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(12/02/08 4:00pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Wishing only to fulfill graduation requirements, history or political science majors might begrudgingly take an introductory-level physics course. As they sit in lecture in Swain Hall West, coloring in the “o’s” of words such as “torque” and “force” on notebook paper, they might prefer to learn about something they believe to be more pertinent to society and people. The Cold War, maybe. Or the Manhattan Project.What these doodling non-majors don’t know is that they sit on the crater of a war machine. In the belly of Swain Hall West once sat a cyclotron, an instrument that collected data to build Little Boy and Fat Man, atom bombs that the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Inside the cyclotron, sub-atomic particles whirled around in a spiral path, propelled by great magnets to a cataclysmic end.Any world-history class can teach the results of cyclotron research: the loss of 200,000 Japanese lives and the end of the war.The historic destruction of Hiroshima is separated from IU by thousands of miles and more than 60 years, but time and distance won’t break the connection. Instead of leaving the machine to rust in infamy, the cyclotron was transformed from battle machine to a precision cancer81 treatment. Cutting-edge cancer treatment is presumed to have a home only in places such as the Mayo Clinic, Harvard, and Stanford, but one machine has forever carved Bloomington’s name in the annals of both war and medical history, as the legacy of the cyclotron is rewritten.*****It’s mid-October in Bloomington, and the IU Department of Physics has scheduled its open house weekend around one of the cyclotron’s quarterly maintenance shutdowns. Although there are many safety measures already in place, public viewing of the facility is limited to these shutdown periods to reduce radiation exposure. Driving down Milo B. Sampson Lane, the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute is nestled just past the IU Cyclotron Facility facade. The lobby is warm and welcoming, with overstuffed chairs, children’s toys, and a fish aquarium. To the right is a set of double doors, through which all patients pass before receiving treatment.The doors give way to a brightly lit hallway with rooms lining its sides. This is the patient’s first real encounter with the facility. There are five exam rooms, four for adults and the other for children. The pediatric room’s walls are covered entirely by a mural depicting a greenscape of flowers and birds; at the head of the exam table is a painted teddy bear in a doctor’s uniform.A local film crew has come this morning to interview Allan Thornton, MPRI’s medical director since 2002 and a well-respected figure in radiation oncology. The crew questions him about the significance of proton therapy for Monroe County, and to catch a glimpse of the cyclotron during its shutdown period. Thornton walks in wearing a pressed pinstripe suit, just late enough to arouse a flurry of concern.Once the interview begins, it is clear he is accustomed to speaking about his work. Proton therapy for cancer treatment is no less powerful than conventional X-ray therapy, he says. It’s simply more precise. It allows a group of specialists to target a tumor within 1 millimeter. X-rays, by contrast, have a much looser target, which can affect the surrounding, healthy tissue. Proton beams wield such control because of something called the Bragg peak, a sharp stopping point of the proton beam. Proton therapy offers a kind of accuracy that makes it an ideal form of cancer treatment for children, whose tumors are imbedded in growing tissue, and for patients with tumors in the head or around critical organs.Many patients may be implanted with tiny BB-like balls around the treatment area, markers to position the patient. They remain in the body even after the proton therapy is completed. Phil Thompson, an early patient of MPRI, was implanted with solid gold BBs in his prostate. As he was undergoing treatment, his friends drafted and notarized a document saying if, for whatever reason, Thompson’s wife were to outlive him, she would have an autopsy performed on him to obtain the gold BBs and have them fashioned into a necklace and earrings.Thompson is closer to the machine than most. He worked for years as a technician on the same cyclotron that extended his life.Thompson’s upbeat attitude and sense of humor are infectious, and he’s putting it to good use. After his own recovery, he had a strong impulse to help those going through the same rough patch of road. Feeling blessed to have his family and friends at his side during the treatment, he was compelled to give that same support to patients who are far from loved ones. After seeing some of his fellow patients suffer from loneliness, he was inspired to start Hoosiers Care, a non-proselytizing organization fueled to make patients feel more comfortable during their stay in Bloomington. People have donated money, time, and even condos to the project.****The walls of Thompson’s office are plastered with photographs of former patients with whom he developed relationships. He has a dozen stories for each face, and each of those faces has gazed with dismay into the nozzle of the proton beam. The machine has spurred both fear and healing. The patients treated at MPRI have been healed by hydrogen ions launched by IU’s original cyclotron.In 1938, shortly after becoming the president of IU, Herman B Wells agreed to fund the construction of the University’s first cyclotron. Wells wanted the physics department to surge ahead as a frontrunner of scientific research. The department’s work eventually assisted the Manhattan Project’s drive toward building the ultimate weapon.With the intention of molding the physics program into a world-class academic arena, Wells hired Milo Sampson, Daniel Miller, and Lawrence Langer, all of whom were prominent physicists at the time. It’s Langer, though, who was the most intriguing figure of the group. Having been named the physics department chair, he was also working for the Manhattan Project. Legend has it84 that the night before deployment in 1945, Langer slept on one of the bombs destined for Japan to prevent tampering.Work on the cyclotron continued for decades, until researchers set their sights on the implementation of another powerful tool. The National Science Foundation granted funding, and in 1968, the old cyclotron was decommissioned to make way for the new, more powerful 200 mega-electron-volt cyclotron. That same year, Phil Thompson joined the staff as a cyclotron technician, though he had no experience in physics.