'Science & Engineering Indicators 2000'
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Science and Engineering "In Transition" as a New Century Begins
Increasing globalization of research and development (R&D;) and the prolific
growth of information technology (IT) are major elements in a "science and
engineering enterprise that is in transition," the National Science Board
(NSB) said in its biennial report to the President and Congress on the
nation's status in science and engineering. The new Science and
Engineering Indicators 2000-- the first report of the new century and the
first-ever two-volume edition -- emphasizes a changing context for NSF, and
for science and engineering, generally. "Today, it is much more of an
international landscape in S&E;," said Science Board chair Eamon Kelly.
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Full volumes of Science and Engineering Indicators 2000
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New Test for Presence of Nitric Oxide Could Improve Medical Knowledge
Researchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have developed
a means to detect nitric oxide that could help improve scientists'
understanding of this molecule's role in neurological signaling and other
biological functions. Stephen Lippard, Katherine J. Franz and Nisha Singh of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology synthesized a nitric oxide sensing
system that consists of a molecule whose fluorescence switches on when nitric
oxide is present. Nitric oxide plays a major role in the regulation of blood
pressure, the prevention of blood clotting, the dilation of blood vessels and
the destruction of pathogens.
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New England Experienced "Ice Age" El Niño
The New England region underwent El Niño-like climate changes during
the Ice Age, NSF-supported researchers have found. Scientists define El
Niño as a disruption of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical
Pacific, which has important consequences for weather around the globe. The
team's findings show a strong three-to-five-year cycle of El Niño
activity during the latter part of the last Ice Age--the same frequency with
which El Niño occurs today.
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Discovery of Fossil Mollusks in Alaska Links Histories of Arctic Ocean and
Isthmus of Panama
Finding two fossil mollusks in a California collection led a researcher
funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to undertake field work in
Alaska that he says links the formation of the Isthmus of Panama
approximately 3.6 million years ago to a reversal of water flow through the
Bering Strait. Louie Marincovich, of the California Academy of Sciences, is
the first to produce fossil evidence that the flow of water through the
strait, which separates Russia and Alaska, was reversed from southward to
northward by the uplifting of the Isthmus. He also is the first to date the
flow shift.
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Astronomers Win Protection for Key Part of Spectrum
Astronomers using the millimeter-wave region of the radio spectrum have won
crucial protection for their science. The 2,500 delegates to the World
Radiocommunication Conference (WCR 2000) have given final approval to
dedicated spectrum allocations for radio astronomy. The new millimeter-wave
allocations represent the culmination of more than three years of cooperative
planning by radio astronomers in many countries. Millimeter waves --
high-frequency radio waves -- have come of age as an astronomical tool in the
last ten years. They are one of the last technological frontiers for
astronomers.
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