Visions

S&T student Amanda Koenig is working on a summer research project at Saint Louis University. Fortunately, she is getting an opportunity to spend some time outside the biochemistry lab. Here is the second of Amanda's summer reports.

After two weeks of safety training and extensive planning on paper, I am getting ready to set up the first of my reactions this week. Almost everything that we are working on in the lab has not been done before, so I am going to test each reaction on a small scale first to determine ideal conditions before moving on to the preparative scale.  

This past weekend, I got a chance to visit several historic sites in St. Louis. On Friday, I went to the Casa Loma Ballroom in the Cherokee-Lemp district with the Missouri S&T Aerial Swing Dance Club.

The Casa Loma was built in 1927 as part of an entertainment center containing a bowling alley, shops, and the ballroom itself. Once one of eight grand ballrooms in St. Louis, the Casa Loma is the only one that has survived the Depression, a changing culture and a massive fire that completely destroyed the original building. Even though big band swing music is not as popular as it once was, the Casa Loma still holds swing nights every Friday with a live band.

I took advantage of the beautiful weather on Saturday to explore the rest of the Cherokee-Lemp area. I walked down Cherokee Antique Row, which holds the most antique and vintage shops in St. Louis. Signs along the street tell visitors about the rich history of the neighborhood.  

To top off my tour, I paid a visit to the Lemp Brewery and the Lemp Mansion. Adam Lemp was the first brewer to take advantage of the natural cave systems under St. Louis for storing and ageing beer. The Lemps built their home about a block away from the Brewery and used the natural tunnels in the caves to walk to work. At one point, they even put a pool and a vaudeville stage in the caves for their personal entertainment.

Unfortunately, a good portion of the caves was destroyed when highway 55 was built. The Lemp Mansion still stands and has been converted into a restaurant. It is rumored to be haunted, since several members of the Lemp family committed suicide in the house. I didn't see any ghosts on my trip, but I wouldn't want to go back at night!

Over the past five years, an array of 400 seismometers has been slowly moving across the United States, from west to east. The stations are in place for two years, then moved eastward. Now, Missouri S&T researcher Stephen Gao and some students are getting in on the action as the instruments continue their eastward migration.

Gao, a seismologist in Missouri S&T's geology and geophysics program, is working with four students from Missouri universities to conduct field surveys and identify locations for the stations. The effort is part of a National Science Foundation initiative called EarthScope. In 2010-2011, 43 earthquake recording stations will be placed in Missouri and southern Iowa as part of the program.

In addition to recording data on earthquakes, scientists can gather important information about the Earth's inner structure through this program, Gao explains. Seconds after a significant earthquake, geophysicists around the world can access the information recorded by each of the stations to learn more about that part of the Earth.

You can track the current status of the EarthScope seismonomers using this interactive map of the EarthScope website. You'll see that the west is covered with the instruments up until about midway through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Update: the interview with John McManus is now available in its entirety online.

We just got word that our resident World War II expert, John C. McManus, will be talking about D-Day Saturday morning on the C-SPAN program Washington Journal. Saturday marks the 65th anniversary of the Allied Forces' invasion of Normandy.

Mcmanus is scheduled to be interviewed on the program from 7:10-8:05 a.m. CDT on Saturday. Check your local listings to find C-SPAN on your local cable or satellite system.

McManus is a military historian and an associate professor of history at Missouri S&T. He is the author of several books about the United States' involvement in the European Theater of World War II, including a two-volume series on the American role in the Battle of Normandy. The first book, The Americans at D-Day: The American Experience at the Normandy Invasion, was released in June 2004, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of D-Day. The second book, The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944, the American War from the Beaches to Falaise, was published in November 2004.

We'll try to post video of McManus' interview on this blog, once we find that C-SPAN provides it online. 

We have a new guest blogger, Amanda Koenig, who works part-time with us as a student writer during the school year. Amanda is a senior in chemistry at Missouri S&T. This summer, she is working in a laboratory at Saint Louis University.

AMANDA:

I hope the summer is going good! My summer has been pretty busy already. I ended up going swing dancing a week after I started at SLU and got elbowed in the face. I showed up for the lab safety training with a black eye, which was a little embarassing.
 
Anyway, I figured the first blog entry should give some background about the project that I'm working on. I tried not to make it too technical or dry. I'll probably send in updates fairly often, so long as I have something to write about.
 
Would it be okay to send pictures sometimes too?

VISIONS: Yes, photos are great!
 
AMANDA:

This summer, I am taking on a research project with Dr. Dana Baum in the biochemistry department at St. Louis University. Dr. Baum's lab deals with nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, but not in the typical sense.
 
Nucleic acids, DNA in particular, are generally viewed solely as the carrier of our genetic code. In the 1980s, it was shown that RNA is used within cells as a necessary catalyst for a range of important biological reactions. Prior to this discovery, it was assumed that nucleic acids had no catalytic activity, and that protein-based enzymes or metals were the components driving these reactions.
 
DNA also shows select catalytic activity in laboratory tests, but the double helix form of the molecule is so stable that it does not catalyze reactions within our cells. This is important because we do not want the carrier of our genetic code to be tampered with!
 
My project this summer is to attempt to test a variety of DNA molecules for use in bio-fuel cells. Bio-fuel cells are driven by reduction-oxidation reactions. RNA molecules have been shown to catalyze these kinds of reaction in cells, but DNA was chosen for this project because it is a much more stable molecule.
 