“At that time, I was a generalist,” he says. “I was a jack of all trades and master of none. I could do ... you name it. They were looking for someone who had a myriad of skills to be a technician. Not even knowing what a cyclotron was, I was hired.”Thompson eventually became assistant to the director of the facility, and worked on the machine through its transitions. The small cyclotron was moved from Swain Hall West to the IUCF’s current home north of Memorial Stadium, and refurbished to serve as an injector cyclotron for a larger, more modern partner. Together, the two accelerators85 sent particles shooting at nearly the speed of light.Building the new facility was a dangerous job. Managing such heavy objects and high voltages was careful, tiring work. One man, Thompson says, was severely injured after taking a nasty fall into the main stage cavity of the concrete floor. By fall 1975, the construction ended, and the cyclotron siblings were set to operate. For 25 years, the center functioned as a highly esteemed medium-energy nuclear physics laboratory.****Technology86 is cannibalistic by nature: The new consumes the old. The IU Cyclotron Facility was eclipsed by more sophisticated machines, such as the Tevatron at Fermilab, near Chicago. And, since the IU cyclotron clocked in at the relatively low energy of 208 MeV, it could no longer compete in nuclear-physics research.In 1987, John Cameron was appointed the director of IUCF. He was a motivating force in ushering the facility toward its new role, aware of its looming obsolescence. He had learned about proton therapy at the University of Alberta. In Canada, proton therapy became increasingly commonplace as a method of cancer treatment. The IUCF was a good candidate for proton therapy due to the cyclotron’s lower-energy beam, which was just strong enough to penetrate halfway through the average human body.“This is perfect for humans. You only need to penetrate halfway through because you can just turn the patient around to get the other side,” Susan Klein says, cutting right past physics jargon. Klein has been a medical physicist at IUCF for more than 15 years, and has witnessed many of the hurdles it has faced during her tenure.When Klein joined the staff, Cameron was garnering enough support and funding to develop IUCF’s role as an institution devoted to medical innovation. In 1993, a young man suffering from an aggressive, inoperable brain tumor became the facility’s first patient to receive the proton therapy. Klein says that at the time, “everything was very rudimentary.”The progress could not have come at a better time. By 1998, the funding from the National Science Foundation for the had cyclotron ran out, and IUCF needed to change gears or close its doors. In response to the dilemma was the construction of the MPRI , now one of only five such clinics in the nation.Though it saved the cyclotron’s operation, the shift was not without its opponents. Many doctors and administrators were adamantly opposed to proton therapy. Those against it indicated that its effectiveness had yet to be officially proven because it never underwent a double-blind study. Klein says such a study would not be useful because the technology is constantly changing. “It’s a moving target,” she says.Despite doubts of the proton therapy’s supposed benefits, there were two men who showed tremendous faith in the technology. One was Thompson, the other, Cameron. But when both developed prostate cancer in 2004, and they each chose proton therapy as their preferred method of treatment. The timing of their treatments overlapped, and the two men shared in the experience of moving from behind the scenes of the cyclotron to the target of the beam. There are photos of the pair dancing together in the foyer of MPRI, dressed only in hospital gowns, Cameron says.In both cases, the cancer was sent into remission and has not returned, thanks to the protons whirling around inside the cyclotron, hurled by magnets guiding them to their proper place.“It’s been a journey,” Thompson says, reflecting on the way events in his life have unfolded. “It’s been very interesting--it’s not over yet, either.”
(10/14/08 3:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” the main character walks down a long corridor as personalized advertisements chase after him along the walls.A video billboard shouts to Tom Cruise’s character in the film: “John Anderton, you could use a Guinness right about now!”Current advances being made in computer science indicate that real-time advertising, specifically tailored to individuals, will soon exist outside of science-fiction movies.Thomas Huang, professor of image formation and processing at the University of Illinois’ Beckman Institute, is developing a new software program that will allow computers to recognize a person’s age, gender, ethnicity and even emotional state.The principal aim of such a program is to create more sophisticated methods of advertising.As a person stands in front of a camera, the program will be able to decide what commercials are appropriate to display according to his or her demographic, Huang said.“What this does is tailor messages in real time,” said Raymond Burke, a professor of marketing at IU’s Kelley School of Business.A large part of developing the software includes training its algorithm. It is routinely presented with images of faces whose ages are known, and it extracts information about the faces’ feature points and textures.“It’s a holistic approach,” he said. “It takes the whole face into account.”Using a database of 1,600 faces to train its algorithm, the program is able to estimate the age of anyone between one and 93 years of age. The program is 50 percent accurate in gauging a person’s age within five years, but the accuracy jumps to 80 percent when the age bracket is expanded to a ten-year margin, he said.Although the program will not be precise enough to use at clubs to prevent minors from entering, or in cigarette vending machines to enforce age limits, the rough estimation of a shopper’s age could be used for advertising and marketing research applications.Burke said the estimation software will allow retailers to track the demographic profile of their customers and tailor digital messages to shoppers’ interests.That will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of advertising communication, he said.“People are more likely to pay attention and respond to those messages,” Burke said.But the new technology could create some sticky ethical issues.Shoppers might become concerned that the technology invades their privacy, Burke said. Or problems might arise when promotional offers are extended to some people and not others, he said.“If people feel like they are losing control over their personal information, then there could be a consumer backlash,” he said.Huang said the program is not a threat to privacy because it cannot determine an individual’s identity.Despite the allure of new technology, not everyone is comfortable with the idea of having advertising tailored to their demographic.Michele Boulais, a freshman political science major, said she is not particularly comfortable with the idea.“It’s not Big Brother necessarily — that would be an overreaction,” she said. “But I would like to not be a part of a market research study.”Boulais said she still thinks the idea is interesting, but that advertising is already pervasive enough.
