UJ sets the pace in Geology Research

University sets the pace in geology research: Creamer Media's Mining Weekly, South Africa - 12 Jun 2008

Geology research in South Africa is growing significantly and the internationally competitive analytical infrastructure provided at the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ’s) analytical facility is engaged in more than a dozen collaborative research programmes, with close ties being forged with the mining and industrial sectors, reports UJ geology head of department (HOD) Professor Bruce Cairncross. “Geology at UJ has consistently had an excellent international profile, particularly since it took the leading role in the Agouron Geobiology research project during recent years,” mentions Cairncross....

The analytical infrastructure of the UJ’s Faculty of Science has a unique, centralised analytical facility, housing over R75-million worth of analytical apparatus, much of which is used by geologists and mining-exploration commercial enterprises. The UJ Geology Department’s palaeomagnetic laboratory, by way of the approved upgrade and the acquisition of an automated superconducting rock magneto- meter (ASRM) will create the only fully functional, properly magnetically shielded room in Africa. The ASRM will permit the UJ geology department to become part of a consortium of palaeomagnetic laboratories collaborating with similar facilities at Caltech, MIT, Yale, and the University of Texas, in Austin, Occidental College and the US Geological Survey.

Elsevier helps Researchers stay connected

In the latest Elsevier "Library Connect" Newsletter, vol.6, no.2, 2008 one of the articles focuses on TopCited and 2collab - the two new Elsevier tools to keep up with the latest technological developments.

* TopCited

TopCited (www.topcited.com), a new Scopus service, gives visitors an instant overview of the top 20 cited articles in 26 subject areas over the past 5 years of publications. Scopus TopCited also displays authors, their affiliations and cited-by counts and integrates this information into Google maps. If you do not have access to Scopus, view the results on the Scopus preview pages or sign up for a free 30 day trial. (P.S.: University of Johannesburg does not have a Scopus subscription, but you can still view the TOP 20 articles)

Google Map The Google map visualizes the publishers geographic location of the 20 most highly cited articles in Scopus per subject area available. The map visualizes the publishers geographic location of the 20 most highly cited articles in Scopus per subject area available in the drop down menu.

* 2Colab

2collab (www.2collab.com) is a new, free collaborative research tool enabling researchers to share bookmarks, references or any linked material with their peers and colleagues. Currently efforts are underway to integrate further 2collab into ScienceDirect, which will allow ScienceDirect users to see which articles have been bookmarked in 2collab, the tags used in association with articles and which 2collab public groups include specific articles in their discussions. This information will help researchers more quickly to gain a broader understanding of the impact of a specific article while they’re accessing it.

Elsevier Library Connect Newsletter: Vol. 6, no. 2, 2008

This issue explores how libraries and publishers are seeking to understand and serve upcoming generations — in particular Millennials, the generation born from about 1979 to 1994. This generation includes Net natives — people who’ve always known the digital world and embrace its latest offerings.(also useful to those who teaches the undergraduates and need to addapt to their changing needs)

Features

- Commons, chat and collaboration: How we’re connecting with Millennials at Murdoch University Library

- The future of the undergraduate library:Asking questions with too many answers and too many opportunities

- Millennial disconnects with publishers and libraries

- Undergrads’ research habits, motivators and attitudes:What studies tell us:

The 2006 study revealed key findings:
1: Today’s undergrads are achievement-oriented

- Of students interviewed, only 40% proactively conducted course-related research, but 100% engaged in online study daily or a few times per week.

- “The mean frequency was 4 or 5 times per week and the mean duration was 1.5 hours per search session, implying about 6.7 hours per week spent searching [for course-related information].”

2: Today’s undergrads are selective and like to control their time

- 100% of students interviewed in 2006 used Google and listed it in their top three starting points. Recent research (CIBER, 2008) commissioned by the British Library and JISC states that search engines have become the primary brand Millennials associate with the Internet and are ubiquitously used by this generation.

- But all students interviewed by Elsevier also used their university library websites or catalogs, and they didn’t feel overly positive towards Google.

