Measurements of shoreline change between 1962 and 1987 were used to construct a sediment budget and to derive net longshore sediment transport rates for the Romanian Danube delta coast. The resulting pattern was in good agreement with the potential longshore transport pattern predicted by the wave energy flux based on wave measurements between 1972 and 1981. Due to the general coast orientation, the longshore sand transport is almost unidirectional

Visual-domain diffuse reflectance data collected aboard the JOIDES Resolution with the Minolta spectrometer CM-2002 during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 172 have been used to estimate successfully the carbonate content of sediments. Calibration equations were developed for each site and for each lithostratigraphic unit (or subunit at Site 1063) using multiple linear regression on raw as well as pretreated reflectance spectra (i.e., first-order derivation

The Archimedes Prize is the European Commission's top prize for undergraduate students. Each year several scientific themes or challenges are set for the prize. For this call there are six specific themes: Structure and function in macromolecules Energy devices Water resources modelling and management Societal and economic implications of demographic change in the EU Acquaculture Implications of tourism on natural and human ecosystems As well as

SciDev.Net was recently launched as an independent web site dedicated to the promotion of science and technology in the developing world. The site will attempt to alleviate the exclusion of large parts of the world's population from many of the benefits of science and technology by providing a forum for authoritative news, information and comment about how science and technology can help meet the needs of developing nations. The journals Nature and

In the first 2002 issue of Nature, Paul Smaglik, Naturejobs editor, forecasts that employment trends in 2001 will continue in the new year. These include: multidisciplinary approaches, multi-site projects, and biochemistry. He foresees good chances for mathematicians and computer scientists as many sciences increasingly use their skills as computer modelers. Europe will apparently need to import scientists to replace ageing academics.

Second International Conference on the Oceanography of the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea: Similarities and Differences of Two Interconnected Basins. More at http://www.ims.metu.edu.tr/2002_Ankara_Conference/.

The MARGINS Program seeks to understand the complex interplay of processes that govern continental margin evolution. The National Science Foundation (NSF) aims to ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science, mathematics, and engineering and to reinforce its diversity by dedicating funds to postdoctoral training. A postdoctoral appointment is a unique opportunity for a first-rate early-career scientist to solidify research skills, build

Color variations were interpreted in paleoceanographic terms for the late Pliocene-Pleistocene sediments recovered by ODP Leg 172 on deep-sea drifts at Blake-Bahama Outer Ridge and northeastern Bermuda Rise. The color-derived parameters used in interpretation included predicted carbonate content, terrigenous fluxes, and hematite content. Abundance of Upper Carboniferous spores indicates that the hematite is probably derived from the Permo-Carboniferous

Most of the coast of the Danube delta is severely eroding, although the northernmost distributary (the Chilia) which collects most of the water and sediment discharged by Danube can sustain a continuous progradation of its lobe. Longshore sediment drift patterns for the Romanian deltaic coast, based on a sand budget and predicted potential net sediment transport, indicate that shoreline behavior is mainly prescribed by energetic waves with an acute

Reflectance spectra collected during ODP Leg 172 were used in concert with solid phase iron chemistry, carbonate content, and organic carbon content measurements to evaluate the agents responsible for setting the color in sediments. Factor analysis has proved a valuable and rapid technique to detect the local and regional primary factors that influence sediment color. On the western North Atlantic drifts, sediment color is the result of primary mineralogy