Science News

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A list of four Purdue University experts who can discuss various aspects of livestock diseases: disease pathologies, disease outbreaks, economic implications and trade policies.

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The Office of Management and Budget will release the President's Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2002 on Monday, April 9. National Science Foundation officials will meet with the media to discuss its implications for NSF during a media briefing and availability from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

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Dramatic images of the largest sunspot to appear in a decade are available from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Solar Observatory.

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Working at the nanometer level, researchers are dispersing clay particles in polymer to create nylon, resins, and plastics that offer improved performance and mechanical properties.

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For someone with partial hearing loss, picking out a voice in a crowded social gathering can be hard, even with the help of a hearing aid. That's about to change in a revolutionary way.

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A cat with cancer is losing weight. What's an owner -- or even a veterinarian -- to do? A study beginning in April at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine seeks to answer that question.

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Scientists at the University of Illinois have a safer alternative to canoists and kayakers who may attmept to navigate the spillways of dams they encounter: properly designed passageways called canoe chutes.

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The Gulf of Mexico experiences a periodic "dead zone" caused by an algal bloom. Sea grasses around the world have begun to disappear from saltwater ecosystems. Scientists know little about what makes an aquatic ecosystem work, let alone what makes it fall apart. Now a University of Arkansas researcher and her colleague have found that the basic processes in life under water change on a seasonal and even hourly basis.

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Extinction is forever, but local extinctions offer a second chance, since a species that vanishes from one area may persist in another. Still, they sound a pretty clear warning of environmental distress.

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Australia's largest river, the Murray, is suffering from reduced water flows, salinity. pollution and introduced feral pests, but even so, a new species of fish has emerged from its most degraded end.

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Bioengineers at the University at Buffalo and Shriners Burns Hospital-Boston have created a genetically engineered skin that expresses a protein that promotes wound healing. It is believed to be the only artificial tissue designed to express keratinocyte growth factor, KGF. (FASEB Journal, 4-01)

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A discovery by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope supports the notion that the Universe is filled with a mysterious form of "dark energy" -- a possibility first proposed, then discarded, by Albert Einstein early in the last century.

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NATO and NASA are joining forces to host an Advanced Study Institute for astrobiology in Crete, Sept 29-Oct 10, 2001.

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Liquid carbon dioxide breakouts rather than water probably created the martian gullies discovered last summer in high-resolution images from the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter camera. (Geophysical Research Letters, 4-1-01)

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It's nomination-gathering season for the most improbable of all awards -- the Ig Nobel Prizes. A good-natured take-off on science and the Nobel Prizes, the Igs celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative, and spur interest in science -- both good and bad.

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An engineering professor who sat in on a physics course to pursue his lifelong dream of understanding the general theory of relativity, not only reached that goal but came up with a new way of testing Einstein's masterwork. (Physical Review Letters, 4-2-01)

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While the high-tech economy slides, Washington State University's Center for Design of Analog-Digital Integrated Circuits continues to grow, reaching a new record membership.

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Geologists at North Carolina State University are working to unlock the secrets of sand transport and beach erosion along the sandy coast of North Carolina, where shallow, shifting shoals and violent currents have wrecked ships for hundreds of years.

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Researchers at North Carolina State University and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources have found that toxic chemical compounds did not increase in eastern North Carolina rivers and streams during and after the Hurricane Floyd flooding of 1999.

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On rusty-red Mars, a curious deposit of gray-colored hematite (a mineral cousin of common household rust) could hold the key to the mystery of elusive Martian water.

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Slaying dragons by sword may be the stuff of Dark Ages folklore. But in 21st century America, a Purdue University Calumet engineering professor is doing his part to take the art of "dragon slaying" to a new level.

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UA researchers have determined that an infrared ignition oven developed to test asphalt binder content is safer and more efficient than the standard ignition oven. They presented their findings 3-26-01 at the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists' Annual Meeting.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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.

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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.

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This March, for the first time, an Oscar was awarded for computer science; IEEE Spectrum profiles the three winners and the technology they developed.

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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.

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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.

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Solar power collected in space and beamed to Earth could be an environmentally friendly solution to our planet's growing energy problems.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.