May 22, 2001
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Editor: Tom Garritano
Contents of this News Tip:
DeLill Nasser directed the National Science Foundation’s
(NSF) eukoryotic genetics program and for decades
supported research that made Arabidopsis thaliana
the model plant for genetic study. She lived to see
Arabidopsis become the first plant whose genome
has been completely sequenced -- an achievement featured
last December on the cover of the journal Nature
-- but cancer took Nasser’s life soon afterward.
Now the Genetics Society of America (GSA) has honored
her by creating the DeLill Nasser Award for Professional
Development in Genetics. The award will give financial
support to students and postdoctoral researchers.
"DeLill’s contributions to the field of plant genetics
were numerous," said Machi Dilworth, who directs the
NSF Division of Biological Infrastructure, "and all
of us involved in Arabidopsis research continue
to be indebted to her. It is entirely fitting that
the GSA would honor her this way, as she herself spent
so much time supporting young scientists."
NSF has begun a ten-year effort, called the 2010 Project,
to identify the functions of each Arabidopsis
gene. Arabidopsis is a flowering weed in the
mustard family with a relatively small number of genes;
due to the similarity among flowering-plant genomes,
research into Arabidopsis is directly applicable
to over 250,000 other plant species. The research
is helping to make other plants easier to grow under
adverse conditions and healthier to eat. It also has
implications for renewable energy, human disease and
medicine. [Tom Garritano]
For more about the GSA, see: http://www.faseb.org/genetics/gsa/gsamenu.htm
For Arabidopsis facts, see: http://nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/media/2000/fsarabidopsis.htm
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Move over, LEDs (light-emitting diodes) and LCDs (liquid-crystal
displays). Researchers have developed a flat-screen
display using carbon nanotubes -- tubular devices
only a few atoms wide. The screen could offer greater
durability, cost-effectiveness and much higher resolution
than current technologies.
Robert Chang and colleagues at Northwestern University
in Evanston, Ill., built a prototype screen using
hundreds of thousands of stationary carbon nanotubes
that emit electrons to light up the pixels on the
screen. Unlike a standard cathode ray tube (CRT) screen,
in which one electron beam emitted from a hot filament
moves rapidly back and forth to light the pixels,
in Chang's prototype each pixel is lit by its own
electron beam. The screen can be slim, the emission
is steady and the display is extremely sharp. Further.more,
the process can occur at room temperature or in even
colder environments.
"Carbon nanotubes are so small that each pixel can
contain hundreds or even thousands of them, guaranteeing
redundancy -- the pixels will not deteriorate over
time," said Chang, who directs the NSF's Materials
Research Science and Engineering Center at Northwestern.
One million of the nanotubes lined up side-by-side
would measure only about a centimeter across. In theory,
this type of screen could boast a resolution sharper
than the eye can detect, said Chang.
In a few years it might be feasible to manufacture
nanotubes in bulk, Chang said, "and you could then
make huge screens very cheaply, without expensive
lithographic techniques."
[Amber Jones]
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Giant red-tipped tubeworms are among the exotic marine
life found at hydrothermal vents on the deep seafloor.
For nearly 25 years, scientists have wondered how
the tubeworms move about, and how their larvae survive
in the perpetual cold and dark.
Now scientists in the NSF-funded LARVE (Larvae at Ridge
Vents) project have the first direct answer to the
questions: How long can a vent larva live? And how
far can it disperse?
Biologists Lauren Mullineaux of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, Adam Marsh and Donal Manahan of the University
of Southern California, and Craig Young of the Harbor
Branch Oceanographic Institution studied larvae of
the giant tubeworm Riftia pachyptila. This
red-tipped worm can grow to several feet in length
and lives in a white plastic-like tube about 1.5 inches
in diameter.
Working with specimens from the eastern Pacific Ocean,
the team raised larvae in the laboratory under deep-ocean
temperatures and pressures. The researchers found
that a typical larva could survive for 38 days --
just long enough so it may travel many miles to colonize
another active hydrothermal vent site.
The tubeworms' range depends on where a vent is located;
if currents are stronger, hydrothermal vent animals
can travel farther. At active vents, hot vent waters
mix with seawater to form buoyant plumes that rise
until they cool to neutral buoyancy at some 600 feet
above the seafloor. Once carried to that level by
a plume, creatures can travel long distances via local
currents that form a "larval highway." [Cheryl
Dybas]
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