National Science Foundation (NSF)

06/01/2023

The Lobster Nebula is a region of space where stars are born, and astronomers using the NSF-supported Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile captured this image of bright young stars surrounded by billowing clouds of dust and gas.

The Lobster Nebula spans about 400 light-years and is 8,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Scorpius. At its center lies the open star cluster Pismis 24 — a collection of massive stars. Surrounding this cluster is a region brimming with protostars still wrapped in their cocoons of star-forming material, and dense cores of gas and dust that will eventually become new stars.

Astronomers captured this image using the Dark Energy Camera, fabricated by the U.S. Department of Energy and mounted on the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope. The camera recently commemorated its first decade of discovery and exploration.
The observatory is part of NSF's NOIRLab.

To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/3VPT34z

📷: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA

04/01/2023

What's one way to predict the weather?

Through photography.

Watch how cameras have evolved throughout history, from capturing simple snowflakes to resolving falling particles down to the diameter of a human hair! https://bit.ly/3GAsZ97

📸 Tim Garrett, University of Utah

03/01/2023

Nominations for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, , close soon!

PAEMST recognizes the best in teaching across the country. Show your appreciation for a deserving STEM teacher in your community by nominating them for a Presidential Award! https://bit.ly/3jOLspq

30/12/2022

Asteroids, arthritis, archeology, aircraft … and that's just what starts with "a"!

NSF's 10 Most-Read Research News Stories of 2022 covers science discoveries across disciplines and specialties. Each article shares innovation and insights stemming from research.

Check out what made the biggest science splash, and sign up to receive NSF updates like these right in your inbox: https://bit.ly/3WxlyVK

29/12/2022

NSF 2022: Transformational developments that benefit society

In 2022, NSF powered a diverse range of discoveries and innovations that will benefit humanity. This year also positioned NSF to accelerate its work at speed and scale. See how: https://bit.ly/3vptL2k

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28/12/2022

Love ♥ science?

Download NSF's Science Zone app to enjoy fascinating videos and photos that bring you in closer contact with the world, the universe and beyond.

Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Download it now and enjoy the exploration! https://bit.ly/3viZx14

27/12/2022

Want to learn German? Portuguese? Navajo? Gaelic? Klingon?

With Duolingo, a free, fun, language-learning app that NSF helped launch, you can study these languages and dozens more. In fact, more than 50 million people worldwide use Duolingo – more than the number of students learning a second language in the entire U.S. public education system.

NSF supported the graduate work and early-career research of Duolingo's founders through the Information Technology Research program and the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, including a prestigious NSF CAREER award.

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

📷: Duolingo

23/12/2022

As we come upon this holiday season, I want to say how thankful I am to be part of a community that values innovation, creativity and a commitment to building a brighter future for people across the globe through research enterprise.

We wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season.
- NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan

22/12/2022

Earlier this year, researchers aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter "Healy" reached the North Pole for the third time in the ship's career. And who did they happen to find? Santa 🎅 of course!

The trip to the Arctic was part of the international Synoptic Arctic Survey, a research initiative aimed at collecting empirical data in the Arctic Ocean. The goal of the research is to build a comprehensive data set to provide a baseline and track climate change and its impact on the Arctic.

Want to learn more about the research? Check out this blog from author and artist Leonard Sussman who was aboard the "Healy" during the cruise 🚢: https://bit.ly/3YM7B8a.

📸: Leonard Sussman

21/12/2022

THIS ⬇️⬇️

Deadline approaching! ⏰ If you've ever considered doing , now is the time! In partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF), we've got another opportunity for YOU to send your investigation to the International Space Station to benefit life back here on Earth.
Details are here: https://bit.ly/3FuD8Th

21/12/2022

Taking laser tag to a whole new level!

The Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, fires a laser beam into the sky. The laser, seen here as a pink-orange stripe, strikes the Earth’s upper atmosphere, where it is reflected as a bright spot of light.

That spot provides a reference point for astronomers to track, then correct for, atmospheric turbulence in a widely used technique called adaptive optics. The telescope, part of NSF’s NOIRLab, bends its mirror in real time in response to the turbulence—adapting its optics—to reverse the atmosphere’s blurring effect on stars, galaxies and other objects.

📸: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Chu

20/12/2022

Penguins 🐧 are flightless birds, but they're fleet and agile in the icy waters of Antarctica.

In January, NSF's webinar "Live From Antarctica: All Things Penguins" will feature seasoned researcher Jean Pennycook offering a unique look at a colony of Adelie penguins in Cape Royds. Adelies are one of five penguin species that live in Antarctica.

Adelies breed on land between October and February before they return to sea in the pack ice. Chicks hatch in December and their parents take turns feeding and guarding them. By January, the chicks are big enough to be left alone while the parents head out hunting together and the chicks assemble for protection and warmth.

To register for the webinar, visit https://bit.ly/3WcJ8Hj

19/12/2022

🗣Calling all , this holiday season help raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by measuring the night sky brightness in your area.

