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A treasure-trove of formerly classified data on the thickness of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, gathered by U.S. Navy submarines over several decades, is now being opened. Data from the first of approximately 20 cruise tracks -- an April, 1992 trans-Arctic Ocean track -- has just been released, and information from the rest of these tracks, or maps of a submarine's route, will be analyzed and released over the next year-and-a-half.

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People across the continent can help make bird-watching history on February 20, 21, and 22 by participating in the first-ever BirdSource Great '98 Backyard Bird Count, cosponsored by the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology (CLO) and the National Audubon Society.

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Some of Japan's leading indicators of science and technological strength have caught up with or surpassed those of the United States, a special report by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS) concludes.

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Researchers at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons have discovered the first human gene associated with hair loss. The new gene, called hairless, is linked to a severe form of inherited baldness and may be the trigger that turns on the entire human hair cycle. The discovery could lead to a better understanding of the hair cycle and, eventually, more effective treatments for various forms of hair loss.

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Tip Sheet from the National Science Foundation; 1. Satellite navigation system to monitor the movement of an entire continent. 2. Biologist David Anderson will use satellite-tracking to study two species of albatross. 3. Oceanographers study toxic organisms that contaminates shellfish

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Scientists at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory in South Carolina have described a new species of copepod, a tiny, aquatic crustacean.

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Astronomers have found a fast-spinning pulsar in a companion galaxy to our Milky Way that could be the missing evolutionary link.

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Working from his basement lab, a Los Alamos, N.M., scientist has created a miniature fuel cell that can run on common alcohol and air to generate electricity for powering cellular phones and other common portable electronic devices.

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President Clinton has named 214 teachers to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), the nation's highest honor for mathematics and science teaching in elementary and secondary schools.

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) is accepting requests from professional journalists to visit Antarctica during the 1998-1999 field season to report on research by the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP).

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A unique strategy on how to handle ground water pollution ã one that uses "smart laws" to benefit both the environment and agriculture ã may be in store for Indiana, and it may serve as a model for the nation.

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Tip Sheet from New Scientist

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $2 million over 30 months to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign to help university users with high performance networking applications. The National Laboratory for Applied Networking Research (NLANR): Distributed Applications Support Team will help researchers maximize their use of NSF's very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) for science and engineering research.

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Just as a photographer moves a camera to focus on a specific image, the human brain directs the eyes to focus on an image. Although the images we see are often quite complex - an array of colors, textures and shapes - seeing them begins with a process that originates in single brain cells. Vanderbilt psycholgoist Jeffrey D. Schall has spent the past 10 years studying how the brain guids the eyes. For his research, he has been recognized by the National Academy of Sciences.

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For parents perhaps, the wonder and fascination focus on how the many Disney robots, floats and other moving systems are designed, built, tested and operated. Answers lie not in fantasy and magic, but in the here and now -- in the real world of mechanical engineering.

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Perhaps no other product has been changed and revised as regularly as that staple of American consumerism, the automobile. Each and every year throughout its storied history, the automobile has tantalized and, in some cases, awed the public with sleek body designs, chip-resistant paint, and a dazzling array of push-button comfort features and electronic gadgets.

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New York University (NYU) will establish and operate an Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS) through a five-million-dollar cooperative agreement with The National Science Foundation (NSF). The institute will become one of NSF's new engineering research centers.

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Francis Narin, Ph.D., -- whose survey, The Increasing Linkage Between U.S. Technology and Public Science, was highlighted last year by the national media -- will be at the National Science Foundation (NSF) on January 22 to meet with reporters on extensions of his findings.

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The National Research Investment Act of 1998, calling for a major increase in federal spending of research and development via innovation and consensus, highlights the agenda of Engineering Expo ë98 in Jackson, Miss.

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A team of astronomers probing the activities of a pair of colliding galaxies has been startled to discover that the merger has resulted in a nest of a dozen or more extremely powerful supernova explosions, comparable to the most powerful ever observed.

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To develop "space cuisine" for future lunar and Martian space colonies, Cornell University researchers are developing recipes for astronauts from a limited set of 30 plants that will be grown hydroponically in artificially lit, dome-covered surface habitats.

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Using the unfertilized eggs of cows, scientists have shown that the eggs have the ability to incorporate and, seemingly, reprogram at least some of the genes from cells from an array of different animal species, including sheep, pigs, rats, and primates. This research adds an important new twist to the unfolding story of mammalian cloning.

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Entomologists have long noticed that tiger beetles stop-and-go in their pursuit of prey. But up to now, scientists have had no idea why this species of beetle attacks its food in fits and starts. Why do they stop and go? During hot pursuit of prey, the tiger beetles go blind.

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People and the environment constitute a fragile partnership. How that partnership will evolve and how it can be strengthened will be the focus of the 1998 Emerging Issues Forum at North Carolina State University's McKimmon Center on Feb. 26-27.

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The Henry R. Worthington Medal of ASME International (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) will be presented to Thomas J. Fritsch, technical project manager, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Monitoring and Diagnostic Center, Eddystone, Pa. He is being recognized for his accomplishments in the pump industry from the development of the worldís largest boiler feed pump, to pump-monitoring technologies and expert systems for boiler feed pumps.

