10/26/01
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From Linda Massaro: “In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, we have put a great deal of effort into improving safety and security at NSF. Many of you have contributed suggestions and concerns about safety issues, and we are working on them.
Statement by Dr. Rita R. Colwell On Nobel Prizes in Science and NSF Connection
http://www.nsf.gov/search97cgi/vtopic
NSF-Funded U.S. Based Nobel Prize Winners in Science
http://www.nsf.gov/search97cgi/vtopic
2001 Nobel Prize Winners
http://www.nobel.se/
2001 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2001
The National Science Foundation is proud to have supported many of the winners of Nobel prizes.
(There is no similar NSF connection with winners of IgNobel prizes!) The first two sites document
this illustrious connection between the Foundation and scientists on the cutting edge of research.
The following information is from the Scout Report.
“This week, the Nobel Foundation announced the winners of its six awards for 2001, the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize. The United Nations and its Secretary General Kofi Annan were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. The Prize in Literature went to V.S. Naipaul ‘for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.’ Three Physics laureates were awarded, and the Nobel prize for Chemistry went to an international team of researchers. (The Nobel Foundation's online ‘e-museum’ was reviewed in the August 8, 2000 _Scout Report for Social Sciences & Humanities_.) At the official Nobel Website, press releases for these categories, as well as Economics and Physiology/Medicine, can be read in English, French, German, or Swedish, and links to the Curriculum Vitae and publication lists of the laureates are given. Back in the United States, another set of awards were passed out this week: the Ig Nobels. Awarded by humor rag _The Annals of Improbable Research_, the Ig Nobels honor people whose achievements ‘cannot or should not be reproduced.’ This year's illustrious Ig Nobel laureates include, for Medicine, the publisher of ‘Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts,’ in the _Journal of Trauma_, the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society (Literature), and the Peace Prize goes to the Lithuanian who built an amusement park known colloquially as ‘Stalin World.’ [HCS]” (From the Scout Report)
New Frontiers of Biomedical Research, 1945-1980
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/newfrontiers
The National Library of Medicine announces a one-day symposium, New Frontiers of Biomedical Research,
1945-1980, on October 29, 2001, at its Lister Hill Center on the National Institutes of Health campus
in Bethesda, Maryland. The conference will explore the history of 20th century biomedical research in
the United States, through the insights of scientists who have been instrumental in three areas: the
administration of the U.S. biomedical research establishment, psychopharmacology, and genetics. Main
speakers will be Julius Axelrod, 1970 Nobel Laureate for work in neuroscience; Donald S. Fredrickson,
former director of the National Institutes of Health, 1975-1981; and Joshua Lederberg, 1958 Nobel
Laureate for work in bacterial genetics. Their work will be explored through dialogue with noted
contemporary historians of science, including Nathaniel Comfort, David Hart, David Healy, Ellen Herman,
M. Susan Lindee, Stuart Leslie, and Jan Sapp.
The conference is free and open to the public, but advance registration is requested.
Third annual Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture on Ocean Exploration
http://www4.nationalacademies.org/dels/osb.nsf/web/Event002?opendocument
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute President Marcia McNutt will deliver the third annual Roger
Revelle Commemorative Lecture on ocean exploration. The event is open to the public and will be held
on Nov. 1 from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. EST at the National Academies building, 2100 C St., N.W., Washington,
D.C.
Ten Tales for Technophiles
http://www4.nationalacademies.org/opus/home.nsf/web/dls?OpenDocument
Nov. 15, 2001, 7:30 p.m. “A Special Evening with Freeman Dyson: Ten Tales for Technophiles”
sponsored by the Office on Public Understanding of Science, NAS.
Renowned physicist Freeman Dyson will tell ten stories of attempts by well-meaning people to use technology to improve the human condition, some successful and some unsuccessful.
Energy Citations Database
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations
“Energy Citations Database was developed and designed by the United States Department of
Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). It contains citations from 1948
to the present and includes bibliographic records from Nuclear Science Abstracts (NSA) and Energy
Science and Technology Database (EDB). Available without charge, Energy Citations provides links
to thousands of full-text items from more recent years. Regular updates to the Database will
provide continued growth and ensure that results of recent research and development (R&D) are
made available. It encompasses information from disciplines of interest to DOE such as chemistry,
physics, materials, environmental science, geology, engineering, mathematics, climatology,
oceanography, computer science and related disciplines.
