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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 Press Releases

Key: Meeting M      Journal J      Funder F      Dissertation F

Showing releases 1-25 out of 72 releases.
Click to go to page: [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]

Public Release: 20-Nov-2009
Evolution of Evolution: An NSF-Sponsored Webcast featuring Mohamed Noor
{DISSERTATION} Evolution of evolution: An NSF-sponsored webcast featuring Mohamed Noor
Please join the National Science Foundation on Monday, Nov. 23, at 10 a.m. ET for a live webcast featuring Darwin-Wallace Medal recipient Mohamed Noor of Duke University, who will answer media questions about current evidence for evolution and modern evolution theory.

Contact: Bobbie Mixon
bmixon@nsf.gov
703-292-8485
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 20-Nov-2009
{DISSERTATION} Science journalism awards announced
A television feature about growing diamonds in the lab, and a radio story that dramatizes some strange coincidences in a discussion of randomness and probability won recognition earlier this month in the 2009 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards. Both programs were funded in part by the National Science Foundation.
National Science Foundation

Contact: Maria C. Zacharias
mzachari@nsf.gov
703-292-8454
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
62nd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics
{DISSERTATION} On the crest of wave energy
The ocean is a potentially vast source of electric power, yet as engineers test new technologies for capturing it, the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency and the need to be tethered to the seafloor.

Contact: Joshua A. Chamot
jchamot@nsf.gov
703-292-7730
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 16-Nov-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
{DISSERTATION} Growth spurt in tree rings prompts questions about climate change
Researchers Matthew Salzer and Malcolm Hughes of the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and their colleagues have analyzed tree-rings from bristlecone pine trees at the highest elevations, looking for the reasons behind an extraordinary surge in growth over the past 50 years. Their findings appear in the Nov. 16 early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
National Science Foundation

Contact: Maria Zacharias
mzachari@nsf.gov
703-292-8454
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 12-Nov-2009
{DISSERTATION} Record highs far outpace record lows across US
Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows.

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 10-Nov-2009
{DISSERTATION} Oceanographers develop 'swarms' of robotic ocean explorers
In an effort to plug gaps in knowledge about key ocean processes, the National Science Foundation's division of ocean sciences has awarded nearly $1 million to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. The Scripps marine scientists will develop a new breed of ocean-probing instruments. Jules Jaffe and Peter Franks will spearhead an effort to design and deploy autonomous underwater explorers, or AUEs. AUEs will trace the fine details of oceanographic processes vital to tiny marine inhabitants.

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 4-Nov-2009
{DISSERTATION} Minority students earned greater number of academic degrees in fiscal year 2006
A new National Science Foundation report shows an increase in the number of academic degrees awarded to minority students since 2004, the last time such data were published.

Contact: Bobbie Mixon
bmixon@nsf.gov
703-292-8485
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 30-Oct-2009
Science
{DISSERTATION} 'Technology' plays large role in wealth inheritance
A new study reveals the important role inherited wealth plays in sustaining economic inequality in small scale societies. A team of 26 anthropologists, statisticians and economists based at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico amassed an unprecedented data set allowing 43 estimates of a family's wealth inheritance and found that financial inequality among populations largely depends on the "technologies" that produce a people's livelihood.

Contact: Bobbie Mixon
bmixon@nsf.gov
703-292-8485
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 27-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} 'The Music Instinct' wins international recognition
"The Music Instinct: Science and Song," is a television documentary that brings together researchers and musicians to investigate the biological, emotional and psychological impact of music. Elena Mannes and Margaret Smilow, director and producer, of the two-hour documentary -- developed with major funding from the National Science Foundation -- were awarded the Grand Prix at Pariscience 2009, an international science film festival.

Contact: Maria C. Zacharias
mzachari@nsf.gov
703-292-8454
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 23-Oct-2009
Nature
{DISSERTATION} Seeing previously invisible molecules for the first time
A team of Harvard chemists led by X. Sunney Xie has developed a new microscopic technique for seeing, in color, molecules with undetectable fluorescence. The room-temperature technique allows researchers to identify previously unseen molecules in living organisms and offers broad applications in biomedical imaging and research.

Contact: Jennifer A. Grasswick
jgrasswi@nsf.gov
703-292-4972
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 20-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} Diverting sediment-rich water below New Orleans could lead to extensive new land
Diverting sediment-rich water from the Mississippi River below New Orleans could generate new land in the river's delta in the next century.

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 14-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} National Science Foundation awards grants for studies of coupled natural and human systems
How do humans and their environment interact, and how can we use knowledge of these links to adapt to a planet undergoing radical climate and other environmental changes?