(09/30/08 2:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If you’re headed for Antarctica, Mom says to wear a hat. But if you’re taking your laptop, you’d better call in the experts.A team from IU’s Pervasive Technology Labs and University Information Technology Services bundled up powerful computing equipment and sent it off to Antarctica on Friday.The equipment is specially designed for the Polar Grid Project, an organization formed to provide better information about Earth’s shrinking ice caps.The Polar Grid Project, which is funded by a $1.96 million grant from the National Science Foundation, is a collaboration of IU, Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina and the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of KansasThe idea was to make the equipment as simple as possible, so that one or two people can use it in the field without access to tech support for up to 12 weeks, said David Hancock, senior manager of high performance systems for UITS.But it was a logistical feat to make the hardware durable enough to withstand extreme conditions, said Craig Stewart, chief operating officer of IU’s Pervasive Technology Labs.Shipping the hardware and physically managing data were significant hurdles, he said.But the team, with the University of Kansas, put a lot of effort into designing solar panels that could recharge the computers’ batteries in the field.They will analyze the project’s findings and make them available on the organization’s Web site, Stewart said.“This will provide better data than ever before on what is happening to the ice sheets,” he said.As a result, scientists could gain insight into the global climate change.“Nobody really knows how bad the situation is,” Stewart said. “We will play a critical role in learning the state of ice sheets.”Stewart said IU is involved in the project largely because of Geoffrey Fox, principal investigator for the Polar Grid Project and chair of the IU School of Informatics.“Fox is one of the world’s leading experts in grid computing,” Stewart said.Fox said the scientific community still has a limited understanding of how glaciers recede.“There is no current model that people trust,” he said. “We need to build realistic models of glaciers.”All the data will be available to the public, Fox said. But the project is far from over.“In the future, we’d like to send something with a little more computing power,” Hancock said.
(09/23/08 3:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Could a new hit video game be the next step in teaching evolution?Will Wright, the game designer behind The Sims, spent years creating "Spore," a new video game that is supposed to simulate the process of evolution.The National Geographic Channel produced a documentary on Spore called “How to Build a Better Being” and conducted interviews with scientists in the field of evolutionary developmental biology, or “Evo-Devo.” The documentary even shows how Spore might serve as a useful tool for researchers.However, local specialists in both biology and learning sciences say that Spore is a fun game and nothing more.“Spore is not simulated evolution,” said Sam Miller, a biology graduate student in IU’s Evolution, Ecology and Behavior program, who played the game after its Sept. 7 release. “Evolution is not linear. Humans did not come directly from fish, they just share a common ancestor.”Spore begins with a meteor crashing into a previously lifeless planet, populating it with microbes.One of these microbes is the player’s avatar, who eats and tries to survive, all the while gaining “DNA points.”The points are used to buy and sell various body parts – from horns to flagella – with the idea of upgrading the creature at each generational step.The creature eventually develops legs and crawls out of the sea, where it advances along different levels of civilization.Nathan Taylor, a biology graduate student in the Evolution, Ecology and Behavior Program, said he’s also familiar with the game.Taylor said that, although enjoyable, Spore’s educational value for biology is on par with that of the “Oregon Trail” for history.Taylor said the game could capture kids’ interest in the field of biology.Sasha Barab, an IU professor and director of the Center for Research on Learning and Technology, does not foresee Spore becoming a method for teaching evolution.“It’s not consistent with Darwin’s work and would cause more confusion than insight,” he said. However, Spore is not without its merits, Barab said.It encourages deliberate thinking and reasoning, he said.While Barab’s 5- and 7-year-old children played the game, they discussed which physical traits were better for their creatures.“Kids having scientific arguments about cause and effect is very valuable,” he said.If game designers came closer to actual simulated evolution, Barab said, Spore would not only be more educational, but more fun.Dan Kearns, an IU assistant professor of molecular biology and genetics, described in simple terms how evolution works.“Evolution is driven by things that didn’t die, not the best or the fittest,” he said.If someone wanted to create a game that simulated evolution, they should generate 1,000 random virtual organisms, put them together in an environment and see which ones don’t die, Kearns said.Larry Yaeger, a professor in the School of Informatics, said that although his exposure to Spore is still limited, he feels that it is more of a game than a means for scientific research.“Spore has been winnowed down for predictability,” he said.A game called “Creatures,” created by British software designer Steve Grand, is a more accurate representation of evolution, Yaeger said. The avatars in that game had biologically appropriate neural structures, which allowed them to evolve on their own.“Spore is like Legos with animal parts,” Taylor said, “but it’s fun.”