Information in ECD is provided by DOE and its predecessor agencies, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA); the contractors of those agencies; other government agencies and professional societies.
Citations in the Energy Citations Database are based on Dublin Core metadata. This set of elements was built through interdisciplinary, international consensus around a widely used core set of metadata.
Patrons may choose to use either the Basic Search or Advanced Search option. Basic Search provides for searching the full citations, the title, the creator/author, or identifying numbers. Advanced Search allows the patron to formulate complex queries by selecting multiple fields and connecting them with Boolean operators. Search results may be sorted by relevance, publication date, system entry date, resource/document type, title, research organization, sponsoring organization, or OSTI identifier. In instances where a Persistent URL (PURL) is provided, the full text is available via a link to the document. For other documents identified by ECD searches, information is provided about full-text availability.
The Director of OSTI is Dr. Walter L. Warnick, (301) 903-7996. For more information or to provide comments on ECD, please contact: ecd@osti.gov.” (Thanks to Hannah King).
Cold Regions Bibliography Project
http://www.coldregions.org/
The American Geological Institute (AGI) is continuing the Antarctic Bibliography and the
Bibliography on Cold Regions Science and Technology as part of the Cold Regions Bibliography
Project. These bibliographies provide coverage of:
AGI compiles the Cold Regions Bibliography based on sources provided by U.S. and overseas scientists, the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and libraries and polar and research institutions worldwide. In addition, through a cooperative agreement with AGI, the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) provides information on the Antarctic materials housed in the SPRI library at the University of Cambridge.
The Cold Regions Bibliography Project is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory under NSF Cooperative Agreement No. OPP 9909727.
Free Access to the Antarctic and Cold Regions Data Bases through 2001! You may search the databases for the Antarctic Bibliography and the Bibliography on Cold Regions Science and Technology free of charge through 2001. Modest subscription rates will apply in 2002.
“Progress is slow, but preservation of the Pentagon Library collection is almost over, thanks to be efforts of Jerri Knihnicki, Chief, Research and Information Services. She has fought like a demon to get the monies, arrange for building passes to get the contractors into the building (no mean task when Threatcon Delta was in force), etc. Many thanks go to assistance of Bob Schnare, Naval War College, Susan Tarr, FLICC, Susan Lemke and others at National Defense University Library, numerous people at the Library of Congress Preservation office, NE Documentation Center and others too numerous to mention, as well as those that wanted to volunteer to help us. Your concern was appreciated. But quite frankly, there were literally days when we weren't even sure we could get into the Pentagon, but less bring in non-Pentagon personnel.
Our contractor is on the last phase which is cleaning the Technical Services area, that took the brunt of the water, smoke and mold damage. On What's New of our webpage http://www.hqda.army.mil/library/, you can see some pictures that Jerri and I (mostly Jerri) were able to take once the contractor staff was in place. There is also a video clip at http://www.defendamerica.mil/ (click on video link at bottom center about damaged pentagon library).” Kathryn L. Earnest, Director, Pentagon Library
e-Polymers
http://www.e-polymers.org/
This new Internet journal has been launched under the auspices of the European Polymer
Federation. At present, access to this journal is free for everybody and it will stay
free for every library! Editors-in-Chief of this journal are Prof. H. Hoecker and Prof. S.
Penczek. Every manuscript submitted to e-Polymers is peer-reviewed. All papers published
in e-Polymers will be indexed by Chemical Abstracts.
Three Photochemistry Journals
http://www.chemweb.com/journals
FREE access to the following 3 Elsevier Science journals until 1 January 2002 through ChemWeb.
Projections of Education Statistics to 2011.
NCES, 2001.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/proj01/
Institutional Policies and Practices: Results From the 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, Institution Survey.
NCES, 2001.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001201
Fertility of American Women.
U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/fertility.html
Testing Teacher Candidates: The Role of Licensure Tests in Improving Teacher Quality.
