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For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Bill Noxon Contents of this News Tip:
ANALYSIS SHOWS RESEARCH COSTS NOT TIED TO UNDERGRAD TUITIONCollege tuitions and fees nationwide rose at virtually the same rate over the last decade and a half--well over 200 percent--regardless of whether institutions were public or private, and whether or not they engaged heavily in science research. A new issue brief published by the National Science Foundation (NSF) found no evidence that tuitions may have risen to underwrite the cost of big-budget science and engineering research on the nation's campuses. The issue brief reviews an analysis of finances at 1,339 universities and four-year colleges. The brief reports that increases in tuition and fees at colleges and universities from 1980 to 1994 averaged 225 percent. There were only marginal differences in the increases between institutions with no research--223 percent--and institutions conducting extensive research--238 percent. "This suggests that tuition increases result from common underlying dynamics which affect all higher education," says Rolf F. Lehming, the NSF analyst who prepared the report. "These results help to answer the concerns that research costs have been driving up tuition costs." [George Chartier] For the complete issue brief, see http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm SCIENTISTS TO PRESENT RESULTS AT L.A. EARTHQUAKE CONFERENCELessons learned from the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake and other earthquakes in California over the past three years will be discussed by scientists August 20-22 at the Northridge Earthquake Research Conference in Los Angeles. Seismologists and other earth scientists, as well as social scientists, engineers and emergency management experts are being brought together with the help of support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Scientists from NSF's Southern California Earthquake Center will report on the center's scientific and outreach responses to the Northridge quake. They will address several questions. What are the biggest lessons learned from the Northridge quake? What has yet to be learned? What should be done to more effectively apply research and disseminate knowledge? Finally, how should scientists conduct future post-earthquake research? Representatives of the four major NEHRP (National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program) agencies--NSF, USGS, FEMA, and NIST--will attend, as will scientists from most of the major earthquake research institutions and organizations in the United States. [Cheryl Dybas] For more information on the conference visit the meeting web-site at: http://curee.eerc.berkeley.edu/curee.html HIGH-TECH RADAR DETECTS FLASH-FLOODINGMeasuring heavy rains accurately is important for anticipating flash floods. In July, 1996 a deluge of more than three inches of rain created a 12-foot wall of water along Buffalo Creek southwest of Denver. The floods washed away a bridge and a road, and left two people dead. One year later, Coloradans were dealing with similar flash-flooding outside of the mile-high city, leaving even more devastation in its wake. Rains from these storm clouds, though devastating, had a silver lining, in that they were being watched by an experimental radar device that may, in the future, be able to help spot areas of heavy rainfall and predict the resulting runoff. Called S-Pol, the new device is being used as part of research conducted by scientists at the National Science Foundation-supported National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. S-Pol can accurately measure the size and shape of raindrops, and distinguish rain from hail, unlike the currently used NEXRAD radar. Field tests are proving that S-Pol's state-of-the-art precision in distinguishing between large, flat raindrops and round hailstones, will help spot areas of heavy rainfall and predict resulting runoff. A series of experiments is planned over the next few years in various seasons and locations around the U.S. The experiments will help determine the cost-effectiveness of adding S-Pol to NEXRAD radars to help warn of catastrophic flash floods and hail. For Coloradans affected by torrential rains and flash flooding two summers in a row, the results couldn't come too soon. [Cheryl Dybas]
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