contaminants. (Environmental Science Technology)
The normally meek Ursid meteor shower could surprise sky watchers with a powerful outburst on Dec 22nd.
ZeTek Power Corp. will soon be using technology licensed from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and setting up shop in East Tennessee.
Researchers at the University of Michigan and the Geological Survey of Norway say they have solved a longstanding and controversial puzzle over the position of Pangea, the ancient supercontinent that began breaking up some 200 million years ago to form today's continents. (American Geophysical Union meeting)
University of Arkansas School of Architecture researchers and students, in cooperation with NASA, have developed concepts for long-term habitation of Mars in response to the Mars Reference Mission, developed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Dietary diversity distinguished the diets of our earliest human ancestors, starting a trend that eventually led to the ability of human beings to colonize different types of terrain all over the world, according to two researchers.
Stem cells in the brain were able to repair damaged areas and restore function when stimulated by a growth-inducing protein, a study by researchers at UC IrvineÃs College of Medicine has found. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 12-19-00)
A national nonprofit offers the latest psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis news and information on its redesigned Web site, www.psoriasis.org.
A U-M geologist describes how the use of virtual reality in the geological sciences can foster collaboration, enhance education and advance research into such complex processes as mixing behavior in Earth's mantle.
New scientific evidence reveals that primitive life in the form of bacteria could have existed on Mars. Scientists supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have reported that nanometer-sized crystals in a Martian meteorite share several characteristics with those produced by aquatic bacteria on Earth.
Data from a 1996 Colorado field experiment is illuminating a new class of lightning flashes thousands of times faster than those previously observed. A report will be presented on December 16 at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in San Francisco.
Joseph L. Reid, professor emeritus of physical oceanography in the Marine Life Research Group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, is being honored with the Maurice Ewing Medal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for his outstanding scientific contributions to ocean sciences.
A solar eclipse is coming on Christmas Day, 2000.
Samples in 1999 from fall chinook salmon in the Columbia River's Hanford Reach show that four-fifths of the females spawning there apparently began life as males. (Environmental Health Perspectives)
The first complete genome sequence of a plant appears in the current issue of Nature
A recent discovery in Namibia of early human stone tools by a Grinnell College anthropology student has a leading anthropologist suggesting that scientists might have to reevaluate what they know about "the oldest periods in human evolution" in Africa.
A Center for Mind, Brain and Learning to conduct innovative research on early brain and behavioral development has been created at the University of Washington with a $35.5M pledge.
MSU scientists - working to understand structural biology, developing medical instruments and stopping food poisoning outbreaks - are among the first to receive funding under Michigan's Life Sciences Corridor. MSU received $40.4M in tobacco settlement money.
Associate professor of medicine in the UCSD School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is one of nine researchers worldwide to receive one of the first-ever Sequella Global Tuberculosis Foundation grants for the development of tuberculosis vaccines.
A system at Purdue University could help create a worldwide "computational grid" in which individual users no longer have to purchase software but are able to run programs remotely over the Internet.
Using a simple process, North Carolina State University chemical engineers have discovered a way to make flexible coating materials more durable and water-resistant, without the use of environmentally harmful solvents. (Science, 12-15-00)
Removing the masking effects of volcanic eruptions and El Nino events from the global mean temperature record reveals a more gradual and yet stronger global warming trend over the last century, according to a new analysis by a climate expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Two immune proteins found in the brains of mice help the brain develop and may play key roles in triggering developmental disorders like dyslexia and neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's Disease, according to a Harvard Medical School study. (Science, 12-13-00)
Chemical engineers have found a way to group molecules so tightly that they form a slick surface useful for a multitude of medical, technical and industrial applications. The research, supported by NSF, is reported in the December 15 issue of Science.
Several key sessions involving NSF - supported research highlight the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, December 15-19, 2000.
An engine burn at 3:15 p.m. (EST) put the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft in orbit just 22 miles (35 kilometers) above Eros' center of mass in preparation for low altitude operations in January and February, just prior to the mission's end.
Halford House believes wastewater is too precious to dump down the drain. So House, a NC State University water quality specialist, has created North Carolina's first and only self-contained wastewater treatment system for an office building.
Hybrid seeds of greenhouse tomatoes are expensive to produce because bees ignore parent flowers that lack nectar and pollen. As a result, pollination becomes an expensive, labor-intensive human task.
Genetics reached a major milestone as an international research team announced it has completed the first plant genome sequence. The species Arabidopsis thaliana has emerged as the plant counterpart of the laboratory mouse, offering clues to how all sorts of living organisms behave genetically. (Nature, 12-14-00)
After reaching record-breaking proportions earlier this year the ozone hole over Antarctica has made a surprisingly hasty retreat.
The National Science Foundation will webcast a press conference hosted by the journal Nature at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on December 13. The event is to announce an important milestone in plant genetics research.
Food animal well-being has become a mainstream issue with consumers and businesses as well. Researchers at Purdue University also are asking questions about farm animal well-being and supplying some of the scientific support for sound livestock handling practices.
Safe sex for scarlet-bodied wasp moths means avoiding being eaten by predators while mating. So, the male moth, in order to protect his intended during courtship, covers her with a bridal veil of poison, according to a Wake Forest University researcher. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 12-12-00)
Carnegie Mellon University and NASA have formed a High Dependability Computing Consortium whose mission is to eliminate failures in computing systems critical to the welfare of society.
A list of 15 Purdue University experts who can discuss various aspects of animal and livestock well-being, ethics and animals, livestock management and the human-animal bond.
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