NAP, 2001.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10090.html?onpi_listserv101901
Publicly Funded Agricultural Research and the Changing Structure of U.S. Agriculture.
NAP, 2001.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10211.html?onpi_listserv100501
Daypop – News Search Engine
http://www.daypop.com/
This current events search engine indexes, at least once a day, the latest information from
more than 1,000 news sites (online newspapers and magazines) and 4,000 Web logs (personal
journals). The default search is all pages, but you can limit to just the news sites or just
the Web logs. Advanced search allows limiting by time range (latest three hours to four
weeks), language, and country. Excellent tool for finding the latest news, movie reviews,
and sports results, or, from the Web logs, the hottest memes.
(From Librarian's Index to the Internet) NOTE: This service covers some interesting sources
from the sciences as well as standard news sources.
All Species
http://www.all-species.org/
The goal of the All Species Project is overwhelming yet admirable: “within the span
of our own generation (twenty-five years), to record and genetically sample every living
species of life on Earth.” As biologist E.O.Wilson points out, we know how many
stars there are in the Milky Way, yet can't pinpoint how many species currently occupy our
home planet with any degree of certainty. Current estimates range anywhere from 1.4 to 200
million, a wide margin for error. With the help of donations from individuals and
foundations, this nonprofit organization hopes to remedy the situation and provide a
“roster of our fellow inhabitants.” (From Yahoo's Picks of the Week)
Wildlife Resources on the Internet
http://www.jiwlp.com/cgi/links.cgi
“The Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy has launched a new page that
seeks to catalog available wildlife resources on the Net. The resource page is organized
into 19 categories, and its initial incarnation contains more than 1400 links. Visitors to
the page are encouraged to send suggestions for additional links; the site will ultimately
facilitate adding those links automatically.” This is a very well organized portal
page.
Tour of Biomes
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/biomes.html
This site has basic information on six biomes for elementary school students. Learn about
the tropical rain forest, tropical savanna, desert, Arctic tundra, deciduous forest, and
subarctic taiga and their plants, animals, and climate. It also shows how to read a
climograph for average temperatures and precipitation of a particular location during the
year. Part of the Exploring the Environment (ETE) online series from NASA's Classroom of
the Future Program. (From Librarian's Index to the Internet)
text-e
http://www.text-e.org/
The Bibliotheque publique d'information (BPI), Centre Pompidou, the Institut Jean Nicod
(CNRS), and EURO-EDU have combined forces (with the help of GiantChair.com and UNESCO)
to bring us the first entirely virtual symposium. Launched this week, the symposium
concentrates on the impact of “New Information and Communication Technologies
(NICT)” and their effects on “our relationship with information and the
written word.” A new paper will be published online every two weeks, with the
symposium consisting of ten papers altogether. Each paper will be discussed by the ten
contributors and 30 guests, and interested members of the public can register to receive
papers via email and participate in a forum. The first paper in the symposium, published
Monday, is Roger Chartier's “Readers and Reading in the Age of Electronic
Texts.” The full program, a moderated forum, a bibliography, a registration form,
and other resources are all available at the text-e site, which is available in English,
French, and Italian. [TK] (From the Scout Report)
Samuel F.B. Morse Papers
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sfbmhtml/
“Through the generous support of the AT&T Foundation, a selection of 6,500 library
items, or approximately 50,000 digital images from the collection is now available. The Morse
Papers consist of correspondence, letterbooks, diaries, drawings, clippings, printed matter,
maps, and other miscellaneous materials documenting Morse's invention of the electromagnetic
telegraph and his participation in the development of telegraph systems in the United States
and abroad, as well as his career as a painter, family life, travels, and interest in early
photography and religion. The online collection, dating from 1793-1919, offers a well-rounded
portrayal of the life of Samuel F.B. Morse.” Part of the American Memory collection of
the Library of Congress.
Inventor's Museum
http://www.inventorsmuseum.com/
Sponsored by the Kessler Corporation, this fun website has information about inventor's
classified in all kinds of different ways. Examples: colonial inventors, women inventors,
Earth Science inventors, African American inventors. There is also an “Inventor IQ
Test” where you can test your knowledge about historical inventors.
