Research is B(l)ooming

El Niño Rains Bring Bonanza of Spring Flowers
The news related to this year's El Niño isn't all bad, according to scientists who study desert annuals -- wildflowers that bloom once a year. The researchers are having a field day in California's East Mojave Desert at Anza-Borrego State Park, an arid locale east of San Diego. There, the driest parts of California's desert are covered with wildflowers this spring in what some botanists are calling a flower-lover's bonanza. "Desert annuals have been an important group for study by many ecologists, including population biologists looking at life history adaptations," says NSF-funded biologist Phil Rundel of the University of California at Los Angeles. "But this year, the picture is even more interesting. El Niño conditions are providing unusual conditions which have produced abundant germination and seed set of both common and rare desert annuals."    More...

Training Center's Opening Highlights
Technological Workforce Needs
The grand opening on April 9 of a new technology education center in the Seattle area marks a milestone for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program. The new Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) was dedicated at a ceremony in Bellevue, Washington. This is the second major ATE center NSF has supported in the critical fields of information technology and telecommunications. NSF has funded 10 other such ATE programs on a smaller scale around the United States.   More...

Six States Account for Half the Nation's R&D;
Six states -- California, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas -- accounted for about half of the U.S.' total investments in research and development (R&D;) in 1995. California topped the list in U.S. R&D; expenditures for the year, spending about $36 billion, or just over one-fifth of the $177 billion U.S. total for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to a new Data Brief from NSF's Division of Science Resources Studies.    More...

PBS to Air "Live From the Poles" During
National Science and Technology Week '98
"Live from the Poles," a distance learning electronic field trip that will air on PBS in April, will take viewers to the ends of the Earth to meet scientists who conduct research in the most fascinating regions -- the Arctic and the Antarctic. "Live from the Poles" is another in the Passport to Knowledge programs on PBS produced by Geoffrey Haines-Stiles Productions. The program will be a part of National Science & Technology Week '98, the federal government's pre-eminent observance of the importance of science and technology. NSTW '98 will focus on "Polar Connections," in recognition of the impact of the Polar Regions on everyday living.    More...