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 14-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} National Science Foundation congratulates Nobel Laureates in medicine/physiology, chemistry and economics
The National Science Foundation congratulates the 2009 Nobel laureates, particularly those who have received NSF funding over the years: Jack W. Szostak, who shared the prize in physiology or medicine; Thomas A. Steitz, who shared the prize in chemistry; and Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson who earned the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in economic sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel 2009.

Contact: Lisa-Joy Zgorski
lisajoy@nsf.gov
703-292-8311
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 12-Oct-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
{DISSERTATION} Self-sacrifice among strangers has more to do with nurture than nature
Socially learned behavior and belief are much better candidates than genetics to explain the self-sacrificing behavior we see among strangers in societies, from soldiers to blood donors to those who contribute to food banks.

Contact: Maria C. Zacharias
mzachari@nsf.gov
703-292-8454
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 6-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} Expeditions in computing continue to break new ground
Energy-efficient computers optimally designed for custom applications. New tools to make air travel safer and health-care interventions more effective. Robotic "bees" that lend a helping hand in search and rescue operations.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Contact: Dana W. Cruikshank
dcruiksh@nsf.gov
703-292-7738
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 6-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} Ancient China's sand dunes reveal unexpected dryness during heavy monsoon rains
The windswept deserts of northern China might seem an odd destination for studying the heavy monsoon rains that routinely drench the more tropical regions of Southeast Asia. But the sandy dunefields that mark the desert margin between greener pastures to the south and the Gobi Desert to the north are a rich source of information about past climates in Asia, says University of Wisconsin-Madison geographer Joseph Mason.

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 6-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} Climate change triggered dwarfism in soil-dwelling creatures of the past
Ancient soil-inhabiting creatures decreased in body size by nearly half in response to a period of boosted carbon dioxide levels and higher temperatures, scientists have discovered.

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Oct-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
{DISSERTATION} For future superconductors, a little bit of lithium may do hydrogen a lot of good
Scientists have a long and unsuccessful history of attempting to convert hydrogen to a metal by squeezing it under incredibly high and steady pressures.

Contact: Jennifer A. Grasswick
jgrasswi@nsf.gov
703-292-4972
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Oct-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
{DISSERTATION} Homebound termites answer 150-year-old evolution question
Staying at home may have given the very first termite youngsters the best opportunity to rule the colony when their parents were killed by their neighbors. This is according to new research supported by the National Science Foundation and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Contact: Bobbie Mixon
bmixon@nsf.gov
703-292-8070
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Oct-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
{DISSERTATION} Buried coins key to Roman population mystery?
University of Connecticut theoretical biologist Peter Turchin and Stanford University ancient historian Walter Scheidel recently developed a new method to estimate population trends in ancient Rome and waded into an intense, ongoing debate about whether the state's population increased or declined after the first century B.C.

Contact: Bobbie Mixon
bmixon@nsf.gov
703-292-8485
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} A new look beneath the waves: Ocean Observatories Initiative gets underway
Giving scientists never-before-seen views of the world's oceans, the National Science Foundation and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership have signed a Cooperative Agreement that supports the construction and initial operation of the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} Federal government's share of university R&D funding drops to 60 percent
In fiscal year 2008, universities reported science and engineering research and development expenditures of $51.9 billion, according to a new report released by the National Science Foundation.

Contact: Bobbie Mixon
bmixon@nsf.gov
703-292-8485
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Oct-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
{DISSERTATION} Buried coins may hold key to solving mystery of ancient Roman population
In an article published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Connecticut theoretical biologist Peter Turchin and Stanford University ancient historian Walter Scheidel attempt to solve the mystery surrounding ancient Rome's population by focusing on the region's prevalence of coin hoards, those bundles of buried treasure that people hid to protect their savings during times of violence and political strife.
National Science Foundation

Contact: Bobbie Mixon
bmixon@nsf.gov
703-292-8485
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 1-Oct-2009
{DISSERTATION} East African cichlid fish offer new understanding of genetic basis of sex determination
Biologists have genetically mapped the sex chromosomes of several species of cichlid fish from Lake Malawi, East Africa, and identified a mechanism by which new sex chromosomes may evolve.

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 29-Sep-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
{DISSERTATION} Living, meandering river constructed
In a feat of reverse-engineering, Christian Braudrick of University of California at Berkeley and three coauthors have successfully built and maintained a scale model of a living meandering gravel-bed river in the lab. Their findings point to the importance of vegetation to reinforce the banks and, surprisingly, to the importance of sand in healthy meandering river life.

Contact: Dana W. Cruikshank
dcruiksh@nsf.gov
703-292-7738
National Science Foundation

Showing releases 1-25 out of 72 releases.
    Click to go to page: [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]

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