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News Tip

 


November 20, 2000

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: Tom Garritano

Genetic Triggers Keep Plants "On Schedule"

Life scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Eukaryotic Genetics Program are using genetics as a powerful tool to reveal how light tells flowers when to bud and bloom. According to research at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., the direct interaction between two photoreceptor genes modulates the internal clock of plants, providing information about their environment and keeping them in sync with the earth's 24-hour cycle.

The results were published in the November 9 issue of Nature, in an article titled "Functional Interaction of Phytochrome B and Cryptochrome 2." These two genes help control "circadian" rhythms in Arabidopsis, a weed in the mustard family that is widely used as a model by plant geneticists. Organisms regulate their behavior and metabolism in circadian patterns; for example, such genetic cues also tell humans when to sleep and fireflies when to glow.

The Scripps research is led by Steve Kay. The Nature article's lead author, Paloma Mas, is a research associate in Kay's laboratory. [Tom Garritano]

For more about the circadian research, see http://www.nsf.gov/bio/.
For more about the NSF eukaryotic genetics program, see: http://www.nsf.gov/bio/mcb/mcbgene.htm

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CD-Rom Puts Students "On Board" Research Ship

A newly developed interactive CD-ROM is taking students on a voyage of discovery on board the international Ocean Drilling Program (ODP)’s sophisticated science research drill ship, JOIDES Resolution. The Ocean Drilling Program is supported in large part by NSF. Using sediment cores recovered by the drill ship at two ODP sites in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea, students study the growth of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere over the past four million years.

As students search for clues to the Earth’s climate history, they learn about the links between Northern Hemisphere glaciation, plate tectonics and ocean circulation.

The program, called Gateways to Glaciation, includes a virtual tour of the JOIDES Resolution and allows students to interactively "visit" scientists in ship-based laboratories during a typical two-month ocean-exploration voyage.

The CD-ROM is appropriate for use in high school and introductory college courses.
[Cheryl Dybas]

Gateways to Glaciation is available without charge from joi@brook.edu.
The Gateways to Glaciation Teachers’ Manual will be available by January 1, 2001 at http://www.joi-odp.org/ussp/.
Request for copies of the CD-ROM and the teacher’s manual may also be mailed to Gateways to Glaciation, Joint Oceanographic Institutions, 1755 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036.

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SBIR-Financed Laser Pays Off for Small Company

Funding from NSF's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)program helped a Texas company develop a mid-infrared semiconductor laser that has earned the company commercial contracts and a prestigious award.

Applied Optoelectronics Inc.'s laser is considerably less expensive and more compact than conventional infrared lasers with equivalent power. Potential uses include missile defense, detection of hazardous chemicals and explosives, sensitive chemical analysis and diagnostic applications such as medical assessments of glucose.

The company's laser earned the SBIR Technology of the Year Award for sensors and instrumentation at the annual National SBIR Conference in Bellevue, Wash., in early November. NSF, the U.S. Air Force and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization helped fund development of the laser with SBIR grants. [Amber Jones]

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-NSF-

NSF is an independent federal agency which supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of about $4 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states, through grants to about 1,600 universities and institutions nationwide. Each year, NSF receives about 30,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 10,000 new funding awards.

For instant information about NSF, sign up for the Custom News Service. From the toolbar on NSF’s home page, (http://www.nsf.gov), sign up to receive electronic versions of NSF news, studies, publications and reports. Follow the simple sign-on procedures that guide you to your choices. Also see NSF news products at: http://www.nsf.gov:80/od/lpa/start.htm, http://www.eurekalert.org/, and http://www.ari.net/newswise

 

 
 
     
 

 
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