News Archive
Thursday, March 1 2012
News
VP Biden tours Make To Innovate (M:2:I) lab
Vice President Joseph Biden, second from right, visited Iowa State University on Thursday, March 1. Biden participated in a student manufacturing tour prior to his remarks at a town hall meeting in Howe Hall. Here, the vice president learns about rapid prototyping, which engineering students use to build models -- speeding the design process and getting new products to market faster. Explaining the process are ISU students Shannon Krogmeier of Donnellson (far right) and Jared Juel of Council Bluffs (center). Looking on are ISU President Steven Leath (far left) and College of Engineering Dean Jonathan Wickert.
Slate columnist Farhad Manjoo will discuss battle of tech giants March 7
Farhad Manjoo, a technology columnist for Slate magazine and National Public Radio contributor, will speak on "The War between Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon," at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. Manjoo is the author of "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society," and contributes regularly to Wired News and Fast Company. His lecture is free and open to the public.
Ambassador leading U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking will speak at ISU March 6
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, President Obama's appointee to direct the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, will present "Fighting Human Trafficking" at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. Working under three presidential admistrations to combat human trafficking and modern forms of slavery, CdeBaca has investigated and prosecuted servitude cases in which victims were held for prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, farm labor, domestic service and factory work. CdeBaca is a Huxley native and Iowa State alumnus. His lecture is free and open to the public.
Ecologist and cancer survivor to talk about pollution and health March 4
Sandra Steingraber, a biologist, cancer survivor and author, will speak on "Environmental Pollution, Climate Change and Our Health" at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 4, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. In her latest book, "Raising Elijah: Protecting Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis," Steingraber speaks as a scientist and a mother about the joys of bringing up her son while searching for ways to shield him - and other children - from the effects of climate change and environmental pollution. Steingraber's presentation is the 2012 Shivvers Memorial Lecture. It is free and open to the public.
Iowa State, Ames Lab chemists aid study of mutated plants that may be better for biofuels
A new study says genetic mutations in plants could make it easier to break down plant cellulose to the sugars that are fermented into biofuels. Mei Hong, a professor at Iowa State and an associate of the Ames Laboratory, and Tuo Wang, an Iowa State graduate student, contributed their expertise in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to the study. The researchers' findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Leath names search committee for new provost
Iowa State University President Steven Leath has appointed a committee to conduct the search for ISU's next provost. Wendy Wintersteen, Endowed Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will chair the 17-member group.
L to R: Edward Swing and Douglas Gentile
Video game playing can compound kids' existing attention problems, says ISU study
Children who are already more impulsive or have attention problems tend to spend more time playing video games than other children, which subsequently may compound their attention problems. That's according to a new longitudinal study led by Douglas Gentile, an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State; and Edward Swing, an ISU psychology doctoral candidate, and published this week by the American Psychological Association in its debut issue of the Psychology of Popular Media Culture journal.
ISU's Gentile collaborates on study showing mean screens prime the brain for aggression
A new study co-authored by Douglas Gentile (right), an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State, and published in the journal Aggressive Behavior has found that onscreen relational aggression -- including social exclusion, gossip and emotional bullying -- may prime the brain for aggression.
Students, businesses connect through new entrepreneurship program
ISU's Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative has created
a program offering businesses access to exclusive workshops,
strategic leadership roundtables and interaction with top
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students. The new
Affiliates
Program of the initiative provides support for important
work in agricultural entrepreneurship.
In the news
Are video games beneficial?
Behavior may lead to a longer, happier life
Gamers on 3-D mission to save world
After growing up on an entertainment diet of X-Men and Xbox, high school and college-age students may find a textbook on cell biology to be a little, well, bland. Eve Syrkin Wurtele decided the best way to get the attention of the science-deprived, gamer generation is to take the information out of a text book and put it in a medium that kids crave - video games. WHO-TV in Des Moines highlighted Wurtele's work.