Global Science and Technology Week, May 6-12, 2001 / Science and Engineering Know No Boundaries

Global Science and Technology Week (GSTW) celebrates the expanding opportunity for the world's best scientific minds to transcend national boundaries and collaborate on new discoveries and shared global problems.

The White House Office of Science and Tech- nology Policy and the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State are working with private and public organizations to develop outreach actitivies for GSTW. The week is May 6-12, 2001 and highlights the international nature of science and underscores the importance of math and science education in today's era of globalization.

Additional information about Global Science and Technology Week, including messages from the White House and special events scheduled, can be found on the OSTP website.

Other Links of Interest

NSF Division of International Programs -
An integral part of NSF's mission is the support of international cooperation in science and engineering. The Division of International Programs (INT) has a leadership role in promoting and coordinating international cooperation.

APEC Youth Science Festival -
The 2nd APEC Youth Science Festival website serves as an international medium where young scientists and science educators can learn about preparations and activities at each APEC Youth Science Festival. NSF/INT funded AAAS to organize the U.S. delegation of 20 high school students, selected from science fair winners around the country. Korea hosted the first event in 1998, and Singapore the second, in 2000. The host for a third event, in 2002, is expected to be announced soon.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Science Knows No Boundaries -
USDA's Agricultural Research Service developed the web site in recognition of "Global Science and Technology Week" (GSTW), May 6-12. The site highlights work by USDA scientists who search overseas for natural controls to weed and insect pests, as alternatives to pesticides.

Helpful Math and Science Education Links



Selected International Research and Education Highlights

The National Science Foundation is proud to participate in Global Science and Technology Week. Research and education in science and engineering benefit immensely from international cooperation. The following NSF-funded activities highlight both the international nature of science and engineering and the importance of math and science education in today's era of globalization.

The Amazon: A Big Natural Laboratory

It is the mightiest of the world's great rivers: the Amazon. Draining an area equivalent to more than two thirds of the continental United States, it pours into the Atlantic Ocean about one-fifth of the freshwater that flows into all the world's oceans, a volume so prodigious that it alters ocean salt levels 200 miles from its mouth. And yet, contends Dr. Jeffrey Richey, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Washington, most of us misperceive the physical nature of a mighty river like the Amazon. "Usually, big rivers are thought of as just pipes from the land to the ocean," he says. "Nobody thinks much about what goes on inside of one."

 

Amazon from distance
Photo copyright Michael McClain
With funding from several NSF programs, Richey, his graduate students, and South American scientists and their students have been engaged for two decades in a long term, large-scale biogeochemistry project aimed at finding out, in great detail, what goes on inside the Amazon -- most especially its ever-changing chemistry, its interactions with the surrounding riparian (near-shore) area, its flood plain, and even its interactions with the atmosphere.   

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NSF-Supported Teams Provide New Data on Early Moments of the Universe
Antarctic-based instruments support each other's results


Two teams of cosmologists released new findings on April 29 about the nature of the universe in its infancy. Their spectacular images of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), taken with instruments operating from Antarctica, reveal the strongest evidence to date for the theory of inflation, the leading model for the formation of the universe. The announcement represents the first release of data from the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI), a 13-element ground-based instrument operating since last year at the National Science Foundation (NSF) Amundsen Scott South Pole Station. Scientists also released similar results from further analysis of data from the Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics (BOOMERANG) project, obtained in 1998 and first reported last year.

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Group of researchers at the South Pole
Crew members bundle up to operate DASI, a 13-element array at the South Pole


Arabidopsis thaliana First-Ever Complete Genome Sequence is Announced; International Team Reveals DNA Secrets of Arabidopsis thaliana

Genetics reached a major milestone late last year as an international research team announced it had completed the first plant genome sequence. The species Arabidopsis thaliana has emerged as the plant counterpart of the laboratory mouse, offering clues to how all sorts of living organisms behave genetically, with potentially widespread applications for agriculture, medicine and energy.

This achievement, by a consortium of scientists called the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative (AGI), was featured on the cover of the journal Nature's December 14, 2000 issue, which included four articles describing how researchers sequenced the entire genome of this weed in the mustard family. Because it is a model for over 250,000 other plant species, Arabidopsis is yielding insights that scientists are already applying to make other plants easier to grow under adverse conditions and healthier to eat.

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Find Out Why: Underwater Eruptions

Some of the biggest volcanoes on Earth have never been seen by any human. That’s because they’re more than a mile underwater. You’d have to dive down a mile and a half just to reach the tops of these volcanoes. This string of underwater volcanoes is called the Mid-Ocean Ridge. The Mid-Ocean Ridge is the biggest mountain range on our planet.

Research scientists lowering the deep sea explorer

It’s more than 30,000 miles long and almost 500 miles wide. Its hundreds of mountains and volcanoes zigzag under the ocean between the continents, winding their way around the globe like the seam on a baseball. That means there are underwater mountains and volcanoes all around the world.

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Volcano Research Erupts with International Initiatives

In a U.S.-Russia Cooperative Research award sponsored by the NSF’s Central & Eastern Europe program and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), about 150 leading geoscientists from the U.S., Russia and Japan have been convening to discuss advanced research on volcanoes and earthquakes in the Kamchatkan-Aleutian Arc. The several thousand mile long tectonic boundary plate - one of the most active sites of earthquake and volcanic eruptions on Earth - crosses international borders from the volcanic Aleutian Arc of southern Alaska to the Kamchatka/Kuril Arcs of Russia and Northern Japan.

Volacano eruption
Photo: Kamchatkan-Aleutian Workshop of Volcanoes

One of the U.S coordinators for the U.S.-Russia Cooperative Research is Prof. John Eichelberger of the University of Alaska. He is also the Coordinating Scientist for the US Geological Survey's Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), which seismically monitors about 20 Aleutian Arc Volcanoes, releases regular updates describing the current state of volcanic activity via the Internet and also posts Kamchatkan updates from colleagues at the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT).

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