Research

05/29/2009 -- Celebrating the economic, energy and research advances that will come from the world’s largest, highest-energy laser system, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today returned to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to join in the dedication ceremony for its National Ignition Facility (NIF). After 12 years of construction and preparation, this research facility can create temperatures and pressures found only in the core of stars, giant planets and inside nuclear weapons.    » read more »

May 28, 2009 -- NOAA scientists have teamed up with experts from the University of Maryland and North Carolina State University to form the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites. The new institute will use satellite observations to detect, monitor and forecast climate change, and its impact on the environment, including ecosystems.

“To help us understand climate change, we have to find ways to best leverage all of our available resources, including the information we get from satellites,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. “Bringing together some of the best minds to study satellite imagery and data will shed more light on how our climate is changing.”    » read more »

Calls on Health Care Providers to Help Women Achieve a Healthy Weight Before and During Pregnancy

May 28, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- A growing amount of scientific evidence indicates that how much weight women gain during pregnancy and their starting weight at conception can affect their health and that of their babies, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.    » read more »

Federal Dollars Will Advance Cutting Edge Research, Treatment for NYC

May 28, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand today announced $5,437,612 in federal dollars to support medical research and training programs at hospitals, universities, laboratories and research facilities in New York City.

These funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will help move forward on critical research and treatment to help improve the lives of all New Yorkers, and are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which Senators Schumer and Gillibrand helped pass earlier this year.    » read more »

Recovery Act money will greatly enhance Arctic research

May 27, 2009 -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today that it has made its first major award under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to help construct the Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV). The ARRV is a 242-foot ship, to be operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, with a hull designed specifically to operate in seasonal Arctic sea ice and open waters surrounding Alaska.    » read more »

$120 Million in Recovery Act Grants to provide long-term economic benefits

May 27, 2009 -- GAITHERSBURG, Md. – The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced the availability of approximately $120 million in competitive grants for the construction of new or expanded scientific research buildings at higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations. Approximately eight to 12 projects will be funded by these grants, which are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act).

Possible projects include laboratories, test facilities, measurement facilities, research computing facilities, and observatories.    » read more »

Center to study new solar materials by combining predictive theory with experiment

May 27, 2009 -- The U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will be home to a new multi-million-dollar Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) established by the DOE Office of Science. NREL’s Center for Inverse Design will pursue advanced scientific research on material discovery for energy.

It is one of 46 Centers to study various areas of scientific research that were selected for funding by DOE over a planned initial five year period. NREL will participate in six additional Centers led by other organizations.    » read more »

ST. LOUIS, May 27 -- Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) today became a founding member of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Carbon Capture Center. The center is a public-private partnership to advance the next generation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. The effort will be based at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) south of Birmingham, Ala., the nation's premier carbon research and development laboratory. Peabody has been a funding partner of the PSDF since 1997.    » read more »

May 27, 2009 -- Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson announced today that the National Institutes of Health will be sending more than $1.5 million in funding to Nebraska as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The funds will be used for biomedical research and training.

“These funds will help some of Nebraska’s leading research institutions to stay on the forefront of biomedical research,” said Senator Ben Nelson. “In addition, these grants will provide research opportunities for students who would otherwise not have been able to secure funding.”    » read more »

May 27, 2009 -- BOSTON, MA - Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry announced today that 50 grantees at seventeen biomedical research and research training institutions in Massachusetts have been awarded a total of $9,902,161 in federal funding. The funds come from the National Institute of Health through a program in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support biomedical research projects that will stimulate the economy, create or retain jobs, increase student-teacher training opportunities in all aspects of biomedical research, and make significant scientific progress in the next two years.    » read more »

May 26, 2009 -- By sequencing the genomes of more than 50 samples of the new A(H1N1) influenza virus, researchers have found that it is distantly related to its nearest relatives, indicating that its genes have been circulating undetected for an extended period. The findings suggest that in the future pig populations will need to be closely monitored for emerging influenza viruses.

Completed by an international team of investigators from the United States, the United Kingdom and Mexico, the research was made available for immediate release 22 May 2009, following acceptance by Science. Journal editors provided free public access to the findings, in light of public health concerns regarding the A(H1N1) virus.    » read more »

May 26, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced a total of $752,451 in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been released to Iowa for medical research. With the passage of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), the Economic Recovery Package, Senator Harkin was able to secure more than $10.4 billion for medical research across the United States. NIH funds biomedical research and research training at more than 3,000 institutions in the fifty states and territories.    » read more »

Impaired ability to monitor behavior, emotions may underlie vulnerability to drugs; suggests new targets for treatment

May 25, 2009 -- UPTON, NY — Parts of the brain involved in monitoring behaviors and emotions show different levels of activity in cocaine users relative to non-drug users, even when both groups perform equally well on a psychological test. These results — from a brain-imaging study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and published online the week of May 25, 2009, by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — suggest that such impairments may underlie addictive vulnerability, and that treatments aimed at improving these functions could help addicted individuals resist drugs.    » read more »

Recovery Act Funds Will Be Used to Combat Fourth Leading Cause of Death, Illness and Disability in the United States

May 22, 2009 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet today announced that the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) will award a $153,259 grant to the University of Colorado Denver's School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.    » read more »

May 20, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- Liquid fuels from biomass and coal have the potential to reduce petroleum fuel use and CO2 emissions in the U.S. transportation sector over the next 25 years, says a new report from the National Research Council. Even with abundant resources in biomass and coal, however, substantial investments in research, development, and commercial demonstration projects will be needed to produce these alternative liquid fuels in an environmentally conscious way, and at a level that could impact U.S. dependence on imported oil.    » read more »