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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. Contents of this Tipsheet:
STUDENTS CREATE WAYS TO USE THE INTERNET IN THE CLASSROOMWhile the life expectancy of textbooks is at least a decade, a world map is outdated after six months. The Internet, however, is proving useful to augment textbooks and bring learning to life, as it connects students and teachers around the world. The CyberFair '96 Award Ceremony, at 4 p.m. EDT, Monday, May 13, will culminate a year-long competition among students and teachers around the world -- 360 schools in 30 countries -- to create effective curricular content on the World Wide Web. Each project involved community resources such as chambers of commerce, farmers, or local businesses, for content, and used the Internet's WWW to share the information with others around the world. The award ceremony will take place at three locations: Dallas, the original site of CyberFair; Austin, Texas; San Diego; and the National Science Foundation, with guests Vinton Cerf and Steve Wolff. CyberFair '96 is part of the Internet World Exposition and is a jointly sponsored event of Cisco Systems, the Global SchoolNet Foundation, and MCI. Global SchoolNet is one of the commercial offspring of the NSF-originated Global SchoolHouse. (A collection of CyberFair entries is located at: http://www.gsn.org/gsn/cb) [Beth Gaston]
WEATHER-CHANGING OCEAN WAVES CHARTED FROM SPACENew results from the ocean-observing TOPEX/Poseidon satellite are challenging a fundamental oceanographic theory about the speed of large-scale ocean waves -- a finding that could ultimately revise science textbooks and improve global weather forecasting. The large-scale ocean waves, with wavelengths of hundreds of kilometers from one wave crest to the next, are called Rossby waves. These waves carry a "memory" of weather changes that have happened at distant locations over the ocean, according to NSFfunded researcher Dudley Chelton of Oregon State University in Corvallis. Using data gathered by the satellite, scientists tracked the waves as they moved through the open ocean, and determined that, at mid-latitudes, the Rossby waves are moving two to three times faster than previously thought. Since Rossby waves can alter currents and corresponding sea surface temperatures, the waves influence the way the oceans release heat to the atmosphere and thus are able to affect weather patterns. Says Chelton, "If the waves get from one side of the mid-latitude ocean to the other twice as fast, the ocean adjusts more rapidly to changes than we had previously thought." This more precise information about how fast the waves are traveling may help forecasters improve their ability to predict the effects of El Nino events on weather patterns years in advance. [Cheryl Dybas]
ARECIBO RADIO TELESCOPE GETS ENHANCED VISIONThe world's most sensitive radio telescope -- the National Science Foundation's Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico -- is undergoing a major upgrade which should introduce some entirely new areas of astronomical research. After more than 30 years of service, the largest single antennae to listen to radio emissions from space will now be able to make observations of greater sensitivity over a much greater frequency range. (The radio dish was featured in the recent James Bond film, "Goldeneye.") New technology will enable a collector called a Gregorian to correct the telescope's spherical aberration, or inability to focus incoming rays to a point -- the same problem that afflicted the Hubble Space Telescope before repair. In mid-May the Gregorian will be lifted 400 feet into place, suspended above the radio dish. Astronomers expect to make the first observations from the improved instrument in August. The upgrade will allow more precise study of pulsars, the collapsed remnants of massive stars. It will also enhance study of certain heavy molecules in cold regions of the galaxy, giving insight into areas where new stars and planets form. It will make possible better measurements of galaxies' velocities and masses, shedding light on the universe's missing matter, while asteroids will be detectable in greater detail and in much greater numbers. To follow progress on the Arecibo upgrade, see the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center's home page at http://www.naic.edu. [Lynn Simarski]
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