3: Today’s undergrads are practical

When asked what constitutes a good source of information, students interviewed in 2006 gave the following answers, listed by popularity:

> Recommended by friends

> Its reputation

> Prior personal experience

> Ease of use

> Provides links to other reliable sources

4: Today’s undergrads spend time in libraries

- Regarding their use of the university library, 100% of 2006 interviewees reported visiting the library and 80% reported doing so more than once a week. The majority reported consulting librarians but “only to retrieve books or for inter library loans” and did not consider them a source of recommendations for information sources

5: Today's undergrads are social but prefer to do research at home

Of students interviewed in 2006, 60% preferred to do research from home. When asked to rank their reasons for being on campus, after “to attend a seminar or lecture and studying for exams,” the second and third most popular reasons given were socializing with friends and playing sports.

In conclusion, the research illustrated that today’s undergrads may exhibit a different persona than preceding generations, yet are displaying rather traditional information-seeking behavior. Just as social applications like Facebook don’t make people genuinely more social, the availability of tools such as Google doesn't make today’s undergrads more adept researchers or equip them to skip the very real and challenging work required to earn a degree.

More interesting articles:

* How we're moving to a primarily digital library

* How we’re redesigning academic libraries to keep them as the center of campus

* How we're transforming our library spaces and mindset

* Librarians Speak Up:How is your library innovating to support Millennials?

* Looking to help researchers stay connected? Try TopCited (www.topcited.com) and 2collab (www.2collab.com)

* Q: Why does Elsevier request transfer of copyright?

If you have missed Elsevier "Library Connect" previous issues got to:

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/librariansinfo.librarians/lc_home

The Latest from Science Online Magazine

13 June 2008, Vol 320, Issue 5882, Pages 1392-1524: Special Issue: Forests in Flux

* News

- A Second Chance for Rainforest Biodiversity

- Critical Time for African Rainforests: As threats to the Congo Basin's vast forests grow, scientists race to sharpen assessments and stem destruction.

- Letting 1000 Forests Bloom: China's biodiversity to recover from decades of clear-cutting, but threats still loom

* Perspectives

- Forests of the Past: A Window to Future Changes

- Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation: Global Land-Use Implications

- Managing Forests for Climate Change Mitigation

- Beyond Deforestation: Restoring Forests and Ecosystem Services on Degraded Lands

* Review

- Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests

* Special Feature:

- SCIENCE CAREERS: Sustaining Forests in a Changing World

- SCIENCE CAREERS: Measuring the Impact of Invasive Plants

- SCIENCE CAREERS: An Adventurous Physicist

* News of the Week

- FUSION RESEARCH: Design Changes Will Increase ITER Reactor's Cost

- GEOLOGY: Two Years On, a Mud Volcano Still Rages--and Bewilders

- GEOLOGY: Unstoppable

- WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE: Scientists Race Against the Clock to Gauge Landslide Risk

- ECOSYSTEMS: Have Desert Researchers Discovered a Hidden Loop in the Carbon Cycle?

- ENVIRONMENT: U.S. Climate Change Bill Dies, But the Energy Remains

* Letters

- Biofuels: Waste Not Want Not

- Biofuels: Too Soon to Give Up

- Biofuels: Think Outside the Cornfield

- Biofuels: Putting Current Practices in Perspective

* Books et al.

- REGULATORY POLICY: Reforming Cost-Benefit Calculations

- A listing of books received at Science during the week ended June 6, 2008.

* Perspectives

- BIOCHEMISTRY: How Enzymes Work

- BIOCHEMISTRY: How Do Proteins Interact?

- DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY: Sex and Poison in the Dark: A protein complex moves in and out of the nucleus in response to light, associating with proteins that control fungal development and metabolism.

* Reports

- Regulation of Hepatic Lipogenesis by the Transcription Factor XBP1

- Animal Versus Wind Dispersal and the Robustness of Tree Species to Deforestation

6 June 2008, Vol 320, Issue 5881, Pages 1257-1366

* Editorial

- Broadband Internet for Africa

* News of the Week

- UNIVERSITIES: Breaking With Tradition, France Picks Future Elite Schools

- ECOLOGY: Seaweed Invader Elicits Angst in India

- GENOMICS: Read All About It--The First Female Genome! Or Is It?

- GEOCHEMISTRY: The Andes Popped Up by Losing Their Deep-Seated Rocky Load

* News Focus

- UNMASKING THE INDUS

* Letters

- The Emerging World of Wikis

- Science 2.0: Not So New? will address questions of human interaction that "cannot be studied adequately in laboratory conditions," because "the interaction among variables undermines the validity of reductionist methods." Instead, data for analysis must be "collected in real settings."

* Books et al.

- A listing of books received at Science during the week ended May 30, 2008.

