National Science Foundation (NSF)

Scientists have been working to develop a method that raises the energy state of an atom's nucleus, aiming to enable the development of so-called "nuclear clocks," which would surpass today's best atomic clocks in precision by orders of magnitude.

A team led by researchers at UCLA has done it; they successfully raised the energy state of the nucleus inside a thorium atom. By embedding a thorium atom within a highly transparent crystal and bombarding it with lasers, the team caused the thorium's nucleus to absorb and emit photons like electrons in an atom do.

Existing atomic clocks are already exact, but nuclear clocks have the potential to be even more precise and could be made smaller, more portable and rugged. That's because the protons and neutrons inside nuclei are massive compared to electrons and thus more stable.

If such nuclear clocks were created, scientists could potentially measure properties of nature known as fundamental constants with enough precision to determine if they are changing, thereby altering our basic understanding of the universe.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3Lza6Fq

📷: James Terhune, Hudson Group, UCLA

Across the animal kingdom, nonvisual, light-sensing proteins in and around the eye carry out various biological functions — regulating circadian rhythm, melatonin release, pupil response and detection and response to seasonal changes. Yet, despite their ubiquity, these proteins, known as nonvisual opsins, remain largely understood.

Helping to change the status quo is a recently published study led by Penn State researchers, who sampled and assessed the genetic data of 102 species of frogs. Spanning diverse habitats with distinct light environments, frogs are an ideal candidate for examining nonvisual opsins under diverse ecological conditions. The researchers' findings were eye-opening to say the least!

They discovered that frogs have maintained a large number of nonvisual opsins over time. This could be because frogs need to adapt to different environments across their lifespans, growing from tadpoles to adult frogs.

Their work brings into sharper focus the importance of nonvisual opsins by helping us understand how these proteins have evolved in vertebrates.

📷: John L. Boyette/Penn State

An dinosaur study led by researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks calls into question Bergmann’s rule: an ecogeographical principle from the 1800s stating that organisms living in higher latitudes grow to be larger and have thicker limbs than those living closer to the equator to maximize their heat conservation.

The team studied hundreds of data points from the fossil record and found that Arctic dinosaurs were not notably bigger in body size compared to their relatives closer to the equator.

When they looked at modern day mammals and birds, descendants of prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs, they discovered similar results: latitude didn’t predict body size in modern species.

Their work indicates that the evolution of diverse body sizes in dinosaurs and mammals cannot be reduced to simply being a function of latitude or temperature.

“Scientific rules should apply to fossil organisms in the same way they do modern organisms," said Pat Druckenmiller, one of the co-authors of the paper. “You can’t understand modern ecosystems if you ignore their evolutionary roots. You have to look to the past to understand how things became what they are today.”

https://bit.ly/46cVrcd

📷: James Havens

Found in the cold Siberian permafrost, the well-preserved fossil of a woolly mammoth has allowed scientists to fully reconstruct its chromosome structures using innovative computer modeling techniques traditionally used in theoretical physics.

Woolly mammoths (like Manny, from the "Ice Age" movies) were big and hairy creatures related to modern elephants. The 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth studied in this research essentially freeze-dried after its death, causing all its molecular movement to pause.

This allowed scientists from the NSF Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute at Baylor College of Medicine and the NSF Physics Frontiers Center for Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice University to gain more information about the extinct species than with previously studied fossils.

Learn more about this innovative discovery: https://bit.ly/3LsHbTh

📸:Love Dalén/Stockholm University

What's it like spending weeks sailing the Arctic? 🚢

Join researchers TODAY at 2 p.m. EST aboard the USCGC Healy to learn about their work to understand the Arctic environment as the climate changes and tour their unique icebreaker.

Register now to reserve your spot: https://bit.ly/3LpLm29

🎥 U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy Going Live!!!

Tomorrow at 2 p.m. EST, join Nation Science Foundation (NSF) funded researchers aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy as they discuss their work on exploration of how water from the Pacific Ocean circulates through the Arctic and impacts the ecosystem under the warming climate.

First, watch a Presentation by Bob Pickart and Kali Horn. Afterwards, stay for a tour of the cutter and a live Q&A!

Sign-up with the link below and share the with family and friends!

Register --> https://bit.ly/healy-website

The U.S. National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the U.S. as a global leader in research and innovation!