(09/16/08 2:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While most of America slept soundly, still hours away from an alarm’s clamor, Denver Whittington fired off an e-mail to IU last week under the subject heading: “LHC Success!”Since April 2007, Whittington has been living in the small French town of Ferney-Voltaire, a long way from his hometown of Anderson, Ind.Ferney-Voltaire is just minutes away from the Large Hadron Collider, part of the CERN laboratory, where he works as a deputy software coordinator.The LHC passed its first test run Sept. 10 with flying colors. The machine was built in hopes of unlocking some of the universe’s mysteries, so naturally Whittington, a 26-year-old IU graduate student in elementary particle physics, was thrilled to witness the event first hand.“WOOT!” he wrote in the e-mail. “Beam has successfully made it all the way around the ring and continued through past its injection point.”The beam Whittington referred to is one made of protons, called a “hadron,” that had for the first time made a full circle through a 27 kilometer ring, a component of the largest particle accelerator to date.Thousands of magnets guide the beam along its course. The direction must be precise because the ultimate goal is to cause a head-on collision between two subatomic particles inside the ring. One beam moves clockwise, while the other simultaneously goes in a counter-clockwise direction.So what’s the point of smashing tiny specks into one another? Why all the excitement?Whittington said the data he expects to gather from the LHC will help him to both finish his dissertation and gain a better understanding of the universe.He’s looking into the puzzling nature of gravity, he said, to learn more about the force. For example, it might be possible that gravity extends into undiscovered dimensions.His is just one of countless minds worldwide bubbling with theories to be advanced, to be proved, or even to be disproved by the collider. For example, the LHC is working to observe the Higgs boson, or “God particle.” It is the only particle in the Standard Model – the widely accepted theory on how matter and energy work – that has not been observed by scientists to date.If it is observed, then the Standard Model is correct; if the particle is not observed, then the scientific community must seriously rethink what has been assumed as true, Whittington said.The potential for discovery is not the only remarkable feature of the LHC. It is already a historic feat of engineering, said Harold Ogren, an IU professor of physics and a CERN fellow.Ogren called the LHC “a machine of superlatives” during a colloquium on Sept. 10 in Swain Hall West.He addressed the misconceptions and significance of the collider to the general public.Ogren – along with his IU physics colleagues Fred Luehring, Hal Evans, and Pauline Gagnon – also helped with components of the ATLAS experiment.“We are very happy campers,” Ogren said.Whittington said the beam tests since Sept. 10 have gone so smoothly that the first beam collisions have been pushed up from late October to the middle or end of this week.He plans to work on the project for at least another year and a half, but that could change depending on the findings.When asked to express how it feels to be so close to such a historic event, Whittington was at a loss for words.“It’s just really cool to be here,” he said.
(09/11/08 4:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At 4:28 a.m. Wednesday, a machine 27 kilometers in circumference shot into action, and an IU professor contributed an important piece of equipment to the machine.The Large Hadron Collider, the giant particle accelerator straddling the border between France and Switzerland, underwent its first test run Wednesday. Scientists and engineers injected two proton beams through a ring.They hope the LHC will be a monumental tool in furthering understanding of the fundamental elements of matter and the universe.IU professor of elementary particle physics and CERN Fellow Harold Ogren has spent 15 years building an important piece of equipment for one of the four experiments running at LHC. Much of that equipment was built on the IU-Bloomington campus.He spoke in Swain Hall West on Wednesday afternoon to explain the significance of this event and to dispel misconceptions circulating in the media.“This is a machine of superlatives,” Ogren said. “It’s the biggest in every way.”First, the speed at which the proton beams move through the accelerator is 99.99 percent the speed of light. Just one-eighth of the machine itself would be the world’s largest refrigerator. It also contains the coldest chunk of matter in the universe, with an iron core at 1.9 degrees Kelvin, or -271.3 degrees Celsius.LHC has the most perfect vacuum in our solar system, having about 10 times less pressure than the surface of the moon, Ogren said.It is the most powerful supercomputer to date, with a distributed computing network scattered around the globe, Ogren said. Fred Luehring, an IU research scientist, is the head of one of five computing centers in the United States.Finally, it is the largest proton accelerator ever made, Ogren said.“LHC will not be superseded by another proton accelerator for the next several hundred years,” he said.Ogren explained in his talk some of the inner workings of LHC in order to cast off fears the laity has expressed concerning the accelerator’s inadvertent creation of black holes. The Earth has been hit about 1022, or 10 sextillion, times in its history by collisions like those to be performed at LHC. Ogren and his colleagues say humans’ obliviousness to these events proves their unimportance.Additionally, the energy levels produced by the LHC prohibit the creation of small black holes because that would mean breaking the laws of gravity.However, if small black holes are produced, they would evaporate far too quickly to be directly perceived, decaying in about 10-27 seconds.ATLAS, the experiment with which Ogren is affiliated, is one of four experiments being conducted. The barrel detector modules of the TRT, or Transition Radiation Tracker, were constructed at IU then assembled 100 meters underground at the LHC in Europe.“It was like a ship in a bottle,” he said. “All the parts had to be sent down through two small silos.”The ATLAS experiment will be able to take data this fall and has already been looking at cosmic rays for many months. Ogren said scientists in the community are placing bets as to what and when great discoveries will be made, ranging from new dimensions to as-of-yet unseen particles.