* Policy Forum

- OCEAN SCIENCE: Under-Resourced, Under Threat: A coherent global vision is needed to better determine the impacts of climate change on marine systems.

* Perspectives

- ECOLOGY: Putting the Heat on Tropical Animals: Tropical animals may be particularly vulnerable to climate warming.

- SYSTEMS BIOLOGY: The Scale of Prediction: A predictive model for a biological system requires capturing the network of environmental factors that affect system responses.

- PHYSICS: Improving Correlations Despite Particle Loss

- MOLECULAR BIOLOGY: Refined View of the Ends

- APPLIED PHYSICS: Going with (or Against) the Flow

* Reports

- The Aftershock Signature of Supershear Earthquakes

- The Transcriptional Landscape of the Yeast Genome Defined by RNA Sequencing

30 May 2008,Vol 320, Issue 5880, Pages 1117-1244

* News Focus

- ANTARCTICA: Freeze-Dried Findings Support a Tale of Two Ancient Climates

- MEDICINE: Nothing Rotten About Hydrogen Sulfide's Medical Promise

* Books et al.

- A listing of books received at Science during the week ended May 23, 2008.

* Education Forum

- DIVERSITY: Culture, Gender, and Math

* Perspectives

- ASTRONOMY: A Blast from the Past

- IMMUNOLOGY: Immunity Benefits from a Little Suppression

* Review

- How We See Ourselves and How We See Others: Have you ever attended a long and technical lecture and seen yourself as easily distracted while thinking that everyone else seemed thoroughly engaged?

* Brevia

- Ecosystem Feedbacks and Nitrogen Fixation in Boreal Forests

* Research Articles

- Widespread Translational Inhibition by Plant miRNAs and siRNAs

- Coordination of Early Protective Immunity to Viral Infection by Regulatory T Cells

Whats New @ JSTOR

The latest (4th June, 2008) from JSTOR Publishers:

* The first journal to be released on the new JSTOR platform is available now, The Willson Bulletin, Life Sciences Collection; Release content: Vol.1-116, 1889-2004 (full-text through the UJ Databases)

* Platform updates during the week of 9th June:

- The "Page of First Match" will be restored. Selecting this option will once again take users to the first page upon which a search term appears, rather than the first page of the article.

- The ability to jump to search term locations by page will be restored. Users will see the "Your search term occurs on ..." indicator at the top of each article page.

- Tumbnail images on the "Images in JSTOR" tab will be restored.

- An error that caused dificulties with the Adobe Reader Find and Search functionality in downloaded PDFs will be corrected.

- Several bugs with searching Author names, Phrase searching, Wildcard searching, and Fuzzy searching will be corrected.

* Future updates:

- PDFs with OCR errors: Approximately 5-10% of PDF versions of articles in the JSTOR archives are currently missing supporting OCR coordinates and await reprocessing on the new platform.

- Terms & Conditions pop-up boxes

- EZPoxy Reminder

Institute of Physics: New Open Access Journal

The latest "Librarian Insider" Newsletter, June 2008 (Read June's issue now for the latest news and developments ) will give you information on the latest news & developments from IOP. One of them is the launch of new Open Access journal.

The Institute of Physics (IoP) launched the "IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (EES)" , a new open access proceedings service based on their hugely successful open access proceedings in physics. EES is the latest addition to their portfolio of environmental publications and services: the community web site environmentalresearchweb.org and the open access journal Environmental Research Letters. Backed by a highly experienced conference publishing team, EES provides conference organizers with a fast, flexible and cost-effective proceedings service. By choosing EES organizers can create a comprehensive record of their event and make a valuable contribution to the open access literature that will be of long-lasting benefit to their communities. You can find out more by reading the page for conference organizers and downloading the EES information brochure (PDF).

Vol. 1, 2008, 14TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF BOUNDARY LAYER REMOTE SENSING23–25 June 2008, Risø National Laboratory, DTU, Denmark is now available on: http://www.iop.org/ej/journal/ees. (Click on the Vol.1 to view the issue)

Forthcoming conferences: An advance list of conferences that have been accepted for publication.

P.S. The library subscribes to the IoP journals full-text. Go to the Library webpage: http://www.uj.ac.za/library, Click on Databases, select Institute of Physics and login.

