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72 New NAS Members Chosen by Academy

The National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 14 countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

The election was held during the business session of the 142nd annual meeting of the Academy. Election to membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. Those elected bring the total number of active members to 1,976.

Foreign associates are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States. The recent election brings the total number of foreign associates to 360.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln that calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology. Newly elected members and their affiliations at the time of election are:

• Allis, C. David; professor and head, Laboratory of Chromatin Biology, Rockefeller University, New York City
• Andersen, Richard A.; James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience, biology division, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
• Baker, David H.; professor of nutrition, department of animal sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Bennett, Charles L.; professor of physics and astronomy, department of physics and astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
• Bennett, Joan W.; professor, department of cell and molecular biology, Tulane University, New Orleans
• Benoist, Christophe; co-head, section on immunology and immunogenetics, Joslin Diabetes Center, and professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston
• Blandford, Roger D.; Pehong and Adele Chen Professor of Physics, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.
• Brown, James H.; Distinguished Professor of Biology, department of biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
• Brünger, Axel T.; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, department of molecular and cellular physiology, Stanford University
• Chien, Shu; director, Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine, and chair, department of bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla
• Chisholm, Malcolm H.; Distinguished Professor of Math and Physical Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus
• Clark, William A.V.; professor of geography, University of California, Los Angeles
• Cordell, Linda S.; director, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, and professor of anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Cosgrove, Daniel J.; Eberly Professor of Biology, department of biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
• Cox, Gary; professor, department of political science, University of California, San Diego
• Daily, Gretchen C.; associate professor of research, department of biological sciences, and senior fellow, Institute of International Studies, Stanford University
• Davis, Robert E.; supervisory research plant pathologist and research leader, Molecular Plant Pathology Laboratory, Plant Sciences Institute, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Md.
• Devreotes, Peter N.; professor and director of cell biology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore
• Dixit, Avinash K.; John J.F. Sherrerd 1952 University Professor of Economics, department of economics, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
• Donoghue, Michael J.; director, Peabody Museum of Natural History, and G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor, department of ecology and evolutionary biology, Environmental Science Center, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
• Eisenstein, James P.; Frank J. Roshek Professor of Physics, department of physics, California Institute of Technology
• Engle, Robert F.; Michael Armellino Professor in the Management of Financial Services, Leonard Stern School of Business, New York University, New York City
• Evans, Anthony G.; professor, department of materials, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Gibson, David T.; professor emeritus, department of microbiology, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City
• Gor'kov, Lev Petrovich; program director and professor, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee
• Greenwald, Iva S.; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, Columbia University, New York City
• Hartl, Daniel L.; Higgins Professor of Biology, department of organismic and evolutionary biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
• Hebert, Steven C.; professor of medicine, and chair and professor, department of cellular and molecular physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
• Henikoff, Steven; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and member, basic sciences division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
• Hogan, Brigid L.M.; professor and chair, department of cell biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.
• Horwitz, Susan Band; Rose C. Falkenstein Chair in Cancer Research and associate director for drug development, Albert Einstein Cancer Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York City
• Hubbell, Wayne L.; Jules Stein Professor of Ophthalmology and associate director, Jules Stein Eye Institute, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles
• Jewitt, David C.; professor, department of physics and astronomy, and astronomer, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu
• Jin, Deborah S.; NIST fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology; JILA fellow, JILA; and adjoint associate professor, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Johnstone, Iain M.; professor, department of statistics, Stanford University
• Kanwisher, Nancy G.; professor, department of brain and cognitive sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
• Karin, Michael; professor of pharmacology, department of pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego
• Keohane, Robert O.; James B. Duke Professor of Political Science, department of political science, Duke University, Durham, N.C., and fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, Calif.
• King, Mary-Claire; American Cancer Society Research Professor, departments of medicine and genome sciences, University of Washington, Seattle
• Klainerman, Sergiu; professor, department of mathematics, Princeton University
