When a solar flare filled with charged particles erupts from the sun, its magnetic fields sometime break a widely accepted rule of physics. The flux-freezing theorem dictates that the magnetic lines of force should flow away in lock-step with the particles, whole and unbroken. Instead, the lines sometimes break apart and quickly reconnect in a way that has mystified astrophysicists.

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128071&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Wed, 22 May 2013 15:15:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128040&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University have developed a computational method that enables scientists to visualize and interpret "high-dimensional" data produced by single-cell measurement technologies such as mass cytometry. The method, published today in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology, has particular relevance to cancer research and therapeutics.
Full story at http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/2013/05/20/computational-tool-translates-complex-data-into-simplified-2-dimensional-images/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=computational-tool-translates-complex-data-into-simplified-2-dimensional-images

Source
Columbia University Medical Center

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128040&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 11:47:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128054&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Herds of wooly mammoths once shook the earth beneath their feet, sending humans scurrying across the landscape of prehistoric Ohio. But then something much larger shook the Earth itself, and at that point these mega mammals' days were numbered.

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128054&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 13:52:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128055&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Earthquakes that last minutes rather than seconds are a relatively recent discovery, according to an international team of seismologists. Researchers have been aware of these slow earthquakes, only for the past five to 10 years because of new tools and new observations, but these tools may explain the triggering of some normal earthquakes and could help in earthquake prediction.
Full story at http://news.psu.edu/story/277292/2013/05/20/research/slow-earthquakes-its-all-rock-mechanics

Source
Penn State

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]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128055&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 13:50:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128064&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

A fried breakfast food popular in Spain provided the inspiration for the development of doughnut-shaped droplets that may provide scientists with a new approach for studying fundamental issues in physics, mathematics and materials.

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128064&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Wed, 22 May 2013 11:04:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128066&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Researchers at Michigan State University's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability report on the complexities consumers exhibit when deciding whether or not to put their money where their carbon footprint is.
Full story at http://csis.msu.edu/news/politics-saving-energy

Source
Michigan State University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128066&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Wed, 22 May 2013 11:11:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128018&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

With the hand of nature trained on a beaker of chemical fluid, the most delicate flower structures have been formed in a Harvard laboratory and not at the scale of inches, but microns.
Full story at http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news-events/press-releases/beautiful-flowers-self-assemble-in-a-beaker

Source
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128018&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 12:30:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128019&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

When the University of California, Santa Barbara, doctoral student Seeta Sistla and her adviser, environmental studies professor Josh Schimel, went north not long ago to study how long-term warming in the Arctic affects carbon storage, they had made certain assumptions.

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128019&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Fri, 17 May 2013 12:52:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128042&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, may have created the smallest drops of liquid made in the lab.
Full story at http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/05/worlds-smallest-droplets/

Source
Vanderbilt University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128042&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 11:47:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128043&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

New experiments reveal previously unseen effects, could lead to new kinds of electronics and optical devices.
Full story at http://web.mit.edu/press/2013/layered-stacks-could-unleash-graphenes-electronic-potential.html

Source
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128043&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 11:46:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128044&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Human society fractures along lines defined by politics, religion, ethnicity, and perhaps most fundamentally, language. Although these differences contribute to the great variety of human lives, the partitions they create can lead to conflict and strife, impeding efforts toward social justice and economic development.
Full story at http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/mathematicians_analyze_social_divisions_using_cell_phone_data

Source
University of California, San Diego

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128044&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Wed, 22 May 2013 10:43:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=127997&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Inspired by analog electronic circuits, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers Rahul Sarpeshkar and Timothy Lu, created synthetic computation circuits by combining existing genetic "parts," or engineered genes, in novel ways.  The circuits perform those calculations in an analog fashion by exploiting natural biochemical functions that are already present in the cell rather than by reinventing them with digital logic.
Full story at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/cells-as-living-calculators-0515.html

Source
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=127997&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Thu, 16 May 2013 09:33:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128045&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

African frogs, originally imported for early 20th century pregnancy tests, carried a deadly amphibian disease to the U.S., according to findings published in PLOS ONE. African Clawed Frogs have long been suspected of spreading a harmful fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The earliest known case of the fungus was found in these frogs in their native South Africa. Now, scientists have found the first evidence of the disease among introduced feral populations in the U.S.
Full story at http://news.sfsu.edu/frog-once-imported-pregnancy-testing-brought-deadly-amphibian-disease-us-study-suggests

Source
San Francisco State University

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128045&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 11:46:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128046&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Two fossil discoveries from the East African Rift reveal new information about the evolution of primates, according to a study published online in Nature this week led by Ohio University scientists.
Full story at http://www.ohio.edu/research/communications/primatefossils.cfm

Source
Ohio University

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]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128046&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 11:46:00 EDT http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128050&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click

Virginia Tech researchers have identified leptospirosis as a significant health threat in Botswana. The world's most common disease transmitted to humans by animals, according to the World Health Organization, leptospirosis is a two-phase disease that begins with flu-like symptoms but can cause meningitis, liver damage, pulmonary hemorrhage, renal failure, and even death if untreated.
Full story at http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2013/05/051513-cnre-leptospirosis.html

Source
Virginia Tech

This is an NSF News From the Field item.
]]> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128050&WT.mc_id=USNSF_195&WT.mc_ev=click Tue, 21 May 2013 11:44:00 EDT