At the official ceremony opening NSF's new office in Beijing, NSF Director Arden L. Bement, Jr., noted that the most enduring benefit of international collaboration is its power to bring people together to pursue common goals and build a world of peace and prosperity.

"China and the United States have a long history of cooperation in scientific research," said Bement. "We look forward with great expectation to new and expanded partnerships among Chinese and U.S. researchers in the years ahead, as we explore together new frontiers of science and technology."

The NSF Beijing Office occupies a suite in the Silver Tower high rise located in Beijing's Chaoyang district and is part of the U.S. Embassy in China. It officially began operations in September 2005. The new office is NSF's third foreign office. NSF also maintains research offices in Paris and Tokyo.

See NSF's press release, "U.S. National Science Foundation Celebrates Opening of Beijing Office" for more information about the opening. The release also includes a video of the Director's address and the ribbon cutting.

In January 2007, a century after Norwegian Roald Amundsen erected the first small tent at the South Pole, NSF will dedicate the third and newest U.S. scientific station at the Earth's southern extremity.

The new facility will replace the iconic domed facility built in 1975, and will mark two historic occasions: the International Geophysical Year's 50th anniversary (when scientists took up residence in the very first South Pole station) and the beginning of International Polar Year 2007-2008, a global scientific field campaign.

The new $153-million Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is a technological and engineering marvel designed to support an array of scientific investigations, from astrophysics to seismology, while accommodating harsh conditions on the polar plateau.

The station will house more than 20 times as many people as stood at the Pole with Amundsen at a level of comfort, safety and connectedness to the outside world that would have been almost inconceivable to the explorers for whom the station is named.

By attaching strands of "antisense" DNA to nanometer-scale gold particles, scientists at Northwestern University have significantly enhanced the strands' ability to suppress the production of proteins that cause cancer.

Antisense DNA, a kind of molecular mirror image of ordinary DNA, can be tailored to disrupt the production of specific protein molecules in the cell. Researchers have long believed that antisense DNA could be more effective than conventional drugs at fighting cancer and other diseases with a genetic basis, but the strands tend to break down in biological systems.

Now, the Northwestern group has shown that attaching antisense DNA strands to the surface of gold nanoparticles makes the strands both more stable and more effective in their protein-suppression role.

This research team is supported in part by NSF. Read NSF's Discovery, "Gold Nanoparticles Could Improve Antisense Cancer Drugs" for more details.

An underwater robot is helping scientists understand why four-flippered animals such as penguins, sea turtles and seals use only two of their limbs for propulsion, whereas their long-extinct ancestors seemed to have used all four.

When researchers put a robot named Madeleine through her paces, they found that her top cruising speed did not increase when she used four flippers instead of two -- apparently because the front flippers created turbulence that interfered with the rear flippers' ability to generate forward propulsion. Maintaining the same speed with four flippers also took significantly more energy.

Results from experiments such as these aid engineers in designing underwater autonomous vehicles and help scientists understand why certain traits survived over others during the process of evolution.

Madeleine was developed through support provided by NSF's Collaborative Research at Undergraduate Institutions and the Major Research Instrumentation programs. For more information, see "Swimming Robot Tests Theories About Locomotion in Existing and Extinct Animals."

Support from NSF in basic biological research was critical to the discovery of Yellowstone National Park's most famous bacterium, Thermus aquaticus. An enzyme derived from this microorganism powers a process called the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which is used in thousands of laboratories to make large amounts of DNA for a variety of biotechnology applications.

As a result of this technology, an entire industry centered on creating PCR-related tools developed. The demand for PCR in biotechnology and pharmaceutical labs has resulted in a plethora of reagents and consumables from manufacturers. The ability to use DNA via PCR has also revolutionized medical diagnostics, forensics, paternity testing and other biological sciences.

NSF: Has NSF influenced your career? Collins: Definitely, yes. I've worn many NSF hats. I had my first NSF support in the summer of 1968; it was from the program that NSF now calls Research Experiences for Undergraduates. The opportunity afforded to me by that program launched my research career in biology. Over the years, my research has also been supported by NSF grants. I've also previously served as an NSF program officer and on external advisory committees.

Now, I'm fortunate to find myself as the head of NSF's Biological Sciences Directorate. It's a privilege to play a role in NSF's senior leadership.

NSF: How would you characterize your first months as BIO's Assistant Director? Collins: In a word, "busy." I've enjoyed engaging in NSF activities at this new level. It's fun, exciting and challenging -- all the things I hoped it would be.

NSF: Do you see any common themes throughout NSF's biological research portfolio? Collins: We support basic research in four principal areas: molecular and cellular biology; evolutionary biology; genetics; and ecology -- as well as the connections at their interfaces, which is integrative biology. This research is broadening the theoretical and conceptual boundaries in biology.

We also recognize that many of the biological research frontiers require integration with other areas of scholarship, like the social sciences, geology, engineering, the physical sciences, and computer sciences. It's creating a synergy that will lead to amazing new research opportunities.

NSF: Do you see challenges in the near future for biological research? Collins: An ongoing challenge in managing NSF's research portfolio is the ability to fund all the great ideas we receive in the form of proposals. Ensuring that support for basic biological research continues to grow is vital for continued success.

Training the next generation of biological researchers and educators is also a key to maintaining our nation's preeminence in science and engineering.

NSF: You are maintaining your research lab at Arizona State; how is that going? Collins: It's great. I have wonderful students and post-docs that keep me directly engaged in the science. The needs of the students and the day-to-day operation of the laboratory, combined with the day-to-day interactions with terrific scientists and science administrators here at NSF, are constant reminders of a researcher's true perspective. The direct interaction with scientists and students in the field and lab keeps me connected to the basic research questions and needs of an educator-scientist, like those in the communities we serve at NSF.