Last modified: Saturday, October 15, 2005
Vol. 2, no. 12
Sept. 6, 2005
Indiana Science Monthly is a selection of recent news stories about Indiana University scientists and their research. Comments or questions about this newsletter may be directed to David Bricker, Office of Media Relations (812-856-9035 or brickerd@indiana.edu).
Aug. science news:
* Frozen eggs and fertility treatment
* Chemists win ACS awards
* Making your (online) self understood
"Grid Gets $148 Million Boost" (INFORMATICS)
InformationWeek
Vol. 83, no. 30
Aug. 29, 2005
EXCERPT: The National Science Foundation said earlier this month it will spend $148 million by 2010 to expand the supercomputer network, called TeraGrid. The University of Chicago will manage disbursement of about $9 million a year to develop software and computer-architecture technology. About $20 million a year will go to the eight supercomputing research centers and national labs linked by TeraGrid.
* Indiana University is one of nine partners in the project, which will bring supercomputing resources to the nation's (possibly world's) scientists.
https://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=
VY0OIQTU4FD54QSNDBECKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleID=170100732
"ACS 2006 National Award Winners" (CHEMISTRY)
Chemical & Engineering News
Vol. 83, no. 35
Aug. 29, 2005
EXCERPT: Following are the recipients of awards administered by the American Chemical Society for 2006. Vignettes of the award recipients will appear in C&EN in early 2006. With the exception of the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards, these recipients will be honored at the Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, March 28, 2006, in conjunction with the 231st ACS national meeting in Atlanta.
* IUB chemists Milos Novotny and Richard DiMarchi won the ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry and the Earle B. Barnes Award for Leadership in Chemical Research Management, respectively.
https://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/83/i35/html/8335awards.html
"Biologists study non-native fescue grass" (BIOLOGY)
United Press International
Aug. 29, 2005
EXCERPT: Biologists at Rice University, Indiana University and George Mason University have determined how some non-native fescue grass helps remove native plants... The non-native fescue is ignored by plant-eating insects and animals because its leaves are laced with toxic alkaloids, thanks to a symbiotic fungus that has evolved with the grass.
* IU Bloomington biologist Keith Clay led the research.
"Stem cell scientists share research" (MEDICINE)
United Press International
Aug. 25, 2005
EXCERPT: Top researchers into the use of embryonic stem cells gathered at Yonsei University in Seoul Thursday for a two-day symposium to share their findings... Participants include 21 scientists from five nations -- the United States, Britain, Australia, Japan and Korea, the Korea Times reported.
* IU School of Medicine hematologist Hal Broxmeyer was one of the conferring scientists. Broxmeyer was one of the medical scientists who discovered stem cells could be isolated from umbilical cords and used in leukemia treatments.
https://www.physorg.com/news6016.html
"Fertility Procedure Freezes Eggs for Later Use" (MEDICINE)
National Public Radio
Aug. 22, 2005
EXCERPT: In our personal health news this morning, we have two of the latest developments in fertility and contraception. Few issues affect women more, whether they're trying to conceive a child or trying to avoid it. First, NPR's Allison Aubrey reports on a service now offered by some fertility centers: egg freezing. It's a technique promoted to young women who want to put off motherhood.
* IU School of Medicine fertillity expert Jeffrey Boldt and colleagues have made recent advances in the use of frozen eggs for human fertility treatments. Boldt tells NPR reporter Allison Aubrey, "We've seen steady advances... Although the early data is encouraging, you'd certainly need to have some, you know, larger number of babies born before you can make a statistical conclusion as to whether there's any effect on birth defects from egg freezing." Boldt is a professor of medical and molecular genetics.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4809662
"High-Tech Hot Spots" (INFORMATICS)
Newsweek
Aug. 22, 2005
EXCERPT: Julianna Allen's all ready for Vassar. She's ordered her Apple iBook with the Vassar discount, and she's got her iPod fully loaded. She knows the campus, having studied up online. But most important, ever since she got her acceptance letter she's been meeting her future classmates virtually. They're easy to find on Vassar's Web site as well as at Thefacebook.com, the online phenomenon that's probably sucked up more free time than videogames Halo 2 and Madden NFL combined. Some of her uninitiated friends ask, "Isn't that just a thing for stalkers?" But Allen, of Takoma Park, Md., has already had people get in touch who share her love of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" novels, along with other things she's had to say in Vassar's online forums. "I think we're going to be friends," she says.
