'Universal Appeal'

Photo courtesy of Gemini Observatory

NSF Sponsors Public Symposium on Astronomy

From imagining patterns in the stars to analyzing temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background, astronomers have leapt forward in both knowledge and scientific capability. Some of the nation’s top researchers will explore the 21st century cosmos during an NSF-sponsored symposium, “The Universe from the Ground Up: Ground-Based Astronomy in the 21st Century,” at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, on Oct. 7-8, 2003. The public can participate via the Internet. A lecture by Harvard University's Robert Kirshner on the current, remarkable state of excitement in cosmology will be webcast live on Oct. 7. The full day of lectures and panel discussions on Oct. 8 will be available as live streaming audio. Finally, a webcast of University of Arizona astronomer Chris Impey’s talk on "Life and the Universe" will be available on a delayed basis on Oct. 8.
More... (posted October 3, 2003)

For details on the webcast schedule, symposium agenda, and biographies of the speakers, visit: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/events/ground_astro/sym_about.htm

With the latest awards, NSF's emerging Extensible Terascale Facility encompasses data, computing and instrumentation resources at 10 sites connected by networks operating at 10 gigabits-per-second or greater through network hubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and soon Atlanta. CREDIT: Dennis Day, NSF

NSF Announces Three Awards to Extend the Reach of the Terascale Facility

NSF has announced $10 million in awards to Indiana and Purdue universities, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and The University of Texas to enhance the capabilities of NSF’s Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF). The awards will support computing resources as well as scientific instruments and data collections. Through the new awards, the ETF will put neutron-scattering instruments and other unique resources online for the nation’s research and education community. The four awardees will join the five current partners in the ETF, a multi-year effort to build and deploy the world's largest, fastest, distributed computational infrastructure for general scientific research. The new awards fund the high-speed network connections needed to share resources across the ETF infrastructure, commonly known as the TeraGrid.
More... (posted October 3, 2003)

Individual amoebas aggregate, as shown here, to form what's called a "motile slug." How they interact to do this may help explain how biological social systems evolve. Photo by Kevin Foster of the Strassmann/Queller group, Rice University

NSF'S 'FIBR' to Mix Disciplines, Use Breakthroughs on 5-Year Explorations into Biology's Mysteries
How do species arise? How definitive are they among microbes? And what does sex -- or more precisely, genetic recombination -- do for Daphnia? These questions are among those to be pursued by NSF’s new Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research (FIBR) program, which today announced its first six five-year projects. Totaling $30 million, they employ boldly creative approaches, integrate a variety of disciplines, and draw expertise from a variety of institutions to address grand challenges.
More... (posted October 3, 2003)

Liberty Bell Photo Credit: Peter West, National Science Foundation

Liberty Bell Web Portal Unites History and Technology
The National Science Foundation, in collaboration with the National Park Service's Independence National Historical Park and MicroStrain, Inc. of Williston, Vermont, has created a new web portal to feature the history and technology surrounding the Liberty Bell's journey to its new home on October 9, 2003. Combining images, videos, and easy-to-read text, the website presents details about the new sensor technology that will alert engineers and movers if the Bell's famous cracks show signs of spreading.
More... (October 3, 2003)