Aurora Gallery
http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01oct01.html
Those living in lower latitudes might not have been aware of the recent solar and geomagnetic
activities that triggered a spectacular aurora borealis the week of September 30. Two
interplanetary shock waves, spawned by solar coronal mass ejections, swept past our planet
September 28-29. Then on October 1, the interplanetary magnetic field around Earth turned
south, causing geomagnetic storms to rage off-and-on for the next 48 hours. Luckily for those
who missed the excitement, SpaceWeather,com features a page of beautiful, color .jpeg
photographs of the auroras from such places as Finland, Quebec, and Alaska during September
29-October 3. Along with the images are the photographers' names, comments, and camera
setting specifics. [HCS] (From the Scout Report)
In the Shadow of Vesuvius
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vesuvius/
“Welcome to the companion Web site for the NOVA program, ‘Deadly Shadow of
Vesuvius,’ scheduled for rebroadcast on October 16, 2001, which tells the story of the
Roman city of Pompeii and the risk that Vesuvius presents today. Then visit NOVA Online for a
global view on living with volcanoes:
‘Planning for Disaster’
See how a successful large-scale emergency plan was carried out in the 1994 eruption of the
Rabaul volcano in Papua New Guinea.
‘Can We Predict Eruptions?’
Have a look inside the volcanologist's toolkit, and find out how good scientists are at
foretelling a volcano's next eruption.
‘Volcano SWAT Team’
Discover what a mobile crisis team of U.S. volcanologists does when invited to respond to an
emergency outside the United States.
‘The World's Deadliest Volcanoes’ (Hot Science)
Find out how scientists measure the size of an eruption and then try your hand at rating an
actual eruption in this online activity.”
The USGS Learning Web
http://www.usgs.gov/education/
Here is a new, rich resource for K-12 teachers and students from the US Geological Survey
(USGS). The Learning Web provides online lesson plans, activities, tutorials (some
downloadable and printable in .pdf), and links to references dealing with interdisciplinary
studies of natural science. For example, the Exploring Caves section (1-3 level) covers the
basic geology of caves, life habits of cave-dwelling organisms, and cave safety and
conservation. Other topics explored on the Learning Web include maps, climate, wildlife,
earth processes, and more. Learning Web culls pages appropriate for K-12 instruction from
the USGS's vast online collection of factsheets, data, and program sites, allowing teachers
and students to spend time learning rather than searching. However, because this site is so
full of information, it can be tricky to navigate and important sections can be missed, so
try using their search engine to find specific topics. Note also that elementary content is
much more abundant here than secondary. [HCS] (From the Scout Report)
Gulf of Maine Aquarium Home Page
http://octopus.gma.org/index.html
“While this site for the Gulf of Maine Aquarium has plenty of useful content on marine
biology – particularly pertaining to the Gulf of Maine area – almost nothing is
said about the aquarium itself. The site also suffers from a lack of any indicators as to
which sections appeal to which audiences – and the intended audiences vary widely.
Having said that, the site's seven sections offer a wealth of knowledge for those willing to
dive in. ‘Space Available’ could scarcely hold any more information on remote
sensing, ocean soundings, satellite imaging, as well as cetacean studies, meteorology,
Antarctica and human impact on aquatic environments. While the information in this section
is predominately presented in lesson plan format, most of the material should be digestible
to most high school students. The ‘Marine Mammals’ section is more student-friendly,
with cetacean profiles that include behavior, communication, and social structure. ‘All
About Lobsters’ is certainly an appropriate topic for an aquarium in Maine. While it does
go into extraordinary detail – did you know, for instance, that the lobster has three
stomachs, the first of which has teeth? – it suffers from a lack of illustration and a
bit of internal redundancy. ‘All About Turtles’ may take second, but is a good
destination for younger readers, despite its opening with a snapping turtle that shouts
‘I'm a mean, green fighting machine!’. ‘Katahdin to the Sea’ gives
junior high school-level overviews of various water systems and their ecosystems and, finally,
‘On Location’ covers projects involving Alvin, a manned deep ocean research
submersible. This section includes a link to the official site, which has a webcam and an
extensive photo database from various dives. The latter is notable for its professional
scientific descriptions of images, such as ‘rock with critters’.
