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DENA HEADLEE: An NSF-funded research collaboration has
announced what its members believe is the first direct
evidence that confirms a key element of the theory of the
birth of the universe. The researchers found patterns of
polarization in the cosmic microwave background -- the faint
after-glow of the so-called big bang -- that researchers say are
best explained by stretching and compressing of space by
gravitational waves. This would have happened immediately after
the big bang, which occurred 14 billion years ago. These waves
have been described as the "big bang's first tremors."
The discovery, which awaits peer review, seems to confirm the
theory of cosmic inflation, a cataclysmic event that followed
a fraction of a second after the big bang, when the infant
universe expanded very rapidly. The NSF-funded BICEP2
collaboration used special detectors on a telescope at the
South Pole to make the discovery.
The group was led by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics and included researchers from Caltech's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center, the University of Minnesota, and several other
universities. The team says detecting this signal is one of
the most important cosmology goals today.
Go ahead, have that cup of coffee; it might just help you
remember where you left your car keys. NSF-funded researchers at
Johns Hopkins University have discovered for the first time
that caffeine reduces forgetting at least up to 24
hours after consumption.
Researcher Michael Yassa and his team conducted a
double-blind trial. Participants who did not
regularly consume caffeinated products either received a
placebo or a 200-milligram caffeine tablet five minutes
after studying a series of images. The next day, both
groups were tested on their ability to recognize images from
the previous day's session. The test also included new or
similar images to those previously viewed. Members of
the caffeine group were better able to identify the similar
images as "similar" to previously viewed images versus
mistakenly citing them as the same.
The brain's ability to recognize the difference between two
similar but not identical items is called "pattern separation."
The team discovered that this process is enhanced by caffeine.
Yassa hopes to further study the brain's mechanism underlying
this enhancement and to expand the research to include
caffeine's cognitive effects on those with Alzheimer's disease.
Deadly twisters can form in minutes and with little warning,
causing havoc and widespread destruction. Researchers hope
a newly established CASA weather radar network in the Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex can provide fast updating, fine scale information
on the tornado that can increase warning lead time, saving lives
and property. The network consists of 4 to 8 small,
near-surface radar arrays. When mounted on roof-tops and
other near to ground structures, the radar can look for storms
closer to the ground where tornadoes actually form.
NARRATOR: That's because the radars used today can see as far
away as 250 miles, but only in a straight line. The earth is
curved. So they don't have a clear view of what's actually
happening on the ground. They could miss a tornado, or, give a
false alarm. Solution? Deploy a network of small, inexpensive
radars that look at local conditions and
report up-to-the-second information.
DENA HEADLEE: The system produces high-resolution images
enabling researchers to look directly at the storms. This
network fills in the gaps.
BRENDA PHILLIPS: So what CASA does is that we've basically
filled in that observation gap with small, densely spaced
radars that have overlapping coverage that actually fill in
that gap of observation. So we are actually able to look
directly at the tornado happening and directly at the
winds and so we're hoping with that we can reduce the false
alarm rate and improve the detections.
DENA HEADLEE: Researchers from the Center for Collaborative
Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere at U-Mass Amherst,
Colorado State University, the University of Oklahoma and the
University of Puerto Rico Mayguez jointly developed the
NSF-funded CASA network. Dallas-Fort Worth is the
nation's first to host such cutting-edge technology.
The CASA model is unique because it creates
public-private partnerships.
BRENDA PHILLIPS: So, one of the things that we are interested in
doing is partnering with the local community and local
governments and with the federal government and with the private
sector to bring these radar networks out into operation.
DENA HEADLEE: Researchers hope the expansion of the CASA
network across the country will improve the way we detect,
understand, and respond to severe weather, in turn,
saving lives. NSF-funded researchers at Ohio University
have found the oldest definitive fossil evidence of modern,
venomous snakes in Africa. The newly discovered fossil was
unearthed in the Rukwa Rift Basin of Tanzania. The lead
author, Jacob McCartney, and his coauthors note that these
findings demonstrate that elapid snakes -— a group that includes
modern cobras, kraits and sea snakes -- were present in Africa
as early as 25 million years ago. Elapids belong to a larger
group of snakes known as Colubrids -- active foragers that
use a variety of methods, including venom to capture and
kill prey. The team was surprised to discover
higher-than-expected concentrations of Colubroid
snakes, suggesting the local environment was more open and
seasonally dry, thus more hospitable to these types of
active hunting snakes that don't require cover to ambush prey
like modern boas and pythons do.
For more information about these stories, visit us at NSF.gov.
This is NSF Science Now, I'm Dena Headlee.
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