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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: Tom Garritano Contents of this News Tip:
Scientists at NSF Center Identify California Seismic Hot SpotsScientists affiliated with the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), one of 28 National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Centers, have released the results of a comprehensive study that identifies hot spots of seismic shaking in southern California. "Considering all possible earthquakes, these are areas that we believe are going to shake more than other areas," says Tom Henyey, director of SCEC. The hot spots are southern California's large valleys and basins where the ground is flatter, the soil softer and the area more populous. While it has been known that sediment-filled valleys usually shake more than rock-hard mountain slopes during earthquakes, the SCEC study quantifies and refines how the local geology affects waves generated by earthquakes. The most important geologic factors, says Henyey, are the softness of rock or soil near a site’s surface and the thickness of sediments below a site. Says James Whitcomb, deputy director of NSF's earth sciences division, which funds SCEC, "What's exciting is that these recently developed techniques can be applied to other parts of the U.S. and the world to reduce the destruction of earthquakes." The SCEC study is published this month as a special volume of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. [Cheryl Dybas] Local Research Fuels Innovation and PatentsPolitics is local, and now so is innovation, according to a new report from CHI Research Inc. of New Jersey. Businesses that once turned to giants like IBM and Bell Labs for technology ideas are now looking in their own backyard to local universities and research institutes. The results, from a study funded by NSF, will soon be published in the journal Research Policy and are currently available at the CHI Research website. According to Diana Hicks, senior policy analyst at CHI Research, a look at U.S. patents across the past twenty years shows that the explosion of information and health technologies is changing how ideas develop into products. One clear trend is that in-state scientific capabilities are key to the success of local high-tech businesses. The study also found that the West Coast has overtaken the Middle Atlantic regions in the number of patents awarded. Hicks noted that universities have become big players in innovation and patenting, led by a few dominant high-tech regions like San Francisco, San Diego, Washington and Boston. [Dave Vannier] To view the entire report see: http://www.chiresearch.com/changing_innov.pdf Genes Reveal New Clues About the First FlowerResearchers funded by NSF and affiliated with Penn State University have performed the most extensive study yet of what the first flowering plants may have looked like. The genetic analysis, performed by Penn State biologist Claude dePamphilis, was designed to find the first flower's closest living kin among 150 species whose genetic origins are thought to be the most ancient. The analysis revealed that the title of "oldest living flower" is shared by two very different-looking plants - water lilies and a rare woody shrub named Amborella that grows wild only on the remote island of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Scientists have practical reasons for wanting to know the precise genetic relationships among flowering plants. Among the potential benefits are more efficient discovery of natural drugs, a precise framework for the bioengineering of plants used in agriculture and medicine, and the ability to make more-informed decisions about biodiversity conservation. First appearing on Earth during the age of the dinosaurs
more than 140 million years ago, flowering plants
- known as angiosperms - have been called one of evolution's
greatest success stories and are an important foundation
of human society. Now the world's dominant form of
plant life, flowering plants are the source of fruits,
vegetables, grains, livestock feed, and medicines,
in addition to comprising a large proportion of rain
forests and other ecosystems. [Cheryl Dybas]
NSF is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly $4.5 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.newswise.com
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