Information Resources: Options and Opportunities for end-user

Bianca Saporiti, Ovid's Regional Sales Manager was invited to the UJ Library (6th June 2008) to present a talk on "Information Resources: Options and Opportunities Available for the End-user Today". A number of librarians and lecturers attended this presentation.

What a better way to start if not to look back at where the Universities has started:

* Kant, the German 18th century philosopher who established the tradition of critical analysis, influenced thought so extensively that he is regarded as the founder of the University of Reason. Critical thought - consists of mental processes of discernment, analysis and evaluation

* Humboldt and the German Idealists gave us the modern university, replacing the University of Reason with the University of Culture – an institution whose purpose was jointly teaching and intense research. Culture meaning the patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. The purpose of the University of Culture was to form ‘citizens’, provide them with national self-knowledge, i.e. national culture.

* Internationally the University of Culture has given way to the University of Excellence – with each of its various parts functioning excellently and all divisions of the university being asked to demonstrate their excellence. Excellence is demonstrated by ratings or rankings which are overseen by university management. The University of Excellence is connected with professionalisation –the professional is judged by his/her peers. The purpose of the University of Excellence is to provide ‘cultural literacy’, common information to its students.

Over the past two decades global culture and society has moved from the Gutenberg galaxy – read print - into the world of cyberspace. Academia is now caught up in the fast-changing and dynamic world where e-information and e-learning is altering and evolving not only the role of the university, but its professionals/professors and how they impart knowledge to the students. Most university students, aka the users - don’t care where their information comes from as long as it is useful and easy to get to. The appeal of the open web is its simple, integrated ‘one search’ solution. Users have increasingly become ‘googlized’ in their pursuit of easy and ‘good enough’ information rather than searching out traditional and authoritative references as suggested and/or recommended by instructors/professors.
The primary mission of an academic library is the provision of content for research and teaching. Academic libraries make resource decisions with an eye to optimizing access to content that is relevant to the curricula of their particular institutions thus, aiding and abetting the core efforts of the faculty to educate. The introduction of e-resources in the mainstream of the learning culture in universities has exposed end-users to more sources of information than ever before.

The information resources and tools the Academic Libraries provide to their users are :

- Library catalogue, OPAC

- Print books and e-books

- Print journals and e-journals

- Abstract & Index Databases, e-only access

- Full text Databases – e-only

- Open Access full text – both e-books and e-journals

- Course reserve packs

- Federated search engines for single access point to all e-information

Some points of discussion were:

* Researchers have developed an intense demand for published information.

* There is too much information for faculty and researchers to chose from.

* Demand for information has become more urgent – younger generation of researchers reared and nurtured by the Internet.

* The scale of international, multidisciplinary research dictates greater cooperation amongst researchers, the result of which is a greater exchange of ideas, and published papers.

* Fragmentation in disciplines has resulted in an increase of interest in specialised sub-discipline monograms.
What we had to say? From the discussion it came out that:

- Students need to be trained on the importance of the library and the sources of information which are made available to them;

- The Library need to adapt and change to the needs of its users;

- The Library need to teach students how to evaluate information from the Internet and how to find through the Library peer-review sources.

- The Faculties needs to be introduced to the latest developments in the library and its resources.

- Collaboration between Faculty and Library should be a common practice.

Institutional Repositories: The way forward for research?

At the recent SAOUG Conference (3-5 June 2008) a number of presenters talked about the Open Source Institutional Repositories. World-wide the paradigm is to make research collections available online and to improve the access to information, which is of great value for research. Since the facilitation of access to information is a primary function of academic or research libraries, they can take the initiative to implement a digital research repository in order to manage, organise, preserve, distribute and offer access to research conducted by the members of the institution.

If an institution supports open access, wants to increase the usage and visibility of research conducted at that institution and want to preserve all research output digitally, an institutional repository (IR) is the answer.
In SA there are currently 12 repositories (see below). How to get started with creating IR?
- Analise the need of your organization (survey-questionnaire; presentations to researchers)
- Compile a plan & proposal
- Evaluate various IR software (DSpace, etc.)
- Develop, Design & Install your repository (management approval)
- Test your repository
- Market and promote your repository
- Develop policies and procedures (preservation, copyright, etc.)
- Sell the idea to the academics ( demonstrations; how easy is to submit material to repository)
- Provide training
- Register your repository
- Communicate, collaborate & share with others; start populating; make it more visible.
Have a look at the UJ Librarians News blog for more on the SAOUG:

http://ujlibrariansnews.blogspot.com/

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES

Institutional Repository Workshop - University of Pretoria, 1 - 3 October 2008, University of Pretoria

Main Articles: 'South African Repositories: Bridging Knowledge ...

