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Physical Sciences TUNL Vision   U. North Carolina-Chapel Hill  Endeavors If you're a particle smasher, the universe can seem like a zoo. -- Angela Spivey   research.unc.edu/endeavors/spr2003/tunl.html Skunky Beer in a Whole New Light   U. North Carolina-Chapel Hill  Endeavors The chemistry of good brew gone bad. -- Cate House   research.unc.edu/endeavors/win2002/beer.htm Small Science. Big Vision   Ohio U.  Perspectives Antony van Leeuwenhoek was bacteria's first serious spectator. Squinting through a self-made microscope at a smudge of plaque scraped from his teeth, he dropped the curtain on the squirming organisms we know today as the world's simplest and oldest life forms. --Melissa Rake Calhoun   www.ohiou.edu/perspectives/0303/story4.html 2003 issue: A CHAT WITH BOB SCHRIEFFER   Florida State U  Research in Review He’s seen as an icon of modern physics, a man whose discovery—at age 26—revolutionized thinking on superconductivity, a phenomenon that some scientists believe may be the most remarkable physical property in the universe.—Frank Stephenson  http://www.research.fsu.edu/researchr/winter2002/schrieffer.html A SEASON IN ANTARCTICA   Research/PennState The Transantarctic mountain range has rugged peaks that top 14,000 feet—as high as the Rockies. It’s Earth’s only major range not formed by a collision of tectonic plates. To learn what made it, a hardy band of geoscientists is measuring the waves from earthquakes.—John Pollack  http://www.rps.psu.edu/0205/antarctica.html A STORM IS BORN   Research/PennState Itís not Twister. Rather than chasing after full-blown tornadoes, IHOP researchers track the births of violent storms—the ones that produce lightning, hail, and enough rainfall to cause flash floods. The goal is to understand how such storms form, at a scale too small to be detected by the National Weather Service.—Dana Bauer  http://www.rps.psu.edu/0301/storm.html ALONG A BELT OF FIRE   Ohio U  Perspectives With 25 volcanoes dotting its landscape, El Salvador is a geological hot spot on the Belt of Fire, a circle of volcanoes and fault zones that surround the Pacific Ocean.—Kelli Whitlock  http://www.ohiou.edu/perspectives/0301/feat_4.htm ARCHITECTS OF THE NEW   S. Illinois U-Carbondale Perspectives Building new materials at the molecular scale is the province of two SIUC chemists recently recognized with major National Science Foundation grants.—Marilyn Davis  http://www.siu.edu/%7Eperspect/01_fall/nanotech.html FILLED BUCKYBALLS: DIAMONDS FROM SOOT   Virginia Tech  Research The ability to fill carbon molecules with metal atoms has provided an architecture for novel nanostructures.—Susan Trulove  http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/2002winter/buckyballs.htm MARS REVISITED   U of Georgia  Research Reporter The scientific debate rages on over possible life on Mars.—Steve Koppes  http://www.ovpr.uga.edu/researchnews/summer2001/mars.html" PATH TO PARTITIONS   U of Florida  Explore Two University of Florida mathematics researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery in a field most people don’t understand—building on the work of great thinkers most people have never heard of—that could have important, everyday applications that even the researchers themselves can’t describe.—Tim Lockette  http://www.rgp.ufl.edu/publications/explore/v05n2/math.html SAVING FACE   Ohio U  Perspectives The Ohio University paleontologist who stripped the lips from T. rex and the cheeks from Triceratops now has given dinosaurs a nose job.—Kelli Whitlock  http://www.ohiou.edu/perspectives/0102/story004.htm SENTINELS OF HISTORY   U of Arkansas  Research Frontiers University of Arkansas researchers study tree rings to create a picture of past climates. Their findings provide insights into some of today’s most pressing environmental questions and change the way historians look at past events.—Melissa Blouin  http://pigtrail.uark.edu/pubs/Research_Frontiers/spring_2001/06_Feature2.html THE NEXT BIG THING IS VERY SMALL   Georgia Tech  Research Horizons Nanoscience researchers work in a world visible only under powerful microscopes. But don’t let size deceive—researchers see huge advances ahead in cancer detection and therapy, dramatic size and cost reductions for electronics and a host of other benefits.—John Toon  http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/reshor/rh-ss01/nano.html THE STRANGE FLAVOR OF QUARKS   Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center  Annual Report Among the payoffs of accurate QCD calculations and experiment are fundamental parameters of the standard model called CKM matrix elements.—Michael Schneider  http://www.psc.edu/science/2002/milc/ THE STUFF OF SPACE   U of Kansas  Explore Did life float in from interstellar space? It’s no longer unthinkable.—Roger Martin  RM2 THE TALE OF TAXOL   Florida State U  Research in Review The tortured trail of the best-selling cancer drug in history began 40 years ago. A thunder-clap of uncommon science and luck, it’s a grand story still in the telling.—Frank Stephenson  http://www.research.fsu.edu/researchr/fall2002/taxol.html WHAT HAPPENS AT THE ACTIVE SITE   Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center  Annual Report Better understanding of an enzyme that metabolizes chemotherapy drugs may permit better cancer-fighting with smaller doses.—Michael Schneider  http://www.psc.edu/science/2002/wymore

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