Special Reports
Arecibo Observatory: Media Resources
Completed in 1963 and stewarded by U.S. National Science Foundation since the 1970s, Arecibo Observatory has contributed to many important scientific discoveries, including the demonstration of gravitational waves from a binary pulsar, the first discovery of an extrasolar planet, composition of the ionosphere, and the characterization of the properties and orbits of a number of potentially hazardous asteroids.
Date Updated: September 25, 2023
NSF encourages you to take extra precautions to protect yourselves and your families against COVID-19.
Date Updated: March 24, 2023
Nobel Prizes--The NSF Connection
When a scientist who has received federal funding is awarded the Nobel prize, the public can share both the pride and the research benefits. More than 200 laureates have been supported by the public through NSF.
Date Updated: October 12, 2022
Black holes are extremely dense pockets of matter, objects of such incredible mass and miniscule volume that they drastically warp the fabric of space-time.
Date Updated: May 12, 2022
The National Science Foundation 2022-2026 Strategic Plan describes NSF's mission, vision, core values, goals, and strategic objectives for the next five years. The NSF 2022-2026 Strategic Plan builds on 70 years of NSF driving critical research across all fields of S&E and lays out our vision for the future of discovery and innovation. Read on to learn more about NSF's mission, vision, core values, and our goals and objectives.
Date Updated: March 28, 2022
JASON Report on Facilities Cybersecurity
The National Science Foundation (NSF) operates 18 major research facilities for the benefit of the scientific research community. Typically, these are one-of-a-kind facilities ranging from telescopes and gravitational wave detectors to oceangoing research vessels and networks of distributed sensors.
Date Updated: December 13, 2021Jason Report on the Impacts of Large Satellite Constellations
The U.S. National Science Foundation commissioned a study by the independent science advisory group JASON to assess the impact of current and planned large satellite constellations on astronomical observations in 2020.
Date Updated: July 9, 2021
NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps)
I-Corps offers researchers unique opportunities to learn how to turn discoveries into new technologies and to participate in the national innovation ecosystem.
Date Updated: November 2, 2020
Solar Science: Exploring the power of our closest star
NSF has been supporting solar astronomy and heliophysics since the 1950's, with its newest flagship observatory finishing construction in 2020, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.
Date Updated: January 29, 2020
Whether you're a teacher, student, or just fascinated by science, the NSF Science Zone app will ignite your imagination. Featuring hundreds of exciting videos and high-resolution photos from a dozen areas of science, you can spend hours absorbed in discoveries that take you from the depths of space, to the wonders of the unimaginably small, to the far corners of our own planet.
Date Updated: December 23, 2019Protecting Research and Facilitating Collaboration
NSF is committed to safeguarding the integrity and security of science while also keeping fundamental research open and collaborative
Date Updated: December 11, 2019
The NSF Speakers Bureau is a volunteer group of scientists, engineers and other professionals who represent the agency and are passionate about sharing information on NSF's mission, programs and the exciting breakthroughs that have come from NSF-funded research.
Date Updated: November 7, 2019
Every day you encounter something made possible by the National Science Foundation.
Date Updated: November 4, 2019
This Special Report has been archived and the entire series can now be found in the Multimedia Gallery.
An online magazine examining the breakthroughs and the possibilities for new discoveries about our planet, our universe and ourselves. Each week, Science Nation takes a dynamic, entertaining look at the research--and the researchers--that will change our lives.
Since 2017, NSF has been building a foundation for the Big Ideas through pioneering research and pilot activities. In 2019, NSF will invest $30 million in each Big Idea and continue to identify and support emerging opportunities for U.S. leadership in Big Ideas that serve the Nation's future.
Date Updated: October 19, 2019
The National Science Foundation manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, which coordinates all U.S. scientific research (including penguin research!) on the southernmost continent and in the Southern Ocean.
Date Updated: June 1, 2019
NSF welcomes members of the public to help solve science, technology, engineering and math challenges by submitting ideas and solutions for a chance to win prizes.
Date Updated: May 30, 2019
Large-scale weather patterns play a large role in controlling seasonal weather. Knowing the conditions of these atmospheric oscillations in advance would greatly improve long-range weather predictions.
Date Updated: October 18, 2018
Catch a Wave! The Science of Summer
Meet sharks and alligators up close, listen to the eerie sounds of the West’s rock arches, explore a lost continent. Catch a wave! Explore the science of summer with the National Science Foundation.
Date Updated: June 4, 2018
Futures of the Scientific Imagination
Fantastical thinking, grounded in real, NSF-funded science and engineering research, helps shape tomorrow's technologies. Imagination, science and technology together will inevitably change our lives.
Date Updated: November 21, 2017
A century ago, Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves -- ripples in the fabric of space-time that result from the universe's most violent phenomena. A hundred years later, NSF-funded researchers using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) have detected gravitational waves.
Date Updated: October 16, 2017
April Showers Bring... The Science of Spring
From flowers’ microscopic cells to thunderstorms called supercells, researchers funded by NSF are studying the science of spring. NSF peers into what makes spring such a vibrant--and sometimes dangerous--season.
Date Updated: April 18, 2017
Cleaner water, cleaner future: Engineering new water tech
Engineering researchers are creating new ways to handle drought, chemical spills and water purification. Imagine a clean water future.
Date Updated: February 13, 2017
This Special Report has been archived and the entire series can now be found in the Multimedia Gallery.
NSF and NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, release an original video series exploring the connection between water, food and energy.
Let It Snow! The Science of Winter
Snow--that icon of winter--blankets the land with a beautiful silence. We all depend on snow. Our year-round water supply largely comes from snowmelt, and many spring flowers need the nutrients in snow to bloom. Species as small as fungi and as large as moose require snow.
Date Updated: January 13, 2017
NSF INCLUDES is a multi-year initiative designed to help develop collaborative alliances and partnerships in order to create pathways for more people to become scientists and engineers.
Date Updated: December 13, 2016
Public Access to Results of NSF-funded Research
The National Science Foundation has developed a plan outlining a framework for activities to increase public access to scientific publications and digital scientific data resulting from research the foundation funds.
Date Updated: December 2, 2016
A Foundation for Robotics: Designing cooperative, intelligent systems of the future
Long-term federal investments in fundamental science and engineering research has led to novel machines that safely partner with people in nearly every environment.
Date Updated: June 6, 2016
The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is an NSF-funded large facility project. NEON is a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change and invasive species on ecology. Learn about NEON and NEON-related research.
Date Updated: March 23, 2016