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The National Technical Information Service offers this website with technical and research reports received during the last month related to homeland security. Grouped into two categories, On the Homefront and Beyond Our Borders. Topics addressed include Air Cargo Security, Biosecurity, Border Security and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and Diplomacy of Counterterrorism. Visitors must pay to download the reports, but abstracts are available for browsing free of charge.
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Developed by online museum educators, Pieces of Science is described as "an online gallery of sixteen educational resources related to a collection of historical science objects." The sixteen subjects are organized by grade level and include such topics as lighting rods, Apollo 8, a lunar module, Priestley�s physics project, and penicillin. Each page contains a variety of resources, but the lighting rod page, for example, explains the history of how Benjamin Franklin used lighting rods to s
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The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point created this website to help "citizens and governments manage the groundwater in Wisconsin wisely, through education, public information, applied research, and technical assistance." Educators and students can find the Wisconsin Groundwater Directory, groundwater factsheets, information on a hands-on groundwater model, and a variety of educational activities. Researchers can learn about the project to develop techniques to monitor and manage groundwat
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Elsevier Engineering Information has made the U.S. National Technical Information Service (NTIS) database through the Engineering Village 2. The NTIS database includes unclassified reports from U.S. and international government agencies. Through Engineering Village 2, an interdisciplinary engineering database, subscribers can now search three engineering databases simultaneously, accessing over 9-million records referencing 5,000 engineering journals and conference materials dating from 1884 and
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An important concern facing electronics designers is heat dissipation. Especially in laptop computers and server farms, overheating can be a major problem. ElectronicsCooling is a free, quarterly publication that provides "practical information to the reader that relates to cooling of today's electronics." Every article since the magazine's debut in 1995 can be viewed from this site. Common topics are packaging, thermal design, and technical data related to many types of electronics. Contributio
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War zones and hostile environments often prevent press coverage of important events, such as the Gulf War and, more recently, the dealings with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. A new invention, called the Afghan Explorer, could solve this problem. It is, in essence, a robotic journalist. With the capability to maneuver, record audio and video footage, and conduct interviews, the Afghan Explorer can provide coverage of military situations and off-limit areas with no risk of human casualties. The mobile "
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Presented by National Geographic, Xpedition Hall is a highly interactive and visually stunning geography site that resembles the game Myst. The physical geography portion of the site allows students to view ecosystems of the world and see the effects of volcanoes, wind, and rain on the islands of Hawaii. By dragging their mouse across the islands, users are able to see the mountains lower into the ocean to see the lava within. Other portions of the Hall include terrific geography related activit
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This Topic in Depth explores the field of surface chemistry. First, the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry publicizes its members initiatives to "investigate the interaction of surfaces with fluids having molecular densities spanning the range from liquids to ultra-high vacuum" (1). Researchers can find out about upcoming meetings, awards, and membership opportunities. The second website presents Chalmers University of Technology's research activities in
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"Grid.org is a single destination site for large-scale research projects powered by the United Devices Global MetaProcessor." It harnesses the combined computing power of thousands of computers around the world to process large amounts of data that would otherwise be impossible or very costly to analyze. The Grid.org Web site is an excellent place to start if you want to participate in a distributed computing project, or if you are just interested in learning the basics of the technology. Curren
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The Geographic Information Systems page from the US Geological Survey gives an introductory look into the uses and workings of GIS. Through basic descriptions and GIS screen shots, users can follow the online learning exercise and come away with a good idea of the main concepts behind a powerful application that is growing in popularity in nearly every scientifically related pursuit.
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The Philadelphia Education Fund, an independent non-profit organization that "helps to improve the quality of public education for all children in the city of Philadelphia," posts on its website assessment tools and guidelines to help teachers look at student work. An interesting feature of the website is the section which provides samples of student work displayed alongside accompanying teacher commentary. The student work samples are drawn from Philadelphia elementary, middle and high school t
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From the USDA Forest Service's St. Paul Field Office, this website offers a collection of instructive, online publications (first mentioned in the January 21, 2005 NSDL Scout Report for Life Sciences) that "are written for homeowners, land managers and others who want to know more about how to care for trees." The publications provide information about dealing with a number of diseases and other threats to a variety of tree types including Jack Pine, Oak, White Pine, Aspen, Basswood, Sugar Maple
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Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) sponsors the Clay Mathematics Research Academy to "inspire young people with the thrill of working on the frontiers of mathematical research." Each year, twelve high school students are recruited and a Colloquium is held at CMI headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After the intense 8-day seminar, participants continue their work using iResearch, a web-based collaborative tool suite designed by the Academy. The 2004 Academy Colloqium Series was held March 19
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Electronic sensors exist in many facets of our lives, from measuring operating conditions of our vehicles to adjusting the temperature of our homes. They can even mean the difference between life and death when used to monitor patients in emergency rooms. Even though sensors work transparently in their multitude of functions, their importance cannot be understated.Sensorland (1) has basic descriptions of a wide variety of sensors and related concepts. Out of the 50 items in the list, some have f
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This interim report from the National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on Atlantic Salmon in Maine is a prepublication of the March 2002 report provided by National Academy Press. The once abundant populations of Atlantic Salmon in Maine have declined in recent years, now listed as endangered. The NRC Committee believes that "understanding the genetic makeup of Maine's salmon is important for recovery efforts." This 48-page report includes information on the salmon's biology, evolution, geneti
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Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit organization founded by the grassroots Virginia Organizing Project (VOP) in 2002 to help increase public understanding of emerging scientific links between environmental exposure and human health, tracks a broad range of relevant information on this well-designed and useful website. The In the News section of the homepage lists breaking news stories from the world press about environmental health and is updated daily. The New Science area offers paragra
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the home of Project Links, an original site that combines the principles of mathematics with applied science and engineering topics. In most college curricula, math is a standalone subject, and students often find it difficult to relate what they learn to their other classes. Project Links offers a series of modules that introduce concepts like mechanical oscillations, electricity and magnetism, and system design. Each module starts with basic background infor
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Engaging in social issues in today's society requires an understanding of numerical data, statistics, and mathematical assumptions that underlie discussions about the federal budget, the spread of disease and other issues. However, the mathematics and the social issues are often considered in isolation and leave many Americans "ill-prepared to make informed decisions." The Thinking with Data Project is a new initiative of the National Science Foundation, SRI International, Kent State University
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Part of the University of Pennsylvania Library, the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image offers a unique collection of chemistry related photographs. The pictures are in three categories and include scientist's portraits, apparatus images, and laboratory images. For example, a link to a 19th century pressure chamber brings up the photograph, information on the people in it, image information, and any other available facts. This very interesting collection can be browsed or searched by k
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Bernard M. Sklar, M.D., M.S., a psychiatrist in Oakland, Calif., provides this Annotated List of Online Continuing Medical Education (CME). Online CME allows physicians to earn CME credits over the Internet. The instruction might involve reading an online journal article, listening to or viewing a lecture, playing a game, answering quiz questions, enrolling in correspondence courses, or having an opportunity to make choices according to the clinical presentation using a case-based interactive fo
