EPA and NSF Offer Grants for Green Chemistry, Life Cycle Research

The USEPA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on December 20, 2012 that they would offer grants for up to ten different research projects - totaling $32 million. The grants will be divided between two areas of research.

For Networks for Characterizing Chemical Life Cycle research, interested parties can get more information here.

For Networks for Sustainable Molecular Design and Syntheses, interested parties can get more information here.

Requests for applications for the grants are due by March 18, 2013.

National Science Board Announces New Leadership Team

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced new leadership for its National Science Board.  Dan Arvizu will take over as the new chairman, Kelvin Droegemeier will be the new vice-chairman, and Carl Lineberger to joing the NSB's Executive Committee.  The changes were announced during the Board's May meeting.

As noted in their press release, "the NSB is made up of 25 Members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate," however, "the NSB is apolitical." Board members "are drawn from industry and universities, and represent a variety of science and engineering disciplines and geographic areas."  Nominees to the "Board (1) shall be eminent in the fields of the basic, medical, or social sciences, engineering, agriculture, education, research management or public affairs; (2) shall be selected solely on the basis of established records of distinguished service; and (3) shall be so selected as to provide representation of the views of scientific and engineering leaders in all areas of the Nation."

More information can be read on the NSF web site.

Global Extinction: Gradual Doom as Bad as Abrupt

According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), "the deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth's marine life--and it killed in stages."  What does this mean? According to the authors of a new report, "it shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events."

In a period called "The Great Dying" that occurred about 250 million years ago, around 90% of all living species disappeared, that is, they went extinct.  The authors of a new study published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin show a strong likelihood that this huge mass extinction was at least in part due to massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia.  Still, the authors note that this process "phased in over hundreds of thousands of years."

"The world revealed by their research is a devastated landscape, barren of vegetation and scarred by erosion from showers of acid rain, huge "dead zones" in the oceans, and runaway greenhouse warming leading to sizzling temperatures."

So what caused the changes that led to the extinction of most of life on Earth?  According to the researchers, volcanic lava flowing "through a large coal deposit...released lots of methane when it burned through the coal. Methane is 30 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide."  And that set the stage for a massive greenhouse effect that overwhelmed the natural balance.  According to researcher Thomas Algeo:

"We're not sure how long the greenhouse effect lasted, but it seems to have been tens or hundreds of thousands of years."


For more information, see the NSF press release.

NSF Announces Steps to Improve Participation of Women in STEM Science Careers

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing steps that will "make it easier for women to pursue careers in engineering and the sciences," according to an Op-Ed by Valerie Jarrett and Tina Tchen in yesterday's Washington Post.  They note that "women working in science, technology, engineering and math [STEM] careers earn 33 percent more than those in other occupations, and these 'STEM' skills will become even more important in high-growth, high-tech fields such as health-care technology and advanced manufacturing."

Jarrett and Tchen note that circumstances often work against women:

As with women throughout the workforce, however, women in STEM jobs are often expected to establish themselves professionally at the same time they are starting families. This forces women to choose between their careers and their responsibilities at home. Understandably, many of our most promising young scientists and engineers drop out of the pipeline. 

Ways that NSF is looking to make it easier for women in STEM careers include:

• Working with women researchers who need to delay the start of a funded project for a family-related reason,
• Options to add the lost time if female researchers interrupt research to have a baby,
• Support for research into the effectiveness of flexible workplace policies.

 For a more in-depth discussion, see the Washington Post article by Jarrett and Tchen. 

More information is on the National Science Foundation web site.