AScribe Science News Service articles from July 2003

AScribe Science News Service archives from July 2003

National Technology Transfer Center's Michael Lucey Tapped to Join Homeland Security Task Force.
July 1, 2003... Byline: The National Technology Transfer Center WHEELING, W.Va., July 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- A key member of the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center's (NTTC) Emergency Response Technology (ERT) Program will serve as a...

NASA Experiments Validate 50-Year-Old Hypothesis.
July 2, 2003... Byline: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA-funded researchers recently obtained the first complete proof of a 50-year-old hypothesis explaining how liquid metals resist turning into solids....

University of Iowa Study Adds to Understanding of Salt-Taste.
July 2, 2003... Byline: University of Iowa IOWA CITY, Iowa, July 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- Saltiness often enhances our enjoyment of certain foods -- think French fries or a margarita. But salt is an essential nutrient for humans and other animals, and far...

Purdue Research Park Company Seeks New Ways to Fuel the Future.
July 2, 2003... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., July 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- More than 200 years after Alessandro Volta invented the first battery, scientists at the Purdue Research Park are developing "batteries" that may someday power...

Mars Will Double in Brightness Again During July.
July 3, 2003... Byline: Indiana University BLOOMINGTON, Ind., July 3 (AScribe Newswire) -- Mars will be the only bright planet that is easy to see in the evening sky during July. The fiery red-orange object appearing to hover motionless in the...

Researchers Find 'Luxury Effect' Helps Determine Plant Diversity in Urban Areas.
July 3, 2003... Byline: Arizona State University TEMPE, Ariz., July 3 (AScribe Newswire) -- Income level appears to have a major positive effect on plant diversity in urban and suburban areas of Central Arizona, according to a team of researchers that...

Encouraging Teens Girls to Shine: Since 1990, Smith's Innovative Summer Science Program Has Brought Out the Scientist in the Girl.
July 7, 2003... Byline: Smith College NORTHAMPTON, Mass., July 7 (AScribe News) -- Engineering, robotics, logic, genetics: it sounds like the course load of an ambitious graduate student. In fact, it's the menu elected by more than 100 high school...

Nodding or Shaking Your Head May Even Influence Your Own Thoughts, Study Finds.
July 7, 2003... Byline: Ohio State University COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 7 (AScribe News) -- When you nod your head to signal approval or shake your head to show disapproval, it's not just sending a message to others - you may also be influencing yourself. ...

Sleep Disorders May Be Linked to Faulty Brain Chemistry, Study Finds; First Evidence of Neurochemical Basis for Obstructive Sleep Apnea, REM Behavior Disorder.
July 7, 2003... Byline: University of Michigan Health System ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- The first tantalizing clues that chemical imbalances in the brain may be partly to blame for certain life-disrupting sleep disorders are being...

Pre-Diabetic Adults at Increased Risk of Colon Cancer.
July 8, 2003... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, July 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- People with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), a precursor to diabetes, are at increased risk of dying from colon and other cancers, according to a study...

Abnormal Plant Shows Scientists Path to Plant, Animal Development.
July 8, 2003... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., July 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- A pickle-shaped root is revealing how plants develop from embryos to adults and also may hold answers about cancer cell growth. Purdue University researchers...

Newly Launched 'Opportunity' Follows Mars-Bound 'Spirit'.
July 8, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., July 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA launched its second Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, late Monday night aboard a Delta II launch vehicle whose bright glare briefly illuminated Florida...

Indiana University Bloomington Researchers to Investigate Genetic Recombination's Causes, Consequences.(Brief Article)
July 8, 2003... Byline: Indiana University BLOOMINGTON, Ind., July 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers from Indiana University Bloomington and other institutions have been awarded a $5 million, five-year grant to study why mixing and matching of DNA...

NIH Awards Millions to Rutgers University to Create Worldwide Genetics Resource; Latest Award Brings NIH/Rutgers Genetics Total Near $50 Million.
July 9, 2003... Byline: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., July 9 (AScribe Newswire) -- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, will be home to another new genetics resource for scientists worldwide intent on solving the...

Los Alamos Captures Eight R&D 100 Awards.
July 9, 2003... Byline: Los Alamos National Laboratory LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 9 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have captured eight of R&D Magazine's 2003 R&D 100 Awards, more than any other Department of Energy...

