Credit: NSF

New NSF
Cost Sharing Policy
The new cost sharing policy,
as approved by the National Science Board, eliminates program-specific cost sharing, and requires only the existing statutory cost sharing requirement (1 percent).
More...(posted October 29, 2004)

Nicholas Salvatore (left), a Spring, Tex. high school teacher, Cheryl Myers (center), middle school teacher from Texas’ McAllen Independent School District and Remy Poon (right), a Seattle elementary school teacher, share views on a problem presented to their group from "The Art and Craft of Combinatorial Proofs," a course offered at the prototype MSP mathematics institute at the Park City, Utah, Institute for Advanced Study. Middle- and high-school teachers are trained over three summer sessions to become disciplinary leaders when they return to their school districts. Credit: Ben Ditto

Third Year of NSF's Math and Science Partnerships to Focus on
Teachers—
Grants made for new teacher institutes, large targeted partnerships and capacity-building
Many teachers in K-12 will be able to experience a more intense learning and leadership environment as the National Science Foundation (NSF) embarks on a major effort to improve the mathematics and science education of the nation's youth. NSF has announced that seven new Institute Partnerships: Teacher Institutes for the 21st Century will be formed as a result of five-year grants made to universities in the third year of competition for NSF's Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program. The new institutes represent an investment of more than $31 million over five years for NSF's newest MSP program component.
More...(posted October 29, 2004)

Maintaining availability of high-quality freshwater is regarded by many as the most critical issue facing the 21st century. Researchers are investigating ecological, hydrological and geochemical attributes of streams, rivers, and groundwaters. Credit: Amelia Ward, University of Alabama and Clifford Dahm, University of New Mexico

NSF Awards $37.2 Million in Grants to Study Biocomplexity in the Environment
To better understand the interrelationships among living things from molecular structures to genes to ecosystems—and how they interact with their environment—the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $37.2 million in 38 research grants to scientists and engineers across the country. "These investigations will provide a more complete understanding of natural processes and cycles, of human behaviors and decisions in the natural world, and of ways to use new technology effectively to observe the environment and sustain the diversity of life on Earth," said Margaret Leinen, assistant director of NSF for geosciences and coordinator of NSF’s environmental research and education programs. By placing biocomplexity studies in an environmental context, Leinen believes, "this effort emphasizes research on developing the people, tools and ideas necessary to understand these interconnections, which are often difficult to tease apart."
More...(posted October 29, 2004)

Battling an ancient enemy. The picture shows a 6th century wooden nit comb from the Egyptian city of Antinoe, alongside its modern plastic counterpart. Inset is a close-up of a human head louse. Credit: Photograph of Egyptian comb used with permission from Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand. Close-up courtesy Vince Smith, University of Glasgow.

Head Lice Study Supports Direct Contact Between Modern and Archaic Humans
New research showing that lice evolve with the people they infest demonstrates that a now-extinct species of human, Homo erectus, came into direct contact with modern humans, Homo sapiens. That contact happened as recently as 25,000 years ago. Evidence of contact between the two species of humans is surprising, scientists say, because researchers long had thought that Homo erectus became extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago. The study's findings appear in the Oct. 5 online issue of the Public Library of Science journal, PloS, Biology.
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NSF's newest priority area focuses on human and social dynamics Credit: Permission granted by Omnistudio

NSF Announces $21.7 Million for 37 Projects to Study Human and Social Dynamics
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded grants totaling $21.7 million to address complex, interdisciplinary issues in the foundation’s newest priority area, human and social dynamics. Studies will cover a wide range of topics, for example, using neural data to understand why different people make different strategic choices, deciphering the relationships between genetic and cultural change, exploring the causes and consequences of urban expansion and the effects of local policies on expansion, and identifying how people develop ways to manage common resources. “These awards are highly interdisciplinary, taking an integrated view that will build fundamental knowledge about human behavior,” commented Rachelle Hollander, who co-manages the program in NSF’s directorate for social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
More...(posted October 29, 2004)

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