(09/05/08 3:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A group of IU chemists was awarded a $2.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study how virus parts arrange themselves into fully-formed viruses.The funding will be spent on building a center in Bloomington geared specifically to clarify the process of virus self-assembly.Drs. Martin F. Jarrold, Bogdan Dragnea, Stephen C. Jacobson, Peter J. Ortoleva, James P. Reilly and their collaborators at the IU Nanoscience Center and Indiana University’s Center for Cell and Virus Theory will be working to unravel the mystery behind this phenomenon by observing the stages of virus replication.“There must be something about the design of their proteins that make them self-assemble,” Jarrold said. “What directs them to beat the randomness is not yet known.”Dragnea explained how chemistry is integral to furthering their research about viruses.“A virus is made up of molecules and self-assembles, coming together like a soccer ball,” he said. “That’s a chemical reaction.”The researchers are excited about potential medical advances the study offers. Dragnea said one possibility is a less traumatizing and more effective treatment for cancer. Now, chemotherapy treatment attacks both cancerous and surrounding benign cells. The chemists hope that learning more about how viruses form will lead to discoveries in methods that would deliver anti-cancer drugs directly into the concerning cells, without affecting neighboring, benign cells.The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will provide researchers with anti-cancer drugs to put inside the viruses, Dragnea said.But Jacobson cautioned against being too far-sighted.“It is a very long-term vision that you could possibly make viruses that target and deliver stuff to cells of interest,” he said.
(06/12/08 1:13pm)
Officials now believe the flooding last week that gushed through campus caused an estimated $1 million to $1.5 million in damage to IU facilities, said Larry Stephens, director of the IU Office of Risk Management. Experts say the varied types and poor planning of development likely contributed to the severity of the flooding.\nThe flooding, which submerged much of Central Indiana last weekend, was triggered by extreme rain events that fell on ground already saturated by water, said Sally Letsinger, a research hydrogeologist for the Indiana Geological Survey. In such circumstances, excess water from heavy rains run off the surface of the ground instead of in the sub-surface, which in turn creates flooding.\nImproper and excessive development was also a likely cause of flooding, Letsinger said. Impervious ground surface material like asphalt and concrete severely hinder normal drainage, she said.\nOne problem, said Suzie Delay, an engineering manager of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, is that no single, all-encompassing government body regulates development with the purpose of considering all the waterways of a community or a region. Many levees are privately owned and their construction does not take into account the impact of holding back water on a broader scale.\nDelay said that the state deals only with regulating development in floodways. As defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a floodway is where the water is likely to be the deepest and fastest for most waterways. Anyone looking to build in a floodway needs to seek a permit from their office.\nSurface water drainages such as the Jordan River and man-made culverts in Bloomington were overwhelmed by the volume of rain on June 4. Culverts, conduits used to enclose and reroute a flowing body of water, can only take so much water, Letsinger said.\n“There should be policy discussions on how much development should be allowed and in what areas,” she said.\nThe apartment of Bloomington resident Rick Graves was inundated by last week’s floods. One of the two ditches flanking Mitchell Street had recently been paved over, which he believes contributed to flooding in the area.\nMonroe and many surrounding counties have experienced massive flooding in recent days. Many rural and suburban areas in the region were heavily impacted by the flooding on June 7. There were reports of levees having broken or eroded away.\nBill Miller, who lives just outside Terre Haute near a privately owned levee on Jordan Creek, said that although it did not break, the levee overflowed spilling water into the residential area. Fifty truckloads of white rock were delivered on Monday to divert the flow, but it is just a temporary repair.\nDespite the danger of flooding, people like to live by water, said Delay. Many people who live near levees have the misunderstanding that all levees are alike. Some are agricultural levees that are meant only to protect farm fields and are not designed to take care of flooding of this magnitude. Some are actually designed to overflow in order to prevent devastating floods in more populated areas.\nIf you live near a levee, it is important to know what type of levee it is and what it was designed to do.\n“It’s like expecting your bicycle to go 40mph when it wasn’t designed to do that,” said Delay.\nShe urged people to find flood maps of their area provided by FEMA to better assess the risk of flooding.
