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  February 24, 2004: Highlights

A Change at the Top for NSF

NSF Acting Director Arden L. Bement, Jr.

Arden L. Bement, Jr., Acting Director of the National Science Foundation

Arden L. Bement, Jr., became Acting Director of the National Science Foundation on February 22, 2004. He joins NSF from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where he has been director since Dec. 7, 2001. Prior to his appointment as NIST director, Bement served as the David A. Ross Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering and head of the School of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue University. He has held appointments at Purdue University in the schools of Nuclear Engineering, Materials Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as a courtesy appointment in the Krannert School of Management.
More... (posted February 24, 2004)


NSF Director Rita Colwell

Rita Colwell to Leave National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation Director Rita R. Colwell will assume the position of Chairman of Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc. upon her retirement from the Foundation, effective February 21, 2004. Canon U.S. Life Sciences is a newly created, Washington-based subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc. whose goal is to identify and develop life-science solutions with potential applications in diagnostics and medical instrumentation. Dr. Colwell, a microbiologist and internationally recognized expert on cholera and other infectious diseases, will also serve as Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and on the faculty of The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she will help develop a new international center for the study of infectious diseases, water, and health in conjunction with scientific colleagues from Sweden, Norway, Japan, and Bangladesh. "I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to lead NSF through two Administrations and major transformational changes," Colwell said.
More... (posted February 12, 2004)

 

FISH image of the biofilm
This FISH image of the biofilm-showing Leptospirillum in yellow, archae in blue, and Sulfobacillus in green-is surrounded by a representation of a genome sequence that indicates genes by colored bars.
Credit: Gene Tyson and Jill Banfield, UC Berkeley

Microbial Biofilm Yields Community Genomes, Metabolic Clues—Research from Iron Mountain Mine Sheds Light on Acid Drainage

Examining life extracted from toxic runoff at a northern California mine, researchers for the first time have reconstructed multiple individual genomes from a microbial community taken from an environmental sample rather than from a laboratory culture. According to Jill Banfield, the leader of the scientific team behind the discovery, "This takes the study of natural biogeochemical systems to a new level." Announced Feb. 1 in the online version of the journal Nature, the research focused on a sample from a postage-stamp-sized patch of pink biofilm taken from a thin microbial layer found growing hundreds of feet underground.
More... (posted February 12, 2004)


scanning electron microscope image of novaculite
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of novaculite (a quartz-rich rock) sample after sliding at 3 mm/s. View is of the margin of a pit on the smooth sliding surface. The flat area in the lower left and bottom is a small portion of the gel-covered sliding surface. Wear debris are visible in the pit that occupies the upper right half of the image. The margin of the pit shows gel flow structures, two of which are shown by arrows, where the gel has been smeared into the pit. (Scale bar = 20 mm).
Credit: Terry Tullis, Brown University; NSF

During Earthquakes, Mineral Gel May Reduce Rock Friction to Zero

Researchers have discovered a mineral gel created when rocks abrade each other under earthquake-like conditions. If present in faults during a quake, the gel may reduce friction to nearly zero in some situations, resulting in larger energy releases that could cause more damage. Terry Tullis and David Goldsby of Brown University in Providence, R.I., and Giulio Di Toro of the University of Padova in Italy announce their findings in the Jan. 29 issue of the journal Nature. The researchers sheared quartz-rich rocks against each other under controlled conditions, simulating several aspects of a geologic fault environment. Future experiments will take advantage of a salvaged 100-horsepower BMW motorcycle engine, which will allow the apparatus to reach seismic slip speeds of one meter per second.
More... (posted February 12, 2004)


analytical tool that Toker developed
In his PhD dissertation at the North Carolina State University School of Design, Umut Toker has shown that the level of innovation in a research center is heavily influenced by physical factors such as sight lines. The easier it is for people to see each other as they move around the building, the more chance encounters they will have. The more often they encounter one another, the more often they will engage in impromptu technical discussions. And the more often they communicate, the faster they will come up with new ideas. This short video clip illustrates an analytical tool that Toker developed to highlight how a researcher's sight lines change as he or she moves around in a proposed research center.
Credit: Umut Toker

View streaming video or download video.

Beyond Feng Shui: Designing for Innovation—Layouts that Increase the Rate of Chance Encounters are Critical

Anyone who hopes to create a vigorous and productive research environment should pay close attention to its physical layout, right down to the placement of the coffee pot, the refrigerator, the microwave, the group printer, the whiteboards, and all the other items that draw people together says Umut Toker, a young scientist. Clustering such attractions in the open common areas helps to increase the number of chance encounters, explains Toker, who studied the interplay of physical space and innovation at six university research centers for his recent Ph.D. dissertation in architecture at the North Carolina State University College of Design. More encounters mean more impromptu conversations about technical issues.
More... (posted February 12, 2004)


 

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