................................................... COLLEGE NEWS ................................................... AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS CLUB NAMES OUTSTANDING ALUM ISU's Agricultural Business Club honored Doug Dashner, retired executive director of the Dekalb County, Ill. Farm Bureau, March 1 as its Outstanding Alumnus. More: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/news_detail.php?var1=402 COLLEGE ALUM TO HEAD PIONEER HI-BRED James Borel, a Clarion native and College graduate, will take over DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred according to a company announcement last week. Borel, 52, has held several leadership positions at DuPont, including leading the company's agricultural products business in Canada and Asia Pacific. He graduated from Iowa State in 1978 with a degree in agriculture business. BLOCK AND BRIDLE CAKE AUCTION SET FOR THURSDAY The Block and Bridle Club will hold its annual cake auction Thursday, March 6. It will begin at 5 p.m. with judging and then the auction in the Kildee Hall Farm Bureau pavilion. Proceeds of the event are used for club scholarships. Those interested in donating a cake may sign up outside of 120 Kildee Hall. Cakes must be delivered by 4:30 p.m. March 6. GAMMA SIGMA DELTA AWARD NOMINATION DEADLINE WEDNESDAY The Iowa State chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta has extended the deadline for nominations for its annual awards to Wednesday, March 5. Awards include university mission awards for teaching, research, extension and international programs; distinguished achievement in agriculture; and alumni distinguished service awards. Electronic versions of nomination forms are on the Web at: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/gsd/awards.html 150 POINTS OF PRIDE: SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHTED The sociology department is the focus of this week's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' sesquicentennial Points of Pride. The first social survey of rural communities, the Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll and the origins of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development are included. More: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/coa150/points_of_pride.php ISU DEVELOPS NEW SWINE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT DATABASE A searchable, web-based database developed by the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering can quickly locate published information regarding environmental management practices on U.S. pork production facilities. More: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/news_detail.php?var1=400 NATIONAL LINERS, COVERS FOR AG WASTE STORAGE COURSE SET The Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, in cooperation with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and industry specialists, is offering a national Liners and Covers for Agricultural Waste Storage Short Course March 25-27 in Fresno, Calif. More: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/news_detail.php?var1=401 AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS SENIOR TO BECOME DEAN FOR A DAY Michael Fitzgerald, an agricultural business senior from Mechanicsville, won the Dean for a Day drawing and on April 18 will take the place of David Acker, associate dean of academic and global programs. Fitzgerald will have the chance to park in Acker's parking spot and attend meetings with him. Acker will go to one class with Fitzgerald and plans to take him and two friends to lunch. DEADLINES AND REMINDERS March 3: Career Services informational event, 7 p.m., Room 275 Scheman Building March 8: "Ames Reads Leopold," 1 to 5 p.m., Farwell Brown Auditorium, Ames Public Library April 4: Promotion and tenure workshop on the definition of scholarship, 3:10 to 5 p.m., CCUR auditorium, 1951 Food Sciences building April 10: 44th Annual Paul L. Errington Memorial Lecture, 7:30 p.m., 1414 Molecular Biology, more: http://www.nrem.iastate.edu/news/errington_lecture.php April 18: Promotion and tenure workshop on portfolio development, 3:10 to 5 p.m., CCUR auditorium, 1951 Food Sciences building April 30: Promotion and tenure workshop for associate professors, 3:10 to 5 p.m., CCUR auditorium, 1951 Food Sciences building ................................................... COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK ................................................... CELEBRATE NATIONAL GRAMMAR DAY TUESDAY The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and MSN Encarta have designated Tuesday, March 4, as National Grammar Day. “It is through speech and writing that we understand each other and can attend to our needs and differences,” according to the event's Web site. It urges Americans to: “Speak well! Write well! And on March 4, march forth and spread the word. If you see a sign with a catastrophic apostrophe, send a kind note to the storekeeper. If your local newscaster says 'Between you and I,' set him straight with a friendly e-mail.” More: http://nationalgrammarday.com/ ................................................... INFOGRAZING ................................................... ISU ADVANCE NETWORKING EVENT MARCH 13 An ISU ADVANCE networking event will take place March 13 titled, "Gender, Science and the Myths of Merit." It will include a presentation by Marlene Zuk, associate vice provost for faculty equity and diversity, and professor of biology from University of California, Riverside. It will begin at noon in the South Ballroom, Memorial Union. Feel free to bring a lunch. Refreshments will be provided. More: http://www.advance.iastate.edu/events.shtml ENERGY CONFERENCE SET FOR MARCH 25 AT SCHEMAN The third annual conference, “Advancing Renewables in the Midwest,” is set for March 25 at the Scheman Building. The focus is to communicate information regarding renewable energy development in the Midwest. Regional renewable energy projects and technologies involving wind, efficiency, biomass and solar, will be discussed and exhibited at the event. It is planned to be a carbon neutral conference with AgCert using credits from its United States agricultural inventories to offset the impacts of attendees&Mac226; travel, lodging and the conference's energy consumption. More: http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/arm ................................................... INTERNAL VOICES ................................................... ANIMAL SCIENTISTS WEIGH IN ON CLONING "You're taking a cell from an adult animal, and putting it into an unfertilized egg, and then essentially turning it on. That cell develops like a normal egg would and goes from start to finish ... That egg is implanted into a surrogate mother and the egg is brought to term. … A lot of plants you just can pick off a piece, plant it, root it and those are clones." --Max Rothschild, C.F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture, in a story on WQAD-TV (Clones for dinner?...not yet, http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=7935602&nav=1sW7) "It's no different than artificial insemination right now, where we take the best mothers and best fathers and propagate them in a better gene pool so we can make more efficient animals to feed people around the world." --Leo Timms, associate professor and extension dairy specialist, in a story on WQAD-TV (Clones for dinner?...not yet, http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=7935602&nav=1sW7) ................................................... MARGINALIA ................................................... SOYBEAN HULLS MAKE LOWER-FAT DOUGHNUTS Doughnuts containing 1, 5 and 10 percent of soybean hulls had decreased fat contents of 11.5, 13.6 and 35.8 percent, respectively, according to Korean food scientists in a paper in the Journal of Food Science. Researchers investigated the effect on fat uptake of four different types of doughnut composites that contained differing percentages of soybean hulls. The results indicated that microparticulated soybean hulls may form a protective layer during the frying process, and this process could be used by the food industry for preparing doughnuts with reduced fat uptake. More: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2008.00670.x (Institute of Food Technologists newsletter, Feb. 27) ........................................................ AG AND LIFE SCIENCES ONLINE ........................................................ EDITOR Ed Adcock, edadcock@iastate.edu Phone: (515) 294-5616 Web site: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/ SUBSCRIBE Ag and Life Sciences Online, the newsletter for faculty and staff in Iowa State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is e-mailed every Monday. To subscribe, send your name, e-mail address and the message "Ag and Life Sciences Online subscribe" to edadcock@iastate.edu. To unsubscribe, send "Ag and Life Sciences Online unsubscribe." Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran. Inquiries can be directed to the Director of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, 3210 Beardshear Hall, (515) 294-7612.