(06/09/08 12:22am)
As more hard rain and flooding devastated much of Central Indiana, IU officials are still uncertain about the extent of the damage caused by last week’s flash floods on campus. The rapid gush of water washed out the IU football field and provoked power outages, flooded buildings and temporarily closed off major roadways on and around campus.\nSally Letsinger, a hydrogeologist at the Indiana Geological Survey, said the volume of water seen in June 4’s flash flood makes it worthy to be classified as a 100-year flood. That is to say, a flood this severe is likely only to occur once every 100 years. Increased development, which creates impervious areas with concrete, hinders proper drainage of rainwater, she said.\nAfter the floodwater receded, Gov. Mitch Daniels declared Monroe and several neighboring counties disaster areas.\nHowever, despite the surge in water, no injuries or deaths were reported in Bloomington or Monroe County, public-safety officials said.\nIt will be months before the University can assess the full extent of the damage on campus, said Larry Stephens, director of the IU Office of Risk Management. The Psychology Building and Memorial Stadium were hit the hardest.\nPart of the field at Memorial Stadium was washed away by the floods. Experts are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday to inspect the damage, Stephens said. Repairs will likely cost $50,000 to $250,000, he added. However, other news outlets have reported that the repair bill could well exceed that figure.\nThe Psychology Building sustained both flooding and a power outage. The power outage is causing the greatest amount of concern, Linda Smith, the chair of the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department, said in an e-mail.\nSome temperature-sensitive research material was moved to freezers and refrigerators in other buildings on campus, while others remain in the Psychology Building freezers, powered by generators. Damage to the material cannot be assessed until the building’s power is restored.\nThe flooding of the sub-basement, which houses the electrical vault, is preventing workers from restoring power to the building before all the water is cleared. It is hopeful, yet uncertain, that power will be restored to the building by Monday.\nFor this reason, all classes that are normally held in the Psychology Building have been moved to other facilities.\nThe School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation Complex suffered extensive flooding coupled with a power outage, but a swift response prevented any serious damage.\nWith the help of the Physical Plant and Office of Risk Management workers, cleanup was completed by 8 p.m. Wednesday, said John Pedersen, facility support director for Campus Recreational Sports.\n“It’s like the old adage, many hands make light work,” he said.\nMelissa Boyken, an undergraduate in the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, said she could not get to her car when she left work at about 5 p.m. June 4. Boyken was also one of many students who have classes located in the Psychology Building. \n“It was like a river in the parking lot,” she said.\nSenior Bob Koyama said he watched people swimming in Jordan River, which swelled its banks with the surge of rainwater.\n“There were people swimming in (the floodwater) just to show how deep it was,” said Elly Romer, staff member with IU Disability Services for Students.\nThe IU Police Department was so riddled with phone calls and traffic problems that supervisors had to call in extra officers.\nIUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said the department received about 80 emergency calls Wednesday afternoon due to the flood. Lightning strikes on buildings tripped several fire and security alarms, which only increased officers’ workload.\n“Third Street was impassible; officers had to reroute traffic,” Minger said.\nBut, IUPD received no reports of injuries.\nRoger Kerr, chief of the Bloomington Fire Department, said firefighters were busy for about an hour and a half after the flood. Most of that time was spent rescuing stranded motorists and responding to alarms tripped by lightning strikes. One woman was trapped briefly in the elevator of a building on McIntyre Drive. No injuries were reported.\nThe Bloomington Fire Department Station itself had been swamped with water and firefighters had several hours of cleanup to do after their return from aiding the community.\nMonroe County Sheriff’s Deputies spent most of their time attending to major disruptions to roadways, said Chief Deputy Scott Mellinger. Traffic was backed up in many areas due to flooding, downed power lines and trees and shorted-out traffic lights.\nMonroe County was overcome by power outages. Dawn Horth, a spokesperson for Duke Energy said that 11,180 customers had a loss of power June 4, but by Friday everyone’s power had been restored.\nAndy Walter, owner of Tracks Music & Videos on Kirkwood Avenue, said about 3,000 vinyl records from his inventory were damaged. He put them all outside the night of June 4 after the water subsided to be taken for free.\nThe Boys and Girls Club, near Third and Lincoln streets, was inundated while nearly all of the children were waiting for their parents. Ryon Wheeler, the program director, said many of the staff members’ vehicles were totaled by water damage.\n“The kids did surprisingly well. The older kids were asking what they could do to help,” he said.
(06/07/08 5:28pm)
Officials still are uncertain about the extent of the damage caused by Wednesday’s flash floods, which provoked power outages, flooded buildings, and temporarily closed off major roadways on and around campus.\nHowever, despite the surge in water, no injuries or deaths were reported in Bloomington or Monroe County, public safety officials said.\nIt will be months before the University can assess the full extent of the damage on campus, but overall it is believed to be relatively mild, said Larry Stephens, director of the IU Office of Risk Management. The Psychology Building and Memorial Stadium were the hardest hit.\nThe Psychology Building sustained both flooding and a power outage. The power outage is causing the greatest amount of concern, Linda Smith, the chair of the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department said in an e-mail. Failing laboratory equipment, especially freezers with chemicals and cell tissues, threatens research material.\nThe flooding of the sub-basement, which houses the electrical vault, is preventing workers from restoring power to the building before all the water is cleared. It is hopeful, yet uncertain, that power will be restored to the building by Monday.\nFor this reason, all classes that are normally held in the Psychology Building have been moved to other facilities.\nPart of the field at Memorial Stadium was washed away by the floods. Experts are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday to inspect the damage, Stephens said. Repairs will likely cost $50,000 to $250,000, he added.\nThe School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Complex suffered extensive flooding coupled with a power outage, but a swift response prevented any serious damage.\nWith the help of the Physical Plant and Office of Risk Management workers, cleanup was completed by 8 p.m. Wednesday, said John Pedersen, Facility Support Director of Campus Recreational Sports.\n“It’s like the old adage, many hands make light work,” he said.\nMelissa Boyken, an undergraduate in the School of HPER, said that she could not get to her car when she left work at about 5 p.m. Wednesday.\n“It was like a river in the parking lot,” she said.\nThe IU Police Department was so riddled by phone calls and traffic problems that supervisors had to call in extra officers.\nIUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said the department received around 80 emergency calls Wednesday afternoon due to the flood. Lightning strikes on buildings tripped several fire and security alarms, which only increased their workload.\n“Third Street was impassible, officers had to reroute traffic,” Minger said.\n But, the IUPD received no reports of injuries.\nSenior Bob Koyama said he watched people swimming in Jordan River, which swelled its banks with the rush of the floodwater.\n“There were people swimming in (the floodwater) just to show how deep it was,” Elly Romer said, staff member in the office of Disability Services for Students.
