Biofuel created from algae occasionally makes the news, but how does the idea really work?
A new National Science Foundation presentation shows you just how. It’s part of a cool new online multimedia collection of work the agency has just posted up on its web site.
Calling the collection “Engineers Of The New Millennium,” the series of narrated slide shows and accompanying videos highlight several big picture projects that the NSF is funding.
The pond scum-to-biofuel story is just one out of several that highlight NSF’s funding of projects that alternatively sound like something out of a Hollywood movie to more obvious efforts to address critical problems facing our society.
In “Robot, Build Thyself,” NSF and the journalists from the professional engineering association IEEE tell the story of MIT’s self-configuring robots, and how they might be used in the future.
In “The Global Water Challenge,” the NSF shows us how one project attempts to cut down on the massive water usage of semiconductor plants by developing a sensor that tells manufacturers when a chip is clean.
Meanwhile, in “Memory Machine,” the reporters tell the story of how researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon are developing a system to help people suffering from Alzheimers. Using recorders, cameras, software and tablet computers, the system aims to help people suffering from the disease to better hold onto their short-term memories.
The NSF’s online storytelling project doesn’t come a moment too soon. The agency came under fire recently from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK,) who released a 72-page report accusing the NSF of wasting and mismanaging $3 billion of taxpayers’ money.
The report notes that the NSF has an annual budget of $6.9 billion, and criticizes President Obama’s call for an extra billion dollars in funding for 2012. It also criticizes 2010 re-authorization legislation that doubled funding for the NSF over seven years.
Coburn acknowledged in the report that the NSF has contributed significantly to scientific progress, but he noted that the agency at the same time has mismanaged its funds, and runs duplicative programs.
Among the projects that Coburn found especially dubious: a study conducted at Southern Methodist University in Texas costing $90,000 to research the relationship between real people and their online selves in the form of avatars; a $315,000 study suggesting that playing FarmVille on Facebook helps adults develop and maintain
relationships; a $50,000 grant to produce online YouTube music videos about science including a rap tune called “Money 4 Drugz” and “Biogas is a Gas, Gas, Gas;” a study on why the same teams always seem to dominate March Madness; and a study on whether online dating site users are racist in their dating habits.
The NSF responded at the time with a statement saying:
“While no agency is without flaws, NSF has been diligent about addressing concerns from members of Congress about workforce and grant management issues, and NSF’s excellent record of tracking down waste and prosecuting wrongdoing is apparent from Sen. Coburn’s report. We believe that no other funding agency in the world comes close to NSF for giving taxpayers the best return on their investment.”
