Celebrating National Science & Technology Week

National Science & Technology Week Seeks to Raise Science Literacy
While only one quarter of Americans understand science well enough to make informed judgments from or about science, the National Science Foundation's National Science & Technology Week '99 (NSTW '99) is helping to improve the nation's level of science understanding. Celebrated the week of April 25 to May 1, NSTW brings science and engineering technology directly to millions of Americans through exhibits, lectures, events and hands-on activities designed to make science, engineering and technology fun and easier to understand. The week represents the largest concentration of science education events and activities held in the United States.    More...

First Estimates Developed of Lightning-Associated "Sprites"
For the first time, scientists have developed a reliable estimate of the number of "sprites" spawned by a single thunderstorm. Sprites, the luminous red glows that are the high altitude companions of some lightning strikes, are the focus of a new study by researchers Steven Reising of the University of Massachusetts, and Umran Inan and Timothy Bell of Stanford University in California. The team's findings appear in the April 1 issue of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), published by the American Geophysical Union. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Air Force, and NASA. "Sprites are spectacular luminous evidence of electrodynamic coupling between the neutral atmosphere in which weather processes occur and the higher altitude (60-90 km) ionized regions of the earth's atmosphere known as the mesosphere and the lower ionosphere," explains Sunanda Basu, director of NSF's aeronomy program, which funded the research. "The importance of the new finding is that the radio signals produced by lightning discharges that lead to sprites are distinctly different from those due to other lightning discharges."    More...

Stanford Chemical Engineer Chaitan Khosla Receives Alan T. Waterman Award from NSF
A 34-year-old Stanford University professor of chemical engineering and chemistry whose work is leading to the discovery of new drugs to fight infections and diseases has received NSF's most prestigious prize for young researchers. Chaitan S. Khosla will be honored with the 1999 Alan T. Waterman Award at a National Science Board awards ceremony May 5 in Washington, D.C. Khosla's work in elucidating the genes involved in the microbial production of polyketides, and methods for modifying these genes, "has captured the attention of the entire pharmaceutical industry as an exciting new approach for the production of new antimicrobial agents from engineered organisms," said 1988 Waterman Award winner and University of California-Berkeley professor of chemistry Peter G. Schultz.    More...

NSF to Provide $21 Million for Computer Science, Engineering and Math Scholarships
The National Science Board has approved plans by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide some $21 million to fund 8,000 one-year scholarships of up to $2,500 each to low income students who pursue degrees in computer science, engineering or mathematics. These Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarships (CSEMS) are authorized by the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998. According to Luther S. Williams, NSF's director of education and human resources, 100 institutions will receive the two-year scholarship fund grants in the first year of the program. "These scholarships are not expected to be a 'magic bullet,'" Williams said. "They are but one component of what necessarily must be a multi-pronged approach to ameliorating the nation's current need for people trained in the sciences, math and high-technology," he said.    More...

Nuclear Submarine Puts to Sea to Serve Science
Researchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) are sailing aboard a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine in April to map the oceanic ridges and basins beneath the Arctic ice cap and study ocean currents that may have an effect on global climate. NSF is mounting Scientific Ice Expedition (SCICEX) '99 in cooperation with the U.S. Navy and the Office of Naval Research. The exercise is the fifth in a series of annual SCICEX missions, all of which have employed some of the world's stealthiest and most maneuverable warships. SCICEX '99 will be conducted aboard USS Hawkbill (SSN 666), which is able to travel almost at will under the ice, making it a unique platform for a sophisticated sonar system dubbed the Seafloor Characterization and Mapping Pods (SCAMP).    More...