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Mammals are unique in many ways. We're warm-blooded and agile in comparison with our reptilian relatives.

But a new study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and led by Harvard University researchers Stephanie Pierce and Katrina Jones, suggests we're unique in one more way -- the makeup of our spines. The researchers describe their finding in a paper published this week in the journal Science.

"The spine is basically like a series of beads on a string, ...
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Is nature predictable? If so, how can we better manage and conserve ecosystems? Near-term ecological forecasting is an emerging interdisciplinary research area that aims to improve researchers' ability to predict ecological processes on timescales that can be validated and updated.

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences invites media and members of the public to a distinguished lecture series with Michael Dietze of Boston University. An ecologist ...
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced awards for six Louis Stokes regional centers of excellence (LSRCEs) that will support recruitment and retention of minority undergraduate and graduate students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The centers will conduct broadening participation research and STEM implementation activities that lead to degree completion for minority students traditionally underrepresented in the STEM marketplace. The goal is ...
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has taken the next steps in its agency-wide effort to ensure the research and learning environments it supports are free from harassment, publishing a term and condition that requires awardee organizations to report findings and determinations of sexual harassment, as well as establishing a secure online portal for submitting harassment notifications.

On Sept. 21, 2018, NSF will publish a term and condition for awards, to become effective 30 days ...
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For more information, see NSF's press release.

What NSF is doing:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will release a term and condition requiring awardee organizations to report findings of sexual harassment. It will be posted in the Federal Register Sept. 21, 2018 and go into effect Oct. 21, 2018.

Why NSF is doing this:

As the primary ...
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Media are invited to join a one-hour call to learn about actions the National Science Foundation (NSF) is taking within our authority to reduce or eliminate harassment from the U.S. scientific and engineering research community.

The call will include updates on a new award term and condition and reporting requirements that NSF proposed in February 2018, and details on enhanced web resources and information to support the ...
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded nearly $140 million to seven jurisdictions through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which builds research and development capacity in jurisdictions that demonstrate a commitment to research but have thus far lacked the levels of investment seen in other parts of the country.

The new EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-1 awards will bolster science and engineering research ...
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Find related stories on NSF's geosciences risk and resilience interest area.

Tracking how air moves at night near the Earth's surface could provide insights into how air pollution spreads and when it's best to apply pesticides.

This week, a team of University of South Carolina (USC) and University of Illinois (U of I) researchers will launch a project to do just that. Funded by ...
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Summer 2018. The west coast of Florida. A red tide spreading along this Gulf of Mexico shoreline has killed millions of fish, threatened the health of human residents and affected tourism in the region. Nationwide, such harmful algae blooms cost an estimated $50 million each year.

What led to the Florida "bloom" of harmful algae, and what short- and long-term effects might it have on people and other animals -- and on the gulf ecosystem?

To study the effects of harmful algae ...
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The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program recently awarded $5.8 million to 12 new projects that will pilot, test and validate innovative approaches in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduate education.

"These investments by NSF will help us identify advances in graduate education that address current and future STEM workforce needs," said Jim Lewis, NSF acting assistant director for Education and Human Resources. ...
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To advance the engineering of biology at the molecular and cellular levels, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $16 million for research to characterize the regulation of gene activity and expression, and to create strategies to modify those processes without altering the DNA sequence.

Chromatin -- a combination of DNA, RNA and proteins within a cell's nucleus -- can be modified by attaching additional molecules. This can cause altered gene expression without actually ...
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Building on the success of its 2017 Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS) awards, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is awarding $8.5 million in TRIPODS+X grants to expand the scope of the cross-disciplinary TRIPODS institutes into broader areas of science, engineering and mathematics.

In total, NSF will support 19 ...
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded funding to 18 cross-disciplinary projects to conduct innovative research on neural and cognitive systems.

The awards contribute to NSF's investments in support of Understanding the Brain and the BRAIN Initiative, a coordinated research effort that seeks to accelerate the development of new ...
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued new awards that represent the next major step for its NSF INCLUDES program -- the development of a national network to enhance U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by broadening participation in those disciplines.

The U.S. innovation economy increasingly requires skilled STEM workers -- scientists, engineers, technicians and people with STEM backgrounds -- to maintain the nation's status as a ...
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched the Institute for Research and Innovation in Software for High-Energy Physics (IRIS-HEP), a $25 million effort to tackle the unprecedented torrent of data that will come from the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator. The upgraded LHC will help scientists fully understand particles such as the Higgs boson -- first observed in 2012 -- and their place in the universe.

When the ...
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship (NRT) program recently awarded 17 projects, totaling $51 million, to develop and implement graduate education traineeship models in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The awards will help train the next generation of scientific leaders to develop the skills necessary to tackle complex societal problems.

"Innovative approaches are vital to transforming STEM graduate education," said Jim Lewis, ...
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This is a competition to help set the U.S. agenda for fundamental research in science and engineering. Participants can earn prizes and receive public recognition by suggesting the pressing research questions that need to be answered in the coming decade, the next set of “Big Ideas” for future investment by NSF.
More at https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsf2026ideamachine/index.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

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When an El Niño or its opposite, La Niña, forms in the future, it's likely to cause more intense impacts over many land regions -- amplifying changes to temperature, precipitation and wildfire risk.

These are the findings of a new study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy and published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

The researchers found, for example, that the ...
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The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Enabling Discovery through Genomic Tools (EDGE) program has made 11 new awards, totaling approximately $10 million, to develop genomic tools that will allow biologists to identify mechanisms that determine how genes affect an organism's physical and functional characteristics.

The EDGE program helps the research community overcome the impediments that restrict progress in the biology of ...
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