NSTA WebNews Digest

Science News


Malfunction Imperils NASA Mission to Find Other Earths

5/15/2013 - The New York Times
If engineers cannot restore a mechanism that keeps the Kepler spacecraft’s telescope pointed, one of the most romantic and successful of NASA’s missions could come to a premature end.

Embryonic Stem Cells: Advance in Medical Human Cloning

5/15/2013 - BBC News
Human cloning has been used to produce early embryos, marking a "significant step" for medicine, say US scientists.

Eugenie Scott to Retire From U.S. Center That Fights Antievolution Forces

5/8/2013 - ScienceInsider
Eugenie Scott has spent 26 years helping teachers do what's right for their students in the name of science. And while the need to defend the teaching of evolution and climate change certainly hasn't disappeared, Scott announced today that she is stepping down later this year as the founding CEO and "the public face" of the National Center for Science Education.

Speed of Light May Not Be Constant

4/30/2013 - Discovery News
The speed of light is constant, or so textbooks say. But some scientists are exploring the possibility that this cosmic speed limit changes, a consequence of the nature of the vacuum of space.

Space-Tourism Firm Virgin Galactic Goes Supersonic in Rocket Test

4/29/2013 - Los Angeles Times
British billionaire Richard Branson’s commercial space venture Virgin Galactic got one step closer to carrying tourists into space when a test pilot cracked the sound barrier over the Mojave Desert. For the first time, the company's SpaceShipTwo engaged its rocket motor and sped to Mach 1.2 and reached 56,000 feet in altitude.

Could an Immigration Overhaul Keep More STEM Graduates in the Washington Area?

4/22/2013 - The Washington Post
Last week, a bipartisan Senate panel unveiled an 844-page bill that would give U.S. immigration policies their biggest makeover in a generation. Included in the massive proposal: much higher limits on the number of “high-tech visas,” officially called H-1B visas.

A U.S. Makeover for STEM Education: What It Means for NSF and the Education Department

4/19/2013 - ScienceInsider
A proposed reshuffling of federal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education programs in the United States would move the Department of Education (ED) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the head of the class. Their new status would be a major change for the federal government, which now spends nearly $3 billion on 226 STEM education programs run by a dozen agencies.

Two Promising Places to Live, 1,200 Light-Years From Earth

4/19/2013 - The New York Times
Astronomers working with NASA’s Kepler mission said Thursday that a pair of newly discovered planets in the constellation Lyra appear capable of supporting life.

Scientists Develop Fusion Rocket Technology in Lab—and Aim for Mars

4/8/2013 - NBC News
Researchers at the University of Washington say they've built all the pieces for a fusion-powered rocket system that could get a crew to Mars in 30 days. Now they just have to put the pieces together and see if they work.

Two Billion Dollar Cosmic Ray Detector Confirms Possible Signs of Dark Matter

4/3/2013 - Science Now
The first results from a huge—and hugely controversial—cosmic ray detector aboard the International Space Station confirm a previously reported excess of antiparticles from space.

National Science Board Announces Recipient of 2013 Public Service Award

3/28/2013 - NSF.gov
The National Science Board has announced that accomplished educator Jo Anne Vasquez is the recipient of its 2013 Public Service Award for an individual. Vasquez is known nationally and internationally for her efforts to create sustainable change in teaching K-12 science.

National Science Board Announces Recipient of 2013 Public Service Award

3/28/2013 - NSF.gov
The National Science Board has announced that accomplished educator Jo Anne Vasquez is the recipient of its 2013 Public Service Award for an individual. Vasquez is known nationally and internationally for her efforts to create sustainable change in teaching K-12 science.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the Sequel

3/25/2013 - The New York Times
After its contributions to science, the HeLa cells may help create laws to protect the privacy of the family of Henrietta Lacks—and yours.

Women's STEM Careers A Matter Of Choice, Not Ability, Study Suggests

3/25/2013 - Huffington Post
Having skills suited for a variety of careers helps explain why few women pursue math and science jobs, new research finds.

Would-Be Geoengineers Call for Research Guidelines

3/18/2013 - Scientific American
Two researchers argue that governments need to coordinate a legal framework to allow for geoengineering experiments.

All-Star STEM Students Meet the President!

3/15/2013 - Whitehouse.gov
President Barack Obama greeted and talked with the 2013 Intel Science Talent Search finalists in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House, March 12, 2013.

A Short and Long-Term Solution to America's STEM Crisis

3/12/2013 - TheHill.com
During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, Intel founder and CEO Andrew Grove used to say that a green card should come stapled to every science Ph.D. awarded in the United States. Grove, an immigrant from Hungary, was hardly joking. At a time when companies were scrambling for talent, foreign-born scientists and engineers were a key to filling the gap and helping companies in America compete globally and create good U.S. jobs. Fifteen years later they still are.

A Laboratory Grows Young Scientists

3/11/2013 - The New York Times
The annual Intel Science Talent Search, with 40 finalists from more than 1,700 applicants this year, encourages young students to enter a life of science.

Global Warming Is Epic, Long-Term Study Says

3/8/2013 - CNN
Global warming has propelled Earth's climate from one of its coldest decades since the last ice age to one of its hottest—in just one century.

Chasing the Higgs Boson

3/5/2013 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
At the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, two armies of scientists struggled to close in on physics' most elusive particle.

Unparticle In Earth's Mantle? Physicists Peer Inside Planet In Effort To Confirm New Particle

2/27/2013 - Huffington Post
It's a good time to be a particle physicist. The long-sought Higgs boson particle seems finally to have been found at an accelerator in Geneva, and scientists are now hot on the trail of another tiny piece of the universe, this one tied to a new fundamental force of nature.

Scientist Nudges Girls Toward Careers In STEM

2/25/2013 - Leesburg Today
Thirty Loudoun County [VA] high school girls who have a knack for science were invited to visit with one of the most respected scientists in the field of theoretical computer science and physics—Jennifer Tour Chayes—at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus last week.

Podcast Interview: North Korea's Nuclear Test

2/25/2013 - American Association for the Advancement of Science
Is that legal? Richard Stone and Lassina Zerbo discuss North Korea's latest nuclear test.

Physicists May Have Found Dark Matter, The Invisible Scaffolding Of Our Universe

2/24/2013 - The Huffington Post UK
Physicists may have finally found hard evidence for the existence of dark matter. Reports from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston say the announcement could come within the next fortnight - if the data hold up.

Deepest Undersea Vents Discovered by UK Team

2/21/2013 - BBC News
UK scientists exploring the ocean floor in the Caribbean discover an "astounding" set of hydrothermal vents, the deepest in the world.

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