Tag Archives: national science foundation

Pine Island Glacier: A Scientific Quest in Antarctica to Determine What’s Causing Ice Loss

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2011EnvironmentAntarctica, bismarck, cold, glacier, glacier melt, global sea level rise, harsh, hazards, ice shelf, international polar year, ipy, logistics hub, mcmurdo station, models to predict glacier acceleration, NASA, national science foundation, north dakota, nsf, ocean cavity shape, ocean currents, oceanographic instruments, pine island glacier, pine island glacier ice shelf, project, ross island, scott borg, sea-level rise, stormy climate, united states antarctic program, warmer ocean water, Washington

*Researchers study heat delivered by ocean currents to bottom side of glacier that releases more than 19 cubic miles of ice each year*

An international team of researchers, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, will helicopter onto the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf, one of Antarctica’s most active, remote and harsh spots, in mid-December 2011–weather permitting.

The project’s mission is to determine how much heat ocean currents deliver to the underside of the Pine Island Glacier as it discharges into the sea. Quantifying this heat and understanding how much melting it causes is key to developing reliable models to predict glacier acceleration and therefore predict how much ice will be delivered from land into the ocean thus contributing to sea level rise. (more…)

Link Between Air Pollution and Cyclone Intensity in Arabian Sea

By Guest PostNovember 5, 2011Environmentabcs, aerosol, air pollution, amato evan, anjuli bamzai, arabian sea, arabian sea cyclones, atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns, atmospheric brown clouds, atmospheric concentrations of pollutants, biomass, chul eddy chung, climate, climatological vertical wind shear, cyclone gonu, cyclone phet, diesel emissions, gujarat, gulf of oman, gwangju institute of science and technology, himalayan glacial melting, India, iran, james p kossin, lpg fuel, monsoon season, national science foundation, oman, Pakistan, pollution, rainfall patterns in south asia, scripps institution of oceanography, sea surface temperatures, south korea, storms, university of virginia, veerabhadran ramanathan, wind shear patterns

*Disruption of wind shear enables stronger storms*

Pollution is making Arabian Sea cyclones more intense, according to a study in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

Traditionally, prevailing wind shear patterns prohibit cyclones in the Arabian Sea from becoming major storms.

The Nature paper suggests that weakening winds have enabled the formation of stronger cyclones in recent years–including storms in 2007 and 2010 that were the first recorded storms to enter the Gulf of Oman. (more…)

NSF Announces Major Awards for Biodiversity Research, WHOI Scientists Selected

By Guest PostNovember 1, 2011Sciencealvin, bigelow laboratory for ocean sciences, biogeochemical cycling of carbon, biogeochemistry, biologist, bosun patrick hennessy, catie craver, chemist, chemosynthesis, China, crab spa, craig taylor, deep sea hydrothermal vent, deep sea vent microbial communities, dimensions in biodiversity research, east pacific rise, ecosystems, france, Germany, hydrothermal vents, jeff seewald, mclane research laboratories, microbial interaction, microbiology, nadine le bris, national science foundation, nitrogen, photosynthesis, ramunas stepanauskas, rv atlantis, scientist, seaman kevin threadgold, stefan sievert, sulfur, woods hole oceanographic institution

The 1977 discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems that obtain energy through chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis greatly expanded the perception of life on Earth. However, an understanding of their underlying microbiology and biogeochemistry still remains elusive.

A newly funded project, one of several major awards announced by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Dimensions in Biodiversity research program, stands to change that through a multi-disciplinary, international collaborative research effort led by Associate Scientist Stefan Sievert of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. (more…)

Geoscientists Find Key to Why Some Patients Get Infections from Cardiac Implants

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2011Health, Scienceamericans, antibiotics, atomic force microscopy, bacteria adhere to mineral surfaces, bacterial and human proteins, bacterial cells, biofilm, biofilm formation, biofilm of persistent bacteria, blood infection bacteremia, charles darwin, common human blood protein, contaminated device, deadly blood infection, defibrillators, duke university medical center, enriqueta barrera, eric taylor, fibronectin, fibronectin binding protein a, gene mutations, genetic variants, geobiologists, heart implants, human body, implanted cardiac devices, infections, l barth reller, molecular dynamics simulations, nadia casillas ituarte, national science foundation, ohio state university, pacemakers, patients with implants, prosthetic cardiac valves, proteins of infectious bacteria, ruchirej yongsunthon, single nucleotide polymorphisms, snips, snps, solid substrate, staph bacteria, staphylococcus aureus, steven lower, supaporn lamlertthon, united states, vance fowler

*Bacterial cells have gene mutations that allow them to ‘stick’ to the devices*

New research suggests that some patients develop a potentially deadly blood infection from their implanted cardiac devices because bacterial cells in their bodies have gene mutations that allow them to stick to the devices.