MN“ (From New Scientist Weblinks)
Powers of 10
http://www.powersof10.com/
October 10, 2001, the second international Powers of Ten Day, has come and gone, but don't let
that stop you from exploring the universe of decimals. Based on a nine-minute 1977 film by
Charles and Ray Eames, noted designers and visual thinkers, the Powers of Ten CD-ROM and
companion web site explore and illustrate the concept of scale in space and time. The web pages
present a dense and diverting grid of ideas, woven from images, facts, and links to people,
patterns, and relevant tools. We clicked on the close-up of a strand of DNA, and found
ourselves at miniscule 10 nanometer scale (0.00000001 meters), another click and we were 100,000
light years out, looking back at the Milky Way's starry spiral of stars. That's powerful stuff!
(From Yahoo's Picks of the Week)
Quantum Phyiscs Online
http://www.quantum-physics.polytechnique.fr/
“The undulating applets that populate this site demonstrate many of the perplexing
results of quantum physics, starting with tunneling and reaching such rarefied heights as
the quantum states of the buckyball. They may not explain the weirdness of quantum mechanics,
but they will help you grasp the underlying mathematics that generates it. A rudimentary
understanding of quantum mechanics is nice for the more advanced demos, but not necessary for
much of the site. AS” (From New Scientist Planet Science)
The Official String Theory Web Site
http://www.superstringtheory.com/
“Claiming to be the ‘official’ web site of an entire scientific discipline
is a bit odd, but this one does a good job by being both well-written and well-researched.
It's written by an insider in the field of string theory with support from many of the top
researchers, and it covers all the exciting ideas and results of string theory. As with any
discussion of string theory, a little physics background is needed, but most of the site can
be understood after reading a good popular account of modern physics. The discussions of
black holes and cosmology as related to string theory are particularly good, and make a
strong case for all the excitement about string theory. AS”
(From New Scientist Planet Science)
Scientists Track “Perfect Storm” on Mars
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2001/31/index.html
The latest release from the Space Telescope Science Institute's site (last reviewed in the
August 3, 2001 _Scout Report_) provides a unique look at a global dust storm on Mars using
images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Hubble Space Telescope. Offerings include
photographs, illustrations, and animations of the dust storm as well as a press release,
background information, fast facts, and additional links. [JAB](From the Scout Report)
The Math Nerds
http://www.mathnerds.com/
“In its own words, MathNerds provides ‘free, discovery-based, mathematical
guidance via an international, volunteer network of mathematicians. … [It] does not
supply answers to homework, take home tests and the like; rather, [it provides] hints,
suggestions, and references to help our clients understand and solve their mathematical
problems.’ Made up of a team of unpaid volunteers, mostly maths teachers,
professionals or those retired from similar, but also some laypersons (you can view a list
of the volunteers), MathNerds looks like the kind of excellent service that would have been
a huge help when I was taking (and struggling with) Calculus myself – in those days,
we had to rely on buttering up the smart kids in the class to get any pointers… There
is also an extensive searchable archive of previous answers – you might find what you
need to know without going any further than that. We very much approve of their clear policy
differentiating between help and doing the work for you, too, particularly the E.M. Forster
quote (‘Spoon feeding, in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the
spoon.’) And for those who don't need help at the moment but are simply interested in
mathematics, there is also a ‘best’ section, which showcases some interesting
maths problems and puzzles (and their answers). Highly recommended. KN”
(From New Scientist Weblinks)
Sealab Antarctica
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/sealab/antarctica/
“For 44 days, nationalgeographic.com's Mark Christmas bunked aboard an icebreaker in
some of the stormiest seas on Earth, assisting an intrepid research team studying krill, a
small creature key to life in Antarctica. To show what it's like to be on expedition off
Antarctica, Mark sent back dispatches, video, audio, and photos – thankfully, his equipment
didn't freeze.” As always, this National Geographic site is visually arresting and
comes with classroom ideas and additional links and resources.
