October 2006 Archives

Tonight the streets will be crawling with ghosts and goblins, witches and monsters. I'll be curled up with a good scary book, or maybe I'll watch a horror film, hiding my eyes behind a pillow during the scary parts.

As long as I'm safely ensconsed on the couch, I love to be scared. I can feel my pulse quicken as the soon-to-be victim opens the door to investigate the strange noises coming from the back yard -- when everybody knows you shouldn't go look.

UMR English instructor Jack Morgan knows all about horror stories. In fact, he's an expert on the subject. In his book "The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film," Morgan says there is more to the element of horror in books and movies that the gross-out type found in films like Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street. It's the deeper, underlying rhythms of dread and anxiety that make us love to be scared. A perfect example is the original 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. There is no blood or guts, just people being slowly taken over. "It's the sense of disestablishment of order that gets to you," Morgan says.

BOO!

Among the things I learned at the National Association of Science Writers conference in Baltimore last weekend: Some wasps hate cockroaches and like to lay eggs inside of their zombie bodies, some Republicans pretty much hate science (it was a blue state conference), you can make unlimited free phone calls on your computer and there's a cool place to listen to quirky 60-second science podcasts.

The author of the book on politics and science is writing a new book about hurricanes. The zombie cockroach guy says he's writing a new book about e Coli. I think that one will be fascinating. Really. Maybe it will be like Mark Kurlansky's book Cod or like his other book Salt. Incidentally, I'm thinking about writing a book or probably just an article about Pine Tar.

Speaking of pine tar and e Coli, St. Louis just beat the crap out of Detroit again. Turns out St. Louis is the No. 1 city in America for crime as well as baseball. Detroit, of course, is only the second most violent city in the nation.

Jay Switzer is the star of this month's edition of TechnoFiles, as he talks about his efforts to help officials in Washington, D.C., understand why high levels of lead were found in the city's water.

In 2004, Switzer began a project to determine if a chemical used by water districts to disinfect the water supply (monochloramine) actually raised lead levels in the water -- it does.

Grab the mp3 here. Like what you hear? Go ahead and subscribe directly to TechnoFiles in iTunes, Yahoo or supply the following URL to your podcast receiver: www.mst.edu/podcast/sample.rss. Or browse the episode archive and listen online at Yahoo.

Pokémon fans know that Pikachus are usually found in forests, plains, and occasionally near electrical sources (such as power plants). What those fans might not realize is why Pikachus stay far, far away from UMR's Experimental Mine.

The moral of the video? Don't dress up as Pikachu -- or any other Pokémon character -- when you to go UMR's Haunted Mine.

** No animals were harmed during the making of this video. However, a stick of dynamite did demolish a plush Pikachu toy.

I finally got to go to the City Museum in St. Louis this past weekend and it's only the Best Place Ever. (I bet Detroit doesn't have a place that cool.) The museum is half junk art, half playground, half aquarium, half engineering laboratory (I'm using Yogi Berra fractions here). And the best part is that it's fully interactive. Take the kids! For those of you who are no longer kids in the traditional sense, be prepared to suffer back pains and knee injuries. But it's still worth it, unless you're claustrophobic or afraid of heights.

While we're on the subject of cool things to do, Rolla has it's own unique attraction this time of year. This one's not recommended for those who are afraid of dark, underground places or have a history of heart problems. I'm speaking, of course, of UMR's famous Haunted Mine.

The Formula SAE team may get credit for building the fastest car on campus, but they're not the only mechanics or videographers at UMR.

Stem cell research is a hot topic in Missouri this fall, as voters prepare to consider a constitutional initiative that would allow researchers in the Show-Me State to conduct any stem cell research that is permitted under federal law. Proponents of the Amendment 2 initiative are breaking spending records in a media blitz as the Nov. 7 election nears, and as is typical with most controversial political campaigns, voters are swarmed by information from both sides.

An upcoming forum at UMR on the science, ethics and spiritual issues surrounding stem cell research might help voters to become better informed of the issues. While the forum, to be held on Oct. 24, won't directly address the Amendment 2 ballot issue, it promises to be an informative session about the science, ethics and faith-based issues surrounding stem cell research.

The panel will feature two UMR researchers, who will discuss the science behind embryonic and adult stem cell research. Dr. Katie Shannon, assistant professor of biological sciences, will discuss embryonic stem cell research, and Dr. Klaus Woelk, associate professor of chemistry, will discuss adult stem cell research. They'll be joined by a bioethicist and two clergy, who will discuss the ethical and faith-based issues surrounding stem cell research.

No, he's not driving slow in a driveway. But he is still an excellent driver.

Look familiar? It's UMR's 1998 Formula SAE car, complete with new giant test wings for low speed aero (still needs some fine tuning to keep the air attached to the underside at low speeds).

Imagine living in a liquid with the same pH as ammonia that is 10 times saltier than seawater. Sounds like the setting for a science fiction novel, but it's not. The super salty and slowly vanishing Soap Lake in Washington state is populated with some newly discovered bacteria, which, according to a UMR researcher, may be able to clean up some of humanity's pollution.

UMR environmental microbiologist Melanie Mormile is working with Montana State University chemical engineer and Central Washington University microbiologist Holly Pinkart to identify bacteria in the lake and its surrounding salt flats. Their work led the National Science Foundation to classify the lake as a "microbial observatory."

The trio recently discovered the bacterium Halomonas campisalis devours nitrates for nourishment, making it perfect for treating nitrate-bearing wastewater as well as water left over inthe production of explosives and fertilizers.