Researchers Identify Key Molecular Signal in Plant Pollination.
July 10, 2003... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., July 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- Nearly 80 percent of the world's food begins as seeds, including such staple crops as corn, wheat and rice. Despite the importance and ubiquity of...

California's Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms Serve as Marine Protected Areas, Says Study Published by UC Santa Barbara Experts.
July 10, 2003... Byline: University of California, Santa Barbara SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- California's offshore oil and gas platforms act as de facto marine protected areas for some overfished species and serve as a home to a...

Fresno State Physics Professor Says California Meteor Video Footage Is Rare.
July 11, 2003... Byline: Calif. State University, Fresno FRESNO, Calif., July 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Dr. Frederick Ringwald, physics professor and astronomer at California State University, Fresno, said a bright meteor, or bolide, spotted over Central...

2003 World Technology Award for Energy Goes to Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.
July 11, 2003... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., July 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- The World Technology Network (WTN) has announced that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD)...

U.S. Military and First Responders Get 'Smart' With New Nerve Agent Detection Badge.
July 11, 2003... Byline: The National Technology Transfer Center WHEELING, W.Va., July 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- The U.S. military's chemical detection gear recently received a redesign to make it more useable for its users in the field. The modernized M-8...

July/August Science & Technology News Tips From Washington University in St. Louis.
July 11, 2003... Byline: Washington University, St. Louis ST. LOUIS, July 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- The following are news and feature story ideas from Washington University in St. Louis. For more information on any of the stories below or for assistance in...

Scientists, Students Dig High and Low for 'Dirt' on Soil Moisture.
July 11, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., July 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- A water-sensing satellite orbits high above Earth. Airplanes packed with research instruments, including one from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,...

Sandia Researchers Use Quantum Dots as New Approach to Solid-State Lighting.
July 14, 2003... Byline: Sandia National Laboratories ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., July 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- In a different approach to creating white light several researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Sandia National Laboratories have developed the...

African Dust Brings Drought, Rain Across Atlantic.
July 15, 2003... Byline: National Center for Atmospheric Research BOULDER, Colo., July 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa may modify clouds and rainfall both in Africa and across the tropical North Atlantic as far away as...

Asteroid Hunters Discover Near-Earth Object With New Camera.
July 15, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., July 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA astronomers in pursuit of near-Earth asteroids have already made a discovery with the newly installed Quasar Equatorial Survey, or 'Quest,' camera...

New Location of Deep Convection May Exist in North Atlantic; Findings Alter Views of Atmosphere-Ocean Interaction.
July 16, 2003... Byline: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WOODS HOLE, Mass., July 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- Deep convection, or mixing, of ocean waters in the North Atlantic, widely thought to occur in only the Labrador Sea and the Mediterranean, may...

New Approach to Gene Knockouts Reveals 'Master Planners' of the Skeleton.
July 17, 2003... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., July 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers are moving closer to understanding how the global pattern of the skeleton of mammals is formed during...

Hurricane Experts Available; Tip Sheet From University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
July 17, 2003... Byline: National Center for Atmospheric Research BOULDER, Colo., July 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- Forecasters are calling for another busy Atlantic hurricane season, in line with the record number set over the last eight years. This tip sheet...

Mars Rover Opportunity Mission Status NASA's.
July 18, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., July 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- Opportunity spacecraft made its first trajectory correction maneuver today, a scheduled operation to fine- tune its Mars-bound trajectory, or flight path....

'Brain Transplant' Secures Future of FUSE Observatory; New Software Preps Satellite for Potential Gyro Failure.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Johns Hopkins University BALTIMORE, July 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists and engineers who work with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer have pulled off a second daring and unprecedented rescue of the satellite...

Three Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Inventions Win R&D 100 Awards.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory RICHLAND, Wash., July 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- Three Pacific Northwest National Laboratory inventions have made the 2003 list of the world's 100 most important scientific and technical...

USA-France Tandem Satellite Mission Serving Up Fresh Sea Fare.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., July 21 (AScribe News) -- Take one well-seasoned oceanography satellite, the joint NASA-Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (French Space Agency) Topex/Poseidon, nearing its 11th year in...

