Enormous Iceberg May Be in Its Death Throes
For perhaps the last time, a researcher has visited iceberg B-15A, an enormous fragment of ice that broke away from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000. During a one-hour visit on Jan. 29 (New Zealand time), Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago upgraded the software of an automated weather station on the enormous piece of ice that helps track the iceberg’s position and reports on the microclimate of the ice surface. MacAyeal’s work is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the U.S. Antarctic Program.
More... (posted February 27, 2002)

NSF Celebrates National Engineers Week, February 17-23, 2002
To mark National Engineers Week (Feb. 17-20, 2002), several lectures and presentations are scheduled for locations at and near National Science Foundation (NSF) headquarters on Feb. 19-20. Activities will highlight NSF-funded research at the World Trade Center, and other topics.
More... (posted February 20, 2002)

Bayer/NSF Competition Winners Featured on Feb. 11 Oprah Winfrey Show
The middle school students who are the most recent winners of the Bayer/NSF Award’s Columbus Foundation Community Grant were featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show on Feb. 11, 2002. The team of Native American girls from Crow Agency, Montana -- Lucretia Birdinground, Kimberly Duputee, Omney Sees the Ground, Brenett Stewart -- and their coach, science teacher Jack Joyce, were taped at the Crow Reservation on Feb. 4 and appeared in the front row of the studio audience for the Feb. 11 show.
More... (posted February 8, 2002)

NSF's FY03 Budget Called "Blueprint for Nation's Future"
In announcing NSF’s budget request for fiscal year 2003, NSF Director Rita Colwell called the request “not just a balance sheet…(but a) blueprint for our nation’s future.” The NSF request was announced, along with the rest of the federal budget for FY03, on Feb. 4. NSF is requesting $5 billion -- $240 million (or five percent) over the previous year - to enrich Americans’ health, security, environment, economy, and general well-being. "For the United States to stay on the leading edge of discovery and innovation, we cannot do less,” said Colwell.
More... (posted February 4, 2002)

Dr. Colwell's Press Statement

Water Lily May Provide a "Missing Link" in the Evolution of Flowering Plants
Biologists have discovered that the water lily may be a critical "missing link" in the evolution of flowering plants. One of the great mysteries of evolutionary biology is how, 150 or more million years ago, modern-day angiosperms (flowering plants) diverged from their closest relatives, the gymnosperms (seed-bearing plants without flowers, such as pine trees with pine cones). A developmental study of the water lily, Nuphar polysepalum, may provide an important clue. Joseph Williams and William Friedman of the University of Colorado report their National Science Foundation (NSF) supported findings in the January 31 issue of the journal Nature.
More... (posted February 4, 2002)

Math and Science Partnership Connects Schools and Higher Education to Boost Learning
The National Science Board (NSB) executive committee recently approved a program developed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to strengthen science and mathematics education in the nation's schools by initiating new linkages among institutions of higher education, preK-12 schools and other partners. Known as the Math and Science Partnership (MSP), the program is supported by a $160 million appropriation in the fiscal 2002 budget. A planned $1 billion, five-year investment by NSF in MSP is part of President Bush's wider initiatives in mathematics and science education.
More... (posted February 4, 2002)

New Understanding of Complex Virus Nano-Machine for Cell Puncturing and DNA Delivery
Researchers have learned how the bacterial virus, bacteriophage T4, attacks its host, the E. coli bacterium. This discovery could eventually lead to a new class of antibiotics. Funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and published in the January 31, 2002 issue of the journal Nature, the research describes for the first time how the virus uses a needle-like, biochemical puncturing device to invade its host.
More... (posted February 4, 2002)