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NSB Urges Response to Poor Achievement in Math & Science Education
The National Science Board (NSB) urges all stakeholders in kindergarten through twelfth grade education to develop a nation-wide consensus on core knowledge and competency in mathematics and science. Responding to the U.S. twelfth grade student performance on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the NSB made four recommendations for accomplishing this goal in a statement released recently titled "Failing Our Children: Implications for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study." The board statement describes changes that need to be made at the grass-roots level, involving the entire community of stakeholders in math and science education.    More...

Into the Blaze: Scientists Fly Above Raging Wildfires
It's wildfire season, and researchers hope to be in the midst of such blazes, during the month of September. Scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and affiliated with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, will fly a highly instrumented C-130 research aircraft around and over dangerous wildfires that may ignite this season in the United States. "The goal of the research is to understand wildfire behavior well enough to predict the course of a particular fire," says Cliff Jacobs, program manager in NSF's atmospheric sciences division, which funds NCAR.    More...

Seafloor near Papua New Guinea Investigated, Known Limit of Subsurface Biosphere Extended
The world's largest scientific drillship, the research vessel JOIDES Resolution, sailed into Australia's Sydney harbor on August 11th, completing a two-month expedition to investigate an active seafloor fault zone off the east coast of Papua New Guinea. Scientists aboard the cruise, conducted under the aegis of the international Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and funded in large part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), gained a better understanding of how tectonic plates slip, often causing large earthquakes and tsunamis that devastate geologically unstable parts of the world.    More...

Microchips and Bacteria-blockers Could Help Make your Dinner Safe
Could a tiny microchip placed in every food package at your neighborhood supermarket help ensure that your family dinner is safe to eat? Could genetic manipulation be used to prevent bacteria from forming on food? Engineers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) are studying these and other previously unimagined ways of enhancing food safety.    More...