Geoscientists were the major contributors to the finding.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the study results online this week. (more…)

Manufacturing Goes Viral

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2011Sciencealzheimer, amyloid aggregation in our brain tissues, bacteria hunting virus, berkeley laboratory, bioengineering laboratories, biological helical nanofiber structures, biological tissues in nature, biomimetic, chiral materials, chiral strands, coax viruses, collagens for animals and celluloses for plants, corneas, e coli, Environment, environmental variables, escherichia coli, filamentous viruses, helical ribbons, hierarchical level of complexity, induce polarization, joseph akkara, m13, m13 phages, macroscale structures, national science foundation, Nature, periodic changes in cell activity, physical environment, ramen noodle like, range of the spectrum, seung wuk lee, skin, skin tissue, structural building blocks for materials, substrate, supramolecular structures, synthetics with microstructures, teeth, tissue regeneration and repair, university of california at berkeley, wavelengths, wavy, woo jae chung, zina deretsky

*Researchers coax viruses to assemble into synthetics with microstructures and properties akin to those of corneas, teeth and skin*

Using a simple, single-step process, engineers and scientists at the University of California at Berkeley recently developed a technique to direct benign, filamentous viruses called M13 phages to serve as structural building blocks for materials with a wide range of properties.

By controlling the physical environment alone, the researchers caused the viruses to self-assemble into hierarchically organized thin-film structures, with complexity that ranged from simple ridges, to wavy, chiral strands, to truly sophisticated patterns of overlapping strings of material–results that may also shed light on the self-assembly of biological tissues in nature. (more…)

West Nile Virus Transmission Linked with Land-Use Patterns and “Super-spreaders”

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2011Scienceagricultural fields, american robin, atlantic in an airplane, bird hosts, disease causing organisms, ecology of infectious diseases, Environment, house sparrows, human activities, human infections, key species, knowledge, land use, marm kilpatrick, mosquito borne, mosquito vectors, national science foundation, new york, north and south america, nsf, robins, sam scheiner, santa cruz, tick borne viruses, transmission rates, united states, university of california, west nile virus

*Spread highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats*

After its initial appearance in New York in 1999, West Nile virus spread across the United States in just a few years and is now well established throughout North and South America.

Both the mosquitoes that transmit it and the birds that are important hosts for the virus are abundant in areas that have been modified by human activities.

As a result, transmission of West Nile virus is highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats. (more…)

U.S. Rivers and Streams Saturated With Carbon

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2011Environmentatmosphere, carbon cycling, carbon dioxide, climate, coastal waterways, david butman, efflux of carbon dioxide, gasoline, global scales, henry gholz, national science foundation, nsf, peter raymond, rivers and streams in the united states, source of atmospheric carbon dioxide

*Significant amount of carbon in land is leaking into streams and rivers, then to the atmosphere*

Rivers and streams in the United States are releasing substantially more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than previously thought.

This according to researchers publishing their results in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. (more…)

New Technologies Challenge Old Ideas About Early Hominid Diets

By Guest PostOctober 15, 2011Sciencec3 photosynthetic pathway, chimpanzees, early hominids, gorillas, hominid teeth, long-held assumptions, national science foundation, nutcracker man, paranthropus boisei, sponheimer, unger, university of arkansas, university of colorado at boulder

New assessments by researchers using the latest high-tech tools to study the diets of early hominids are challenging long-held assumptions about what our ancestors ate, says a study by the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Arkansas.

By analyzing microscopic pits and scratches on hominid teeth, as well as stable isotopes of carbon found in teeth, researchers are getting a very different picture of the diet habitats of early hominids than that painted by the physical structure of the skull, jawbones and teeth. While some early hominids sported powerful jaws and large molars — including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed “Nutcracker Man” — they may have cracked nuts rarely if at all, said CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, study co-author. (more…)