tagged w/ National Science Foundation
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A new study has dispelled the myth that the public are divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it.
And the Yale research published today reveals that if Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning it would still result in a gap between public and scientific consensus.
Indeed, as members of the public become more science literate and numerate, the study found, individuals belonging to opposing cultural groups become even more divided on the risks that climate change poses.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the study was conducted by researchers associated with the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School and involved a nationally representative sample of 1500 U.S. adults.
"The aim of the study was to test two hypotheses," said Dan Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School and a member of the study team. "The first attributes political controversy over climate change to the public's limited ability to comprehend science, and the second, to opposing sets of cultural values.
The findings supported the second hypothesis and not the first," he said.
"Cultural cognition" is the term used to describe the process by which individuals' group values shape their perceptions of societal risks. It refers to the unconscious tendency of people to fit evidence of risk to positions that predominate in groups to which they belong.
The results of the study were consistent with previous studies that show that individuals with more egalitarian values disagree sharply with individuals who have more individualistic ones on the risks associated with nuclear power, gun possession, and the HPV vaccine for school girls.A new study has dispelled the myth that the public are divided about climate change... more
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In this week’s webisode, we bring you an idea from the National Science Foundation about the benefits of green roofs. Also hear from a Planet Forward member who shows us her small business of painting roofs white for an environmental benefit.In this week’s webisode, we bring you an idea from the National Science... more
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For years, data analysis companies have attempted to link social media updates to specific television events. Wednesday, Bluefin Labs publicly launches machine learning technology that makes a direct, real-time correlation between the shows and ads audiences are watching on TV and what those audiences are saying about that content via social media streams.For years, data analysis companies have attempted to link social media updates to... more
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Beginning in August, NASA will be flying into hurricanes to help study how they form and how some rapidly strengthen while others weaken and die.Beginning in August, NASA will be flying into hurricanes to help study how they form... more
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photo credit: USGS
June 17, 2010 - The Gulf of Mexico: what role will the Mississippi River play in oil washing ashore and into delta wetlands?
One of the spill's greatest environmental threats is to Louisiana's wetlands, scientists believe.
But there may be good news ahead.
Scientists affiliated with the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center headquartered at the University of Minnesota, are using long-term field plots in Louisiana's Wax Lake Delta to measure the baseline conditions of, and track the effects of the oil spill on, coastal Louisiana wetlands.
Robert Twilley and Guerry Holm of Louisiana State University (LSU) are investigating the degree to which two delta wetland characteristics may help mitigate oil contamination.
Fresh water head, as it's called, the slope of the water's surface from a river delta to the sea, and residence time of river-mouth wetlands, the time it takes water to move through a wetland at a river's mouth, are important to understanding how delta wetlands will respond to the oil spill, say the researchers.
"Since the Mississippi River is currently at a relatively high stage, we expect the river's high volume of freshwater to act as a hydrologic barrier, keeping oil from moving into the Wax Lake Delta from the sea," says Twilley.
Twilley and Holm are performing baseline and damage assessments on the plants and soils of, and comparing oil degradation processes in, freshwater and saltwater Louisiana wetlands.
"The Mississippi River's 'plumbing' provides a potential benefit to reducing the movement of oil onshore from shelf waters," says Twilley.
The Mississippi's flow has been altered for flood control to protect people and infrastructure in this working delta.
River diversion structures--concrete gates built within the levees of the river--may be operated, however, to allow water to flow to specific coastal basins and floodways, says Twilley, "as a way to provide controlled floods."
The operational features of this system "downriver to the control structure near Venice, Louisiana," he says, "may provide a second line of defense against oil washing in."
But any strategy using Mississippi River hydrology must be one of clear options and tradeoffs, says H. Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences, which funds NCED.
"As the river stage falls and protection diminishes," says Lane, "it becomes a question of how best to distribute this freshwater resource to defend the coast from the movement of oil onshore."
The answer, Twilley says, lies in the delicate balance of river, coastal and Gulf of Mexico processes "that must work in concert to benefit the incredible 'ecosystem services' this region provides to the nation."
Louisiana wetlands "play a vital role in protecting New Orleans from hurricane damage, providing habitat for wildlife, supporting economically important fisheries, and maintaining water quality," says Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, director of NCED.
"We must look at all options for protecting them for the future."photo credit: USGS
June 17, 2010 - The Gulf of Mexico: what role will the... more
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The first half of the day is coming to a close, but before you run off to grab lunch take a look at a few of the recently featured stories on Current.com.
On matters of health care, filmmaker/documentarian Michael Moore advises Democrats to "find your spine." He directed this at the Democrats in Congress that he feels have been "dogging" the health care debate. What's your take? Join the conversation here.
