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Tuesday, November 1 2011

News

Getting wine from grape to glass faster, easier is focus of grant to wine producing group

A recently awarded $2.5 million grant will help colder-weather states such as Iowa overcome obstacles in the vineyard, winery and tasting room and also improve tourism. The grant's focus is a group of extremely cold-hardy wine grape varieties, new to both growers and consumers. These grapes have spawned new small winery industries in the upper Midwest and Northeast over the past decade.

ISU economics study finds Vision Iowa provided healthy return on investment

A new report by Iowa State economics faculty and students (right) found that the former Vision Iowa program -- which was instituted in 2001 to enhance recreational, cultural, educational or entertainment attractions available across the state -- made the state an annual 9.2 percent return on investment in terms of increased sales tax revenue through 2008. Local communities also saw nearly a 1 percent annual return on their investment from the resulting amenities.

Wind Energy Manufacturing Lab helps Iowa State engineers improve wind power

Iowa State University's Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory is helping engineers study and develop new, low-cost manufacturing systems that could improve the productivity of turbine blade factories. The ultimate goal of the lab research is to make wind energy a more cost competitive energy option.

"Diet for a Small Planet" author Frances Moore Lappé to speak Nov. 3

Frances Moore Lappé, who authored the 1971 classic, "Diet for a Small Planet," -- the first best-selling book to brand grain-fed meat production as detrimental -- will speak next week at Iowa State. She will talk about her new book, "EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want," at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. Lappé is the author of 18 books and the co-founder of Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy and the Small Planet Institute. Her lecture is part of the university's World Affairs Series, and is free and open to the public.

News release.

Iowa State researchers studying impact of exercise on flu vaccine resistance in adults

Iowa State kinesiology researchers are studying the link between exercise and flu shots and the impact on immunity. Marian Kohut, an ISU professor of kinesiology; Justus Hallam, an ISU kinesiology Ph.D. student; and Molly Slattery, a senior kinesiology undergraduate from Calmus, Iowa, are working with subjects age 62 and older to test whether exercise will boost their bodies' immune responses following flu shots. They found that it did in an early pilot study of ISU students.