Details ⬇️

15/12/2022

Floating Fruit

Floating fruit? Behold the magic of magnets! 🧲

The NSF-supported National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or MagLab, does much more than levitate objects – this unique, world-class facility provides powerful instruments and magnets to advance discoveries across physics, materials science, chemistry, biology and engineering.

Now NSF is investing an additional $195.5 million in MagLab over the next five years to power even more groundbreaking research.

"NSF's continued support for the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory drives the democratization of access to high magnetic fields; enables worldwide discoveries at the forefront of science, engineering and technology; and helps develop a highly skilled and diverse workforce," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan.

MagLab is a partnership among NSF, Florida State University, the University of Florida, the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory and the state of Florida.

To learn more: https://bit.ly/3hu6cC9.

14/12/2022

Scientist Selfie: Meet Kim Bernard

Antarctic krill are critical to ocean health, and ecologist Kim Bernard of Oregon State University-Corvallis has dedicated her life to studying them, with support from NSF, to better protect them from increasing fishing pressure and climate change.

"My team and I have been studying how young Antarctic krill survive the Antarctic winter, when food is extremely scarce," Bernard said. "Antarctic krill are essential to ocean health in these waters, as they are a main prey item for many animals, including whales, seals, seabirds and penguins."

Learn more about her work and get a peek at her lab in NSF's latest "Scientist Selfie."

Watch 📽

08/12/2022

Tiny plant stoma opening and closing

Ogres are like onions, and plants can look like ogres! The Shrek-like image below is one of the tiny pores plants use to "breathe" CO2.

scientists at UC San Diego discovered how plants control them to respond to CO2 concentrations, opening the door for crop innovation. To learn more visit: https://bit.ly/3iLAG31.

📽: Douglas Clark

07/12/2022

Show a teacher in your life that you appreciate them by nominating them for a presidential award. The PAEMST nomination drive is in full swing from now until the end of the week!

We’re seeking 7-12th grade STEM teachers who are making a difference in the classroom. Know a STEM teacher who fits that description? Nominate them today! https://bit.ly/3P9ewnt.

06/12/2022

The NSF-seeded, web-based audio composition environment EarSketch empowers students to make music with JavaScript or Python code. Coding and computational thinking are used in every STEM field, and remixing hip-hop music is inspiring students all around the globe to learn to code.

Students around the globe are beginning careers in STEM after learning to code through an NSF-seeded hip-hop music curriculum. Even celebrity Pharrell Williams has gotten involved.

STEM talent exists everywhere in the U.S., but there are millions of capable people not yet part of the STEM enterprise – the missing millions. This NSF-seeded, web-based audio composition environment, EarSketch, empowers students to learn coding by making music.

Beginning with just one high school in Atlanta, Georgia, the NSF-seeded hip-hop audio composition environment EarSketch is now being used by over 1 million people in 180 countries to introduce students to coding.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3F8GUS0.

02/12/2022

"Rocks are cool. People are better. Take care of your people and the rest will come."

That's the philosophy of University of Florida geologist Anita Marshall, whose career may be studying rocks but whose mission is to make geology more inclusive for students with disabilities.

With a two-year NSF grant, Marshall created GeoSPACE, a pilot project for students who, whether for personal mobility, health, family or job barriers, can't do physically demanding onsite field work for weeks at a time in the wilderness. Many geoscience programs require such field work in order to graduate.

GeoSPACE offers a virtual experience for students with disabilities who can participate from home or from a high-tech base camp by leveraging drones, satellite imagery, live high-definition video and a messaging platform. Marshall likens the virtual students to mission control during a space mission, while their fellow students on the ground are the astronauts exploring new terrain.

“I don’t want field camp to be a barrier," she said. "I want it to be a springboard.”

For the United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities, learn more about Marshall and GeoSPACE by visiting https://bit.ly/3HmthS3

📷: Brianne Lehan, University of Florida

01/12/2022

Since 1956, U.S.-based scientists have conducted research from the South Pole. However, getting to the South Pole and building stations conducive to science in an extremely harsh environment was no easy task.

Starting with a tent erected in 1911 by the first group to reach the South Pole and the current research station dedicated in 2008, the South Pole has become home to sophisticated research facilities to study astrophysics and conduct atmospheric research.

Learn about the timeline of buildings at the South Pole in the latest Science Matters blog: https://bit.ly/3UoJFE4.

📸: Dick Prescott, NSF

30/11/2022

Scientist Selfie: Meet the Long Term Ecological Network

Icebound lakes, snow density, microscopic worms, glacier mass – NSF has invested in US Long Term Ecological Research Network, or LTER, of the landscape and living systems of Antarctica for decades.

In the latest video in our "Scientist Selfie" series, researchers introduce their work assessing how the ecosystem changes over a long period of time.

Emily Reynebeau studies the microbial communities that teem in the unique lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, in liquid water beneath thick layers of unmelted ice. Katie McNulty investigates how snow affects the total energy balance of the Taylor Valley.