National Science Foundation (NSF)
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy

This summer, a team of researchers traveled to NSF Summit Station at the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet for a unique ice coring experience.

At NSF Summit Station, the team is collecting several ice cores to create the first-ever record of atmospheric molecular hydrogen (H2) before the onset of the industrial era.

The researchers plan to analyze the H2 content within these cores to reconstruct changes in atmospheric composition over the past millennium.

Their data is key to establishing a baseline that helps us understand the impacts of human activities on Earth's atmospheric composition, past, present and future .

Want to learn more? Check out our recent live event with the team: https://bit.ly/3S5klFa

📷: Caleigh Warner

With unbelievable body-bending acrobatics, thresher sharks can whip their meals right into their mouths. 🦈

Threshers are among the larger sharks due to their machete-like tail, almost half the length of their body, which they use to slap and stun fish. researchers Florida Atlantic University undercover the mechanisms behind the thresher shark's vertebrae that allow for their flexible acrobatics.

Using micro-CT scanning, the team imaged the internal architecture of each vertebra and the mineral structures found in the calcified cartilage. These images help the team understand exactly how the shark's unique catapult system works.

Check it out on "NSF Science Now: Whiplash": https://bit.ly/3Ykcfwn

Shark teeth, fossils and technology — is there a better combination for engaging students? 🦈⛏👨🏼‍💻

Florida middle school teachers can attest to the fun and engaging program "AI Learning in K-12 with Fossil Sharks" (July 2023-May 2024), where teachers learned about AI machine learning to teach computers how to identify teeth from the extinct massive shark megalodon using shape, color and texture. 😲

The weeklong professional development workshop at University of Florida in Gainesville helped teachers bring the fields of artificial intelligence and paleontology to their students with shared resources and best practices for implementing lessons.

Learn more about the program: https://bit.ly/4fbtrKq

and: https://bit.ly/3xYnmjB

Watch: https://bit.ly/3S9rggn

AI Learning in K-12 with Fossil Sharks Professional Development Program Learn about the Scientist in Every Florida School program's AI Learning in K-12 with Fossil Sharks professional development program. In 2022, the first cohor...

Living more than 4 miles below the sea surface, where pressures are hundreds of times greater than those at the surface, deep-sea comb jellies have developed biophysical adaptations that allow them to survive in Earth’s most extreme environments. To understand what these adaptations are and how they developed, a team of researchers compared the cell membranes of the deep-sea comb jelly with its shallow-water relative (the shallow-water comb jelly).

The researchers found that the comb jellies adapted to their respective habitats at vastly different ocean depths by developing uniquely shaped lipid molecules within their cell membranes. To their surprise, the researchers discovered that deep-sea comb jellies are largely made of plasmalogens, fat molecules which are also abundant in the human brain, where their loss has been linked with diminishing brain function and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

By illuminating the biophysical adaptions of deep-sea creatures, this NSF-funded research also shines a light on human biology and could potentially improve our understanding of aging, disease progression and cell function.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3zx6sJd

📸: Jacob Winnikoff

Tectonically active areas — such as the Himalayan and Andean mountains — are often associated with greater species abundance due to changing habitats over time. But according to a recent study, tectonic activity isn't the only geologic driver of biodiversity.

Led by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the study's authors identify a more subtle mechanism contributing to biodiversity: river erosion. To make their case, the researchers point to the Tennessee River Basin in the southern Appalachians, an area whose tectonic turmoil is hundreds of millions in the past, yet whose quiet environments support a huge diversity of freshwater fish.

The team discovered that as the river eroded through different rock types in the region, the shifting landscape pushed a species of fish called the greenfin darter into separate tributaries of the river network. Eventually, these isolated populations developed into distinct lineages, substantially differing in their genetic makeup.

Studies like this one highlight the subtle factors that shape evolution while underscoring the importance of conservation and the efforts needed to help protect the unique creatures that call environments, like those within the Tennessee River Basin, home.

📷: (1) Isaac Szabo; (2) Sean Gallen

Can sharks really smell a drop of human blood from a mile away? 🩸

Not to burst any bubbles, but all fish, including sharks, can smell very, very well. Their keen sense of smell can whiff out one molecule of a scent in a billion molecules of water!

However, many factors go into how sharks smell in the water. Sharks are passive smellers, meaning they can't sniff. 👃🏼 . Water moves into their nose like a tunnel — in one nostril and out the other. Currents, turbidity and the position of the shark — where it's facing into the stream of the smell (odor plume) — all play into how a shark "smells" the water. Plus, human blood has a chemical composition different from fish blood, which they are not particularly attracted to.