(06/07/08 2:01am)
Officials still are uncertain about the extent of the damage caused by Wednesday’s flash floods, which provoked power outages, flooded buildings, and temporarily closed of major roadways on and around campus.\nHowever, despite the surge in water, no injuries or deaths were reported in Bloomington or Monroe County, public safety officials said.\nIt will be months before the University can assess the full extent of the damage on campus, but overall it is believed to be relatively mild, said Larry Stephens, director of the IU Office of Risk Management. The Psychology Building and Memorial Stadium were the hardest hit.\nThe Psychology Building sustained both flooding and a power outage. The power outage is causing the greatest amount of concern, Linda Smith, the chair of the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department said in an e-mail. Failing laboratory equipment, especially freezers with chemicals and cell tissues, threatens research material.\nThe flooding of the sub-basement, which houses the electrical vault, is preventing workers from restoring power to the building before all the water is cleared. It is hopeful, yet uncertain, that power will be restored to the building by Monday.\nFor this reason, all classes that are normally held in the Psychology Building have been moved to other facilities.\nPart of the field at Memorial Stadium was washed away by the floods. Experts are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday to inspect the damage, Stephens said. Repairs will likely cost $50,000 to $250,000, he added.\nThe School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Complex suffered extensive flooding coupled with a power outage, but a swift response prevented any serious damage.\nWith the help of the Physical Plant and Office of Risk Management workers, cleanup was completed by 8 p.m. Wednesday, said John Pedersen, Facility Support Director of Campus Recreational Sports.\n“It’s like the old adage, many hands make light work,” he said.\nMelissa Boyken, an undergraduate in the School of HPER, said that she could not get to her car when she left work at about 5 p.m. Wednesday.\n“It was like a river in the parking lot,” she said.\nThe IU Police Department was so riddled by phone calls and traffic problems that supervisors had to call in extra officers.\nIUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said the department received around 80 emergency calls Wednesday afternoon due to the flood. Lightning strikes on buildings tripped several fire and security alarms, which only increased their workload.\n“Third Street was impassible, officers had to reroute traffic,” Minger said.\n But, the IUPD received no reports of injuries.\nSenior Bob Koyama said he watched people swimming in Jordan River, which swelled its banks with the rush of the floodwater.\n“There were people swimming in [the floodwater] just to show how deep it was,” Elly Romer said, staff member in the office of Disability Services for Students.
(04/28/08 4:13am)
On Tuesday and Wednesday, IU will host two lectures by Sir Roger Penrose, author and mathematical physicist.\nPenrose is this year’s guest for the 18th annual Joseph and Sophia Konopinski Public Lecture and Colloquia Series in Physics. With the promise of presenting a “radical new idea,” Penrose will discuss the nature of the universe before the Big Bang.\nPenrose served from 1973 to 1998 as Rouse Ball professor of mathematics at Oxford University, one of the senior chairs of the mathematics department at the renowned university. He now holds the position of Emeritus Rouse Ball professor.\nPenrose has written a number of popular books, including “The Emperor’s New Mind,” in which he addresses the limitations of artificial intelligence and how a better understanding of physics could lead people to a better understanding of consciousness. The New York Times Book Review said it “ranks among the most innovative and exciting science books to have been published in the last 40 years.” \nIn addition to being a bestselling author and revered professor, Penrose is best known in his field for laying the groundwork for a more concrete discussion on black holes. Penrose worked closely with Stephen Hawking and in 1988, they shared the coveted Wolf Foundation Prize for Physics for their work, said Tim Londergan, an IU professor of physics and director of the Wells Scholar program. \n“His work with Hawking is directly related to astrophysics and in particular cosmology,” Londergan said. \nTuesday’s lecture will include Penrose’s new proposition on what occurred before the Big Bang, which addresses an issue in cosmology that continues to mystify experts. This issue involves the origin of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the assertion that the randomness of an isolated system increases with time. \nDr. V. Alan Kostelecky, distinguished professor of theoretical physics at IU who specializes in violations of space-time symmetries, said the universe must have been very ordered in the beginning.\n“At the time of the Big Bang, the order must have been quite different,” he said.\nThe colloquium on Wednesday will outline the main points of Penrose’s “twistor theory.” Having gained recent attention because of work by superstring specialist Ed Witten, the Penrose’s theory is playing an important part in high-energy physics, according to a press release. He will talk about the role of “dark energy” in the universe. The twistor theory demonstrates its place in a cosmological setting and takes dark energy into account, according to a press release.\nConsidering that gravity is thought to be the only force that acts on large bodies, it is expected that the expansion of the universe should be slowing down, said Dr. Stuart Mufson, a professor in the IU Department of Astronomy. However, cosmological observations show that this expansion is actually speeding up at exponential rates. \n“Dark energy causes the universe to expand at ever increasing speeds,” he said.\nThe lectures will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Indiana Memorial Union Whittenberger Auditorium.