Jesse Jorna and Abby Jackson are on the hunt for nematodes – worm-like creatures so small they can only be seen under a microscope – in the soils of Lake Core Basin. And Anna Wright and Mia Vanderwilt measure the glacier mass balance of Taylor Glacier to see how much mass it's gaining or losing each year.

Want to learn more? Watch ⬇

30/11/2022

With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Cal Poly Humboldt Biological Sciences Professor Dr. Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler is leading a study on the purple pitcher plant and its microorganisms.
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The pitcher plant is a carnivorous plant with modified leaves in the shape of cups that produce nectar, attracting prey that is captured within the pitcher. However, the plant cannot degrade its prey by itself, and instead hosts microorganisms whose ability to decompose insects and other small animals is critical to the degradation of captured prey. Each time the plant produces a new leaf, it is initially empty and must accumulate fluid and microbial organisms from the surrounding environment. These microorganisms include fungi, protozoans, rotifers, virus, nematodes, mites and mosquito larvae, but the primary degraders are bacteria. Dr. Cuellar-Gempeler’s study aims to elucidate how the plant collects and selects the precise microbial species that degrade its prey.
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Research findings will not only improve our understanding of the biology of the pitcher plant, but also more broadly, our general understanding of how species come together to function within an ecosystem. Addressing this topic is increasingly urgent in a time of climate change and habitat destruction - if we can understand, predict, and manipulate these relationships between organisms and the environment, we are better suited to maintain a sustainable planet!
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📸: Dr. Cuellar Gempeler holds a Cobra Lily, also known as the California pitcher plant.
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29/11/2022

"Groundbreaking science and innovation is unleashed by investing in the incredible talent embedded in our communities across the country. NSF investments are making a real difference at every level, from local communities to the national stage." - NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan

This year's Nobel recipients join the ranks of 253 previous Nobel laureates whose work in physics, chemistry, economic sciences, and physiology or medicine has been supported by NSF. Just a few of the breakthroughs that have resulted from NSF investments:

💡 NSF's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, detected gravitational waves rippling far across the universe, resulting from a cataclysmic merger of two black holes billions of years ago.
💡 A gene-editing discovery through the CRISPR technique has rocked the biology world and could potentially lead to new ways to treat or even cure diseases.
💡 Randomized controlled trials, an analytical tool, have aided labor economists in efforts to greatly improve the ability to fight global poverty and identify the most efficient ways to change the world for the better.

Learn more about NSF investments that are empowering science and engineering communities to address some of society's most urgent problems (LinkedIn account required):
https://bit.ly/3u9Ms9H.

24/11/2022

What are you for?

At NSF, we're thankful for research and innovation that are improving lives and building a better future. From the quantum level to the cosmic, the deepest oceans to the outermost atmosphere, scientists, engineers and educators are helping us understand and appreciate the world we live in.

Let us know what makes you thankful this year in the comments ⬇

Happy Thanksgiving!

23/11/2022

A helping of science for Thanksgiving

Hungry for knowledge? NSF invites you to feast on -themed research! Get fun facts on 🌽corn, bread 🍞, turkey 🦃 and leftovers.

Learn more about the science behind it all and why it matters on the blog: https://bit.ly/3ODosVR.

However you celebrate Thanksgiving we hope that your table includes our favorite topic of conversation, NSF science.

22/11/2022

Is there a teacher or mentor that you're thankful for?

Show your gratitude by nominating them for a Presidential Award, today! Their ability to motivate and enable individuals to be successful deserves to be recognized at a national level.

✅ To nominate a teacher visit: https://bit.ly/3ACbjqt
✅ To nominate a mentor visit: https://bit.ly/3ACbhil

21/11/2022

Whatcha looking 👀 at?

It's that time of year again ... the Penguin Cam 📹 is live!

Across the water from NSF's Palmer Station in Antarctica is Torgersen Island, an Adélie penguin 🐧colony. Each summer, researchers observe the penguins living in the colony to understand the species' dynamics.

Check it out at ➡ https://bit.ly/3ERnfHq.



📸: Alan Bacchiochi

18/11/2022

With our counterparts around the world, we join in celebrating the International Day of LGBTQIA+ People in STEM! NSF continues to support and enhance diversity in STEM and recognize LGBTQ+ scientists for their contributions to their fields.

18/11/2022

Online tools to help students manage stress, "drug factory" implants that kill cancerous tumors, the impact of urban vegetation on mortality rates, how hummingbirds may struggle to avoid climate change – NSF's Directorate for STEM Education supports research that's making a real difference.

For American Education Week, NSF salutes all those who make public schools a success, and those who dedicate themselves to preparing the next generation of scientists, engineers and others to build a better future for all.

To learn more about NSF's research, visit:

✅https://bit.ly/3AtFZdf

✅https://bit.ly/3AufF2O

✅https://bit.ly/3Oi0sY8

✅https://bit.ly/3tEWxuT

📷: Joxemai, Becky Matsubara, Fgrammen, Jeff Fitlow/Rice University