ArcticHealth
http://arctichealth.nlm.nih.gov/
ArcticHealth, from the National Library of Medicine, provides access to evaluated health
information from hundreds of local, state, national, and international agencies, as well
as from professional societies and universities. The new site has sections devoted to
chronic diseases, behavioral issues, traditional medicine, environment/pollution, and
environmental justice.
The Dismal Scientist
http://www.dismal.com/dismal/default.asp
The Dismal Scientist, a great resource for economic news, has redesigned their website and
incorporated the following new features:
“Today's Economy” will keep you current on economic developments throughout the
business day, with commentary on releases, major speeches, monetary and legislative actions,
and more.
“Watchlist” gives you an advance peek at the most watched releases for the current
and next business day and their expected impact on the markets.
“How Strong is Your Local Economy?” gives you Economy.com's proprietary leading
indicators for states and major metropolitan areas.
We're also expanding our release coverage, recently adding the ABC News/Money Magazine
Consumer Comfort Index, plus other indicators for major countries around the globe.
Labor Research Portal
http://iir.berkeley.edu/~iir/library/webguides.html
A collection of Web guides about labor. They are arranged topically and include Alternative
Forms of Ownership, Labor Education, Globalization, Labor Libraries, government agencies
pertaining to labor, Labor Unions, Work and career, and Labor Culture. Many are briefly
annotated. From the Institute of Industrial Relations Library, University of California,
Berkeley. (From Librarian's Index to the Internet)
SCORE: Counselors to America's Small Business
http://www.score.org/
The Service Corps of Retired Executives gives small business owners guidance in establishing
and maintaining successful enterprises. The Web site offers disaster advice; locations of
local chapters; links to calculators, free software, business plans, trade shows, and other
business resources; news and informational articles; and free, confidential counseling by
e-mail. Counselors representing more than 600 skills are available to assist in locating
investors, setting goals, veterans' business issues, and other matters.
(From Librarian's Index to the Internet)
The following items are from Edupage. To subscribe to Edupage: send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe edupage Anonymous (if your name is Anonymous; otherwise, substitute your own name). To unsubscribe send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: unsubscribe edupage. (If you have subscription problems, send mail to: manager@educom.unc.edu.)
U.S. GOVERNMENT SEEKS INPUT TO BUILD ITS OWN NET
The federal government is considering creating its own Internet. Called GovNet, the proposed
network would provide secure government communications. Spearheading the effort is Richard
Clarke, special advisor to President Bush for cyberspace security. With the help of the
General Services Administration (GSA), Clarke is collecting information from the U.S. telecom
sector about creating an exclusive telecom network. The GSA Web site features a Request for
Information (RFI) on the project. GovNet is intended to be a private, IP-based voice and data
network with no outside commercial or public links, the GSA said. It must also be impenetrable
to the existing Internet, viruses, and interruptions, according to the agency. GovNet should
be able to support video as well as critical government functions, according to the RFI.
(InfoWorld.com, 11 October 2001 via Edupage)
PUBLIC COMPUTING ON A SUPER SCALE
The world's second-most powerful computer, the Terascale Computing System (TCS), was launched
this week. Capable of 6 trillion teraflops per second, TCS will be used to conduct public
scientific research that former President Clinton said would “accelerate the pace of
discovery in science and engineering – allowing us to better predict tornadoes, speed
up the discovery of life-saving drugs, and design more fuel-efficient engines.” The
National Science Foundation, which funded the system's creation and maintenance, acts as an
underwriter. Over the next six months, TCS will be involved in numerous projects, including a
global simulation of the magnetosphere, cosmological structures studies, and cancer drug
testing. TCS is housed in the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The center's scientific
director, Mike Levine, expects testing to continue for a few more months before the system is
completely operational.
(Wired News, 4 October 2001 via Edupage)
COMPUTER RESEARCHERS LOOK TO THE SELF-REGULATING HUMAN BODY
IBM is preparing to invigorate the computer science field with its vision of “autonomic
computing,” an idea defined in a recent paper by IBM researcher Paul M. Horn. The goal
is to fund 50 university research projects that would push the development of a computer that
would need minimal human assistance. Horn saw the need for a solution to computer systems'
increasing complexity as he worked with IBM's growing services arm. He said the industry will
stagnate unless it finds a way to engineer computers so that they function perpetually without
human programming intervention. Although Horn did not provide a specific solution, IBM is
already working on several key areas key to autonomic computing, such as artificial
intelligence, self-healing computers, and adaptive algorithms.