Science Friday talks with Lauren Simonitis, an NSF postdoctoral fellow in biology at the University of Washington and Florida Atlantic University, about shark nose research and what questions remain about shark snouts.

The sense of smell, olfaction, is one of the most important senses a sea creature can have in the underwater environment. "It is a chemical sense which relies on the chemical makeup of the water. So when we think about things like ocean acidification or pollution, things that are changing the water chemistry, that is going to impact how animals, like sharks, are able to respond to chemicals in the water," said Simonitis.

Listen to find out more: https://bit.ly/4eQUxq1

📷: Lauren Simonitis

Blood In The Water: Shark Smell Put To The Test Despite their reputation as super-smellers, sharks don’t have a better sense of smell than other fish. One researcher investigates.

Over the last 50 years, advances in radio astronomy shined a light on long-standing mysteries of the universe — from how stars and planets formed to the composition of black holes. During that time, modern medicine made revolutionary strides, expanding the range of medical imaging methods to noninvasively enable better diagnoses and more effective treatments.

While medicine and astronomy progressed nearly independently, the two fields appear to have more in common than meets the eye. As it turns out, “seeing” (in astronomy or medicine) comes down to very similar physical and mathematical principles — a notion prompting the creation of the Cells to Galaxies initiative. Led by NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the initiative brings together radio astronomers and medical imaging researchers to explore common challenges — and possible solutions.

From inner space to outer space, the days ahead promise to be a very exciting time to share lessons learned, improving imaging techniques that open new vistas into discovery for the benefit of human health and space exploration.

To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/3Li9XWy.

📷: (1) ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Erik Rosolowsky; (2) U.S. NSF/ NSF NRAO/AUI/Bettymaya Foott

Stay out of the water; it's "SHARKFEST!" 🦈

NSF is excited to share National Geographic's latest "SHARKFEST" program featuring Captain America actor Anthony Mackie, an avid fisherman and New Orleans native, where he learns about his hometown's sharks with marine biologist Jasmin Graham.

The documentary "Shark Beach with Anthony Mackie" addresses several issues in Louisiana and Florida waters with Graham and other experts. They examine the unique traits of sharks that patrol New Orleans' coasts, the consequences of overfishing and the possible connection between the rising number of shark encounters and broader environmental concerns in the Gulf of Mexico.

Graham is the president and co-founder of Minorities in Shark Science and the project coordinator at the NSF Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Marine Science Laboratory Alliance Center of Excellence.

Find out more information about the documentary: https://bit.ly/4bzij6T.

Actor Anthony Mackie and marine biologist Jasmin Graham talk sharks New documentary features the strengths and struggles of sharks in the Gulf of Mexico. New documentary features the strengths and struggles of sharks in the Gulf of Mexico.

Help discover new ocean animal wherever you are. 🎮 🦈

"FathomVerse" is a free mobile game that offers an interactive community science experience where players can engage with real ocean images collected by researchers and robots from around the world.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3xD7Jhx

📸: © 2022 MBARI

Under a great banner of stars, mother nature's fireworks — the aurora australis — put on a spectacular light display in the southern hemisphere as charged particles from outer space interact with Earth's upper atmosphere.

This image, taken on July 4 a few years ago, captures a view of the Dark Sector at NSF Amundson-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica.
Operated by the NSF U.S. Antarctic Program, the station is home to a 10-meter-wide telescope that helps scientists study the formation and evolution of the early universe.

Spending half the year plunged in darkness, with temperatures dropping below −99 degrees Fahrenheit, this astronomical observatory stands as a testament to the American spirit of ingenuity and our ceaseless pursuit of knowledge through exploration, discovery and teamwork.

Happy Fourth of July! 🇺🇸

📸: Benjamin Eberhardt, NSF

In Antarctica, where people are scarce and roads are scarcer, the South Pole Traverse team and the Kiwi Traverse team (Antarctica New Zealand) crossed paths at "Tall Tower," a weather station roughly 100 miles southeast of NSF McMurdo Station, earlier this year.

The traverse route is approximately 1,030 miles long, and it took several years of route-finding to prove and mitigate areas with crevassing.

