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• Ice Cold: Cooler Than Being Cool
  

  

  Water expands when it freezes. Anyone who has ever left a can of soda or bottle of water in the freezer too long has witnessed this first hand. So how do plants and animals survive severe temperatures?

  Insects exposed to subzero temperatures can adapt to the extreme climate to survive freezing temperatures, but until now, antifreeze molecules had not been isolated from freeze-tolerant animals. The NSF-supported study, published in the November 24 issue of Proceedings of the ...
  

  More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115986&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

  
  This is an NSF News item.

• Anniversary Edition of Evolution Special Report Released
  

  

  What questions are more profound and provocative than:

  • How did life begin?
  • How have humans evolved?
  • How are climate change and other ecological stresses currently forcing evolution?
  • Could the process of evolution have worked the same on other planets, even to the point of evolving life?
  • What will be science's next big evolution discovery?

  These and other questions--which are as timely, controversial and news-worthy as ever--are addressed ...
  

  More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115998&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

  
  This is an NSF News item.

• Evolution of Evolution: A National Science Foundation Webcast
  

  

  Please join the National Science Foundation (NSF) on Monday, Nov. 23, at 10 a.m. ET for a live webcast featuring Darwin-Wallace Medal recipient Mohamed Noor of Duke University, who will answer media questions about current evidence for evolution and modern evolution theory. Among the topics:

  • Does modern genetic evidence favor the existence of a missing link?
  • What's the single most important evolution discovery in the last 50 years?
  • Is the current understanding of ...
    
  More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115990&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

  
  This is an NSF News item.

• Kernels of Truth: Researchers Sequence the Maize (Corn) Genome
  

  

  The completion of a high-quality sequence of the maize (corn) genome is announced in the cover story of the November 20, 2009, issue of Science.

  This new genome sequence reports the sequence of genes in maize and provides a detailed physical map of the maize genome. This map identifies the order in which genes are located along each of maize's 10 chromosomes and the physical distances between those genes.

  Additional information provided by the new maize genome ...
  

  More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115920&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

  
  This is an NSF News item.

• Ants, Like Humans, Use Bacteria to Make Their Gardens Grow
  

  

  Leaf-cutter ants, which cultivate fungus for food, have many remarkable qualities.

  Now there's a new one to add to the list: these ant farmers, like their human counterparts, depend on nitrogen-fixing bacteria to make their gardens grow.

  The findings, reported this week in the journal Science, document a previously unknown symbiosis between ants and bacteria, and provide insights into how leaf-cutter ants have come to dominate the American tropics and ...
  

  More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115961&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

  
  This is an NSF News item.