Main Articles: 'Targeting Academic Research with Southampton's ...

Institutional Repositories: Partnering with Faculty to Enhance ...

Institutional Repositories Hidden Treasures

Institutional Repositories « spineless?

USEFUL LINKS TO INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES @:

* University of Johannesburg

- UJ Electronic Thesis and Dissertations Database: http://etd.rau.ac.za/

- UJ Institutional Repositories: http://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za/

* South Africa
African Higher Education Research Online
CSIR Research Space
DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
Durban University of Technology Institutional Repository
Rhodes eResearch Repository
Stellenbosch University Electronic Theses & Dissertations
University of Cape Town Computer Science Research Document Archive
University of Cape Town Lawspace
University of Johannesburg Electronic Theses & Dissertations
University of Pretoria Electronic Theses & Dissertations
University of Pretoria Institutional Repository (UPSpace)
University of the Western Cape Electronic Theses & Dissertations
* Africa

http://www.opendoar.org/countrylist.php

* Worldwide

ResearchNow

SAOUG: Meet some of the vendors

Meet some of the vendors at the SAOUG Conference

Above: The ladies from Red Pepper Books

Below:Colleen Mills from Ebsco Publishing

Below: Yann from Institute of Physics

Michelle from NISC

Below: Bianca from OVID Publishers

SAOUG Conference, 3-5 June 2008, CSIR, Pretoria

Pavlinka Kovatcheva, UJ - responsible for this blog & Dr. Glenda Myers, WITS Health Library presenting the Evidence-based workshop

Welcome to the Ninth Southern African Online User Group Conference,

3-5 June 2008, CSIR, Pretoria.
Today, 3rd of June is the Pre-Conference day.

Workshop A: Evidence-based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP). Dr. Glenda Myers, from WITS Health Sciences Library presented a very interesting and interactive session on: EBLIP - "What, Why, How, Who & Where".
What is the Evidence-Based Librarianship? The A. Booth definition was accepted as the one that represent the best emphasis on users: 'Evidence-based information practice is an approach that promotes the collection, interpretation and integration of valid, important and applicable user-reported, librarian observed, and research-derived evidence. The best available evidence, moderated by user needs and preferences, is applied to improve the quality of professional judgements". The focus is on the USER. We should remember that the same evidence can be used differently depending on circumstances and the user population.
Why should librarians care about the Evidence-Based Practice? We care, because how do we know that we are right?
Are the librarians still relevant to the Google generation? The librarians need to adapt and learn new skills: Leadership competencies, Technological competencies, Managerial Competencies and Research competencies; to have knowledge of Information resources and Information access.
The Evidence-Based Practice process involve: define problem (formulate question), find evidence, appraise evidence, apply results of appraisal, evaluate change and redefine problem. We completed the workshop with reading two different research articles and evaluating them.
To follow the progress of the Conference go to SAOUG blog: http://saougnews.blogspot.com/

