National Science Foundation

New NSF awards will advance theoretical foundations of data science research through interdisciplinary collaborations Data science is an expanding field that requires the expertise of computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and statisticians to handle the complex analysis of ever-larger data sets. Data affect how industry, academia and government operate… Published July 29, 2022 at 06:03AM Read more at nsf.gov

Statement by Director Sethuraman Panchanathan on the passage of the 'CHIPS and Science Act' Our nation’s economic and national security depends on our ability not only to harness the technologies of today, but to lay the foundation for the industries of the future. We also need to inspire and train the next generation STEM workforce and… Published July 28, 2022 at 12:28PM Read more at nsf.gov

Scientists identify mechanism responsible for fruit and seed development in flowering plants With rising global temperatures and dwindling pollinator populations, food production has become increasingly difficult for the world's growers. A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland addresses this issue, providing insight into… Published July 28, 2022 at 07:05AM Read more at nsf.gov

Risk of death surges when extreme heat and air pollution coincide Heat waves and air pollution are harmful, even deadly, and both are predicted to increase in frequency due to climate change. A team of researchers at the University of Southern California is helping shed light on those health risks by assessing six… Published July 28, 2022 at 07:06AM Read more at nsf.gov

Materials researchers build longest highly conductive molecular nanowire Researchers at Columbia University, supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, engineered a nanowire 2.6 nanometers long with quasi-metallic properties and conductance that increases with the wire's length. The breakthrough could… Published July 27, 2022 at 07:17AM Read more at nsf.gov

Faint fossil galaxy found at the Andromeda galaxy’s edge An amateur astronomer examining archival data processed by the Community Science & Data Center tipped off astronomers about a smudge of interest in an image he examined as part of an effort by the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo… Published July 27, 2022 at 07:14AM Read more at nsf.gov

Citizen astronomer helps identify more than 30 ultracool dwarf binary systems A citizen astronomer participating in the U.S. National Science Foundation-supported Backyard Worlds program examined archival data provided by the Community Science & Data Center and found 34 new ultracool dwarf binary systems, nearly twice the… Published July 26, 2022 at 07:25AM Read more at nsf.gov

Destruction and recovery of kelp forests driven by changes in sea urchin behavior A dramatic outbreak of kelp-eating purple sea urchins along the Central Coast of California in 2014, leading to a significant reduction in the region's kelp forests, was driven primarily by the emergence of sea urchins from their hiding places rather… Published July 25, 2022 at 06:33AM Read more at nsf.gov

Ancient southwestern desert people ate more, larger, fish than previously thought There is a common misconception that Ancestral Pueblo people rarely ate fish. The remains of fish that were eaten by these people are indeed rare at early archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande basin of central New Mexico. Now, however… Published July 25, 2022 at 06:34AM Read more at nsf.gov

Awash in potential: Wastewater provides early detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus Writing in the journal Nature, scientists at the University of California San Diego and Scripps Research, along with local and federal public health officials, describe how wastewater sequencing provided dramatic new insights into levels and variants… Published July 21, 2022 at 06:22AM Read more at nsf.gov

Supercomputing simulation reveals weaknesses in HIV-1 defense How HIV-1 infects cells is not fully understood. Discoveries from a recent study have provided new insights, however. Computer scientists at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, ran the… Published July 21, 2022 at 06:22AM Read more at nsf.gov

U.S. and U.K. Launch Innovation Prize Challenges in Privacy-Enhancing Technologies to Tackle Financial Crime and Public Health Emergencies Today, the U.S. and U.K. governments launched a set of prize challenges to unleash the potential of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) to combat global societal challenges. Announced at the Summit for Democracy last year, innovators from academia… Published July 20, 2022 at 03:06PM Read more at nsf.gov

Hidden in caves: Mineral overgrowths reveal unprecedented modern sea level rise The early 1900s saw rapid advances in the steel, electric and automobile industries. Those industrial changes also mark an inflection point in the planet’s climate. According to an international team of researchers led by University of South Florida… Published July 20, 2022 at 09:44AM Read more at nsf.gov

Platinum can act as a catalyst for wastewater treatment Making wastewater potable has a unique set of challenges, one of which is removing persistent chemicals and byproducts. Aldehydes, a byproduct of wastewater treatment, are toxic to humans. Removing aldehydes from wastewater requires a sustainable… Published July 20, 2022 at 09:39AM Read more at nsf.gov

Researchers uncover life's power generators in Earth's oldest groundwater An international team of researchers has discovered 1.2 billion-year-old groundwater deep in a gold and uranium mine in South Africa, shedding more light on how life is sustained below the Earth's surface and how it may thrive on other planets. The… Published July 19, 2022 at 07:24AM Read more at nsf.gov

Borrowed gene helps maize adapt to high elevations, cold temperatures Researchers at North Carolina State University have shown that an important gene in maize called HPC1 modulates chemical processes that contribute to flowering time, and has its origins in "teosinte mexicana," a precursor to modern-day corn that… Published July 19, 2022 at 07:25AM Read more at nsf.gov

Climate change may be culprit in Antarctic fish disease outbreak Climate change might be behind an unusual disease outbreak among Antarctic fish, researchers are finding. For a decade, University of Oregon biologists John Postlethwait and Thomas Desvignes have been visiting the West Antarctic Peninsula. They study… Published July 18, 2022 at 02:19PM Read more at nsf.gov