(04/25/08 3:28pm)
Today, the IU Commission on Multicultural Understanding will bestow awards on five individuals and one program in recognition of their dedicated exploration of cultural diversity on or around campus. \nInitially created to focus on training in racial understanding, the Commission on Multicultural Understanding began to encourage programs and activities that increase awareness of all kinds of oppression in the community. \n“We are a proactive organization rather than a reactive one,” said Bill Shipton, deputy chair of the commission and a former award winner who chaired this year’s recipient selection committee.\nThose being honored were selected from a list of nominees divided into six categories: undergraduate student (senior Nicholas Mitchaner), graduate student (Stacy Konkiel), faculty member (J. Peter Burkholder), staff member (Sharlene Toney), community member (Beverly Calender-Anderson) and outstanding program (First Fridays, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services). The award recipients are then chosen by a committee chaired by former Commission on Multicultural Understanding award winners.\nThe organization is a derivation of the Committee on Racial Understanding formed by the IU Dean of Students in 1982. In order to reflect its broadening concern for cultural as well as racial issues, the organization changed its name to the Commission on Multicultural Understanding in 1990.\nShipton said the organization’s formation was a response to overt disparity between the treatment of white and black students on campus. At the time, Shipton himself was working to encourage racial understanding among those living in residence halls.\nTaking a more preventative stance, the commission seeks to improve the social climate before conflict arises. \nOne of the issues the commission is currently working to address is the controversy over the mural in Room 100 of Woodburn Hall. The mural, among other scenes depicting Indiana history, includes an image of rallying Ku Klux Klan members beneath a burning cross.\n“A large number of people find this image very offensive,” Shipton said.\nHe said one promising solution to this problem would be to install a video kiosk adjacent to the mural explaining the historical significance of the controversial image.\nAlthough multicultural understanding is not something that can be quantified, one way to measure the success of a program or activity is by its capacity to reach people and inspire them to become active, Shipton said. The work of Teachable Moments a committee of the Commission on Multicultural Understanding, he said, is just one good example of a productive, proactive method of diffusing understanding.\nCo-convened by Toney, a recipient of this year’s Commission on Multicultral Understanding Award as a staff member, the Teachable Moments Committee focuses on current issues facing the IU community. \nThis year, the committee addressed the issue of the “athletic closet” within the GLBT community, a term alluding to the difficulties athletes face in coming out to their teammates and coaches. \nToney organized Jeff Sheng’s “Fearless” photography exhibit last fall. Portraying images of high school and college GLBT athletes, the exhibit confronted the conflicting stereotypes of the athletic and GLBT communities.\nThe most effective way to promote understanding among IU students, faculty and staff is to find “new, innovative, creative ways of learning,” Toney said. “It’s about finding the hook to hold their interest and keep them looking for issues on campus.”\nBarry Magee, a co-convener of the commission’s Retreats and Recognition Committee, who will be a presenter at the ceremony, said working to improve multicultural understanding is like planting seeds.\n“We hope that they will be watered and fertilized and will turn into something good,” Magee said.\nThe award recipients will be honored today in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. The event is open to the public with a reception beginning at 4:30 p.m. followed by the award presentations at 5 p.m.
(02/26/08 5:39am)
Last month, 38 microbiologists from institutions across the globe were elected fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology. Among them was IU’s own Patricia Foster, director of the molecular biology and genetics graduate program, for her work with the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria.\nFoster’s research focuses on how bacteria mutate under stress.\n“It shocked the world of evolutionary biology when the phenomenon was discovered, yet was not contrary to Darwin,” said Clay Fuqua, director of the microbiology program.\nFoster uses E. coli as her research model chiefly for its quick reproduction speed and the ease with which it can be isolated. She found that when the bacteria are subjected to stress, the rate of genetic mutations on a cellular level increases. When evolution is involved, high mutation rates are considered harmful to a species. However, stress-induced mutations can actually increase a species’ chance for survival under extreme conditions. When stress is detected, the bacteria turn on a special enzyme, DNA polymerase, which stimulates mutation. This is where human interest enters, Foster said.\nDNA polymerase in E. coli is similar to, or closely related to, an enzyme found in humans. Because cancer is a result of cellular mutation within the human body, a thorough understanding of this process in bacteria would allow the scientific community to extrapolate those findings to cancerous human cells. A solid commitment to such research could one day result in better control over onset and growth of the disease, Foster said.\nIt is not only Foster’s accomplishments, but also the style of her workmanship that has garnered attention from her peers.\n“She has an elegance in her thinking,” said colleague Yves Brun, director of the IU Microbiology program. “There are ideas and then there are profound ideas; Pat just has profound ideas more often than most of us.”\nBeing elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology involves performing services for the organization, such as sitting on a committee that reviews reports for the government, but Foster will not receive funding because of the position.\nFoster received her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and spent time doing research at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. She had already made a name for herself as a microbiologist before joining the IU faculty. \n“When she applied (to IU), I was very excited and impressed,” Brun said. “It’s been fantastic to have her on the faculty.”\nFoster’s interest in microbiology was born out of a talk given by microbiologist Thomas Brock during her time at the University of Chicago. Brock was studying microscopic organisms in the Yellowstone National Park hot streams and the impact such an extreme environment had on them. \n“It was just thrilling,”\n Foster said.\nBut on a personal level, Foster hopes to gain a different kind of insight. \n“I would like to figure out if the things I work on are really the result of adaptive evolution, or if they’re just noise in the system,” she said.