Nature Geoscience Magazine: New @ UJ in 2008

The UJ Library subscribes from 2008 for "Nature Geoscience" magazine. The access is through the Library webpage: http://www.uj.ac.za/library >Database> A-to-Z list> type the title
If you haven't look at the journal yet, these are the highlights of this years January-May issues:
* In May 2008, Volume 1 No 5 pp281-338 you will find some interesting articles on:
- The drive for fuel - p281
- Thirst for energy - pp283 - 286
- Carbon cycle: Checking the thermostat - pp289 - 290
- Geochemistry: Leftovers from core formation - pp290 - 291
- Planetary science: Saturn's southern eye - p291
- Atmospheric chemistry: Pollution meets sea salt - pp292 - 293
- Structural geology: Stressed rocks - p293
- Palaeoclimatology: A tale of two climates - pp294 - 295
- Seismology: Do faults shimmy before they shake? - pp295 - 296
- Stepwise transition from the Eocene greenhouse to the Oligocene icehouse - pp329 - 334
* In April 2008, Volume 1 No 4 pp205-280 some of the highlights are:
- Climate predictions and observations - p206
- To blog or not to blog? - p208
- Earthquakes: Tsunamigenic Middle Earth - pp211 - 212
- Soil science: Scavenging for scrap metal - pp213 - 214
- Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon - pp221 - 227
* In March 2008, Volume 1 No 3 pp141-204 some of the highlights are:
- Science, geopolitics and the governance of Antarctica - pp143 - 145
- Gender imbalance in US geoscience academia - p148
- Climate science: Predicting dry lands - p153
- Planetary science: Message from Mercury - p155
- Geomorphology: Survive or subside? - pp156 - 157
- Columbia River flood basalts from a centralized crustal magmatic system - pp177 - 180
* In February 2008, Volume 1 No 2 pp77-140 some of the highlights are:
- Climate change: Cool ozone - pp85 - 86
- Palaeoclimate: The riddle of the clays - pp86 - 88
- Volcano seismology: Forecast from noise - pp89 - 90
- Biophysical controls on organic carbon fluxes in fluvial networks - pp95 - 100
- Towards forecasting volcanic eruptions using seismic noise - pp126 - 130
* In January 2008, Volume 1 No 1 pp1-76 some of the highlights are:
- Palaeoceanography: The briny deep - pp9 - 10
- Atmospheric science: Raising the roof - pp12 - 13
- Environmental biology: Trees of extremes - p13
- Geodynamics: The ups and downs of sediments - pp17 - 18
- Widening of the tropical belt in a changing climate - pp21 - 24
- Atmospheric carbon dioxide linked with Mesozoic and early Cenozoic climate change - pp43 - 48

Science Daily & World Science News

For all scientists/researchers/academics, who want to keep up with the latest in their field, these two website can be very useful:

* World Science: http://www.world-science.net/

Red Spot—the Third Gen­er­a­tion Ju­pi­ter's red spots now seem to have a ba­by—again. The famed and cen­tur­ies-old "Great Red Spot" at right, ac­tu­al­ly a gi­ant storm, was joined about three years ago by a sec­ond, "Red Spot Jr," the mid­dle red spot in size in this pho­to. Now, as­tro­no­mers have no­ticed yet a third red spot, the even ti­ni­er one at left in this Hub­ble Space Te­le­s­cope image. Small though it may seem, it is 3,000 miles (4,800 km) wide. Sci­en­tists be­lieve it may merge with the Great Red Spot in Au­gust. .....

* Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Find the latest/archive research highlights on specific subject area. RSS feeds can give you daily information on latest research. Very useful if you don't want to miss what are researchers around the world doing. Visit my del.icio.us/sciencelibrarian web page to view what articles I have saved lately from ScienceDaily and other webpages: http://del.icio.us/sciencelibrarian

- What Is The Value Of Biodiversity To Our Collective Future?

- Big Earthquakes Spark Jolts Worldwide

- Climate Change Does Double-whammy To Animals In Seasonal Environments

- Sub-Saharan Africa: The Population Emergency

- New Cheaper Method For Mapping Disease Genes

- Lifestyle Evolution Of Wild Marine Bacteria: Free-floating Cells Share With Attached Relatives

and more. All articles "TAGS" have been group per subject for easy access.

U.S. Climate Change Report released: 27 May 2008

ScienceDaily (May 28, 2008) — The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) has released "Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 (SAP 4.3): The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States." The CCSP integrates the federal research efforts of 13 agencies on climate and global change. This report is one of the most extensive examinations of climate impacts on U.S. ecosystems.The report finds that climate change is already affecting U.S. water resources, agriculture, land resources, and biodiversity, and will continue to do so.

The report was written by 38 authors from the universities, national laboratories, non-governmental organizations, and federal service. The report underwent expert peer review by 14 scientists through a Federal Advisory Committee formed by the USDA. The National Center for Atmospheric Research also coordinated in the production of the report.

Click on the links to the report and the press release: 27 May 2008. Final Report is posted. See also press release (27 May 2008) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Science in Africa: Africa's First On-line Science Magazine

Science in Africa On-line magazine has been available since 2001. Have a look at the latest issue and explore the available links from this web page.