(New York Times, 15 October 2001 via Edupage)
PRESIDENT FORMS CYBERTERRORISM PANEL
President Bush on Tuesday issued an executive order to create a new panel designed to protect
essential information systems from cyberterrorist attacks. The President's Critical
Infrastructure Board will consist of cabinet members and top presidential aides. In the order,
Bush said that protecting these networks will ensure the safety of “the people, economy,
essential human and government services, and national security of the United States.”
The president identified utilities and services that depend on information networks, such as
health care and emergency services, financial and transportation systems, telecommunications,
water, and manufacturing.
(Associated Press, 16 October 2001 via Edupage)
VIRGINIA'S ANSWER TO ENROLLMENT BOOM
Virginia education officials are planning to create a new, state-run online university based
on the state's private and public colleges and universities. The project, dubbed Virginia
Virtual University, or V2U, would allow students to link credits from different schools, as
well as certification courses offered by Microsoft and other businesses. V2U would not create
any of its own courses, but would expand the opportunities for the rapidly growing number of
university students in the state. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia hopes
the bare-bones infrastructure will help V2U keep costs low, but complications could arise in
transferring credits from the different schools within the state, say experts. Professionals
who want to go part-time would also be likely to enroll through V2U, since it would allow
them to apply for financial aid usually reserved for full-time students.
(Washington Post, 17 October 2001 via Edupage)
SETI@HOME EXPANDS ITS BACK YARD
Seti@home will enlarge the band of electromagnetic spectrum it analyzes because the service
is running low on data to send to its three million users. Although Seti@home formerly had
more data than could be analyzed, the current number of users means there is potentially a
shortage of raw data. To address the situation, the company has installed a Linux-based
digital recorder donated by Hewlett-Packard that records information 10 times faster than
their old machine. Seti@home will now be able to analyze a larger portion of the microwave
region, said Dan Werthimer, the chief scientist at the University of California at Berkley,
which manages the Seti@home project.
(Wired News, 6 October 2001 via Edupage)
INDIGENOUS CANADIANS EMBRACE DISTANCE EDUCATION
Canada's indigenous people wanting to take part in the knowledge economy are turning to
Web-based learning, e-conferencing, bulletin boards, e-mail, and self-paced learning, the
Conference Board of Canada reported. The board's report identified 10 projects in which
technology was used to boost learning for indigenous people. In New Brunswick, the Tobique
Information and Technology Learning Center provided Microsoft certification training to 26
indigenous students. Members of the Musqueam First Nation in British Columbia learned about
restaurant operations using a blended approach. The report is the board's most recent study
on indigenous people's attitudes towards education. Just three months earlier, the Canadian
government had announced its plans to deploy high-speed connectivity for its residents.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 8 October 2001 via Edupage)
INTEL BACKS PROTEIN PROJECT
Intel, under the auspices of its Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program, will support Stanford
University's Folding@Home project, a distributed computing initiative that uses the spare
computer cycles of home PCs to simulate protein folding. Intel will promote the project,
host software downloads, contribute back-end equipment, and answer technical inquiries. The
program is designed to demonstrate Intel's desire to be philanthropic and to showcase its
chip technology. The Folding@Home project is coordinated by assistant professor Vijay Pande,
along with six volunteer graduate students. The simulation vehicle is a special screensaver
that runs on the participating computers. Folding@Home is significant in that it has beaten
supercomputers in the race to successfully simulate a complete protein folding cycle.
(Wired News, 18 October 2001 via Edupage)
ONLINE UNSCHOOLED
Typically, online college education lacks the social interaction of traditional colleges,
such as football games and concerts. And that is problematic, said John Seely Brown,
co-author of “The Social Life of Information.” Since online universities focus
mainly on educational issues, Brown argued, they do not provide the social context that
makes learning meaningful. Students need to converse, argue, have discussion groups, and so
on, he said. Internet courses at colleges, businesses, and other places are slowly becoming
more socially interactive. Many institutions have substituted a number of social elements
in their online classes. They include e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, and threaded
discussion boards, which provide more intimacy among students, said John Flores of the U.S.
