Science

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 »

28 May 2009 -- Following an assessment of natural resources north of the Arctic Circle, researchers say that a full 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13% of its undiscovered oil could be found there.

The oil estimate is relatively small compared to the known reserves in major petroleum exporting countries, so researchers do not anticipate a major shift in the world's oil trade. However, they do expect the location and volume of predicted natural gas reserves inside the Arctic Circle to primarily benefit Russia.

These findings are from the first detailed, peer-reviewed, and geologically-based assessment of natural resources in that region.    » 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 »

May 27, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for launch in 2011, has a new name thanks to a sixth-grade student from Kansas. Twelve-year-old Clara Ma from the Sunflower Elementary school in Lenexa submitted the winning entry, "Curiosity." As her prize, Ma wins a trip to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., where she will be invited to sign her name directly onto the rover as it is being assembled.

A NASA panel selected the name following a nationwide student contest that attracted more than 9,000 proposals via the Internet and mail. The panel primarily took into account the quality of submitted essays. Name suggestions from the Mars Science Laboratory project leaders and a non-binding public poll also were considered.    » read more »

GARLAND and AUSTIN, Texas, May 27, 2009 -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has partnered with The University of Texas at Austin's Center for Information Assurance and Security (CIAS) on research for new and innovative cybersecurity solutions.

Cybersecurity is one of the major national security problems facing the United States, and President Obama has made protecting the country's digital infrastructure a top priority for his administration.    » 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 »

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 21, 2009 -- NOAA forecasters say a near-normal Atlantic hurricane season is most likely this year. However, as with any season, the need to prepare for the possibility of a storm striking near you is essential.

“Today, more than 35 million Americans live in regions most threatened by Atlantic hurricanes,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “Timely and accurate warnings of severe weather help save lives and property. Public awareness and public preparedness are the best defenses against a hurricane.”    » read more »

May 24, 2009 -- EDWARDS, Calif. -- Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew landed at 8:39 a.m. PDT Sunday at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., completing the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis' astronauts conducted five successful spacewalks during their STS-125 flight to enhance and extend the life of the orbiting observatory.

"This mission highlights what the challenges of spaceflight can bring out in human beings," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This mission required the absolute best from the shuttle team, the Hubble science and repair teams, and the crew. The results are a tribute to the entire team and the years of preparation."    » read more »

Electric Rates Would Stay Relatively Flat as Renewables Come Online

WASHINGTON (May 20, 2009)—The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) today released an analysis that indicates three leading proposals in Congress to increase national reliance on renewable energy are affordable and achievable. Its findings echo those of two other recent studies, one by the DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) and another by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).    » read more »