***SPECIAL EDITION***
April 30, 2002
GOING GLOBAL: SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING CROSSES BORDERS
For more information on these science news and feature
story tips, contact the public information officer
listed at (703) 292-8070.
Editor: Amber Jones
Global Science and Technology Week, April 28-May
4, 2002, highlights the universal nature of science
and underscores the importance of math, chemistry,
physics, biology and scientific education in today's
increasingly global society. The National Science
Foundation (NSF) supports international collaborations
in science and engineering research and education
through grants for multinational, interdisciplinary
teams; joint workshops; scientist exchanges; and government-to-government
agreements.
Contents of this News Tip:
International
Team Borrows from Nature to Create Synthetic, Self-Assembling
Molecules
The architecture of life consists of intricate structures
of proteins and molecules that carry out biological
and chemical functions. Using nature as a model, scientists
from multiple nations recently collaborated to create
a man-made, single-molecule structure that could lead
to devices that perform similar functions.
Researchers from the United States, Germany, Japan,
Netherlands and United Kingdom coaxed tens of thousands
of atoms to self-assemble into nano-scale structures
consisting of single large molecules. These building
blocks, in turn, can be assembled into three-dimensional
arrays with electronic, optical, chemical, or medical
diagnostic properties.
NSF funds the research through an interdisciplinary
research grant to team leader Virgil Percec and colleagues
at the University of Pennsylvania.
NSF has actively pursued cooperation in materials research
and education throughout the world. In 2000, NSF signed
an umbrella arrangement with the European Commission
for cooperative research in materials science. NSF
has also sponsored materials workshops in North America,
South America, Asia Pacific and Africa. [Amber
Jones]
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Sharing Literature
Globally: Mathematicians Consider Virtual Library
Mathematicians are considering the prospect of a worldwide
digital library for scholarly literature in the mathematical
sciences.
Mathematicians, librarians, publishers and editors
met informally at a January 2002 meeting of U.S. mathematical
societies in San Diego, Calif., to explore the concept's
benefits and obstacles. They discussed the need for
international protocols and technical standards and
reviewed efforts under way in countries such as France
and Germany to digitize mathematics literature.
"A digital mathematics library could be part of a new
world infrastructure for the mathematical and other
sciences," said Philippe Tondeur, director of NSF's
mathematical sciences division. "In fact, such a library
could be the most significant development since the
invention of scholarly journals to replace private
correspondence among scientists--a prototype for future
electronic-based cooperation." Such a repository,
he explained, would make data available to scientists
in many disciplines throughout the electronically
connected world.
Some U.S. groups are tackling efforts to digitally
archive mathematical literature. An NSF-funded project
at Cornell University will enhance digital collections
of mathematics monographs lodged in libraries at Cornell,
the University of Michigan and a university in Germany.
A privately funded project by Cornell's library and
Duke University Press will help mathematics and statistics
publishers establish online sites.
The American Mathematical Society's Web-based service,
MathSciNet, provides information on and electronic
navigation aids for locating published mathematical
literature. [Amber Jones]
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Students and
Teachers to Get Physics Research Experience in Switzerland
Twenty U.S. undergraduates and four high school teachers
are headed to the European Laboratory for Particle
Physics (CERN) this summer to work alongside some
of the world's foremost physicists investigating the
smallest particles known and the forces that hold
them together.
An NSF-funded program each year allows students and
teachers to conduct hands-on experiments with the
accelerators and detectors at the world's largest
particle physics research center near Geneva, Switzerland.
"This program gives students and teachers an opportunity
to work in a prestigious research environment, where
they learn from and interact with renowned scientists
and with their own international peers," said NSF-supported
physicist Stephen Reucroft of Northeastern University,
who co-leads the program with Homer Neal of the University
of Michigan.
"The summer program is contributing to two national
goals: training candidates for the U.S. work force
in high-energy and particle physics, and teaching
those candidates how to work on an international team,"
said NSF program manager Lawrence Brown. The Internet,
Brown said, increasingly allows U.S. physicists to
collaborate with foreign colleagues.
The 54 students and teachers who have participated
in the program engaged in projects ranging from searching
for new elementary particles to predicting violations
of scientific principles.
Caroline Jenkins, one of the early students to travel
to CERN in 1999, is now studying for a master's degree
in physics at Colorado State University. "I'm involved
in the photovoltaics group here," Caroline said. "I
did research in the area of semiconductors at CERN
(for use as detectors), and that's when I first got
interested in studying semiconductors." [Amber
Jones]
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NSF Office
Targets International Collaboration
NSF plays a lead role in more than two dozen international-scale
projects and participates in others. The agency spends
5-10 percent of its budget on international activities,
allowing at least 10,000 U.S. scientists and engineers
to engage in international projects.
NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering
(INT) promotes and supports ongoing partnerships between
U.S. scientists and engineers and their foreign colleagues,
as well as new cooperative projects, in any field
supported by NSF.
Awards from INT range from small grants for visits
to plan joint research to hundreds of thousands of
dollars to link U.S. centers with others elsewhere.
INT programs give international exposure to junior
and minority researchers who may not otherwise gain
that experience; for example, its summer programs
send U.S. graduate students to Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
The Women's International Science Collaboration Program
helps women establish research partnerships with colleagues
in Eastern Europe, the Newly Independent States of
the former Soviet Union, Asia and elsewhere.
Support of international activities is an integral
part of NSF's mission. Its international portfolio
reaches back at least to the International Geophysical
Year (1958-59), an unprecedented global research effort
in 67 nations.
For more information, see the March 2002 report, "International
Dimensions of NSF Research and Education," at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/int/pubs/02overview/overview.htm
[Mary Hanson]
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U.S. Science
Board Calls for Enhanced Federal Role in International
Science
The National Science Board (NSB), in a recent report,
acknowledged the need for the U.S. government to "integrate
science and engineering more explicitly into broader
global issues."
The report, Toward a More Effective U.S. Government
Role in International Science and Technology,
called for more effective management of collaborations,
greater use of knowledge gained through science and
technology to solve global problems, and more effective
information exchange in order for the government to
develop and make foreign policy decisions.
"If the United States is to maintain world leadership
in science and engineering, and secure its long-term
economic vitality, it must increasingly bring scientific
knowledge to bear on international decision-making,"
NSB Chairman Eamon Kelly said. The report suggested
that improved communication among science counselors
and other U.S. embassy personnel would facilitate
sharing of information critical to planning and decision
making.
The NSB also recommended in the report a stronger international
focus by the Office of Science and Technology Policy,
more international collaborations by younger scientists
and engineers, and increased cooperation with developing
countries. [Bill Noxon]
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