|
|
Long Before "GODZILLA"
|
Remarkable Skull of Predatory
Dinosaur Unearthed on Madagascar
Several specimens of a large predatory dinosaur --
including a nearly complete, exquisitely preserved
skull -- were recently recovered on the island of
Madagascar. The discovery is announced in a recent
issue of the journal Science by a team
of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation
(NSF) and led by paleontologist/anatomist Scott Sampson
of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine of
the New York Institute of Technology. The 65- to 70-million-year-old
fossils, attributed to an animal called Majungatholus
atopus (a theropod dinosaur), were unearthed on an
international expedition conducted by Science
paper co-author David Krause of the State University
of New York at Stony Brook. With a total body length
of almost 30 feet, Majungatholus was the top predator
of the time on Madagascar.
More...
Artwork by Bill Parsons. Images courtesy
of Science.
|
|
National Institute
for Science
Education Graduate Forum, June 29-30
An NSF-sponsored National
Institute for Science Education (NISE) Graduate Forum
will be held June 29-30 at the Key Bridge Marriott
Hotel in Arlington VA. The forum will feature promising
practices in graduate education in the United States
and alternative strategies for successfully implementing
such practices. Organized by the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Graduate School and NISE, the forum is one of a number
of NSF-supported initiatives intended to improve data
and information about science and engineering graduate
education in the United States.
More...
|
|
NSB Hearing
Highlights Importance of
Informal Education in Improving Science Literacy
A better connection
between informal and formal education would help to
prepare K-12 science and mathematics students for
the 21st century, according to several participants
at an unusual hearing in Los Angeles on May 29. The
one-day hearing, titled "Enriching Lives Through Informal
Education," was hosted by the Committee on Education
and Human Resources (EHR) of the National Science
Board (NSB). Held at the Natural History Museum of
Los Angeles County and the California Science Center,
the hearing is the first of three planned by the Board's
education committee to increase the Board's geographic
outreach.
More...
|
|
Automatic
Observatories Watch
Upper Atmosphere from Antarctica
A network of six unmanned
Antarctic Geophysical Observatories (AGOs) housing
instruments to collect data about the earth's ionosphere
and magnetosphere at high latitudes is now up and
running in the remote reaches of Antarctica. The AGOs
operate all year long, including over the long polar
winter. "Data from the AGOs, added to observations
from the inhabited Antarctic stations and from AGOs
of the British Antarctic Survey, are beginning to
give us a wealth of information about the ionosphere
at high geomagnetic latitudes -- the region around
the earth's geomagnetic pole," said John Lynch, National
Science Foundation (NSF) program director for polar
aeronomy and astrophysics.
More...
|
|
|