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News Highlights for 2003
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a light-conducting silica nanowire
A light-conducting silica nanowire wraps a beam of light around a strand of human hair. The nanowires are flexible and can be as slender as 50 nanometers in width, about one-thousandth the width of a hair. Credit: Limin Tong/Harvard University

December 19, 2003 Highlights
Researchers Develop Nanoscale Fibers that are Thinner than the
    Wavelengths of Light they Carry
Stable Isotope Data Provide Evidence for Huge Global Methane Release
    about 600 Million Years Ago
Researchers Engineer Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells to Form Sperm
    Cell Precursors
Detecting Terrorists and Other Hidden Groups on the Internet


 

image of a city

December 4, 2003 Highlights
Top Scientists Conclude Human Activity Is Affecting Global Climate
New Fossils from Ethiopia Open a Window on Africa's "Missing Years"
Taking Cues from Mother Nature to Foil Cyber Attacks
Now Available:FY2004 Guide to Programs


 

Medal of Science

October 24, 2003 Highlights
President Names Eight Elite Scientists and Engineers to Receive
    National Medals of Science
NSF Grantees Awarded 2003 Nobel Prizes in
    Economics, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine
NSF Awards $219 Million Over Five Years for Earthscope Project:
    Far-Reaching Geosciences Effort to Understand the North
    American Continent Nanoscale Iron Could Help Cleanse the Environment
NSF Grants Establish New Centers For Learning and Teaching at
    Missouri, Rutgers, Berkeley
Discover the Physical World Through the National Science Digital Library


 

Gemini South telescope

October 3, 2003 Highlights
NSF Sponsors Public Symposium on Astronomy
NSF Announces Three Awards to Extend the Reach of the
     Terascale Facility
NSF'S 'FIBR' to Mix Disciplines, Use Breakthroughs on 5-Year
     Explorations into Biology's Mysteries
Liberty Bell Web Portal Unites History and Technology


 

U.S. flag on NSF building
Mongolian Frost Rings Image courtesy: Dee Breger, LDEO; sample courtesy of G. Jacoby.

September 12, 2003 Highlights
NSF, Science Name Winners of Inaugural International Science & Engineering
    Visualization Challenge
Baboon Fathers Really Do Care About Their Kids
Nanoscale Iron Could Help Cleanse the Environment
NSF Publishes Unique Learning Resource in Time for New School Year


 

U.S. flag on NSF building

August 22, 2003 Highlights
September 11, 2003 - Patriot Day
Atmospheric Science Goes to Ground: Researchers Present New
    Findings on the Natural Hydrogen Cycle
Genome Sequence for Tomato-Infecting Microbe May
    Show How Bacteria Adapt to Plant Defenses
Microbe from Depths Takes Life to Hottest Known Limit
New Report Identifies Grand Research Challenges
    for Information Systems


 

long-lived Lost City vents
Spectacular, long-lived Lost City vents, showing accretion of vent-building carbonate. Credit: National Science Foundation, with cooperation from the University of Washington

July 28, 2003 Highlights
Hydrothermal Vent Systems Could Have Persisted for Millions
    of Years, Incubated Early Life
Self-Assembling Devices at the Nanoscale
Scientists Discover Planetary System Similar to Our Own
Biodiversity's Response to Ecosystem Productivity Depends on
    Historical Plant and Animal Relationships


 

high-throughput reactor
Photos of high-throughput reactor showing A) reactor with common headspace top plate (used for catalyst reduction) and B) reactor with isolated headspace plate (used for reaction and gas chromatograph analysis). Credit: G. W. Huber, J. W. Shabaker, and J. A. Dumesic, University of Wisconsin-Madison; NSF, DOE

June 30, 2003 Highlights
New Catalyst Paves Way for Cheap, Renewable Hydrogen
Behavior of Arctic Ocean Ridge Confounds Predictions;
    May Lead to New Insights into Crust Foundation
For Ferrets, GPI Means 'Get Pregnancy Initiated'
Draft FY2003-2008 GPRA Strategic Plan Available


 

rice

June 11, 2003 Highlights
Earliest Homo Sapiens Fossils Discovered in Ethiopia
Going with the Grain: A Tale of Rice's Smallest Chromosone
New Results Force Scientists to Rethink Single-Molecule Wires
Draft FY2003-2008 GPRA Strategic Plan Available
NSB Seeks Comments on Draft Report on National Workforce Policies
    for Science and Engineering


