NSF PR 98-89 - December 18, 1998
Media contact: |
Bill Noxon |
(703) 306-1070 |
wnoxon@nsf.gov |
Program contacts: |
Benjamin Snavely,
NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences |
(703) 306-1828 |
bsnavely@nsf.gov |
|
Christopher Platt,
NSF Division of Integrative Biology
and Neuroscience |
(703) 306-1424 |
cplatt@ucar.edu |
This material is available primarily for archival
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contacts.
NSF-Funded Research Heads Science Magazines Top Ten
Advances Of 1998
Accelerating universe expansion
and circadian rhythms are listed one-two
National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported research
led to the two most important scientific advances
in 1998, according to a new Science
magazine summary of the ten discoveries it considered
the most important of the year. The list is released
in the December 18th edition.
"This recognition by Science of newly-breaking
discoveries NSF has funded is an indicator that we're
making good use of the taxpayer's support for the
many scientific fields and education programs we undertake,"
Joseph Bordogna, NSF's acting deputy director said.
"The unimaginable becomes imaginable, and then attainable,
by the hard and dedicated work of these scientists
who continue to unlock the secrets of the universe."
Two independent teams of NSF-supported astronomers
who concluded that the expansion of the universe is
accelerating were cited by Science as
having made the top scientific research advance of
1998. While it has been known for many years that
the universe has been continually expanding since
the "Big Bang," the discovery by these research teams
has drawn a new picture of the universe -- one of
infinite expansion that is driven by a yet unknown
force. It was thought previously that gravitational
attraction between galaxies would be enough to slow
the expansion of the universe, given sufficient matter.
However, Brian Schmidt of Mount Stromlo and Sidings
Springs Observatories, leading his High-Z Supernova
Search team, and Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratories, directing the Supernova Cosmology Project
team, discovered that not enough matter exists to
slow the pace of an expanding universe, and in fact,
expansion of the universe is actually speeding up.
These independent teams of astronomers obtained and
verified their findings through NSF's National Optical
Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) in Chile and in the
United States.
At NOAO's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO)
in Chile, the astronomy teams used the Blanco telescope
to discover supernovae in distant galaxies. Supernovae
are exploding stars that increase in brightness to
rival that of the parent galaxy. The researchers used
these supernovae in calculating distances to distant
galaxies. The distance to the supernova and its redshift
-- the speed it is moving away from us -- are used
to measure the changing expansion rate of the universe.
Schmidt and Perlmutter's research teams then verified
their findings over several months at telescopes around
the world, including NOAO's Kitt Peak National Observatory
near Tuscon, Arizona. NOAO is operated by the Association
of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under
a cooperative agreement with NSF. Science
also cited research in circadian rhythms, the built-in
mechanism most organisms on Earth use to keep track
of the 24-hour cycle between night and day, as the
second most important discovery in 1998. Much of the
recent research work on these "circadian rhythms"
has been funded by NSF, including a newly discovered
gene in the fruit fly Drosophila that regulates the
molecular cycles underlying circadian rhythms and
the molecular mechanism that allows the gene to work.
The work was performed by researchers affiliated with
NSF's Center for Biological Timing headquartered in
Charlottesville, Virginia. Another team of biologists
at Vanderbilt and Texas A & M Universities identified
three genes essential to circadian rhythms in cyanobacteria.
These are the simplest organisms known to have such
"internal clocks" that react to night and day.
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