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  March 1, 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.
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Artist's conception of a carnivorous dinosaur
An artist's conception of a carnivorous dinosaur recently discovered in Antarctica. Credit: Trent Schindler / National Science Foundation

A Lost World: Two Previously Unknown Dinosaurs Discovered in Antarctica

Against incredible odds, researchers working in separate sites, thousands of miles apart in Antarctica have found what they believe are the fossilized remains of two species of dinosaurs previously unknown to science. One of the two finds, which were made less than a week apart, is of an early form of plant-eating beast that would have lived many millions of years before the other, a carnivore, ever existed. Lending a striking 21st-century touch to the finds, the researchers used satellite-based Iridium telephones at their field camps to notify each other of their respective discoveries.
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Photo of a synthetic brilliant cut single-crystal diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition, CVD.
This photograph shows a synthetic brilliant cut single-crystal diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition, CVD. About 2.5 mm high, this crystal was grown in about 1 day at Carnegie. The very bottom (table) of the crystal is a type 1b seed: hence the yellow tint which is due to internal reflection (the CVD diamond is transparent). [C.S. Yan et al., Physica Status Solidi (a) 201,R25 (2004)(PDF 288KB)]. The researchers have also reported that these CVD diamonds are capable of easily generating ultrahigh pressures to at least 200 GPa.[W.L. Mao et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 5190 (2003)(PDF 288KB)]. Credit: Image used with permission of Physica Status Solidi.

Large Diamonds Made From Gas Are Hardest Yet

Producing a material that is harder than natural diamond has been a goal of materials science for decades. Now a group headed by scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, D.C., has produced gem-sized diamonds that are harder than any other crystals and at a rate up to 100 times faster than other methods used to date. The process opens up an entirely new way of producing diamond crystals for electronics, cutting tools and other industrial applications. "This is a great example of fundamental research that will not only give us a better tool to duplicate conditions in the core of the Earth, but will stimulate many other scientific, technical and economic advances," said geologist James Whitcomb of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s division of earth sciences, which funded the research.
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Scene from animation schematically showing the anatomy of the single-chambered microbial fuel cell.
This National Science Foundation animation schematically shows the anatomy of the single-chambered microbial fuel cell developed at Pennsylvania State University.
Credit: Trent L. Schindler / National Science Foundation

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Fuel-Cell Microbes' Double Duty: Treat Water, Make Energy-NSF 'Sugar' Grant Supports Single—Chamber Prototype Fed by Wastewater

Something big may be brewing on the sewage-treatment circuit thanks to a new design that puts bacteria on double-duty-treating wastewater and generating electricity at the same time. The key is an innovative, single-chambered microbial fuel cell. The prototype is described in the online version of the journal Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T;) (http://pubs.acs.org/journals/esthag/); the article will also appear in a future print version of ES&T.; A fuel cell operates akin to a battery, generating electricity from a chemical reaction. But instead of running down unless it's recharged, the cell receives a constant supply of fuel from which electrons can be released.
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