AScribe Science News Service articles from September 2003

AScribe Science News Service archives from September 2003

Study of Jupiter's Moon Europa May Explain Mysterious Ice Domes, Places to Search for Evidence of Life.
September 2, 2003... Byline: University of Colorado, Boulder BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new University of Colorado at Boulder study of Jupiter's moon Europa may help explain the origin of the giant ice domes peppering its surface and the...

Space Infrared Telescope Facility Mission Status.
September 3, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 3 (AScribe News) -- NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility has switched on two of its onboard instruments and captured some preliminary star-studded images. The space observatory...

UCLA Astronomers Obtain 'Molecular Fingerprints' for Celestial 'Brown Dwarfs,' Missing Link Between Stars, Planets.
September 4, 2003... Byline: UCLA LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 (AScribe Newswire) -- Elusive brown dwarfs, the missing link between gas giant planets like Jupiter and small, low-mass stars, have now been "fingerprinted" by UCLA astronomy professor Ian S. McLean and...

UCLA Astronomers Detect Unexpectedly Violent Conditions in Hot Plasma Being Consumed by Massive Black Hole at Center of Milky Way.
September 4, 2003... Byline: UCLA LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 (AScribe Newswire) -- UCLA astronomers report they have detected remarkably stormy conditions in the hot plasma being pulled into the monstrous black hole residing at the center of our Milky Way galaxy,...

Researchers Explore Oil Rigs, Ancient Shoreline in Gulf of Mexico for New Disease Cures.
September 5, 2003... Byline: Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution FORT PIERCE, Fla., Sept. 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- On Sept. 8, Harbor Branch researchers will embark on a mission to explore deep-sea sites in the Gulf of Mexico, including abandoned oil rigs...

9-11, Iraq, Terrorism, Homeland Defense: University of Maryland Experts.
September 8, 2003... Byline: University of Maryland, College Park COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- The following University of Maryland faculty members are experts in one or more areas relating to 9-11, the ongoing struggle in Iraq,...

Energy Research: Designing a Better Catalyst for 'Artificial Photosynthesis'.
September 9, 2003... Byline: Brookhaven National Laboratory NEW YORK, Sept. 9 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists studying the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbon monoxide (CO) -- a crucial step in transforming CO2 to useful organic compounds such as...

Archaeologists Discover Rare Paleoindian Hunting Camp.
September 10, 2003... Byline: University of Vermont BURLINGTON, Vt., Sept. 10 (AScribe News) -- University of Vermont archaeologists have identified what is unequivocally the first Late Paleoindian site 10,000-9,000 B.P.) in the state-and one of very few known...

University of Georgia Researchers Involved in First Trial Using Transgenic Trees to Help Clean Up Toxic Waste Site.
September 10, 2003... Byline: University of Georgia ATHENS, Ga., Sept. 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- Can genetically engineered cottonwood trees clean up a site contaminated with toxic mercury? A team of researchers from the University of Georgia - in the first such...

Role of Tropics in Global Climate Change Gains Attention.
September 10, 2003... Byline: University of California, Santa Barbara SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Sept. 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- The tropics are being recognized as an important element in the dynamic process of global climate change, according to a new study headed...

Coal-Eating Bacteria May Improve Methane Recovery.
September 11, 2003... Byline: Brookhaven National Laboratory NEW YORK, Sept. 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists at the U.S Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory are exploring the use of bacteria to increase the recovery of methane, a clean...

Carnegie Mellon Professors Ask Congress to Overhaul the Way Politicians Obtain Science and Technology Advice.
September 11, 2003... Byline: Carnegie Mellon University PITTSBURGH, Sept. 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Carnegie Mellon University Professor Granger Morgan will discuss research from a new book designed to help Congressional leaders improve the way they tackle key...

NASA-Funded Research Yields Biggest Chill of All.
September 11, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 11 (AScribe News) -- NASA-funded researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge have cooled sodium gas to the lowest temperature ever recorded --...

National Science Foundation Awards Extend Middleware Development Efforts in Testing, Portals, Instrumentation.
September 15, 2003... Byline: National Science Foundation ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $9 million to support 20 projects as part of its ongoing NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI). The projects...

Historic Galileo Mission Nears End.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Following eight years of capturing dramatic images and surprising science from Jupiter and its moons, NASA's Galileo mission draws to a close September 21 with a...

Homing In on Dark Energy With Supernova Studies in Space.
September 16, 2003... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- A unique set of 11 distant Type Ia supernovae studied with the Hubble Space Telescope sheds new light on dark energy, according to the latest...

Supernovae Survey Provides Clues to Nature of Mysterious Dark Energy That Is Pushing Universe Apart.
September 16, 2003... Byline: Vanderbilt University NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 16 (AScribe News) -- Measurements of 11 exploding stars spread throughout the visible universe made by the Hubble Space Telescope confirm earlier, ground-based studies which produced...

'National Lambdarail' Will Push the Limits of Computer Networking.
September 16, 2003... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- Duke and other universities have joined to establish an experimental new high-speed computing network -- "National LambdaRail" (NLR) -- that will enable researchers...

Hurricane Isabel: Doppler on Wheels to Intercept Eye; Nation's Future Weather Model Zooms in to Forecast.
September 16, 2003... Byline: National Center for Atmospheric Research BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 16 (AScribe News) -- Three Doppler on Wheels (DOW) mobile radars developed partly at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are heading toward the...