Normally, temperature changes in lake water cause them to turn over twice a year, allowing material like dead algae with all their nutrients to accumulate at the bottom of the lake. Soap Lake's shape and high bottom salt content prevent it from turning over, trapping those nutrients. The bottom section of the lake contains so much salt it's like syrup.

Some people may think that politicians are more accustomed to shoveling loads of manure than talking about them.

But at yesterday's renewable energy conference in St. Louis, President Bush told the clean-energy crowd his vision of the future included ethanol.

I like the idea of promoting a fuel that relies upon our farmers ... But I also know it makes sense to have our farmers growing the feedstock for new energy. The way I like to tell our citizens is Johanns is going to come in someday and say, "Mr. President, corn is up, which means we're less dependent on oil." And that's good news for the country and good news for our economy.

What, you ask, does ethanol have to do with manure or for that matter, UMR research?

Large groups of people don't necessarily behave like flocks of seagulls or schools of fish. But it is possible to describe the behavior patterns of large crowds using mathematical models. Earlier this year, Lori Voss used advanced mathematics and computers in an attempt to explain and predict drinking behaviors on college campuses. Working with other undergraduates at a summer institute in Pomona, Calif., Voss assigned fictional students to four subgroups: abstainers, social drinkers, binge drinkers and problem drinkers. These subgroups were then put through a series of random interactions.

Voss and the other student researchers wanted to see if students in the subgroups would change their affiliations after interacting. "If you randomly mix people from one group with people from another group, their behaviors may change," says Voss, a senior in math at UMR.

(Editor's note: They should try this with Raiders and Chiefs fans.)

During the random interactions, the group at large is always changing but always trying to gravitate toward mathematical stability, according to Voss. "The models show that it's almost impossible for one group to completely dominate a community," she says. "Eventually, in our study, the computer gives us a fairly stable environment consisting of two or three subgroups of drinkers."

When the computer finishes running the interactions, two of the drinking subgroups on a stable campus end up having the most members: Social drinkers and abstainers.

(Editor's note II: Most Raiders fans and Chiefs fans could probably be described as problem drinkers. But, while Chiefs fans are typically capable of holding respectable jobs, it would be hard to imagine any group of Raiders fans in a stable environment.)

Voss will lead her group when it presents the research during the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science Oct. 26-29 in Tampa, Fla.

That's what Buck O'Neil said. See. And there has been a run on red dresses this week in Kansas City. Women all over town are planning to wear them this weekend to honor the memory of Buck. Flags will also be flying half-staff this weekend at UMR and all over the state of Missouri to honor O'Neil, who passed away last week. Of course, this doesn't have anything to do with UMR directly, but I couldn't let it pass without a post. You can read Joe Posnanski's wonderful obitituary here. A full tribute is located here. You can find out why Buck called Satchel Paige "Nancy" by reading the famous interview with Ken Burns here. Additional information about Kansas City's Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is here.

UMR civil engineering students really know how to mix it up. Concrete, that is.

Five UMR teams recently swept the regional American Concrete Institute’s concrete cylinder design contest, placing first, second, third, fourth and fifth overall. The contest challenges students to design a cheap and lightweight concrete cylinder that has a predetermined target strength, density and bonding efficiency.

The students will travel to Denver next month to compete in three of ACI’s national design contests: the concrete cylinder, aesthetic cylinder and concrete bowling ball competition.

Missouri Tech? University of Missouri Institute of Technology? The MIT of the Midwest?

One of these names could be in UMR's future. Chancellor John F. Carney III has asked the campus community to enter into a discussion about changing the name of the University of Missouri-Rolla.

In his State of the University Address today, Chancellor John F. Carney III suggested that UMR's name doesn't reflect the university's mission. He then asked the campus community to "start a conversation" about changing the institution's name.

“The University of Missouri-Rolla is unique among the four University of Missouri campuses because of our focus as a technological research university,” Carney says. “We believe a more distinctive name would afford UMR several advantages in recruiting students on a national level.”

Noting that his vision is to make UMR one of the nation's top five technological research universities by 2010, Carney displayed a list of other similar universities and noted that many of the schools include terms such as "technology," "technological" and "polytechnic" in their names.

Carney plans to gather input about the possible name change from the campus over the coming weeks. He plans to send a survey to alumni later this month and also survey students, faculty and staff. Any name change would require approval from the University of Missouri Board of Curators.

What do you think? Should UMR change its name to something that better reflects its role as "Missouri's Premier Technological Research University"? Maybe a more descriptive name would mean a shorter tagline in our future.

We just got some images from the mine rescue event held recently at UMR's Experimental Mine. UMR students competed in an underground simulation against professional rescuers from the mining industry. And UMR did extremely well!

This is old news to some of you, but it's still pretty neat: UMR is the only university in the nation with a mine rescue team.

Five years ago, UMR became the first in Missouri to offer a bachelor of science degree program in architectural engineering.

Now the program -- still the only one in state -- has been accredited by ABET Inc. (formerly known as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). Only a handful of architectural engineering programs in the United States are accredited. The ABET panel that evaluated UMR’s program was particularly impressed by the fact that all the programs in the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department require students to complete a senior capstone project and work with students from different engineering disciplines.

Later this fall, another ABET panel will review the department’s undergraduate environmental engineering program, which became the state’s first when it was established in 2002. It’s one of the few available in the Midwest and had its first graduates in 2005.

UMR's love for green extends past St. Pat's.

Students from UMR, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Washington University and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville will be on campus Oct. 6-7 to share their research at the 12th annual Mid-America Environmental Engineering Conference.

“The aim of the conference is to build relationships between the environmental engineering programs at the schools and to all our students -- mostly graduate -- to present their work in a relaxed but professional setting,” says Dr. Mark Fitch, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at UMR.

Read more here.