The South Pole Traverse is a tractor train that hauls supplies and fuel using specialized sleds. The tractors ascend more than 9,300 feet along the route to NSF Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The average time for a round trip from NSF McMurdo Station to the South Pole is 52 days.

📸: Dean Einerson

🔭 Huge black holes are not only firing powerful jets of particles into space but also changing their aim to target new directions. This discovery, conducted using NSF's National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) Very Large Baseline Array and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, shows the significant impact black holes have on their surrounding galaxies. 🌌

A team of astronomers studied 16 supermassive black holes, examining the directions of their particle jets and comparing them with past data on gas bubbles created by these jets. The results reveal how these cosmic giants influence their environment over millions of years.

Dive in:

Spotted: 'Death Star' Black Holes in Action - National Radio Astronomy Observatory Astronomers have discovered supermassive black holes changing the direction of their powerful particle jets

🐝🦋

You might have known that a certain flower attracts specific types of pollinators. Scientists at the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and the University of Nevada, Reno, may have the answer to why this happens.

The study points to nutrition needs as the driving factor of this phenomenon. After observing the flower-visiting pattern of 75 varieties of bees, they concluded that the nutritional content, including the protein-lipid composition of the pollen, predicted which types of bees are attracted to different plants.

These findings are a great step towards restoration research and bee conservation. That is why having a diverse group of plants in your garden can support healthier bee populations and continue pollinating our world.

To learn more about this NSF-funded research, visit: https://bit.ly/3XMKvQp.

📸: ANTHONY VAUDO, USDA FOREST SERVICE

A picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, pictures like the ones we take in our daily lives can help scientists acquire crucial biodiversity data. "Imageomics" is a new scientific field that uses machine learning techniques to analyze photographs of animals and other living organisms. These images and analyses allow scientists to detect traits, conditions and functions that can't be distinguished with the naked eye.

In the latest episode of "NSF's Discovery Files," we talk with Tanya Berger-Wolf, a professor of computer science engineering, electrical and computer engineering, evolution ecology and organismal biology at The Ohio State University. She is a pioneer in imageomics and the founder of the Imageomics Institute. Watch the full interview:

Using Photos for Science [Imageomics] | Podcast Most living creatures reveal themselves visually and are routinely photographed by humans from all walks of life. What if researchers could use those photos ...

"He, who through vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,
What varied being peoples ev'ry star,
May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are."

— "An Essay on Man", 1733–34, Alexander Pope

In the constellation Puppis, roughly 1,300 light-years away, a phantom-like hand appears to be reaching from out of the dust into our cosmic realm.

Nicknamed "The Hand of God," this omnipotent-looking cosmic structure is called CG 4, a cometary globule captured using the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera mounted on NSF NOIRLab's Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

Cometary globules are isolated, interstellar clouds composed of cosmic gas and dust surrounded by hot, ionized material, characterized by their comet-like morphologies. This globule has a compact, dusty head with a diameter of 1.5 light-years and a long, faintly luminous tail, which is roughly 8 light-years in length.

While debate exists among astronomers about how these structures formed their distinctive shapes, the consensus appears on the horizon as world-class instruments enable researchers from around the globe to peer deeper into the cosmos and, with many hands, so to speak, piece together the complex and beautiful puzzle of the universe.

To learn more about CG 4, visit: https://bit.ly/3W1k6NN

📷: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab)

Roughly 500 million years ago, the "Cambrian explosion" introduced various new animal species to the evolutionary scene. According to researchers at the University of Minnesota Duluth, not long after (in terms of planetary timescales) a mass extinction occurred.

The extinction was spurred by a mountain-building event caused by the collision of tectonic plates and characterized by the upwelling of magma to Earth's surface. This event released large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, catalyzing rapid climate change.

To support their findings, the researchers point to geologic records, namely fossils, locked in carbonate reef structures collected during multiple field expeditions to Antarctica's Transantarctic Mountains, featured in this photo of the researchers' field camp. The fossils indicate widespread decimation of animal groups like archaeocyathids (reef-building marine sponges) and hyoliths (animals with little conical shells).

To learn more, visit: https://bit.ly/3zjN1Uc

📸: John Goodge

Ever wonder what fieldwork is like for researchers in the Arctic? ☃

Join researchers from the University of California, Irvine, live from NSF Summit Station, Greenland, on June 27 at 1 p.m. EDT to find out.