Fossil Organism Named For St. Lawrence University.(Brief Article)
September 17, 2003... Byline: St. Lawrence University CANTON, N.Y., Sept. 17 (AScribe News) -- A genus and species of trace fossil newly described by St. Lawrence University Chapin Professor of Geology J. Mark Erickson and Class of 2003 graduate Timothy D....

Ancient Algae Yield New Insights Into Role of CO2 in Early Atmosphere.
September 17, 2003... Byline: University of Maryland, College Park COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 17 (AScribe News) -- Public awareness of the global warming effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) may be a relatively recent phenomena, but such warming has been pivotal to...

Sandia National Laboratories to Demonstrate Intel-Based Next Generation High Performance Computing Cluster.
September 17, 2003... Byline: Sandia National Laboratories ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Sept. 17 (AScribe News) -- Sandia National Laboratories today announced at the Intel Developer Forum it will demonstrate an Intel-based next-generation, High Performance Computing...

Leading Researchers Confront the Ethics of Cognitive Enhancement.
September 17, 2003... Byline: New York Academy of Sciences NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- Imagine taking a pill to make you smarter, or a drug that enhances your memory. Imagine mind-altering drugs imposed upon criminals, averting their tendencies to...

San Diego Supercomputer Center to Play a Key Role in NSF Information Technology Research Awards; Projects Range From 'Tree of Life' for All of Earth's Known Flora and Fauna to 'Virtual Grid' Development.
September 17, 2003... Byline: San Diego Supercomputer Center SAN DIEGO, Sept. 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego will participate in four National Science Foundation (NSF) Information...

Galileo to Taste Jupiter Before Taking Final Plunge.
September 17, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- In the end, the Galileo spacecraft will get a taste of Jupiter before taking a final plunge into the planet's crushing atmosphere, ending the mission on...

University of Florida Researchers Find Amazon Once Home to Large, Complex Settlements.
September 18, 2003... Byline: University of Florida GAINESVILLE, Fla., Sept. 18 (AScribe News) -- The Amazon, that massive rain forest that evokes images of primordial jungle and nomadic tribes, once supported settlements of thousands of people who lived in...

New York Academy of Sciences Issues Letter in Support of Accused Scientist Thomas Butler.
September 18, 2003... Byline: New York Academy of Sciences NEW YORK, Sept. 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Committee on the Human Rights of Scientists of the New York Academy of Sciences has released the text of a letter it has sent today to U.S. Attorney General...

Expert: Arizona State University Space Scientist Recounts Life With Galileo.
September 19, 2003... Byline: Arizona State University TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- This Sunday, planetary scientists the world over mourn the necessary loss of an old, dear friend - NASA's Galileo spacecraft. After a long life of planetary...

South Pole Rescue Uses National Center for Atmospheric Research Technology.
September 19, 2003... Byline: National Center for Atmospheric Research BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- Rescuers are using a weather prediction system specially designed for Antarctica as they try to evacuate an ill employee from the South Pole...

Galileo End of Mission Status.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Galileo spacecraft's 14-year odyssey came to an end on Sunday, Sept. 21, when the spacecraft passed into Jupiter's shadow then disintegrated in the...

A Picture Perfect Test of Well-Being: Graphic Assessment Tool Tunes Into Life Satisfaction.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Binghamton University BINGHAMTON, N.Y., Sept. 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- After working at it for the past decade, gerontologist and Dean of the Decker School of Nursing Sarah Gueldner has led a team of colleagues from institutions...

Collapse of Seals, Sea Lions, Sea Otters in North Pacific Triggered by Overfishing of Great Whales; Research Shows How Extraction of Whales Has Resulted in Broad, Devastating Ecosystem Impacts.
September 22, 2003... Byline: SeaWeb WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hypothesizes that overfishing of whales in the North Pacific Ocean triggered one of the longest and most...

Collaboration to Help Save Struggling Mississippi River Watershed.
September 23, 2003... Byline: Ohio State University COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new partnership between Ohio State University and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge aims to help researchers get to the root of what causes hypoxia in...

New Map of Milky Way Shows Our Galaxy to Be a Cannibal; Study Shows Milky Way Is Out to Lunch.
September 24, 2003... Byline: University of Virginia CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Sept. 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- Chicken Little was right. The sky is falling. Thousands of stars stripped from the nearby Sagittarius dwarf galaxy are streaming through our vicinity...

Real-Time 'Movies' Will Predict Wildfire Behavior for One Hour; Collaborative Project Promises New Approach to Battling Fires.
September 25, 2003... Byline: Rochester Institute of Technology ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sept. 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- Someday fire fighters will be able to manage wildfires by computer. Rochester Institute of Technology recently won a $300,000 grant from the...

Social Insects Point to Non-Genetic Origins of Societies; Social Structures Form Through Group Dynamics, Not Trait Selection.
September 25, 2003... Byline: Arizona State University TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- Humans are social animals, but does our social organization result from our genetic makeup or does it come from something much more fundamental? From her...

'Star Trak': Mars and Orionid Meteors Adorn October Skies.
September 30, 2003... Byline: Indiana University BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Sept. 30 (AScribe Newswire) -- Mars will still be a dazzling sight during the first two weeks of October, appearing bright orange in the southeast as darkness falls and crossing the southern...

NASA Completes Orbital Space Plane Design Review.
September 30, 2003... Byline: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Sept. 29 (AScribe News) -- NASA's Orbital Space Plane (OSP) program is one step closer to becoming the nation's next space vehicle with the successful completion of its Systems...