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NSF News

• Global Extinction: Gradual Doom as Bad as Abrupt

The deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth's marine life--and it killed in stages--according to a newly published report.

It shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events.

Thomas Algeo, a geologist at the University of Cincinnati, and 13 colleagues have produced a high-resolution look at the geology of a Permian-Triassic boundary section on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic.

Their analysis, published today in the ...
More at http://www.nsf.gov/n...

Domestic cats, wild bobcats and pumas that live in the same area share the same diseases.

And domestic cats may bring them into human homes, according to results of a study of what happens when big and small cats cross paths.

Initial results of the multi-year study are published today in the scientific journal PLoS One by a group of 14 authors.

The joint National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ecology and Evolution of ...
More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_...

Biologists who released lizards on tiny uninhabited islands in the Bahamas have uncovered a seldom-observed interaction between evolutionary processes.

Jason Kolbe, a biologist at the University of Rhode Island (URI)--along with colleagues at Duke University, Harvard University and the University of California, Davis--found that the lizards' genetic and morphological (form and structural) traits were determined by both natural selection and a phenomenon called the founder ...
More at http://www....

The National Science Foundation (NSF) along with the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), today announced the winners of the ninth annual International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

Illustrators, photographers, computer programmers and designers from around the world submitted visualizations to a once-a-year challenge designed to celebrate and encourage the visual communication of science for ...
More at http://www.nsf...

While researchers have long known of the incredible strength of spider silk, the robust nature of the tiny filaments cannot alone explain how webs survive multiple tears and winds that exceed hurricane strength.

Now, a study that combines experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations shows that web durability depends not only on silk strength, but on how the overall web design compensates for damage and the response of individual strands to continuously ...
More at h...

The National Science Board (NSB) will meet on February 2 and 3, 2012, to address science and engineering, as well as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education issues of interest to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The meeting will be webcast as well.

Members of the media and the public are invited to open portions of the meeting. Please go to the NSB website for the webcast link and full agenda.

Some of the ...
More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=12...

Elastic electronics offer less invasive, more convenient medical treatment
Full story at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/skinmountedelectronics.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

This is an NSF News item.

Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have demonstrated how a new virus evolves, shedding light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Science.

The scientists showed for the first time how the virus called "Lambda" evolved to find a new way to attack host cells, an innovation that took four mutations to accomplish. This virus infects bacteria, in particular the common E. ...
More at http://www.nsf...

NBC News' educational arm, NBC Learn, and the NBC Sports Group recently teamed up with the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Science Foundation (NSF) to release "Science of NHL Hockey"--an informative 10-part video series exploring the science behind the fastest game on ice.

Made especially for students and teachers to use in the classroom, the videos will be aligned to lesson plans and national state education standards, and are available to the public cost-free on ...
More at...

About one in five young adults in their late 30's received a flu shot during the 2009-2010 swine flu epidemic, a University of Michigan (U-M) study released today says.

But about 65 percent were at least moderately concerned about the flu, and nearly 60 percent said they were following the issue very or moderately closely.

Using survey data collected from approximately 3,000 young adults during the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza epidemic, this second of three parts in a U-M ...
More at http://www.nsf.g...

Mediterranean bottom currents and the sediment deposits they leave behind offer new insights into global climate change, the opening and closing of ocean circulation gateways and locations where hydrocarbon deposits may lie buried under the sea.

A team of 35 scientists from 14 countries recently returned from an expedition off the southwest coast of Iberia and the nearby Gulf of Cadiz. There the geologists collected core samples of sediments that contain a detailed record of the ...
More at http...

This powered prosthetic is better at anticipating the next move
Full story at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/bionicleg.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

This is an NSF News item.

You are invited to participate in a live online chat on January 19 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST with two eminent scientists about cutting-edge research currently being conducted by the U.S. Antarctic Program in Antarctica--the coldest, windiest and driest place on Earth.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, through which it coordinates all U.S. scientific research on the southernmost continent and aboard ships in the Southern Ocean as well as related ...
More at...

The United States remains the global leader in supporting science and technology (S&T) research and development, but only by a slim margin that could soon be overtaken by rapidly increasing Asian investments in knowledge-intensive economies. So suggest trends released in a new report by the National Science Board (NSB), the policymaking body for the National Science Foundation (NSF), on the overall status of the science, engineering and technology workforce, education efforts and ...
More a...

More than 500 million years ago, single-celled organisms on Earth's surface began forming multi-cellular clusters that ultimately became plants and animals.

Just how that happened is a question that has eluded evolutionary biologists.

Now scientists have replicated that key step in the laboratory using common Brewer's yeast, a single-celled organism.

The yeast "evolved" into multi-cellular clusters that work together cooperatively, reproduce and adapt to ...
More at http://www.nsf.g...

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