• Kollár, János; professor of mathematics, department of mathematics, Princeton University
• Lampson, Butler W.; distinguished engineer, Microsoft Corp., Cambridge, Mass.
• Louie, Steven G.; professor of physics, department of physics, University of California, Berkeley
• Marks, Andrew R.; director, Center for Molecular Cardiology, and professor and chair, department of physiology and cellular biophysics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York City
• McNutt, Marcia K.; president and chief executive officer, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, Calif.
• Medin, Douglas L.; professor of psychology, department of psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
• Mello, Craig; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Blais University Chair of Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester
• Osher, Stanley; professor, department of mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles
• Page, David C.; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Piperno, Dolores R.; research scientist, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
• Polchinski, Joseph G.; professor, department of physics, and permanent member, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Polyakov, Alexandre M.; Joseph Henry Professor of Physics, Joseph Henry Laboratories, Princeton University
• Rapoport, Tom A.; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, department of cell biology, Harvard Medical School
• Rice, Charles M.; Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor and head, Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease, Rockefeller University
• Robinson, Gene E.; director, neuroscience program, and G. William Arends Chair, department of entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Romanowicz, Barbara A.; professor of geology and geophysics, and director, Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
• Sancar, Aziz; Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Sargent, Wallace L.W.; Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy, department of astronomy, California Institute of Technology
• Schatz, George C.; Morrison Professor, department of chemistry, Northwestern University
• Sch üpbach, Gertrud M.; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor of molecular biology, department of molecular biology, Princeton University
• Seidman, Christine E.; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, departments of medicine and genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
• Silhavy, Thomas J.; Warner-Lambert Park-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology, department of molecular biology, Princeton University
• Solomon, Edward I.; Monroe E. Spaight Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University
• Strier, Karen B.; professor of anthropology, department of anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Tananbaum, Harvey D.; director, Chandra X-ray Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass.
• Tessier-Lavigne, Marc T.; senior vice president, research drug discovery, Genentech Inc., San Francisco
• Thompson, Craig B.; scientific director, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• Thompson, Lonnie G.; professor of geological sciences, Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus
• Valentine, Joan S.; professor of chemistry, department of chemistry and biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles
• Williams, Ellen D.; distinguished professor of physics, department of physics, University of Maryland, College Park
• Wright, Margaret H.; professor and chair, department of computer science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
• Newly elected foreign associates, their affiliations at the time of election, and their country of citizenship are:
• Baulcombe, David C.; head, Sainsbury Laboratory, and professor, John Innes Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich (United Kingdom)
• Bell Burnell, S. Jocelyn; fellow, Mansfield College, and visiting professor of physics, University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
• Chen, Ding-Shinn; dean and professor of medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei (Taiwan)
• Coey, J. Michael D.; professor of physics, department of physics, Trinity College, Dublin (Ireland)
• Jeffreys, Alec John; Royal Society Wolfson Research Professor, department of genetics, University of Leicester (United Kingdom)
• Juma, Calestous; professor of the practice of international development, and director, science, technology, and innovation program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (Kenya)
• Koshiba, Masatoshi; professor emeritus, department of physics and astronomy, International Center for Elementary Particle Physics, University of Tokyo (Japan)
• Lehmann, Ruth; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and director, developmental genetics program, Skirball Institute, New York University Medical Center, New York City (Germany)
• León-Azofeifa, Pedro; professor, Centro de Investigaciones en Biología Celular y Molecular, and director general, Centro Nacional de Alta Tecnología, University of Costa Rica, San Jose (Costa Rica)
• Mashelkar, Raghunath A.; director general, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, New Delhi (India)
• Özdogan, Mehmet; director, Eastern Thrace-Marmara Project, and Professor Faculty of Letters, department of archaeology and art history, University of Istanbul (Turkey)
• Rappuoli, Rino; head of research of IRIS, Chiron Research Institute, and vice president, vaccine research, Chiron Corp., Siena (Italy)
• Romo, Ranulfo; professor of neuroscience, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City (Mexico)
• Schellnhuber, Hans-Joachim; research director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (Germany)
• Shamir, Adi; Borman Professorial Chair of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, department of computer science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
• Tapponnier, Paul; professor of physics, Laboratoire de Tectonique Mechanique de la Lithosphere, Institut de Physique du Globe, Paris (France)
• Teitelboim, Claudio; director, Center for Scientific Studies, Valdivia (Chile)
• Toyoshima, Chikashi; professor of supramolecular structure, Center for Bioinformatics, and director, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, University of Tokyo (Japan)