Evidence that buckyballs and carbon nanotubes form from the dust and gas of dying stars Astronomers at the University of Arizona, funded by two grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, have developed a theory to explain the presence of the largest molecules known to exist in interstellar gas. The team simulated the environment… Published July 18, 2022 at 02:19PM Read more at nsf.gov

New technology surpasses long-sought solar energy milestone Engineers at Princeton University, supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, have developed a new class of renewable solar energy technology. The team successfully manufactured a perovskite solar cell that can operate above… Published July 14, 2022 at 06:48AM Read more at nsf.gov

Researchers discover how tuberculosis bacteria mutate to form antibiotic-resistant films Tuberculosis, the second leading cause of death globally, is a highly infectious, hard to treat and difficult to contain disease that causes preventable deaths daily. A team of researchers supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science… Published July 14, 2022 at 06:48AM Read more at nsf.gov

Researchers study early stages of infant word learning Researchers at Indiana University, supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, have published the results of their research on how infants put names to objects, a key step in language development. Past research has usually focused… Published July 13, 2022 at 09:05AM Read more at nsf.gov

Hummingbirds may struggle to avoid climate change Climate change is making it more challenging for small animals like hummingbirds to reach heights that allow them to evade the impacts of a warming world. A team of researchers set out to study how Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) would adjust to a… Published July 13, 2022 at 09:06AM Read more at nsf.gov

Statement by Director Sethuraman Panchanathan on NSF ranking in Best Places to Work in the Federal Government I am thrilled and proud that the U.S. National Science Foundation recently ranked No. 2 among mid-sized agencies in the 2021 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government®, up from No. 5 last year. At NSF, we value innovation, creativity… Published July 13, 2022 at 07:30AM Read more at nsf.gov

Implants of cardiac muscle tissue could repair and reverse heart damage A team of researchers, including members from Boston University, supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, has detailed the method for their breakthrough approach to treating damaged heart tissue. They’re growing viable heart… Published July 12, 2022 at 10:14AM Read more at nsf.gov

High vaccination rates blunted delta variant surge in some U.S. states U.S. states with low vaccination rates bore the brunt of the COVID-19 surge caused by the delta variant during the summer of 2021, according to a study published in eLife. The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded research reaffirms the importance… Published July 12, 2022 at 10:15AM Read more at nsf.gov

New NSF center will advance, broaden and catalyze environmental data science Understanding the impacts of climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and predicting and preparing for extreme environmental disturbances such as wildfires, floods and drought, require combining and synthesizing data sets that provide information… Published July 11, 2022 at 12:52PM Read more at nsf.gov

New hybrid machine learning forecasts lake ecosystem responses to climate change Through the middle of the 20th century, phosphorus inputs from detergents and fertilizers degraded the water quality of Switzerland's Lake Geneva, spurring officials to take action in the 1970s to remediate the pollution. "The obvious remedy was to… Published July 11, 2022 at 11:38AM Read more at nsf.gov

Discovery pushes back the earliest record of wildfire by 10 million years While wildfires in recent years have raged across much of the Western United States and pose significant hazards to wildlife and human populations, fires have been a long-standing part of Earth's systems without the influence of humans for hundreds… Published July 11, 2022 at 11:36AM Read more at nsf.gov

Citizen science project analyzes data to model treetop snowpack and predict melt Participants in a citizen science project, created by University of Washington researchers and funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, viewed time-lapse images from Colorado and Washington and tagged photos that had trees with snow on… Published July 07, 2022 at 08:43AM Read more at nsf.gov

Mysterious radio bursts from space detected Astronomers using the U.S. National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, or VLA, as well as other powerful telescopes have found the second known highly active, repeating fast radio burst, or FRB, raising more questions about the… Published July 07, 2022 at 08:47AM Read more at nsf.gov

Pigment or optical illusion? What makes this berry blue Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong was walking down Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, when something caught her eye: a small, particularly shiny blue fruit, on a shrub known as Lantana strigocamara. While its tiny clusters of pink, yellow and orange flowers… Published July 06, 2022 at 07:42AM Read more at nsf.gov

Study shows that 'green islands' help forests regenerate after fire Thanks to trends like mountain snowpack loss, drier summers and longer fire seasons, high-elevation forests in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest are burning more frequently and extensively than in the past. Increased fire damage has prompted… Published July 06, 2022 at 07:51AM Read more at nsf.gov

Scientists discover uncertainties in flood risk estimates Flood frequency analysis is a technique used to estimate flood risk, providing statistics such as "100-year flood" and "500-year flood" forecasts that are critical to infrastructure design, dam safety analysis and flood mapping in flood-prone areas… Published July 05, 2022 at 06:46AM Read more at nsf.gov

U.S. and Czech scientists collaborate to explore gamma-ray production with high-power lasers The U.S. National Science Foundation and the Czech Science Foundation, or GACR, are partnering on a new collaborative project of scientists from the University of California San Diego and Extreme Light Infrastructure Beamlines in the Czech Republic… Published July 01, 2022 at 09:16AM Read more at nsf.gov