News Archive
Wednesday, September 19 2012
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Global environmental politics expert will present Iowa State's Hilton Chair Lecture Oct. 3
Paul Wapner, an author and expert on global environmental politics and activism, will present "Environmentalism Without Nature" at 8 p.m., Wednesday, Oct.3, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. Wapner wrote "Living Through the End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism," which is a call for environmentalists to regroup and refashion the American environmental movement to be more politically relevant in the 21st century. He is the 2012-13 Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Chair in Human Sciences. His presentation is free and open to the public.
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Film about world's first environmental refugees will be presented at Iowa State Sept. 25
An Academy Award-nominated film that shows the human face of climate change will be presented at Iowa State on Tuesday, Sept 25. "Sun Come Up, " a film about the relocation of a community of South Pacific islanders threatened by rising sea levels, will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Union Sun Room. "Sun Comes Up" chronicles the organized relocation of the 2,500 Carteret Islanders, who were forced to move because their ancestral home is expected to be uninhabitable by 2015. A discussion about climate change and the questions it raises will immediately follow the 38-minute film. The presentation is free and open to the public.
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ISU experts see signs for optimism as harvest reaches peak in Iowa
The latest government crop yield predictions may give grain farmers cause for optimism as the harvest season reaches its crescendo in Iowa. Although slightly lower than previous projections, last week’s crop yield report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is a far cry from the worst-case scenarios many farmers braced for earlier this summer as a withering drought took hold of much of America’s prime farmland.
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Leath announces goals, priorities during his installation as Iowa State University's 15th president
At his Sept. 14 installation, Iowa State University President Steven Leath announced a goal to raise $150 million in private gifts for student financial aid over the next five years. It was among several key priorities Leath outlined in his speech, “Educate. Innovate. Achieve!” More than 2,000 guests attended the presidential installation ceremony, held at Stephens Auditorium on the Iowa State campus.
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Science Guy Bill Nye will speak Sept. 21 at Iowa State University
Scientist, engineer, comedian, author, inventor and a man with a mission. Bill Nye fosters a scientifically literate society by helping people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Nye will bring his brand of entertainment and accessible science to Iowa State on Friday, Sept. 21. His talk, "You Can Change the World," will be at 7 p.m. in Stephens Auditorium. It is part of Iowa State's Engineers Week 2012 and is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:15 p.m.
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ISU veterinarian encourages pet owners to pay closer attention as animals get older
Pets often require extra medical consideration as they enter their golden years, a small animal veterinarian at Iowa State University said this week. In recognition of September as “Senior Pet Health Month,” Dr. Bianca Zaffarano, a clinician in the ISU Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, is reminding pet owners to pay close attention to changes their animals exhibit as they age.
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Annual U.S. News rankings: Iowa State is No. 46 among top public national universities
Iowa State University is tied for 46th among the top public national universities included in U.S. News & World Report's 2013 "America's Best Colleges" rankings.
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Iowa State economist finds one in four divorces to be 'inefficient' in new national study
A new national study by Oleksandr (Alex) Zhylyevskyy, an Iowa State assistant professor of economiccs, found that in approximately one in four divorces, the individuals involved might have been happier staying married -- producing what he calls "inefficient" divorces. The ISU researcher is one of the first economists to explore why some couples have intense disputes but keep living together, while other couples cooperate and the rest divorce.
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Hosts of NPR's 'Planet Money' will bring live show to Iowa State on Sept. 19
Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg, the charismatic team from National Public Radio's (NPR) "Planet Money," will deliver an informative and entertaining live stage show at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. A co-production of NPR and "This American Life," "Planet Money" helps listeners understand how dramatic economic change impacts their lives. The program uses substantive, intelligent economic reporting that is funny, engaging and accessible. Their presentation is free and open to the public.
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ISU architecture professor pursues groundbreaking work on energy and buildings
Buildings account for about 40 percent of all U.S. energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In the move toward renewable energy and green building technologies, considerable effort has gone into developing standards for energy-efficient materials, processes and systems, while little has been done to measure how well buildings actually perform once they’re in use. An Iowa State University architecture professor hopes her work with a five-year, $20 million National Science Foundation project will lead to better understanding of building energy-performance data to determine whether systems perform as expected, as well as what strategies work best in Iowa’s climate. (Video.)
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Iowa State, Ames Lab researcher developing new computing approach to materials science
Iowa State University's Krishna Rajan is using data mining, information theory and statistical learning concepts to develop a new approach to discovering materials. Like other methods, Rajan's approach can collect large amounts of data. But he's also developing ideas to target the data that's most relevant to solving a particular problem.
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Design on Main connects ISU College of Design with Ames community
The College of Design is joining Main Street with a satellite facility for classes, exhibitions and community outreach. The college’s newest venture — Design on Main — provides studio space for 20 graduate students in the integrated visual arts program and a small gallery space to showcase artwork and other projects. In addition to providing much-needed space, the facility offers a new connection with the Ames community. An open house at Design on Main will be held during the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday, Sept. 23. The public is invited.
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ISU researchers looking for improved diagnostic tools to detect re-emerging disease in pigs
Veterinary researchers at Iowa State University are developing improved methods to diagnose a re-emerging swine disease that was essentially a non-issue five years ago but has become increasingly more common since then. Swine dysentery, also known as bloody scours, is a disease in pigs that causes diarrhea containing mucus and blood and eventually leads to uneven growth and increased mortality among infected herds. The disease virtually disappeared in the late 1990s but has re-emerged in recent years.
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Iowa State University enrollment tops 31,000
It’s another one for the record books at Iowa State University. This fall’s student body of 31,040 is the largest in school history. It’s the fourth year of record enrollment and the sixth consecutive year of growth at Iowa State.
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ISU’s Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital dedication set for Sept. 12; public invited
After two years of construction and years of planning and design, Iowa State University will dedicate its new Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital at the College of Veterinary Medicine on Sept. 12 at 4:30 p.m. The dedication of the hospital marks the completion of the two-phase renovation and expansion project of the Dr. W. Eugene and Linda Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center that began in 2006 with the construction of Phase I, the large animal and equine hospital.
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Iowa State physicists excited about Higgs studies, look forward to new physics
Iowa State University physicists -- faculty, scientists, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduates -- are contributing to the ATLAS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. They're part of the international effort to hunt down the Higgs boson and an explanation for how subatomic particles acquire their masses. They're looking forward to collecting more data about a new "Higgs-like" particle announced this summer. And they're excited about the possibility of discovering new physics as collider energies ramp up.
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ISU experts predict rise in 2013 grocery prices to reflect today’s high grain costs
Americans can expect to pay more for groceries due to high commodity prices driven by this year’s drought, but food prices likely won’t hit their peak for a few months, said ISU grain market and agricultural experts this week. Corn prices have soared throughout the summer due to the historic drought that has withered much of the nation’s prime farmland, which has driven up feed costs for livestock and poultry producers. Those high prices will be passed onto consumers in the form of increased costs at the grocery store, but it will take several months for those increases to show up on store shelves.
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Iowa State, Ames Lab researchers study the structure of drug resistance in tuberculosis
A research group led by Edward Yu of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory is beginning to study disease resistance in tuberculosis. The researchers started their TB studies by describing the structure of a regulator that controls the expression of a pump that removes toxins from the bacteria. The finding was recently published online by the journal Nucleic Acids Research.
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This season’s influenza strain among pigs and humans appears mild
Increasing reports this month of humans infected by influenza after close contact with pigs at county and state fairs shouldn’t send pork producers – or anyone else, for that matter – scrambling for the panic button, veterinary and animal science experts at Iowa State University said this week.