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Show an LUTA statesm., Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 campus Voice Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com since 1902 NASA's Discover returns with USU students' projects By PETER BROWN staff writer Two USU students traveled to NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., to retrieve student projects that floated in space for the last year and a half. Josh Hodges, graduate student working on a master's degree in physics, and Amberly Evans, undergraduate in physics and chemistry, arrived in mid October to receive and disassemble the pieces. In March 2008, space shuttle Endeavor brought the students' projects, SUSpECS (State of Utah Space Environment and Contamination Study), to the space station, and in September, space shuttle Discovery safely returned it to Earth. The project was designed to test 168 different materials' strength in outer space. USU's research is a slice of a larger NASA study to find which materials will best serve to build future spacecrafts. "We put two years of work into this project prior to the (Endeavor's) launching," said Hodges, who has been the team coordinator for the project since spring 2006. "It was a lot of work, and watching the shuttle go up was the most rewarding part of this experience." The projects consisted of metal plates that carried several different elements, such as gold, silver, copper, glass and quartz, Hodges said. These elements covered the front and backside of the plates, each element no larger than a dime. Evans, Hodges and the other four members of the USU team will do tests on the returned samples. About half of the samples will remain at USU, and the other half will be sent out to USU colleagues for further study. "One of the main focuses of this study is spacecraft charging," Hodges said. "When highenergy electrons from the sun hit the spacecraft, the materials will charge up. We then monitor how the materials react, and how they change so we can better predict their behavior." J.R. Dennison, faculty adviser of the USU team, has conducted research groups that study the effects of materials in outer space for the last 15 years. "Working with these students was incredible," Dennison said. "We were the last group to be added to the launch. Our guys started from absolute scratch from start to finish, and yet, they were the first group done." Dennison said the most challenging part of the process was learning the ins and outs of a shuttle launch. He said there were countless protocols and safety experiments. "Space is a harsh environment, and things change dramatically out there," Dennison said. "Very small changes can have huge effects that can lead to catastrophic failures. The great part about this was the team, as a whole, had flown I See SPACE, page 3 USU scientists study bacteria in Great Salt Lake Associate in pre-engineering to be offered By CATHERINE MEIDELL assistant news editor USU's post-doctoral scientists in metagenomics are breaking ground in bacterial research in the waters of the Great Salt Lake, a project funded by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL). The partnership with EMSL began two years ago; however, this is the first project EMSL has asked USU to execute. "Universities like MIT, Harvard and Yale are doing this same type of research," said Jacob Parnell, a USU biologist for the Center of Integrated BioSystems. "Our partnership with EMSL laboratory allows us to be on the cutting edge of microbial ecology." The project aims to distinguish the difference in the way proteins carry out respiration in bacteria with oxygen, opposed to other compounds like heavy metals, Parnell said. Currently, the Genome Institute, part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., is sequencing all the bacteria and archaea from a water sample of the Great Salt Lake taken by USU biologists. It will then determine the proteins present in the bacteria's DNA. Jeannine Hunemann, project coordinator for USU's Center of Integrated BioSystems, said once EMSL researchers establish a protein database, USU biologists will observe the way proteins change using different elements. Parnell said, "The project will help look at all of the proteins as they change from breathing oxygen to a different compound." He said when the sun goes down at the end of the day, bacteria can no longer perform photosynthesis using sunlight, By RACHEL A. CHRISTENSEN news editor USU RESEARCHERS are studying the waters of the Great Salt Lake. The project is funded by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. STATESMAN photo Inside This Issue and they use up the oxygen in the water quickly. Because of the high concentration of salt in the water, it is difficult for oxygen to be produced, even with sunlight. Bacteria must rely on compounds like nitrates and heavy metals to stay alive, Parnell said. Bacteria must change their proteins as their environment changes to remain functional, he said. Giovanni Rompato, Parnell's partner in the bacteria research, said it would not be possible to do the research without EMSL, and USU is privileged to have the opportunity to participate in the prestigious experiments. Without EMSL, USU would not have the technology necessary to perform the research, he said. Rompato said, "We have had some samples submitted, but the bulk of the project will be done over the next three years." There are 100 to 300 different types of bacteria and archaea in the community being sampled, Parnell said, which is a relatively small number compared to the bacteria count in soil. He said one teaspoon of soil can contain 10,000 species of bacteria. In comparison, Parnell said researching bacteria in water is "a piece of cake." Parnell's and Rompato's research will cover the bacteria life specifically located in the north arm of the lake. "We had the proposal from the Department of Energy to do all the DNA within this community, and one of the things we found out when we did it is compared to many of the communities we have. This is a very simple community," Parnell said. The groundbreaking research will create many benefits in the realm of energy conservation, Parnell said. First of all, it will be a valuable teaching tool for current and future biologists. He said by studying a more simple community, he will be able to look at a bacterium after putting it in a different environment and observe its changes, which is more 12/02/09 Huntsman scholars study in the classroom and in Europe. difficult to observe in a complex community. He said the project is one that few universities are able to participate in. The project will give implications of how bacteria was first able to use oxygen, and how bacteria keeps the environment clean of heavy metals and toxic chemicals, he said. Rompato and Parnell are also working with microbiologist Bart Weimer from the University of California-Davis and EMSL scientist Stephen Callister on the bacterial research project. "This is going to give us more information than we have ever had before about the Great Salt Lake," Parnell said. "The lake is really a treasure and this is something we have in our backyard. Many who have grown up in Utah think it's a waste of water because it holds so much salt but understanding how bacteria survives in such a hostile environment can greatly benefit us." — catherine.meidell@aggiemausu. edu Orem native Tai Wesley is excited to take on his home-town team. The Board of Trustees approved the Associate of Pre-Engineering degree (APE) to be offered at USU's three regional campuses effective spring 2010. APE was approved during December's meeting. USU's College of Engineering has been involved in the process from the beginning, and College of Engineering Dean Scott Hinton said Associate Dean Wynn Walker led in creating the degree. Hinton said creation of APE didn't cause the university any additional costs. The regional campuses will use faculty for the APE acquired by House Bill 185, which, according to a Faculty Senate document, allotted $5 million in 2007 to regional campuses for new buildings, programs and faculty. Hinton said the use of online technologies will also help keep costs down. "The hope is that new students that join the program will eventually cover any costs that we have," Hinton said. "Right now with budget cuts, we don't really have money to throw at it." APE is made up of the same prerequisite courses — the fundamentals such as math, physics and chemistry — that a student would take in the first two years as a USU engineering major. According to Board of Trustees documents, the new degree is aimed at two specific groups: those who would like to continue on to get a bachelor's degree in engineering and those already working in the field. Hinton said many people will benefit from APE. For example, Hinton said if a student in Uintah Basin wants to study engineering, he or she can do so at the regional campus and leave the basin with an associate degree instead of just credits. He said the associate degree will help students feel like they accomplished something when they leave the regional campuses. Once students earn their APE, Hinton said they can come to USU or another university to finish their engineering degree. Students who earn the APE will find it benefi- I See DEGREE, page 3 www.aggietownsquare.cqni Get a head start on selling your books, finding your books, getting a ride home ... you can do it all at your site, www.aggietownsquare.com Official Student Newspaper of Utah State University • "It's All The News You Need!" |