COLLEGE NEWS
- Seed science addition dedicated today
- Autumn Festival at the gardens this weekend, Sept.
27-28
- Minority student enrollment increases
- Ride to the World Food Prize award ceremony
- Here's the scoop: Cool treats from Dairy Science Club
- Projects to improve human nutrition sought
- Leopold conference grant deadline Oct. 6
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- Finetuning the Web search
INFOGRAZING
- Entomology Web site cited in newspaper articles
EXTERNAL VOICES
- Science may benefit from balanced budget
MARGINALIA
- Applying mussel power to the hog odor problem
C O L L E G E N E W S
SEED SCIENCE ADDITION DEDICATED TODAY
Today (Friday) at 4 p.m. the new addition
to the Seed Science Center will be dedicated. The project was
made possible by $670,000 in contributions from 40 companies,
associations and individuals, including $100,000 from the College
of Agriculture.
AUTUMN FESTIVAL AT THE GARDENS THIS WEEKEND,
SEPT. 27-28
Arts, crafts, garden plants, food, books and
other items will be on sale at the first Autumn Festival at the
Reiman Gardens this weekend, Sept. 27-28. The event will raise
funds for development of a new section of the gardens. Festival
hours are 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturday and noon - 4 p.m. Sunday.
MINORITY STUDENT ENROLLMENT INCREASES
This fall, 115 minority students are enrolled
in the College of Agriculture, an increase of 14 from last year.
That number is 3 percent of the college's total fall undergraduate
and graduate enrollment of 3,454. Ninety-three are undergraduates
-- 28 freshmen, 14 sophomores, 17 juniors and 34 seniors -- and
22 are graduate students. Fifty-eight are female; 57 are male.
The total includes 49 Hispanic-Americans, 27 African-Americans,
21 Asian-Americans and 8 Native Americans. Majors that increased
their minority student numbers include animal ecology (13 students,
from 6 last year); microbiology, immunology and preventive medicine
(18, from 9 last year); and zoology and genetics (8, from 3 last
year).
RIDE TO THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE AWARD CEREMONY
Two ISU vans have been reserved for agriculture faculty and staff
who wish to attend the 1997 World Food Prize award ceremony on
Oct. 16 at the Des Moines Civic Center. The winner of the prize
will be announced Oct. 14 in Washington, DC. The 4 p.m. award
ceremony in Des Moines will include an acceptance address by the
winner, a performance by opera/gospel singer Simon Estes and remarks
by American Red Cross president Elizabeth Dole, who is joining
the prize's Council of Advisors. To sign up to ride in a van,
or for more information: Brian Meyer, 4-0706 or bmeyer@iastate.edu.
The college is the secretariat for the prize.
HERE'S THE SCOOP: COOL TREATS FROM DAIRY SCIENCE CLUB
The Dairy Science Club is selling homemade ice cream to raise
funds to host the Midwestern meeting of the American Dairy Science
Association's student group in February. Sales are 10:45 a.m.
- 1:15 p.m., Mondays and Thursdays, in the lobby outside Lush
Auditorium in Kildee Hall. Small cups of vanilla, chocolate or
M&M sell for $1; large cups are $1.50. Sales are on a trial
basis through the rest of the semester. Call Ilene Carlson, 4-6021,
to make sure when the club is selling.
PROJECTS TO IMPROVE HUMAN NUTRITION SOUGHT
The Center for Designing Foods to Improve Nutrition seeks pre-proposals
for the USDA's special grant application, which funds preliminary
research assessing dietary strategies for improving human nutrition.
Deadline is Oct. 15. For more information: Patricia Hahn, 4-8489
LEOPOLD CONFERENCE GRANT DEADLINE OCT. 6
Deadline for the fourth quarter of the Leopold Center's conference/workshop
grant program is 5 p.m., Oct. 6. Information is available on the
center's web page.
or by calling Rich Pirog, 4-3711.
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Sept. 25-28: 9th annual Growth Factor and Signal Transduction
Symposium, 4-7978.
Oct. 1: AgComm seminar for new teaching faculty and TAs, 106 Curtiss,
noon.
Oct. 1: Faculty improvement leave applications due, 138 Curtiss.
Oct. 1: Consulting reports for A, B and P staff due, 138 Curtiss.
Oct. 2: 21st Century Land-Grant Universities:
Action on Issues teleconference, 116 Pearson, 4-2092.
Oct. 6: Leopold Center conference/workshop
grant deadline, 4-3711.
Oct. 16: World Food Prize award ceremony, Des Moines, 4-0706.
Oct. 17: Deadline, Dean of Agriculture's International Research
Grants, 4-8493.
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K
FINETUNING THE WEB SEARCH
Web search engines work differently, but there are common concepts
to keep in mind when conducting a search, reports Cheryl Rainford,
news editor for Successful Farming magazine's @griculture Online.
Define your search as specifically as possible. Place double quotes
around a phrase to search for the words in that order. If a topic
is always capitalized, make sure you capitalize it when searching.
Rainford said search engines find information in different ways.
For example, Yahoo is like the Yellow Pages and works best for
common, well-defined topics. Engines that index keywords and phrases
(like AltaVista, InfoSeek, Lycos and HotBot) are suited for technical
topics. The Excite engine searches for concepts and can find patterns
between your search words and related topics.
I N F O G R A Z I N G
ENTOMOLOGY WEB SITE CITED IN NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
The Department of Entomology's Web site, http://www.ent.iastate.edu/,
was featured in the Wall Street Journal's "Watching the Web"
column on July 31. "Stop cursing those pesky bugs and start
studying them at Iowa State's library of insect knowledge,"
the column begins. And the July 22 issue of the Daily Yomiuri,
a Japanese newspaper, reads: "Information on digesting all
manner of pests, critters and vermin is readily available online
at sites such as Entomology at Iowa State University. It seems
the good folks of Iowa have a penchant for insects, and are willing
to share with the world recipes, how to get table-quality insects
(try pet supply stores) and insect nutritional value charts .
. .This remarkably fast site also contains pictures, videos celebrating
the return of the 17-year cicada and a bug database. The site
also has a list explaining common household insects . . ."
E X T E R N A L V O I C E S
SCIENCE MAY BENEFIT FROM BALANCED BUDGET
"We might get to a balanced budget next year . . . If we
do that, I think the work that has been done this year on a bipartisan
basis has put science in a very strong position to argue for an
increased share of the federal pot . . . I think we're coming
into the era of the balanced-budget dividend, and we ought to
make sure that some of those dividend checks go to people who
do scientific research and programs that advance science."
House Science Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), quoted
in the Sept. 15 Science & Government Report.
M A R G I N A L I A
APPLYING MUSSEL POWER TO THE HOG ODOR PROBLEM
Southern Illinois University researchers are testing the theory
that zebra mussels -- those pipe-clogging, boat-covering bivalves
that are menacing America's inland waterways -- could consume
hog wastes, thereby reducing the smell. The mussels wouldn't be
dumped into lagoons, where they might escape to nearby waterways.
The researchers propose putting them in a closed system designed
to contain them. They say initial lab tests have been promising.
(From an Associated Press story in Farm News, Sept. 12.)