[ Friday FYI index ]

Europe's Most Powerful Supercomputer Comes Online

Europe's most powerful supercomputer, known as MareNostrum, started for the first time at a research center in Barcelona on April 28. Built by IBM, the machine can perform 40 trillion calculations per second. The MareNostrum has the equivalent memory of 20,000 personal computers and its storage capacity of 233 terabytes is equal to over 4 years' worth of nonrepeating songs if on an iPod.

MareNostrum is owned by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, a consortium of the Spanish and Catalan governments and the Polytechnical University of Catalonia. It will be used for research in computer architecture, aerodynamics, biology, and genetics. Housed in a chapel on the university campus, the machine is currently ranked as the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world.

[ Friday FYI index ]

IBM to Axe 13,000 Jobs Worldwide

Computer giant IBM will cut 13,000 jobs worldwide, or about 4% of its total workforce, as part of a restructuring aimed at boosting profits.

Most of the job losses will be at IBM's European operations as the firm looks to focus on high-growth markets.

IBM, the world's biggest computer company, said the plans would cost between US$1.3bn and US$1.7bn.

The company employs 100,000 staff in Europe, with about 25,000 of those working in the United Kingdom.

IBM said that the redundancies would mean cost savings of between $300m and $500m in the second half of this year. That figure should triple in 2006, the company said.

IBM's chief financial officer Mark Loughridge said the west European market was performing poorly so jobs would be lost in the UK, Germany, France and Italy. He gave no figures on how many jobs would be lost in each country. Answering questions after a conference call with analysts, he said the job cuts were new, and not "bundled" together parts of an ongoing restructuring.

The news comes just weeks after IBM reported worse-than-expected earnings in the first quarter. The world's biggest computer maker surprised markets when it said net profit for the three months to March 31 were US$1.4bn (£745m) while sales were US$22.9bn, less than analyst forecasts of $23bn.

Most of the redundancies in Europe will be voluntary and talks have already begun with unions and worker councils over the timing of the job cuts in Europe, company spokesman John Bukovinsky said.

Analysts questioned whether the company would be able to trim its workforce without resorting to forced redundancies.

The company already has taken steps to streamline its operations and has sold its personal computer division to China's Lenovo for US$1.75bn.

IBM has been trying to find its correct staffing level for years, and its worker numbers have fluctuated since the late 1980s. Employee numbers peaked at 405,000 in 1985, before hitting a low of 219,000 in 1994. IBM had 329,000 staff worldwide as of December last year.

[ Friday FYI index ]

Microsoft Opens R&D to Small Companies and Entrepreneurs

At a gathering of venture capitalists Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. announced Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP) Ventures, a new program aimed at entrepreneurs and small businesses that will speed the movement of innovative technology into the global market. Microsoft IP Ventures opens up hundreds of internally developed technologies to entrepreneurs and new businesses by licensing and spinning out Microsoft's innovations to facilitate new product and business development.

Microsoft IP Ventures opens access to a broad range of technology areas. Currently, entrepreneurs can choose from 20 technologies developed by Microsoft researchers and developers. As the program expands, so will the number and variety of technologies available for license. A sampling of the technology areas now available is listed below. A full list can be found at http://www.microsoftipventures.com.

• Artificial intelligence. Face detection and tracking, natural language processing for educational courseware
• Usability. "LaunchTile"
• Graphics. Personalized facial sketch, cartoon generation
• Security. BioCert (digitally signed tamper-proof ID cards incorporating biometric information), counterfeit-resistant optical fiber technology
• Gaming. Xnav (gesture-based text input and device navigation)
• Multimedia. Audio correction algorithms for speakers, conference XP (distance conferencing, instruction and collaboration environment), horizontal overscan (broadcasting synchronized data in an analog television signal), "Microsoft Portrait" (mobile video communication), MobiPicture (intelligent mobile browsing of large image), "Wallop" (mixed media online collaborative environment)
• Databases. Data visualization tools

IP Ventures was developed in consultation with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Microsoft offers a licensing model that can include royalty payments and equity, and is flexible enough for entrepreneurs raising capital.

In April, Microsoft announced that Pacific Northwest-based technology company Inrix Inc. received an exclusive license for a predictive, real-time traffic technology from Microsoft Research that enables Inrix to provide relevant, up-to-the-minute traffic information. An early example of how this program and model will work, Inrix built its business around the technology to enable the delivery of the next generation of traffic information services. The company plans to distribute real-time predictive traffic information nationwide to a broad range of service providers, device manufacturers, Web sites and mobile solution providers.

[ Friday FYI index ]

Astronomers Confirm the First Image of a Planet Outside of Our Solar System

An international team of astronomers reported on April 29 the confirmation of the discovery of a giant planet, approximately five times the mass of Jupiter, that is gravitationally bound to a young brown dwarf. This discovery puts an end to a yearlong discussion on the nature of this object, which started with the detection of a red object close to the brown dwarf.

In February and March of this year, the astronomers took new images of the young brown dwarf and its giant planet companion with the state-of-the-science NACO instrument on the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope in northern Chile. The planet is near the southern constellation of Hydra and approximately 200 light years from Earth.

"Our new images show convincingly that this really is a planet, the first planet that has ever been imaged outside of our solar system," said Gael Chauvin, astronomer at the ESO and leader of the team of astronomers who conducted the study.

