In its 60th anniversary year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) today submitted to Congress a $7.4 billion budget request for fiscal year 2011. The request represents an 8-percent increase over 2010 and supports the President's goal of increasing the nation's total public and private investment in research and development to at least 3 percent of the gross domestic product.NSF Director Arden L. Bement, Jr. said NSF's fiscal year 2011 budget request represents ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116307&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Biologists have long known that ecology, the interaction between organisms and their environment, plays a significant role in forming new species and in modifying living ones.The traditional view is that ecology shapes evolution. The environment defines a template for the process of evolution: natural selection shapes organisms to fit that template.Some studies suggest, however, that evolutionary processes reciprocate by influencing ecology.Now biologists present ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116312&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

The National Science Board (NSB) will embark on its first of five meetings of 2010 related to national science and engineering policy issues and the National Science Foundation (NSF) on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 3 and 4, 2010. Much of the meeting's agenda will focus on plans for major facilities and high-profile programs devoted to research at the ends of the globe, over a mile and a half beneath the surface of our planet, or thousands of light years away from the Earth. The NSB will also ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116323&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

NSF is pleased to announce the appointment of James S. Ulvestad as division director for Astronomical Sciences in the mathematical and physical sciences (MPS) directorate, effective March 1, 2010.Ulvestad comes to the NSF from the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), where he has been an assistant director since 2001. Since 2006, he has been head of the NRAO New Initiatives Office. From 2001 through 2007, he was head of New Mexico Operations, including the NSF Very Large ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116331&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Caltech biologist David Anderson and his colleagues identify a brain chemical involved in promoting aggression in flies More at http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116242&WT.mc_id=USNSF_1 This is an NSF Discoveries item.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will hold a budget request briefing from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET on February 1, 2010, at its headquarters at 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Va. 22230.The event will provide details about the amount of funding the administration is seeking from Congress for NSF for fiscal year 2011 to fund major science and engineering research and education programs and projects across the country. The briefing will feature a presentation by NSF Director Arden L. ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116311&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Painting the roofs of buildings white has the potential to significantly cool off cities and mitigate some impacts of global warming, results of a new study indicate.The research, the first computer modeling study to simulate the impacts of white roofs on urban areas worldwide, suggests there may be merit to the idea of turning roofs white.But the study team, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., cautions that there are ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116283&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Through an expedition to the Gobi Desert of China, scientists have solved the puzzle of how one group of dinosaurs came to look like birds--independent of birds.The discovery extends the fossil record of the family Alvarezsauridae--a bizarre group of bird-like dinosaurs with a large claw on the hand and very short, powerful arms--back 63 million years, further distancing the group from birds on the evolutionary tree.Until now, there was no direct evidence that dinosaurs of ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116291&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

An innovative computational technique that draws on statistics, imaging and other disciplines has the capability to detect errors in sensitive technological systems ranging from satellites to weather instruments.The patented technique, known as the Intelligent Outlier Detection Algorithm, or IODA, is described this month in the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology.IODA offers the potential to alert operators to faulty readings or other problems associated with ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116247&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

A team funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is returning to Haiti this week to investigate the cause of the January 12, magnitude 7 earthquake there.The geologists will collect crucial data to assess whether the quake could trigger another major event to the east or west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital.Eric Calais, a Purdue University geophysicist leading the team, said that most aftershocks occur within weeks of the initial quake and that the team urgently needs ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116282&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

For eight weeks beginning in November 2009, off the coast of New Zealand, an international team of 34 scientists and 92 support staff and crew on board the scientific drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution (JR) were at work investigating sea-level change in a region called the Canterbury Basin. It proved to be a record-breaking trip for the research team.The JR is one of the primary research vessels of an international research program called the Integrated Ocean Drilling ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116257&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

The quest for faster electronic devices recently got something more than a little bump up in technological knowhow. Scientists at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. discovered that the thin, smooth, crystalline sheets needed to make semiconductors, which are the foundation of modern computers, might be grown into smoother sheets by managing the random darting motions of the atomic particles that affect how the crystals grow."The main benefit of smooth crystalline films in ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116259&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Recent studies of stream channel offsets along the San Andreas Fault reveal new information about fault behavior--changing our understanding of the potential for damaging earthquakes.The studies were conducted at the Carrizo Plain, 100 miles north of Los Angeles and site of the original "Big One"--the Fort Tejon quake of 1857--by scientists at Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of California at Irvine (UCI).Applying a systems science approach, the ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116246&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.