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| News From the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) — For more information about NSF and its programs, visit www.nsf.gov NSF Funded News
Key: Meeting
Showing releases 301-325 out of 702 releases.
Public Release: 15-Sep-2009
 Child Development{DISSERTATION} Teacher support is key to self-esteem for Chinese and US youth A study of 1,500 urban middle school students in China and the US shows that -- for both populations -- students who felt more supported by their teachers were more likely to have high self-esteem, while students who didn't feel supported by their fellow students were more likely to be depressed. Researchers also found that students in China received mores support from teachers and other students and more opportunities for autonomy that students in the US. 
National Science Foundation
Contact: Sarah Hutcheon
Public Release: 15-Sep-2009
Child Development{DISSERTATION} Children under 3 can't learn action words from TV -- unless an adult helps Using modified clips from the program "Sesame Beginnings," researchers studied children's ability -- with and without adult support -- to learn a new verb and apply that word to a new scene. The research team found that children under 3 could not learn words directly from the program without adult support. In contrast, children over the age of 3 could learn new words from the video program and understand them later without adult support.
NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Science Foundation
Contact: Sarah Hutcheon
Public Release: 14-Sep-2009
American Journal of Botany{DISSERTATION} For carnivorous plants, slow but steady wins the race The existence of carnivorous plants has fascinated botanists and nonbotanists alike for centuries and raises the question, "Why are some plants carnivorous?" By measuring the construction cost of carbon needed to create these plant structures and comparing it to the payback time, researchers were able to determine how beneficial a trap might be to a plant.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, National Science Foundation
Contact: Richard Hund
Public Release: 14-Sep-2009
{DISSERTATION} Digging deeper below Antarctica's Lake Vida Two UIC geoscientists will lead an exploration of Antarctica's perpetually ice-covered Lake Vida, site of one of the most extreme environments on Earth for living organisms. The team will drill through the lake's ice cap, and take the first-ever samples of the underlying brine and sediment.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Paul Francuch
Public Release: 14-Sep-2009
American Journal of Botany{DISSERTATION} When you've doubled your genes, what's 1 chromosome more or less? For animals, an extra chromosome can result in major problems, but plants are another matter. Many plants can survive an extra copy of their entire genome (polyploidy), and this process often results in a new species, making it an important mechanism in evolution. In fact, over 80 percent of plants may be a product of polyploidy. This research examines how polyploidy and genomic change can lead to evolutionary change, and affect plants' fitness and vigor.
National Science Foundation, University of Puget Sound Enrichment Committee
Contact: Richard Hund
Public Release: 14-Sep-2009
{DISSERTATION} Researcher looks for answers about unique disease-resistant gene Each year, more than 20 percent of all crops are lost to plant diseases worldwide. An NSF CAREER-funded researcher aims to discover how a disease-resistant gene in corn prevents bacteria from invading distantly related plant species.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Michael Sutphin
Public Release: 14-Sep-2009
{DISSERTATION} Engineering team to design and study liver mimics Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers will use more than $1 million in grant funding to study engineered tissues that mimic the liver, one of the human body's most complex organs. The primary research goal of these projects is to assemble 3-D cellular structures that mimic the liver using the major cell types found in the liver. Liver mimics could eventually form the basis for extracorporeal liver-assist devices.
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation
Contact: Steven Mackay
Public Release: 14-Sep-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences{DISSERTATION} Sierra Nevada birds move in response to warmer, wetter climate If the climate is not quite right, birds will up and move rather than stick around and sweat it out, according to a new study led by UC Berkeley biologists. The findings reveal that most of the bird species studied in California's Sierra Nevada mountains have adjusted to climate change over the last century by moving to sites with the temperature and precipitation conditions they favored.
National Science Foundation, Yosemite Foundation, National Park Service
Contact: Sarah Yang
Public Release: 13-Sep-2009
Nature Nanotechnology{DISSERTATION} When nano may not be nano A new analysis by an international team of researchers from the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology, based at Duke University, argues for a new look at the way nanoparticles are selected when studying the potential impacts on human health and the environment.
National Science Foundation, US Environmental Protection Agency
Contact: Richard Merritt
Public Release: 11-Sep-2009
Sustainting Change in Education: Finding Shared Language and Common Ground{DISSERTATION} After years of toil, sustaining change in education still a vexing problem Researchers at the University of Chicago Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education examine the problem of sustaining innovative change in education.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Steve Koppes
Public Release: 11-Sep-2009
Science{DISSERTATION} First complete image created of Himalayan fault, subduction zone An international team of researchers has created the most complete seismic image of the Earth's crust and upper mantle beneath the rugged Himalaya Mountains, in the process discovering some unusual geologic features that may explain how the region has evolved.
National Science Foundation
Contact: John Nabelek
Public Release: 11-Sep-2009
Sociological Forum{DISSERTATION} Democrats seen as the 'undeserving rich' face rejection by party voters In a recent study, researchers from several universities looked at why white working-class voters voted Republican in recent national elections even when they didn't like Republican policies.
Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline, National Science Foundation
Contact: Patricia Donovan
Public Release: 11-Sep-2009
Journal of Experimental Biology{DISSERTATION} Migrating birds chill to fatten up Most migrating birds can't carry enough fuel to reach their destinations, so refuel en route. However the aviators expend twice as much energy during stopovers as they use in transit. Wondering whether migrating blackcaps save energy by dropping their body temperature during stopovers, Michał Wojciechowski and Berry Pinshow measured the bird's temperatures as they refuelled and found that they drop their body temperatures at night by up to 30 percent to conserve energy and fatten faster.