Distance Learning Association. He added that tools such as streaming media, videoconferencing,
and other multimedia technologies will help make e-learning more like campus learning.
(CIO, 15 October 2001 via Edupage)
STUDENTS IN THREE STATES LEARN TOGETHER
Students at the Universities of Alaska, Montana, and New Mexico can participate in an online
parallel computing course using the Access Grid, a system developed under the aegis of the
National Computational Science Alliance. The grid was originally created as a collaborative
tool for collegial scientists and colleagues. The system uses the high-speed data network
created by the Internet2 consortium. Three professors coordinate the course, using a blend
of videoconferencing and remote-controlled computers. In each classroom are three video
projections, two of which show images from the other university Web sites, while the third
is a computer display replete with visual aids. Don Morton, associate professor of computer
science at the University of Montana, wishes student interactivity was higher and is
considering adding a “gossip session” at the end of each class. Brigham Young
University and the University of Utah plan to run a joint e-learning course using the Access
Grid next semester.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 19 October 2001 via Edupage)
U.S. GOVERNMENT WEB SITE TRAFFIC SURGES
Web traffic to U.S. government sites has soared since last month's terrorist attacks, as the
Web sites of the FBI, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Justice Department strive to
meet new needs. Nielsen//NetRatings said the CDC site, for example, has registered 118 percent
more visitors as people log on to find information about anthrax. NetRatings' Allen Weiner
said these government sites play an important role in disseminating correct information at a
time when hoaxes and rumors abound. He warns that their network infrastructure may not be able
to handle the sustained level of increased traffic and that third-party contractors could help
mirror and provide bandwidth for the sites. The FBI has launched two separate sites specially
for the attacks, one for reporting information and another for victim assistance.
(NewsFactor Network, 19 October 2001 via Edupage)
THE BRYANT COLLEGE-BELARUS CONNECTION
The Collaborative Learning at a Distance (CLD) program at Bryant College in Rhode Island
crosses the political, economic, and cultural lines that restrict Belarus' academic,
research, and business sectors. Bryant uses a diverse array of inexpensive Internet
technologies and techniques – roundtable discussions by e-mail, software training
and development, and Microsoft NetMeeting conferencing among them – to forge bonds
between American and Belarusian students, faculty, and entrepreneurs and to foster
collaborative, student-centered learning. Human interaction is also an important component,
one that is offered through faculty exchanges and on-site visits. International Virtual
Roundtable discussions, used in all CLD courses, have proven to be particularly useful in
educating Belarusian students about the organization of environmental and business
policy.
(Syllabus, 1 October 2001 via Edupage)
Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/islamic_medical/islamic_00.html
An online exhibition in honor of the 900th anniversary of the transcription of “an Arabic
treatise by one of the most important medieval physicians and clinicians – Abu Bakr
Muhammad ibn Zakariya' al-Razi, who worked in Baghdad in the previous century and was later
known to Europe as Rhazes.” This site traces the history and development of Islamic
medicine. Included is a bibliography of additional readings. A transcribed interview about
Islamic calligraphy is accompanied by several video clips. From the National Library of
Medicine. (From Librarian's Index to the Internet)
Who Named It?
http://www.whonamedit.com/
This biographical dictionary of medical eponyms is an attempt “to present a complete survey
of all medical phenomena named for a person, with a biography of that person. Eventually, this
will include more than 15,000 eponyms and more than 6,000 persons.” There are currently
more than 4,000 eponyms described, with biographical material on close to 2,000 people. The site
can be searched or browsed by person's last name, category of medical condition, or eponym.
There is also a list of women whose names have been used to name medical conditions.
(From Librarian's Index to the Internet)
All items from the Scout Report are copyright Susan Calcari, 1994-2001. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.
Blue Web'n is a searchable library of Blue-Ribbon Web sites categorized by grade level, content area, and type. Visit Blue Web'n online at http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this newsletter are those of the participants (authors), and do not necessarily represent the official views, opinions, or policy of the National Science Foundation.