 

Neurospora asci.
Neurospora asci. The asci are from a cross of histone H1-GFP x wild type. Four of the eight ascospores in each ascus show glowing hH1-GFP nuclei. The remaining four ascospores contain non-glowing wild type nuclei.
Photo Credit: Dr. Namboori B. Raju of Stanford University

May 6, 2003 Highlights
Bread Mold Yields a Genome First for Filamentous Fungi
NSF Director Names 2003's Distinguished Teaching Scholars
Game Theorist Sandler Describes Unintended Consequences of U.S. Counter-Terrorism Policies
Mosaic Web Browser Celebrates 10th Birthday


 

dinosaur Majungatholus atopus
Artistic rendering of the theropod dinosaur Majungatholus atopus feeding from the remains of a conspecific.
Artwork by Demetrios M. Vital

April 4, 2003 Highlights
Dinosaur Cannibal Unearthed in Madagascar
Liberty Bell Passes Stress Test
Forest Fragmentation May Increase Lyme Disease Risk
Researchers Spy Stellar Bull's Eye; Dramatic images reveal unique star explosion


 

 
protein shell
A rendered image of the protein shell that surrounds monkey cancer virus Simian Virus SV40 (the image is based on cryo-electronmicroscopy data). Image Credit: Image is from VIrus Particle ExploreR (VIPER)

March 18, 2003 Highlights
Crystals on a Ball: Researchers attack 100-year-old puzzle, learn how a
    single layer of particles can pack on the surface of a sphere
    of "immediate national importance"
Educating for the Future: NSF Joins in ESTME Week Celebration
White House Announces Nation's Top Science, Engineering,
    Mathematics Mentors
With Toxic Crystals, Bacterium Targets -- and Takes out -- Nematodes


 

Composite material consisting of seminconducting polymers in a mesoporous silica host
3-D structure of a conical dendron (top), 12 of which self-assemble into an 8,500-atom spherical dendrimer, shown in simplified form constructed from cones (middle) and in its detailed schematic structure (bottom). Photo Credit: Virgil Percec, University of Pennsylvania

February 24, 2003 Highlights
New Molecular Self-Assembly Technique May Mimic How Cells Assemble Themselves
NSF-Supported Researcher William R. Hammer to Lecture on Jurassic Dinosaurs
    from Antarctica; NSF Will Webcast Live
Researchers Will No Longer Be "Snowed" in Predicting Future Avalanches; Study
    of variations in snow stability over geography and time are key, scientists say
NSF, Science Journal Announce Science Visualization Contest


 

 
FY 2004 Budget Request to Congress cover design

February 3, 2003 Highlights
NSF Seeks 2004 Budget of $5.48 Billion; Increase will address priorities
    of "immediate national importance"
NSF Director Rita Colwell Calls on the Science Community to Engage in
    the Policy Debate over Scientific Freedom and National Security
Earth Scientists Forge New Understanding of Mountain-Building Dynamics
Revelations in the Ice: Shackleton's Legacy, Antarctica Today
NSF Joins the NASA Family in Sorrow


 

 
Composite material consisting of seminconducting polymers in a mesoporous silica host
Ken Dial, who is a professor of vertebrate morphology and a licensed commercial pilot, holds an adult chukar partridge in his flight lab at the University of Montana
Photo Credit: K.P. Dial, University of Montana

January 15, 2003 Highlights
New Study Suggests Missing Link that Explains How Dinosaurs Learned to Fly
Commerce Secretary, President's Science Advisor to Keynote Conference
    on Economic and Social Implications of Information Technology
NSF Workshop Highlights Future of Organic Electronics and Photonics
Researchers Tie Worldwide Biodiversity Threats to Growth in Households
NSF Advisory Committee on Environmental Research and Education
    Releases New Report
Scientists Find First Active 'Jumping Genes' in Rice


 

laser confocal photomicrograph

January 6, 2003 Highlights
Genomes, Cosmos, and Nano Among NSF Science Highlights from 2002
Breakthrough Brings Laser Light to New Regions of the Spectrum
Spider vs. Fly: Specialized Deception, Attack and Defense Rule the Conflict
Public Comment Sought on Draft Infrastructure Report



 

 

 

 

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