 NOAA's
Susan Solomon Minds the Air Up There
Before global
warming was a frequent feature in newspapers around the
world, there was ozone depletion and the Antarctic ozone
hole. It was first reported by British scientists in
1985, and the depletion grew so quickly that the
researchers who recorded the data assumed at first that
their equipment had malfunctioned. The ozone hole was
the first great demonstration of humanity's ability to
affect our environment on a global scale. But the
scientific community responded to the challenge. By
1987, the chemical culprits had been identified—chlorine-containing
compounds known as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs—and
world leaders had already mobilized and signed the
Montreal Protocol, restricting production and use of
CFCs and allowing the process of atmospheric repair to
begin.
The
discovery of ozone depletion and the response of the
scientific community constitutes nothing less than a
"scientific success story," in the words of
Susan Solomon, a senior scientist at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric... |
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Harvard
Rides High in Latest "Top Ten" Research
Roundup
 n
two previous occasions—1994 and 1998—this
publication has presented "Top Ten"
rankings of the top 100 federally funded U.S.
universities, based on the citation impact of
their published research in major fields of
science and the social sciences. Science Watch
now offers the latest two-part collection of
rankings, showing the universities whose research
papers attracted citations at a rate notably above
the world average in each field over the last five
years. In all, 21 fields are represented... |
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