News Archive
Tuesday, March 1 2011
News
New radio program podcast examines science of parenting
Global ISU study: Invasive species widespread, but not more than at home range
Invasive plant species have long had a reputation as being bad for a new ecosystem when they are introduced. As it turns out, they aren't any more abundant away from home than they are at home.
Salk Institute researcher and ISU's first Science Bound graduate to speak March 7
Salk Institute
photo
Salk Institute plant scientist Charles Stewart Jr., graduated from Iowa State in 2000, the university's first Science Bound graduate. He will return to speak on "Fighting Hunger: A DNA Engineer's Path to Science and Success," at 8 p.m. Monday, March 7, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. A research associate at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, Stewart studies how plant enzymes make chemicals that are important to medicine and agriculture. Stewart's talk is part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Science Bound, Iowa State's program to increase the number of ethnically diverse Iowa youth pursuing science, technology, engineering and math careers. His talk is free and open to the public.
Daily Beast columnist and CNN political contributor John Avlon will speak March 8
Author, political columnist and voice-of-the-center John Avlon will present "Putting Labels Aside: Not Left, Not Right, Just Forward," at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. Avlon specializes in the analysis of the independent movement and is a CNN political contributor. He is a senior political columnist at the Daily Beast, and author of "Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics" and "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America." His talk is free and open to the public.
Anumantha Kanthasamy
ISU research raises hope for solving Parkinsons disease puzzle
Anumantha Kanthasamy of ISU's College of Veterinary Medicine has discovered a protein pathway that may hold the secret to understanding Parkinson's disease. He has been working to understand the complex mechanisms of the disease for more than a decade and believes this recent discovery offers hope for the cure.
Jane Smiley will speak about her Atanasoff bio March 3
Photo by
Michael Lionstaer
Pulitzer prize-winning author Jane Smiley will speak about her
most recent nonfiction book, "The Man Who Invented the
Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital
Pioneer," at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 3, in the Memorial
Union Great Hall. The book tells the story of Atanasoff, an
Iowa State physics professor who invented the first electronic
digital computer in the basement of Physics Hall before he was
diverted into war work in 1941. Smiley taught at Iowa State
University from 1981 to 1996. Her presentation is free and open
to the public.
News
release.
Iowa State, Ames Lab researchers describe the pump that bacteria use to resist drugs
A research team led by Edward Yu of Iowa State University and
the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory is
identifying the structure of pumps that allow bacteria to
resist toxins. Their discoveries are published in the Feb. 24
issue of the journal Nature.
News
release.
Iowa State selected for 'Princeton Review Best Value Colleges for 2011'
Iowa State University is among 50 public colleges nationwide -- and the only public school in the state -- named to the Princeton Review Best Value Colleges for 2011. The selection criteria covered more than 30 factors in three areas: academics, cost of attendance and financial aid.
USA TODAY presents: The Princeton Review Best Value Colleges.
Best-selling author of "Stuff White People Like" will speak at ISU March 2
Christian Lander, a New York Times best-selling author who
satirizes white culture, will present a talk about "Stuff
White People Like" at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, in the
Memorial Union Great Hall. Lander's blog by the same name
is a tongue-in-cheek list of things upper-middle-class
Caucasians enjoy such as irony, having two last names, Whole
Foods, kitchen gadgets, recycling and writers workshops. His
talk is free and open to the public.
News
release.
ISU economist's report assesses Obama health care plan moving forward
David Correll, a College of Business Ph.D. student and co-founder and president of ISU BioBus, looks forward to using the group's new processor to make biodiesel for CyRide bus No. 18.
Students to process waste vegetable oil from ISU Dining to fuel CyRide bus
David Frankel
Black History Months sobering news: MLK dream alive for few, says researcher
David Frankel, associate professor of economics, looked at public school enrollments from every school district in the country and found that school segregation between blacks and whites has improved only slightly from 1987 to 2007.
Oliver named interim dean of ISUs College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
ISU freshman hits a homer with book
While still in high school, Alex Halsted already had his byline
on several articles in sports publications. Now the Iowa State
freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication is a
published book author, as well. Halsted's "100 Things
Twins Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die," will hit
the bookstores on March 1 -- just in time for spring training.
The avid Twins fan completed most of the research and writing
last summer, before starting his studies at Iowa State. Now
he's ready for the major league.
See story.
HIV vaccine is getting closer
Dr. Michael Cho, Lloyd
Chair of Biomedical Sciences in ISU's College of Veterinary
Medicine, is working to develop a vaccine against HIV, the
virus that causes AIDS. Watch a video about his groundbreaking
research
here.
In the news
Jobs there for the taking
The number of companies recruiting on campus, the number of
available job openings and the number of students landing
interviews and jobs all are on the upswing, according to job
placement officials like Kathy Wieland, the business
college's director of career services at Iowa State
University.
See
story.
Fighting the flu
National Science Foundation Discoveries
Each year, people everywhere prepare for flu season. Some will get the flu vaccine, some take vitamin supplements, some launch a vigorous handwashing campaign, while others take an entirely different approach: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Mei Hong, a chemist at Iowa State University, uses NMR to study a proton channel named M2, found on the surface of the influenza virus.
Colleges open food pantries for hungry students
Iowa State University and the University of Arkansas opened
food pantries this month, adding to a growing list of
universities that includes Utah State University, Bakersfield
College in California, University of California-Davis, and West
Virginia University.
See story.