"The two objects – the giant planet and the young brown dwarf – are moving together; we have observed them for a year, and the new images essentially confirm our 2004 finding," said Benjamin Zuckerman, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, member of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, and a member of the team. "I'm more than 99 percent confident. This is also the first time that a planet outside of our solar system has been detected far from a star or brown dwarf – nearly twice as far as the distance between Neptune and the sun."

Anne-Marie Lagrange, another member of the team from the Grenoble Observatory in France, said, "Our discovery represents a first step towards one of the most important goals of modern astrophysics: to characterize the physical structure and chemical composition of giant and, eventually, terrestrial-like planets."

Last September, the same team of astronomers reported a faint reddish speck of light in the close vicinity of a young brown dwarf. The feeble object, now called 2M1207b, is more than 100 times fainter than the brown dwarf, 2M1207A. The spectrum of 2M1207b presents a strong signature of water molecules, thereby confirming that it must be cold. Based on the infrared colors and the spectral data, evolutionary model calculations led to the conclusion that 2M1207b is a five-Jupiter-mass planet. Its mass can be estimated also by use of a different method of analysis, which focuses on the strength of its gravitational field; this technique suggests that the mass might be even less than that of five Jupiters.

At the time of its discovery in April 2004, it was impossible to prove that the faint source is not a background object (such as an unusual galaxy or a peculiar cool star with abnormal infrared colors), even though this appeared very unlikely. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, obtained in August 2004, corroborated the VLT/NACO observations, but were taken too soon after the NACO ones to demonstrate conclusively that the faint source is a planet.

The new observations show with high confidence that the two objects are moving together and hence are gravitationally bound.

The paper describing this research has been accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, a premier journal in astronomy.

Brown dwarfs, the missing link between gas giant planets like Jupiter and small, low mass stars, are failed stars about the size of Jupiter, with a much larger mass – but not quite large enough to become stars. Like the sun and Jupiter, they are composed mainly of hydrogen gas, perhaps with swirling cloud belts. Unlike the sun, they cannot fuse protons to helium nuclei as their primary internal energy source, and they emit almost no visible light.

[ Friday FYI index ]

Long Thought Extinct, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Rediscovered

Long believed to be extinct, a magnificent bird -- the ivory-billed woodpecker -- has been rediscovered in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. More than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team today announced that at least one male ivory-bill still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest.

Published in the journal Science on its Science Express Web site (April 28, 2005), the findings include multiple sightings of the elusive woodpecker and frame-by-frame analyses of brief video footage. The evidence was gathered during an intensive year-long search in the Cache River and White River national wildlife refuges involving more than 50 experts and field biologists working together as part of the Big Woods Conservation Partnership, led by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy.

Joining the search team at a press conference in Washington DC, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced a Department of the Interior initiative to identify funds for recovery efforts. Through its cooperative conservation initiative, the Fish and Wildlife Service has a variety of grant and technical aid programs to support wildlife recovery.

The largest woodpecker in North America, the ivory-billed woodpecker is known through lore as a bird of beauty and indomitable spirit. The species vanished after extensive clearing destroyed millions of acres of virgin forest throughout the South between the 1880s and mid-1940s. Although the majestic bird has been sought for decades, until now there was no firm evidence that it still existed.

The rediscovery has galvanized efforts to save the Big Woods of Arkansas, 550,000 acres of bayous, bottomland forests and oxbow lakes. The Nature Conservancy has conserved 18,000 acres of critical habitat in the Big Woods, at the request of the partnership, since the search began.

During more than 7,000 hours of search time, experienced observers reported at least 15 sightings of the ivory-bill, seven of which were described in the Science article. Because only a single bird was observed at a time, researchers say they don't yet know whether more than one inhabits the area.

So far, the search team has focused its efforts in approximately 16 of the 850 square miles in the bottomland forests of Arkansas. Fitzpatrick of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said that the next step will be to broaden the search to assess whether breeding pairs exist and how many ivory-bills the region may support. To expand the area being monitored and minimize disturbance to the endangered woodpecker, the team will continue to use acoustic monitoring technologies as well as on-the-ground searching. Fitzpatrick said the team will also encourage others to search for the ivory-bill elsewhere in suitable habitats throughout the South.

Simon of The Nature Conservancy said that over the years, state and federal agencies, conservation organizations, hunters and landowners have aggressively worked to conserve and restore the bottomland hardwood and swamp ecosystem. "Now we know we must work even harder to conserve this critical habitat – not just for the ivory-billed woodpecker, but for the black bears, waterfowl and many other species of these unique woods," he added.

The partnership's 10-year goal is to restore 200,000 more acres of forest in the Big Woods. The effort will include conserving forest habitat, improving river water quality, and restoring the physical structure of the river channels, focusing in locations with maximum benefit in reconnecting forest patches and protecting river health.