* No. 64, May 2008 issue you can read about:

- Research identifies best drug combination for patients starting HIV therapy for the first time

- Preparing SA's farmers with a range of options to help them prepare for a water-scarce future

- With the food crunch Kenya launches massive programme to aid small scale farmers

- Undergraduate students develop 'dirt-powered' microbial fuel cells to light Africa

* This Month's (May) features are:

- An evolutionary spin on invasions

- Climate change witness

- Arctic climate change evidence

- Google climate change

* For more on Indaba Biotech go to: http://www.inqababiotec.co.za/new/

* Science Books on Africa & South Africa on: http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/books/books.htm

* Events: To view upcoming science events go to: http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/events.htm

- Essential Astronomy Workshop: 19-20 June in Cape Town; 26-27 June in Johannesburg

- GLOBE Student Learning Expedition and 12th Annual Conference, 22-28 June in Cape Town

- Extremophiles 2008, 7-11 September 2008 (Extremophiles, organisms thriving in extreme environments, offer a challenge to understanding the fundamentals of molecular and cellular function, and opportunities for sustainable exploitation)

- Bio2Biz and INSITE, 15-17 September 2008. It aims to expose business and industry to international biotechnology trends and developments, while ensuring the country is in line with the international world in terms of the developments in biotechnology.

* Jobs: Looking for a science post, go to: http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/Jobs/jobs.htm

* Under Funding you will find information on: http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/Funding.htm

- Call for research proposals

- Grants

- Postgraduate Bursaries

- Research Funding Organisations

- Funding News

* Under Organisations you will find 'Who's who' of Science Organisations and Institutes in Africa: http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/Organisations.htm

* You have an option to Register to keep up with the latest information from this web page. http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/registerSIA.htm

Nature Magazine: 29 May 2008

Have a look at selected topics from Nature Magazine: 29 May 2008,Vol. 453, Number 7195, p563-696

* Editorial

- Linking up development p564
An initiative to link scientists in the poorest nations with colleagues around the world deserves support. PDF (87K)

* Research Highlights

- Zoology: Pretty good p566

- Cell biology: Bean counting p566

- Theoretical physics: Better out than in p566

- Nanotechnology: Nanozapped p566

- Physical chemistry: Growing up bigger p567

- Microbiology: Inner lives p567

* News

- Climate anomaly is an artefact p569
Glitch in the twentieth-century climate record is explained. Full Text PDF (396K)

- France's research agency splits up p573
CNRS is being carved up into separate institutes. Full Text PDF (124K)

-Sidelines p575
Scribbles on the margins of science.

- Funding boost for B-cell-based HIV vaccine research p577

* News Features

- Microbiology: The inside story p578
The human body teems with microbes. Asher Mullard looks at the global efforts to catalogue this vast 'microbiome'.

- Origins of Death p583
Programmed cell death is usually seen as the unique prerogative of plants and animals. So how is it that photosynthetic plankton have been killing themselves by uncannily similar methods for billions of years? Nick Lane investigates.

* Correspondence

- A prime problem that even quantum computing can't solve p586

- Analyses support theory of stochastic regulation of fisheries p586

* Books

- Moralist, meet scientist p593
Nick Bostrom reviews "Experiments in Ethics" by Kwame Anthony Appiah Full Text PDF (264K)

- Music grown from garden weeds p594
Colin Martin reviews "Umbel Ballits: Dylan Martorell" Full Text PDF (198K)

- Seeing the smaller picture p596
Advances in imaging techniques are transforming microbiology into a science that is rich in visual imagery, harking back to biology's pre-darwinian origins. Full Text PDF (305K)

* News and Views

- Climate change: Hot questions of temperature bias p601
An unseen measurement bias has been identified in global records of sea surface temperature. The discrepancy will need correction, but will not affect conclusions about an overall warming trend.

- Immunology: Soothing intestinal sugars p602
The gut is a new frontier in microbiology, offering many opportunities for innovative investigation. The finding of one such study is that intestinal inflammation in mice can be tamed by bacterial sugars.

- Cancer: Whispering sweet somethings p604
That genetic mutations contribute to cancer is undisputed. What now emerges is that a cancer cell's microenvironment has a much stronger hand in the course a cancer takes than previously thought.

- Mathematical physics: Packings close and loose p606
What determines how grains such as sand pack together to fill a space? A thoroughgoing investigation of how geometry and friction interact in such systems is a step towards a more general understanding.

* Articles

- The genomic and epidemiological dynamics of human influenza A virus p615

- A microbial symbiosis factor prevents intestinal inflammatory disease p620

* Career View

- The softer side of science p694
Success in science is about more than mastering lab techniques. It also depends on 'soft' skills such as motivation, personality, research strategy and communication. Mastering soft skills helps master one's career. Full Text PDF (81K)