They will be analyzing samples from newly drilled ice cores and studying ancient air trapped in the ice to unlock mysteries of Earth's environmental history.

To register for the live event, visit https://bit.ly/summit_social.

Happy World Rainforest Day!

In celebration, we’re highlighting a tropical forest research hub in a refuge for Caribbean biodiversity that is a natural carbon sink and heat trap all in one: the NSF Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site.

Located in the Luquillo Mountains of eastern Puerto Rico, the over 11,000-hectare U.S. Forest Service Luquillo Experimental Forest is a "living laboratory" and home to this LTER site.

The site supports research on tropical forest ecosystems’ response to climate change as well as large-scale, infrequent disturbances, such as major hurricanes and droughts. This research is critical to understanding and protecting the complex ecosystems within an ever-changing world.

In opening a wide window into broad scientific inquiry — leading to advancements in fields ranging from climate and atmospheric science to biogeochemistry and ecology — this US Long Term Ecological Research Network site also serves as a center for research learning opportunities, furthering the education and professional development of many Puerto Ricans, as well as students and early career researchers from around the world.

To learn more about this LTER site, visit: https://bit.ly/4ew1hcD

📷: (1) Luquillo LTER, CC BY-SA 4.0; (2) William H. McDowell, CC BY-SA 4.0; (3) Noelia Báez Rodríguez

Bees, birds, butterflies and bats play an important role in our lives. They are responsible for pollinating our gardens and crops, allowing us to have various foods. Changes in the climate, pollution and natural disasters can alter the ecosystem these animals live in and put them at risk. NSF proudly supports various research that focuses on mitigating pollinators' challenges and offers solutions to create pollinator-friendly spaces.

To learn more about this NSF-supported research and how you can help pollinators, read the latest "Science Matters" article, visit: https://bit.ly/3xgc6yV

📸:Max McCarthy

🐝

📢 Last week, NSF and the American Association of Community Colleges announced the winning teams of the annual competition that seeks to strengthen entrepreneurial thinking among community college students by challenging them to develop STEM-based solutions to real-world problems. The competition also enables students to discover and demonstrate their ability to translate knowledge into action and initiate real-world change.

🥁 The winners are:

🥇 Perimeter College at Georgia State University, Georgia
The team seeks to redesign cervical cancer screening by offering a noninvasive alternative to the speculum that has the potential to impact mortality rates, especially in low-income countries.

🥈 Dallas College, Texas
Autonomous Monitoring for Blaze Emergency Response (AMBER) is an early detection system that uses infrared cameras and sensors to alert farmers and local authorities to fire risks. With a third-party drone provider, AMBER can quickly track and mobilize a rapid-fire response and preserve agricultural land.

🥉County College of Morris, New Jersey
The team proposes to safely and efficiently increase the world's energy supply through a molecular solar thermal system. This system is nontoxic, cost-efficient and can capture light energy as heat, converting stored heat into usable energy.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4bdVXYl

Congratulations!

⛅⛅ scientists are on cloud nine after publishing new research.

Researchers at Michigan Technological University and the recently published findings to help scientists better understand what's happening inside clouds and more accurately predict future climate scenarios.

Michigan researchers showed that droplets vary considerably in size throughout low-level stratocumulus clouds (low-lying, grey clumpy clouds that often form in patches, lines or waves), affecting how and when rain falls. Researchers also discovered that cloud droplets of similar sizes often collect together.

A second paper from the University of Maryland shows how aerosols (fine solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in gas) have an even larger impact on the climate than previously thought. Water v***r condenses around aerosols to form cloud droplets. More aerosols mean more cloud droplets, making droplets smaller and clouds thicker, reflecting more sunlight and thus cooling the planet.

Read more about this research: https://bit.ly/3VIew2t

📷: IODP, Texas A&M University, Tim Fulton

Atlantic surf clams, which live upwards of 35 years and grow to 7-8 inches, largely died off in the 1990s in the species' southernmost range — off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina — impacting food webs and commercial fisheries in the region.

In recent years, this filter-feeder has rebounded, says Daphne Munroe, associate professor at Rutgers University's Haskin Shellfish Lab, in a newly released "NSF's Discovery Files" episode.

Munroe details potential explanations for the species' mysterious comeback, including biological adaptions and habitat shifts, while highlighting the critical role that these unique creatures play in ecosystems along the continental shelf.

Check it out: https://bit.ly/3VGZoTd