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  August 6, 2004: Highlights

Artist's rendition of the replacement human-occupied vehicle
Artist's rendition of the replacement human-occupied vehicle (HOV) for Alvin.
Credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Deeper-Diving Human-Occupied Submersible to Replace Alvin— New 6500-Meter Vehicle Will Provide Expanded Capabilities for U.S. Scientists

After 40 years of scientific research that led to the discovery of new life forms, helped confirm the theory of plate tectonics, and enthralled schoolchildren around the world with seafloor images and video, the research submersible Alvin will be replaced by a new, deeper-diving vehicle. The National Science Foundation (NSF) will provide funding for the vehicle through a cooperative agreement with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). A 2004 National Research Council (NRC) report, Future Needs of Deep Submergence Science, recommended construction of a new, more capable HOV as part of a suite of tools for ocean research, which includes remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).
More... (posted August 6, 2004)


Image of a dye sensitized solar cell
Dye-sensitized solar cell. Nanoparticles of titanium dioxide are coated with a dye that absorbs a wide range of light waves from the sun. Then they are applied to a conducting glass electrode immersed in an electrolyte solution containing iodine molecules and a second (platinum) electrode. The cells generate electricity when the energy captured by the dye excites an electron in the dye molecule. The electron is injected into a titanium dioxide particle and diffuses toward the glass electrode; from there, a wire carries it to the external circuit. The circuit closes when electrons return to the platinum electrode and attach to iodine molecules, which diffuse across the electrolyte, returning to and regenerating the dye. Alexander Agrios, 2004 IRFP fellow, will work with solar-cell pioneer Michael Grätzel in Switzerland to fabricate a new generation of dye-sensitized solar cells aimed at lowering the cost of solar energy.
Credit: Alex Agrios, Northwestern University

NSF Names 34 International Research Fellows—Awards honor promising early career U.S. scientists and engineers
What do solar cells based on dye-sensitized nanoparticles, disaster preparedness and response in Central Mexico and the long-wattled umbrellabird all have in common? All are among the diverse research topics 34 new recipients of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) International Research Fellowships for 2004 have chosen to study. Awarded to promising and talented American postdoctoral scientists and engineers, the fellowships enable budding researchers to conduct leading-edge research for up to two years in biology, physics, engineering, geosciences, computer science and social and behavioral sciences. The work is done with international collaboration, use of overseas instrumentation or through unique research environments available abroad.
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A still photo of coral reef
A still photo from an NSF-funded large-format film about exploration and new scientific research aimed at understanding and responding to changes in coral reef ecosystems.
Credit: MacGillivray Freeman Films

NSF Awards $10 Million in Grants to Ocean Sites for Long-Term Ecological Research
Coral reefs and coastal upwelling ecosystems are the subjects of two new Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites awarded funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF). With the addition of the Moorea Coral Reef LTER Site and the California Current Ecosystem LTER Site, there are now 26 NSF-funded sites in the LTER network. The two newest sites will receive approximately $820,000 for the next six years, for a total of about $ 5 million each. "These two new sites significantly augment the LTER network, which had included only one marine site, in the Antarctic," says Henry Gholz, director of NSF's LTER program. "The awards ensure that high biodiversity and productivity ecosystems in most of the world's major biomes, both on land and in the oceans, are represented."
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Photo of Potomac River at Mather Gorge
Potomac River cuts through Mather Gorge; Geologic process has been on-going for some 35,000 years.
Credit: Paul Bierman / University of Vermont

Geologists Discover Water Cuts Through Rock at Surprising Speed

In the first study to directly measure when and how quickly rivers outside of growing mountain ranges cut through rock, geologists at the University of Vermont have determined that it was about 35,000 years ago that the Potomac and Susquehanna rivers, respectively, began carving out the Great Falls of the Potomac and Holtwood Gorge. Great Falls, located about 15 miles outside of Washington, D.C., hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year; Holtwood Gorge lies along the Susquehanna River, near Harrisburg, Penn. As reported in the July 23 issue of the journal Science, the geologists analyzed rock samples collected from the gorges for 10-beryllium, a very rare isotope that is produced when cosmic rays collide with rocks and sediments at the Earth's surface.
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