April 10, 2001
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:
A website launched March 27 by the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution (WHOI) and funded by the National Science
Foundation (NSF) will take users on a vicarious expedition
into ocean science. By following the activities of
a scientific mission to the Indian Ocean to look for
hydrothermal vents, students and teachers in 22 states
and Guam will be among the first to know of scientists'
discoveries at the seafloor in one of Earth's most
remote regions.
Scientist Cindy Van Dover of the College of William
and Mary is the expedition's chief scientist.
The site provides an inside look at the sights, sounds
and action of scientific research--in near-real-time--with
daily updates, slides and videos, and through e-mail
correspondence with shipboard scientists. The website
includes interactive teaching aids on subjects such
as hydrothermal vent biology, vent chemistry, earth
history, plate tectonics and the history of oceanography.
"The site gives teachers a tremendous opportunity to
demonstrate scientific concepts in the classroom,"
said Woods Hole geologist Dan Fornari. "It provides
an exciting daily window through which students can
see science in action during one of oceanography's
most exciting periods."
WHOI geologist Susan Humphris explained: "This expedition
could answer many questions we have about the differences
in vent communities in the world's oceans, and has
the potential to result in many discoveries." [Cheryl
Dybas]
For more information, see: www.divediscover.whoi.edu
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Integrating research and education is vital to the
future science and engineering workforce in the United
States, NSF's Tom Weber told almost 300 graduates
and undergraduates at the 15th National Conference
of Black Physics Students at Stanford University Mar.
29-Apr. 1.
The annual meeting, held in conjunction with the National
Conference of Black Physicists and co-sponsored by
NSF, encourages the students to pursue physics careers
by providing career advice, networking opportunities
and tours of national physics laboratories. This year,
the students toured the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center.
"NSF is as much about preparing a world-class workforce
as it is about discovery," said Weber, director of
NSF's materials research division. "We continually
break new ground through the research and education
we support, but we need people to turn the new knowledge
into innovation." [Amber Jones]
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Protecting endangered species hotspots is touted as
a simple, efficient way of conserving many at-risk
plants and animals. But this approach may not be enough
to protect endangered species. Today's hotspots may
not be tomorrow's hotspots, according to research
funded in part by NSF and published in the April issue
of Conservation Biology.
Researchers at Michigan State University assessed the
distribution of U.S.-listed threatened and endangered
species by county covering three overlapping time
periods--1967-79, 1967-89 and 1967-99--and ranked
the hotspots according to the number of unique listed
species. The scientists, Daniel Rutledge, Christopher
Lepczyk, Jianguo Liu and Jialong Xie, found that the
number, location and importance of hotspots varied
considerably through the years. The overall number
of listed species increased from 227 to 1,078. To
protect all the listed species, 84 hotspots were required
in 1979. By 1999, that number had risen to 217.
Many counties were added to or removed from the list,
and only 63 counties were hotspots during all three
time periods. The relative importance of the counties
also varied. Highlands County, Fla., for example,
did not appear on the list in 1989 but ranked second
in number of species in 1999. Hancock County, Tenn.,
ranked fifth place in 1989, but did not appear in
1999.
"Biodiversity hotspots could change because knowledge
about biodiversity and threats to biodiversity also
change over time and across space," said Liu. However,
the researchers stress that protecting hotspots is
still important.
"Any efforts to protect species and their habitats
are a good thing," says Rutledge. "Hotspots serve
as a useful tool to guiding conservation efforts,
but don't represent a final solution." [Cheryl
Dybas]
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