US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Ministry of Science and Higher Education
Contact: Kathryn Knight
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
Science Express{DISSERTATION} RNA interference found in budding yeasts Some budding yeast species have the ability to silence genes using RNA interference (RNAi). Until now, most researchers thought that no budding yeasts possess the RNAi pathway because Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the protoypical model budding yeast does not. Some budding yeasts cause human diseases, while other budding yeasts are used in research as models for more complicated organisms, in industry to create beer and biofuels, and in pharmaceuticals to produce drugs and vaccines.
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Boehringer-Ingelheim Fonds
Contact: Nicole Giese
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
Science{DISSERTATION} Scientists seek new emphases in Arctic climate change research Much of circumpolar Arctic research focuses on the physical, direct changes resulting from climate warming such as sea ice retreat and temperature increases. "What's understudied is the living component of the Arctic and that includes humans," said Syndonia "Donie" Bret-Harte, associate professor of biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and co-author of a paper to be published September 11, 2009, in the journal Science.
Aarhus University, Danish Polar Center, National Science Foundation
Contact: Marie Gilbert
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
{DISSERTATION} Purdue receives $105 million award to lead national earthquake engineering network Advancing research and education to reduce the devastation and loss of human life from earthquakes and tsunamis is the goal of a new center at Purdue University. The National Science Foundation awarded $105 million to a Purdue-led team to spearhead a center that will serve as headquarters for the operations of the George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, or NEES.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Elizabeth Gardner
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
{DISSERTATION} Seaglider sets new underwater endurance and range records A University of Washington Seaglider operated for nine months and five days in the Pacific Ocean, an endurance record more than double what any other autonomous underwater vehicle has accomplished on a single mission. During that time it propelled itself a distance equivalent to crossing the Atlantic Ocean from New England to Europe, without periods of drifting with currents and while continually diving to collect data.
US Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation
Contact: Sandra Hines
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
Science{DISSERTATION} Carbon nanotubes could make efficient solar cells Using a carbon nanotube instead of traditional silicon, Cornell researchers have created the basic elements of a solar cell that hopefully will lead to much more efficient ways of converting light to electricity than now used in calculators and on rooftops.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Blaine Friedlander
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
Current Biology{DISSERTATION} Dividing cells 'feel' their way out of warp Every moment, millions of a body's cells flawlessly divvy up their genes and pinch perfectly in half to form two identical progeny for the replenishment of tissues and organs -- even as they collide, get stuck, and squeeze through infinitesimally small spaces that distort their shapes.
National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, National Science Foundation
Contact: Maryalice Yakutchik
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
Science Express{DISSERTATION} Caltech scientists develop novel use of neurotechnology to solve classic social problem Economists and neuroscientists from the California Institute of Technology have shown that they can use information obtained through functional magnetic resonance imaging measurements of whole-brain activity to create feasible, efficient and fair solutions to one of the stickiest dilemmas in economics, the public-goods free-rider problem -- long thought to be unsolvable. This is one of the first-ever applications of neurotechnology to real-life economic problems, the researchers note.
National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Human Frontier Science Program
Contact: Lori Oliwenstein
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
Science{DISSERTATION} Environmental scientists estimate that China could meet its entire future energy needs by wind alone A team of environmental scientists from Harvard and Tsinghua University demonstrated the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China. Using extensive metrological data and incorporating the Chinese government's energy bidding and financial restrictions for delivering wind power, the researchers estimate that wind alone has the potential to meet the country's electricity demands projected for 2030. The switch from coal and other fossil fuels to greener wind-based energy could also mitigate CO2 emissions, thereby reducing pollution.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Michael Patrick Rutter
Public Release: 10-Sep-2009
Science{DISSERTATION} Dramatic biological responses to global warming in the Arctic The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past, according to the research of a large, international team led by Eric Post, associate professor of biology at Penn State University. The team carried out ecosystem-wide studies of the biological response to Arctic warming, and documented a wide range of responses by the plants, birds, animals, insects and humans living there.
Aarhus University, Danish Polar Center, National Science Foundation
Contact: Barbara K. Kennedy
Public Release: 9-Sep-2009
Journal of Geophysical Research{DISSERTATION} Scientists discover surprise in Earth's upper atmosphere UCLA atmospheric scientists have discovered a basic mode of energy transfer from the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere, which was previously unknown. The research could improve the safety and reliability of spacecraft that operate in the upper atmosphere. "It's like finding it got hotter when the sun went down," said Larry Lyons, UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Stuart Wolpert
Public Release: 9-Sep-2009
{DISSERTATION} New robot travels across the seafloor to monitor the impact of climate change on deep-sea ecosystems Like the robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which wheeled tirelessly across the dusty surface of Mars, a new robot spent most of July traveling across the muddy ocean bottom, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) off the California coast. This robot, the Benthic Rover, has been providing scientists with an entirely new view of life on the deep seafloor. It will also give scientists a way to document the effects of climate change on the deep sea.
National Science Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Contact: Kim Fulton-Bennett
Public Release: 9-Sep-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences{DISSERTATION} Individual cells isolated from biological clock can keep daily time, but are unreliable Washington University in St. Louis researchers have shown that individual cells isolated from the biological clock can keep daily time all by themselves. However, by themselves, they are unreliable. The neurons get out of synch. The 20,000 neurons comprising the biological clock, remarkably, contain the machinery to generate daily, or circadian, rhythms in gene expression and electrical activity. But the individual cells are sloppy and must communicate with one another to establish a coherent 24-hour rhythm.
National Institutes of Health, Beckman Foundation, National Science Foundation, Washington University
Contact: Erik Herzog
Showing releases 301-325 out of 702 releases.
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