I have been observing in the lab for just over a week now, and I've become familiar with most of the techniques involved in setting up these experiments. Part of the process is to radio-label the DNA sequences with phosphorus-35. It's a bit intimidating to work with radioactivity, but I'm becoming used to the clicking of the Geiger counter.
 
Tomorrow I am going to meet with Dr. Baum about setting up reactions for my portion of the project. If all goes well, hopefully I will start running reactions next week!

A Missouri S&T grad recently discovered a giant tropical snake that would have made an anaconda look like an earthworm.

Carlos Jaramillo, a staff scientist/ paleontologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, found the fossilized remains of a super-sized snake skeleton while on an excavation in Colombia.

Jaramillo and colleagues reported their findings in the February 2009 issue of the journal Nature. The researchers named the gigantic snake Titanboa, which was probably the largest snake to ever slither the earth.

Dr. Jaramillo earned a master's degree in geology from S&T in 1995.

P.S. This isn't directly related, but does anyone remember that time when Jim wrestled the anaconda on Wild Kingdom?

P.P.S. We tried to find a photo of Jim wrestling the anaconda or of King Kong wrestling that giant fake snake in the original movie, but we didn't have any luck.

For all you math fans out there: today you have reason to celebrate, because today (May 7, 2009, or 5/7/9) is Odd Day. According to the official Odd Day website:

Three consecutive odd numbers make up the date only six times in a century. This day marks the half-way point in this parade of Odd Days which began with 1/3/5. The previous stretch of six dates like this started with 1/3/1905---13 months after the Wright Brothers' flight.

We are awed by this phenomenon. We would be even more awed if some of our clever S&T students, alumni or faculty came up with an especially zealous, and odd, way to commemorate this occasion. The Odd Day website folks will give away $579 to be distributed to winning entries. There's even a Facebook event for this day.

So, what are you waiting for? July 9, 2011? Get your odd on today.

 

Dr. Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe recently took two undergrads to Egypt, where they went fossil hunting near the pyramids. They were looking for evidence that this part of the desert was once under water, among other things. And, after spending some time in the field, they shared their findings with Egyptian scientists. Pictured from left to right are: Cassandra Browne, Kristen Arneson and Oboh-Ikuenobe.

Actually, it does. But the alcohol in question is ethanol, and the issue is: Will ethanol production result in less water to drink?

That's the question posed by S&T environmental engineering professor Joel Burken with colleagues from Rice University and Clarkson University. The researchers write in the May 1 issue of Environmental Science & Technology that the "water footprint" of biofuel production in the Midwest could cost 50 gallons of water per mile driven.

The article -- titled The Water Footprint of Biofuels: A Drink or Drive Issue? -- is Environmental Science & Technology's May Day cover story. In it, Burken and his co-authors depart from previous studies, which have examined biofuel production's impact on air quality, land use and net energy value, to take a look at how it might affect water resources. "The overall water footprint associated with biofuels must recognize the impact of increased agricultural activity on water quality as well as water consumption," they write.

In their article, the researchers also suggest that federal regulators take a closer look at how a push for bioenergy will affect water resources. More details in this news release.

We're working the Missouri S&T booth right now as the Missouri Energy Summit continues into the late morning and early afternoon. So that means we're missing out on some good research sessions and panel discussions featuring several Missouri S&T researchers. Nevertheless, we're having a good time visiting with folks who are stopping by the booth.

The summit sessions are broken into four tracks: power generation, transportation and biofuels, energy infrastructure, and materials for energy applications. Check those links for abstracts and papers of the stuff we're missing right now.

Mark Templeton, the new director of Missouri's Department of Natural Resources, presented a sort of "state of the state" address this morning, in which he cited some good news and bad news about Missouri's progress in energy conservation, security and use of alternatives.

First, the good news:

• Missouri is home to the Ford Escape Hybrid, which is manufactured in Ford's ClayCoMo plant in the Kansas City area. That plant rolled out its 100,000th Escape Hybrid just last month.
• A UK company, Smith Electric Vehicles, recently announced it would build a new plant in Kansas City at the old TWA hangers. Smith has enjoyed success in England manufacturing plug-in electric fleet vehicles, and plans to do the same with the Kansas City plant.
• Missouri is home to many great engineering firms and called these companies "a tremendous talent ... to take some of these great (energy) ideas and make them practical."
• Rockport, Mo., population 1,300, is the first community in the state to be completely powered by wind.
• Recently, 140 businesses in Springfield have signed a sustainability pledge. It's a positive signal that "Business leaders right here in Missouri realize it's time to engage on these issues," Templeton said.

Now for the bad news (or as Templeton described it, the "opportunities and challenges" facing Missouri):

• In terms of energy efficiency, Missouri ranks a dismal 45th in the nation. But Templeton is ready to make lemonade from this lemon. "To me, it shows we just have a tremendous opportunity to do more with energy efficiency," he said. "There are many things we can do in this state, even with the low energy costs we have now, that could have immediate payback."
• An even worse ranking: Missouri holds the penultimate spot -- 49th in the nation -- in terms of the use of renewable energy. Here, too, Templeton sees some bright spots. Missouri is 18th or 19th "in terms of wind potential." As for solar energy: "On summer days we actually get as much solar radiation as Florida does." Templeton also sees potential for biofuels.