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August 28, 1998

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 Dybas

SEAFLOOR NEAR PAPUA NEW GUINEA INVESTIGATED, KNOWN LIMIT OF SUBSURFACE BIOSPHERE EXTENDED

The world's largest scientific drillship, the research vessel JOIDES Resolution, sailed into Australia's Sydney harbor on August 11th, completing a two-month expedition to investigate an active seafloor fault zone off the east coast of Papua New Guinea.

Scientists aboard the cruise, conducted under the aegis of the international Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and funded in large part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), gained a better understanding of how tectonic plates slip, often causing large earthquakes and tsunamis that devastate geologically unstable parts of the world. Specialized drilling equipment aboard the ship was used to recover sediment and rock samples from more than 900 meters (some 3,000 feet) beneath the seafloor. Sensitive instruments were lowered into these holes to record the borehole temperature and to measure the conditions at depth.

Earthquakes, faults, volcanoes, and hot springs attest to the active tearing-apart of the Papua New Guinea continent, one of the most active regions of continental break-up in the world. Knowing how earth's crust in this region moved over time, scientists can reconstruct how the area formed, and what its future might be. What was once a terrestrial area of islands, swamps, and lagoons six million years ago, for example, now lies several miles below sea level.

Early results from the cruise also have extended the known limit of the deep sub-seafloor biosphere; living microbial life was found in hard sedimentary rock as old as 15 million years, and as deep as 846 meters (2,776 feet) under the ocean floor. [Cheryl Dybas]

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MICROCHIPS AND BACTERIA-BLOCKERS COULD HELP MAKE YOUR DINNER SAFE

Could a tiny microchip placed in every food package at your neighborhood supermarket help ensure that your family dinner is safe to eat? Could genetic manipulation be used to prevent bacteria from forming on food? Engineers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) are studying these and other previously unimagined ways of enhancing food safety. This week's announcement of a Presidential Food Safety Council demonstrates that public concern over food safety remains high, years after a series of well-publicized contamination incidents. Janie Fouke of NSF's bioengineering and environmental systems division says, "Fifty years ago, most food products virtually went from the garden to the kitchen table. Today, there are many more steps in the process - each of which can be a site for contamination. Finding slight, but dangerous, contamination in a large quantity of food is quite a challenge. Food safety is an important issue that requires a multi-disciplinary approach." [Joel Blumenthal]

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POWERFUL MAGNET ATTRACTS RESEARCHERS

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) is celebrating the inauguration of the most powerful controlled-power magnet in the world. The NHMFL expects the 60 Tesla [T] Long-Pulse Magnet to provide a powerful research tool for scientists from industry, government and academia.

Supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the State of Florida, the NHMFL is a partnership between Florida State University, the University of Florida and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

When running at 60T, the magnet can generate fields roughly 1.5 million times stronger than Earth's magnetic field. Since steady state magnets tend to melt or explode when subjected to the physical stresses of producing such high-energy magnetic fields, this magnet operates in pulses to create and sustain powerful, yet more stable fields. Although only lasting for milliseconds, these pulses can provide researchers with unique opportunities to explore properties of materials in ways they previously could not.

In addition, scientists can tailor the shape, duration and power of the magnetic field pulses to suit a variety of experiments. The magnet will likely be able to provide scientists with insight on the development of better superconductors or the nature of the magnetic properties of organisms. Already, experiments with the magnet have demonstrated its potential to revolutionize research using pulsed magnetic fields. [Greg Lester]

-NSF-

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