Hot on the heels of the U.S. being called 'climate illiterate', we're learning that even more utility companies are backing out of the U.S. Chamber of Congress as the global warming legislation debate continues to heat up in Congress.
The defections began when PG&E Chairman and CEO Peter Darbee sent a sharply worded two-page letter outlining why the privately owned utility, which provides gas and electricity to 15 million customers from Eureka to Bakersfield, is pulling out of the chamber, which represents 3 million large and small businesses across the country and has one of the most powerful lobbying operations in Washington.
Darbee, who has invited leading climate scientists to meet with PG&E's board of directors in recent years, was particularly alarmed that the chamber recently requested a public "trial" to weigh the scientific evidence that global warming endangers human health.
"We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored," Darbee wrote. "In our view, an intellectually honest argument over the best policy response to the challenges of climate change is one thing; disingenuous attempts to diminish or distort the reality of these challenges are quite another."
Weigh in on this story here
The Washington Times has revealed that employee porn surfing is apparently out of control at the National Science Foundation. Here's what you need to know:
6 out of 10 misconduct cases involve online pornography.
One Sr. Exec was found to have spent 331 days either viewing porn, or participating in XXX webchats with women via his computer.
The NSF received $6 billion in taxpayer funding in 2008.
Feel like chiming in about this? You can join the conversation on Current.com by clicking here.The first half of the day is coming to a close, but before you run off to grab lunch... more
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Lucas Bolyard, a sophomore at South Harrison High School in Clarksburg, WV, made the discovery while participating in a project in which students are trained to scrutinize data from the National Science Foundation’s giant Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT).The project, called the Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC), is a joint project of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and West Virginia University (WVU), funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Bolyard made the discovery in March, after he already had studied more than 2,000 data plots from the GBT and found nothing.
“I was home on a weekend and had nothing to do, so I decided to look at some more plots from the GBT,” he said. “I saw a plot with a pulse, but there was a lot of radio interference, too. The pulse almost got dismissed as interference,” he added.Lucas Bolyard, a sophomore at South Harrison High School in Clarksburg, WV, made the... more
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According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, "The worldwide need for nanotechnology workers is expected to reach 2 million by 2015."According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, "The worldwide need for... more
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Dear Mr. Gore
Amongst the science and engineering community, the potential frontiers of scientific innovation related to Nanotechnology pose great opportunities and risks in a global society. Some have argued that Nanotechnology may even have a socioeconomic impact greater than the industrial revolution - with great technological disruption in medicine, energy, infrastructure, information technology, manufacturing, and related National Security issues. Recently, the Project for Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Pew Charitable Trusts published several studies showing that the American Public is ill prepared in understanding the scientific and social challenges poised by Nanotechnology applications. Do you feel that America's current structure of the National Nanotechnology Initiative is adequately addressing the challenges presented by other Nations who are actively investing in Nanotechnology research? How should we mobilize the public to safely invest time, energy, and resources in order to help solve 21st century challenges with Nanotechnology applications?Dear Mr. Gore
Amongst the science and engineering community, the potential... more
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We've gotten excited here about the startup that claims it can make $1/gallon ethanol out of anything from trash to tires. But we've also seen how cellulosic ethanol is a better option, and how ethanol demand in general is only adding to the worldwide food crisis. So what about $1/gallon gasoline? NSF-funded researchers at UMass Amherst just completed the first direct conversion from cellulose using a new method of hydrocarbon refining, which they claim can be commercialized within 5-10 years and essentially make fuel out of anything that grows. Quoting: 'We already have the infrastructure in place to distribute liquid fuels. We're using them to power transportation vehicles today, and I think that's what we'll be using in 10 years and in 50 years,' Huber says. 'And if you want a sustainable liquid transportation fuel, biomass is the only way to go.We've gotten excited here about the startup that claims it can make $1/gallon... more
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The next time an unexpected comet shows up in the inner solar system, Amy J. Lovell may not get time at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to observe it before it swings back out.
With a quarter of its annual budget slashed, to $8 million from $10.5 million, Arecibo will be listening to the universe less often in the coming years. For researchers like Dr. Lovell, a professor of astronomy at Agnes Scott College in Georgia, that may mean her work detecting radio waves emitted by ions from busted-up water molecules will take years longer to complete.
Im prepared to live with that, she said.
More alarming would be the closing of Arecibo in four years, a possibility that has been raised by the National Science Foundation, which pays for the operation of the telescope. Then Im completely up the creek without a paddle, Dr. Lovell said.The next time an unexpected comet shows up in the inner solar system, Amy J. Lovell... more
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