Oceanographers Catch First Wave of Gravity Mission's Success.
July 21, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., July 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- The joint NASA-German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission has released its first science product, the most accurate map...

UC San Diego Researchers Determine Mechanism for Degradation of G Protein.
July 22, 2003... Byline: University of California, San Diego LA JOLLA, Calif., July 22 (AScribe News) -- Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have identified a previously unknown component of the body's cellular...

Ninth, Tenth-Grade L.A. Science Teachers Come to UCLA to Learn to Teach Nanoscience, New Experiments in Their Classrooms.
July 22, 2003... Byline: UCLA LOS ANGELES, July 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- Two dozen ninth- and tenth-grade science teachers from low-income schools in Los Angeles have come to UCLA to learn how to invigorate their classes by teaching the new field of...

Sandia Microfluidic Device Rapidly Captures, Releases Proteins, Science Reports; Particles Concentrated Without Muss or Fuss for Homeland Defense or Lab Chromatography.
July 22, 2003... Byline: Sandia National Laboratories ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., July 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- A microdevice whose business end looks like the gold-coated spine of a very tiny mouse, with each "vertebrae" line separated from the next by about a...

Homeland Security Conference to Draw Notables, National Experts.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2003... Byline: University of Connecticut STORRS, Conn., July 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- The University of Connecticut's School of Engineering is organizing and hosting the International Conference on Advanced Technologies for Homeland Security. The...

Common Screening Test May Be Missing Majority of Prostate Cancers; Study Finds 82 Percent of Prostate Cancers May Be Missed With PSA Test.
July 23, 2003... Byline: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute BOSTON, July 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Through a specialized analysis of existing prostate cancer data, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and...

University of Georgia Scientists Determine How Amphibians' Life Stages Influence Contaminant Transfer From Aquatic to Terrestrial Environments.
July 23, 2003... Byline: University of Georgia ATHENS, Ga., July 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory have taken the first step toward understanding how variations in the life stages of...

UGA Researcher Develops Virtual Reality Environment to Help Treat Smokers Trying to Quit.
July 24, 2003... Byline: University of Georgia ATHENS, Geor., July 24 (AScribe News) -- No longer relegated to science fiction, virtual reality (VR) has become part of the very real world of addiction treatment. Dr. Patrick Bordnick, assistant professor of...

Imaging Vehicle Maps Coral Reefs to Determine Health of Reef, Fisheries.
July 24, 2003... Byline: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WOODS HOLE, Mass., July 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- Deepwater coral reefs in the US Virgin Islands may occupy a much larger area and be in better health than previously thought, based on evidence...

Intriguing Celestial Images Arrive From Galaxy Mission.
July 25, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., July 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has beamed back revealing images of hundreds of galaxies to expectant astronomers, providing the first batch of data on star...

National Center for Atmospheric Research Signs Agreement With Six Government Agencies to Develop Powerful Forecast, Research Tool.
July 28, 2003... Byline: National Center for Atmospheric Research BOULDER, Colo., July 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has signed an agreement with six government agencies to develop a landmark weather modeling...

Geoscience Workshop Brings Teachers to National Center for Atmospheric Research.
July 29, 2003... Byline: National Center for Atmospheric Research anatta@ucar.edu BOULDER, July 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- This summer the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is offering 20 middle and high school science teachers a chance to...

'Twinning' Phenomenon Found in Nanocrystalline Aluminum; Discovery Could Help in Development of New Materials for Microscopic Machines.
July 30, 2003... Byline: Johns Hopkins University BALTIMORE, July 30 (AScribe Newswire) -- Using a powerful electron microscope to view atomic-level details, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a "twinning" phenomenon in a nanocrystalline form of...

Researchers Solve Structure of Key Drug Target.
July 31, 2003... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., July 31 (AScribe Newswire) -- A 12-year effort has paid off as researchers are now unveiling the first detailed structural images of a type of protein that functions in a manner...

Proposals Now Being Accepted for 'INCITE'; INCITE Program to Allocate Major Department of Energy Office of Science Computing Resources to Key Scientific Projects.
July 31, 2003... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory WASHINGTON, July 31 (AScribe Newswire) -- Proposals are now being accepted for a new Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science program to support innovative, large-scale computational science...