Close Parallels: NSF Announces U.S.-Canada Mathematics Research Center
Media are invited to an announcement of a new U.S.-Canada partnership to establish a mathematics research station in Banff, Alberta. National Science Foundation Deputy Director Joseph Bordogna will unveil a $1.27-million NSF investment to support U.S. participation in the project.
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Small Wonders: NSF Showcases Potential of Nanotechnology
The National Science Foundation (NSF) will host leading researchers at a symposium and exhibition of nanoscale science and engineering on Thursday, September 13. NSF Director Rita Colwell will unveil major NSF investments in new centers. The ability to assemble materials and devices at the level of atoms and molecules -- the nanoscale -- is expected to profoundly change the way we live.
More... (posted September 4, 2001)

Nanotechnology Survey

Jupiter-Size Planet Found Orbiting Star in Big Dipper
A team of astronomers has found a Jupiter-size planet in a circular orbit around a faint nearby star, raising intriguing prospects of finding a solar system with characteristics similar to our own. The planet is the second found to orbit the star 47 Ursae Majoris in the Big Dipper, also known as Ursa Major or the Big Bear. The new planet is at least three-fourths the mass of Jupiter and orbits the star at a distance that, in our solar system, would place it beyond Mars but within the orbit of Jupiter. "Astronomers have detected evidence of more than 70 extrasolar planets," said Morris Aizenman, a senior science advisor at the National Science Foundation (NSF). "Each discovery brings us closer to determining whether other planetary systems have features like those of our own."
More... (posted August 28, 2001)

Virtual Hurricanes: Computer Model Pushes the Frontier
In a key step toward improving hurricane prediction, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., have reproduced in a computer model the fine-scale structure that drives the birth and strengthening of tropical cyclones. NCAR's primary sponsor is the National Science Foundation (NSF), which also funded the research. NCAR scientists Jordan Powers and Christopher Davis presented imagery from their hurricane simulation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the Ninth Conference on Mesoscale Processes, sponsored by the American Meteorological Society.
More... (posted August 28, 2001)