* IU Informatics (Indianapolis) professor Garland Elmore tells Newsweek reporter John Schwartz, "Students are so tied in to computing and networking that it's almost like an extension of their central nervous system... It's how they connect to their friends, it's how they connect to information -- it's how they connect to their world."
https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8941034/site/newsweek/
Photo by: Chris Meyer, IU Home Pages
Elisabeth L. Lloyd holds the Arnold and Maxine Tanis Chair in IU Bloomington's Department of the History and Philosophy of Science
"Anticlimax" (BIOLOGY)
Nature
Vol. 436, nos. 916-917
Aug. 18, 2005
EXCERPT: For men, orgasm is an intimate part of reproduction: ejaculation doesn't usually happen without it. Presumably, male orgasms evolved because, in the past, males who experienced sexual pleasure were more likely to have sex, and so were more likely to sire children. But what about orgasm in women? Women can become pregnant without orgasm; indeed, some women bear lots of children without ever experiencing one. So how has the female orgasm evolved?
* Is the human female orgasm the result of natural selection, or is it a happenstance echo of its male counterpart? Nature contributor Olivia P. Judson reviews IUB Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science Elizabeth Lloyd's book The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution. Judson agrees with Lloyd when she writes, "... In short, it's time to collect data. Without it, the debate will remain like sex sometimes is: furious, empty and anticlimactic."
https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7053/full/436916a.html
"IMers can sabotage relationships by losing that personal touch" (INFORMATION SCIENCE)
Gannett News Service
Aug. 10, 2005
EXCERPT: ... Immediate responses from two-way pagers, cell phone text messages or instant messaging can be instantly gratifying or instantly misleading... The devices have cleared a new path for communication in relationships... Some praise messaging as a fast and open way to communicate with the ones they love or like. Others say close and personal contact can't be replaced.
* Online communication is more limited, in some ways, than its real-life, in-person cousin. IU School of Library and Information Science Professor Susan Herring tells Gannett News Service reporter Juliet M. Beverly, "There is room for misinterpretation... in IM or text. At the same time, text by itself isn't an impoverished medium... Think about all the great writers like Shakespeare." Herring is editor of the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication.
(Not available online)
"Identity Theft Is Out of Control" (INFORMATICS)
PC Magazine
August 2005
EXCERPT: More than 7 million people are victims of identity theft each year -- or nearly 20,000 thefts a day -- according to Gartner Research and Harris Interactive. Many thefts occur because of casual mistakes in the offline world: handing a credit card to the wrong person or scribbling your Social Security number on a sheet of paper someone can find. But many more are facilitated by the Internet, which still has a long way to go when it comes to protecting our privacy.
* The article refers to work computer scientists Virgil Griffith and Markus Jakobsson presented at the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science earlier this year. Griffith and Jakobsson found that mother's maiden names, commonly used to identify legitimate Internet consumers, are often easily retrievable online.
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1846085,00.asp
IU press release:
https://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/2073.html
* * * * Do you have an important and/or interesting paper in press? A major event or presentation coming up? Please contact IU Office of Media Relations science writers David Bricker at 812-856-9035, brickerd@indiana.edu, or Hal Kibbey at 812-855-0074, hkibbey@indiana.edu.
Indiana Science Monthly is produced for internal use only. If you have received this eMail in error, or do not wish not to receive this monthly eMail, or if you have a news item for the next edition of ISM, please contact David Bricker at 812-856-9035, brickerd@indiana.edu.