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After years of working in a dark, windowless laboratory to understand speech perception and how speech can be communicated by machines, UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Dominic Massaro is realizing his dream of using advanced technology to help deaf children learn to speak.

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The Petroleum Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers has announced plans to hold the Energy Sources Technology Conference and Exhibition ( ETCE 1998 ) February 2-4, 1998 at the Sheraton Astrodome Hotel in Houston. More than 225 technical presentations, workshops and panel discussions focused on key technologies in the fields of: Drilling; Production Operations; Pipeline Engineering; Offshore Engineering; Pipeline Operations; Plant Maintenance.

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A performance test code to determine power plant thermal performance -- information that is vital to the power industry -- was recently published and is available through ASME International (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

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An LSU doctorate student studying menhaden (a small fish), has stumbled across data that shows sharks are using the Northern Gulf of Mexico as a nursing ground. His findings are particularly relevant since national efforts to restore over-fished sharks have not considered this bycatch in the menhaden fishery.

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Story Ideas from The National Sea Grant College Program: 1) Wild Rice Flowers Could Hold Clue to Decline; 2) Coral Reef Mining Technique Key To Recovery; 3) Managing Disease in Farmed Fish Seeking Alternative to Antibiotics

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A look at the threat of harmful algal blooms--The National Sea Grant College Program invites you to a special media-only science briefing on the latest marine science research into Pfiesteria and other harmful algal blooms.

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When asked to identify the `comb' within a group of imposter items, two-year-olds typically will select a comb-shaped object--whether or not it has teeth for combing a doll's hair--because very young children learn new words based on shapes, not functions, a University of Delaware researcher reports in the Journal of Memory and Language, mailed today.

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In a landmark study for space-based observation of the motions of the earth's crust, geologists have used the same satellite navigation system used to guide motorists to monitor the movement of an entire continent and record the yearly growth of the Andes Mountains to within a fraction of an inch.

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Understanding the genetic causes of spina bifida is a research objective of James F. Martin, an assistant professor of medical biochemistry and genetics at Texas A&M University's Institute of Biosciences and Technology. Spina bifida is a severe birth defect in which the spinal canal fails to fuse. There is no treatment for the resulting spinal cord damage.

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Sandia National Laboratories has joined the effort to rid the planet of what some people have called its worst form of pollution -- land mines. Sandiaís work in land-mine detection and demining ranges from chemical sensing and backscattered x-ray technologies, to laying down quick-hardening foam to clear a path for military vehicles and developing robotic vehicles that can be used as platforms to support the technologies.

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Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and their colleagues at Geron Corp., Menlo Park, Calif., say they have figured out how to overcome the mechanisms that control cellular aging and extend the life span of human cells. The article appears in the Jan. 16 issue of Science.

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Scientists around the world using the Maui High Performance Computing Cneter (MHPCC) operated by the University of New Mexcio, will find their computational problems being solved 50 percent faster in coming months.

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A series of six conferences dealing with space technology and applications will be part of the University of New Mexico Space Technology and Applications International Forum scheduled for Jan. 25-29 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. More than 500 space technology scientists from around the world are expected to attend

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Story Tips from Carnegie Mellon University: 1) Create interactive 3D graphics, 2) Interview Einstein in 3D in real time, 3) Datamining to make better decisions, 4) Read an antique book online

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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a leader in environmental and energy sciences, is focusing its scientific and technological resources on the emerging problems of agriculture and food production.

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Jupiter's moon Io, whose strange surface is defined by active volcanoes, lakes of molten sulfur and vast fields of sulfur dioxide snow, has revealed another oddity to scientists: caps of glowing hydrogen gas at the moon's poles.

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A new proprietary enabling technology for high-throughput screening, applicable to the discovery of a wide area of medical and agricultural products,represents a breakthrough in the mechanism-based testing of lead molecules.

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A project to halt erosion and restore vegetation at a two-acre site in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, home to a herd of 625 buffalo, is being conducted by University of Tulsa professors and students. The site was contaminated with salt after an accidental release of salt water associated with oil production.

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Purdue University researchers have begun construction on a Mach 6 wind tunnel, which when completed will be the fastest and quietest research wind tunnel at any academic institution in the world. Research will focus on how air flows over and around objects that travel faster than the speed of sound.

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University of New Hampshire astronomers say they may have found evidence of never-before-seen gamma-ray flare activity on a white dwarf star. Until now, scientists have only detected similar flaring activity on our own Sun, but this source appears to be a white dwarf, the end-stage in the life of a star.

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Cornell scientists, Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust and Harvard University have developed a Vegetarian Diet Pyramid to update the U.S. Food Guide Pyramid which is outdated.

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New Scientist Tip Sheet for 1-7-98

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The U.S. chemical trade surplus will drop over the next 25 years, if not disappear, as manufacturing abroad replaces exports from the U.S.; Plants will become the main source of oil and plastics; And green chemistry and other pollution prevention technologies will eliminate pollution from the chemical industry.

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WASHINGTON -- "Bionic" implants to monitor human health, the ultimate in miniaturization of electronic devices, and an energy-efficient car to wipe the haze from the world's cities are among the advances that chemists predict their discipline will achieve before 2023.

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For hundreds of years, the Coliseum in Rome has stood as a marker of an era gone by. Yet concrete driveways poured only a few years ago are already developing cracks. Ron Berliner, a scientist at the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center, is determined to find out why.