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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:
Dollhouses Feature Flashing Lights and Rubber DucksStudents are designing special dollhouse rooms at Purdue University to help physically disabled toddlers develop their motor skills, exercise their senses and enhance their ability to play with their peers. In engineering and child development curricula, these students are designing the dollhouse rooms and other electromechanical toys as part of an NSF-funded program called Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS). The dollhouse rooms have electronically controlled features, such as lights, sounds and appliances similar to those in real homes. The bathroom, for example, features a rubber duck that swims, an electronically controlled toilet lid and the sound of draining water, which the toddlers can control with touch or speech. Each room can be customized to help a child develop particular motor or speech skills. More than 300 Purdue undergraduates are involved in 20 of the community projects. The students benefit through the development of practical engineering skills and interdisciplinary teamwork. They also learn to apply engineering expertise to solving social problems. Community organizations, in turn, gain a source of technical expertise. EPICS projects are also underway at the University of Notre Dame, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and at Iowa State, Penn State and Case Western Reserve Universities. [Amber Jones] Antarctic Neutrino Detector Works!An observatory embedded in the Antarctic ice has become the first in the world to detect high-energy neutrinos -- subatomic particles created by cataclysmic collisions. The Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Array (AMANDA) is one of the world's largest particle detectors, with 677 photodetectors buried deep within the ice beneath the South Pole. AMANDA is designed to detect and track the path of neutrinos that have traveled from space and through the earth, from north to south. The earth filters out most other particles. The March 22 issue of Nature reported the array's capability, as recently proven by its detection of high-energy neutrinos generated in the earth's atmosphere by cosmic rays striking the earth from space. This result establishes AMANDA as a working instrument capable of being the first to detect neutrinos emanating from violent cosmic phenomena billions of light-years away, such as colliding black holes, gamma-ray bursts and the wreckage of exploded stars. "This is our coming-out party," said AMANDA team leader Robert Morse of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "Now we start the process of discovery." [Amber Jones] For more information see: http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/amanda.html Federal Obligations for Academic Science & Engineering Sees Double-Digit Increase in 1999Federal agencies obligated a record $18.1 billion for academic activities in science and engineering (S&E;) during fiscal 1999, representing a 12 percent, or almost a two- billion-dollar increase, over the previous year. Among the agencies that fund the largest amounts of academic S&E;, the largest increase went to the Department of Health and Human Services (13.8 percent), followed by NASA (12.4 percent). The information comes from NSF's Division of Science Resources Studies, based on statistics from its annual survey of federal science and engineering support to universities, colleges and nonprofit institutions. Summarized in a new Data Brief, the survey said that funds obligated for instructional facilities and equipment more than doubled in 1999, to a level of $47 million. The survey data was obtained from 18 different agencies, and summarizes support to academic S&E; activities in the categories of: research and development (R&D;); R&D; plant; instructional facilities and equipment; fellowships, traineeships and training grants; and other general and miscellaneous support. The top 20 universities receiving federal academic support for S&E; activities accounted for 35 percent of the total obligations. [Bill Noxon] For more information, see: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/databrf/nsf01321/sdb01321.htm
or: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/new.htm
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