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March 5, 1999

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: Cheryl Dybus

Contents of this News Tip:

• NSF DIRECTOR TESTIFIES TO NEED FOR RESEARCH INTEGRATION
• NSF STUDY SHOWS DRAMATIC SHIFT IN SHARES OF FEDERAL S&E; RESEARCH SUPPORT
• GENE FOR IRON IN PLANTS ISOLATED: May Lead to Development of Nutrient-Rich Foods

NSF DIRECTOR TESTIFIES TO NEED FOR RESEARCH INTEGRATION

NSF Director Rita Colwell emphasized to members of Congress this week the need for "an investment strategy that reaches all fields and disciplines."

In a March 3 statement before the Senate Science and Technology Caucus, she testified that this strategy should be "our highest priority," referring to a recent NSF report showing a sharp shift in the mix of federal support to various disciplines.

Colwell also testified March 4th to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA/HUD and Independent Agencies about NSF's emphasis, in its FY2000 budget request, on information technology and on biocomplexity. Both are based on a need for more integration. "For all of our ability to push the high-end in computing, no one really understands how all the pieces work together," Colwell pointed out. Regarding biocomplexity -- which is a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the world's environment -- Colwell pointed out that "for generations, scientists have studied parts of our environmental system...now it is time for a better understanding of how those parts function as a whole." [Mary Hanson]

For full text of testimony, see: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/congress/hearingtest.htm

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NSF STUDY SHOWS DRAMATIC SHIFT IN SHARES OF FEDERAL S&E RESEARCH SUPPORT

The end of the Cold War and new national priorities were major contributors to dramatic shifts in the field mix, or "market share," of Federal support for Science and Engineering [S&E] research between 1970 and 1997, according to a National Science Foundation [NSF] Issue Brief.

The Issue Brief, "How Has the Field Mix of Federal Research Funding Changed Over the Past Three Decades?" was produced by the NSF's Division of Science Resources Studies [SRS]. The share of Federal S&E research funding for the life sciences increased nearly by half - from 29.4 percent of the total mix to 43.1 percent, according to the report.

Meanwhile, engineering's share of federal research support dropped by nearly two fifths, from 31.4 to 19.4 percent, between 1970 and 1997. The mathematical and computer sciences' (primarily the latter) "market share" tripled, from 1.9 to 5.7 percent, while the social and physical sciences also saw significant drops in their share.

Six Federal agencies -- the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the Department of Defense (DoD); the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); the Department of Energy (DOE); the NSF; and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) -- provide 90 percent of Federal funds for S&E research in the United States.

"A declining Department of Defense budget in the post-Cold War period led to fears of declining support for engineering and the physical sciences," noted Issue Brief author Alan Rapoport. "Recent increases in the budgets of the NIH have stirred anxiety about funding imbalances between the life sciences and other fields." [Joel Blumenthal]

The Issue Brief is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/issuebrf/ib99328.htm

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GENE FOR IRON IN PLANTS ISOLATED
May Lead to Development of Nutrient-Rich Foods

Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have discovered a gene that helps plants take up iron from soil. This finding could eventually lead to development of iron-rich foods.

Iron deficiency afflicts more than three billion people, according to the World Health Organization. Lack of nutrients in diet is known as "hidden hunger," and is widely recognized as the world's biggest malnutrition problem. Plants are the principal source of iron in human diets, but low iron availability in soils often limits plant growth and uptake of this nutrient, according to scientist Mary Lou Guerinot of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. With the isolation of the gene (called FRO2) responsible for helping plants take up iron from soil, crops could be manipulated to become several times richer in iron, or to become so efficient at extracting iron from the ground that they could grow in soils that would not normally support them.

Guerinot worked with colleagues at Newcastle University in England to find the gene. The researchers used the mustard plant Arabidopsis to isolate FRO2. Scientists see the potential to breed back into foods nutrients the plants lost during past selective breeding efforts. Hidden hunger, the researchers believe, has been worsened by selective breeding of plants over several thousand years to increase yield, with little or no thought to nutritional quality. "This development," says Guerinot, "may provide a new alternative." [Cheryl Dybas]

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