April 2, 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:
In a coordinated international effort, the National Science Foundation
(NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy
are joining research forces to map and sequence the genome of the rice
plant. The project, which will be the second largest genome to be completely
sequenced, is expected to run three years in its first phase and cost
$12 million.
Most of the world's major food crops (including rice) are
grasses, and these grasses share common sets of genes. The relatively
small size of the rice genome makes it an ideal model system for understanding
the genomic sequences of other major grass crops including corn, wheat,
rye, barley, sorghum, sugarcane, and millet.
"U.S. participation in this rice genome effort is one of the goals
of the U.S. National Plant Genome Initiative," said Mary Clutter, assistant
director for biological sciences. "Knowledge about the complete sequence
of the rice genome will provide tools and resources that will be used
by a broad spectrum of the research community, from advancing basic understanding
of plant biology to developing new and value-added cereal crops." [Cheryl
Dybas]
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As NSF continues to transition from paper to electronic processes,
the Guide to Programs and the project reporting system are some of the
latest additions to NSF's electronic presence on the Internet.
The Guide
to Programs has been available electronically for several years but NSF
has not distributed it in paper form since last October. The project reporting
system has also made the transition. Following a test period involving
nearly 400 principal investigators, the agency began requiring the use
of the new format in October; as of March 17, nearly 4,500 project reports
had been submitted electronically from 475 institutions.
These new systems will help NSF comply with Government Performance
and Results Act (GPRA) requirements. Meanwhile, Federal science agencies
are working together to find ways to manage the variety of electronic
systems used by grantees. An interagency working group is developing
a common electronic interface, called Federal Commons, which will put
a common face on electronic business transactions within the research
community. [Mary Hanson]
For more on Federal Commons, see: http://www.fedcommons.gov
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Small businesses are an increasingly significant source of jobs for
recent recipients of science and engineering (S&E) bachelor's degrees,
according to a new National Science Foundation (NSF) report.
Small businesses
(companies with fewer than 500 employees) hire as many recent S&E
graduates as larger companies, and as many as all other sectors of the
U. S. economy combined, say John Tsapogas and Lawrence Rausch, authors
of the report, "Will Small Business Become the Nation's Leading Employer
of Graduates with Bachelor's Degrees in Science and Engineering?"
The report is from NSF's Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS).
The authors add that because small businesses "may have certain advantages
over large businesses in commercial environments characterized by fast-moving
technologies and rapidly changing consumer needs," they are likely to
lead medium to large business in future employment growth, "especially
in technology-intensive industries."
Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of 1993 and 1994 S&E bachelor's
degree recipients were in the workforce by 1995, according to the report.
Of those, more than a third with science and engineering degrees were
at small businesses.
Half (50 percent) of those with engineering degrees
and less than one-third (31 percent) of science degree-holders were at
medium- to large-sized businesses.
With small business closely identified
with many of the technical areas driving the nation's economic growth,
the report further suggests, small business likely will continue to be
an important employer of S&E graduates in the future. [Joel Blumenthal]
The full report is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf99322/start.htm
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The National Science Foundation has completed validation of its mission-critical
systems as Year 2000 compliant in advance of the government-wide deadline.
As of February 1999, all of these systems were validated as being
Y2K compliant. Of the 17 mission-critical systems at NSF, 10 were repaired
and 7 were replaced. (For example, NSF now has a new proposal and reviewer
system and a new personnel system-replacements that were planned as part
of modernization, but also met the Y2K compliance deadlines.)
NSF will spend the remainder of 1999 refining its Y2K contingency
plans, and testing hardware and software. [Mary Hanson] Top of Page
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