Volume 4 Number 1
September 14, 2000

    Hi......this is the first issue of the Biology Department Newsletter for the 2000 – 2001 academic year. The purpose of this (hopefully) cyclic newsletter is to keep you informed about departmental activities. The newsletter will exist only in email form - we won't issue a hard copy. This first issue is being sent students who: (1) list biology or natural science as a major or minor; (2) students in Concepts of Biology (Biol115) and (3) anyone who previously asked to be placed on our distribution list. If you want to join or be removed from the distribution list, please let me know. Anyone is welcome to join our mailing list!

John Sandberg (SJU ’00) worked this summer as a fire fighter in Grand Marais and the Tetons.

Nick DuFault (SJU ’01) – participated in the U of MN summer research program in molecular biology. He worked in a plant pathology lab.

John Skredtvedt (SJU ’01) – worked for the MN Department of Agriculture during the summer.

Dr. Larry Davis attended the biannual convention of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the Earth Science Student Honor Society, at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX on 10-12 March. The purpose of the convention is for student delegates from SGE Chapters to review the organization's constitution and by-laws; review the SGE finances; and to elect national officers (faculty). Larry was re-elected for a 2-year term as the National Vice President for the Central Region (ND, SD, MN, MI, IO, IL, NE).

Dr. Ron Henry attended the Winter meeting of the Minnesota Interlaboratory Microbiology Association in January. The speakers and topics were: How fungi push through humans: The emerging field of microbial biomechanics by Nicholas P. Money, Ph. D. (Miami University of Ohio) and "International medicine from a midwestern perspective" by David N. Williams, M. D. (University of Minnesota and Hennepin Co. Medical Center)

Wartburg Biologists Visit CSB/SJU. Several biologists from Wartburg College (IA) recently visited the department. Wartburg is planning the construction of a new science center on their campus and the biologists came to learn about our new state-of-the-art facilities. Dr’s. Lamberts and Saupe spent about two hours showing the group our "cool stuff".

Sept 13 Pre-Med Meeting; Room AV1, Alcuin Library, SJU.

Sept 20-Oct 4 Walk Through Time Exhibit on campus

Sept 20 Campus Dinner to celebrate the opening of the Walk Through Time Exhibit; 5:00 p.m.

Sept 20 "The Chippewa National Forest" – Betsy Daub (Minnesota Audubon Society), presentation at the Central Minnesota Audubon meeting, Heritage Nature Center, St. Cloud (across from Cub Foods West), 7:00 p.m.

Sept 23 Wild Ones Prairie Planting, Whitney Park, St. Cloud.

Sept 27 "Viruses and Apoptosis: Molecular Mechanisms at the Battlefront". Paul Friesen (U. Wisconsin, Biochemistry Dept); 4:30 p.m. ASC 142.

Sept 29 "Tyrannosaurus rex: Family Values, an Insider's View to Dinosaurs"; Peter Engel Lecture: Dr. Robert Bakker Friday, September 29 at 7:30 pm; Warner Palaestra - Sexton Arena

Sept 30 "Great Dinosaur Art Contest"

Sept 30 "Using dinosaurs to teach science: T. rex tasted like chicken".

Oct. 2 Schirber Medical Ethics Lecture - Elaine Fox, Ph.D, R.N., 7:30 PM , The Peter Engel Science Center Auditorium

Oct 3 Visit by the medical ddmissions officers from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, 5:00 p.m in 142 Ardolf Science Center, CSB.

Oct 4 "Biomedical Applications of GC/MS" – by Jack Throck Watson (Michigan State Univ; Biochemistry); 4:30 p.m.; ASC 142

Oct 26-29 Creativity and Sustainable Environments Conference – CSB/SJU

Dinosaur Lecture Series by World Famous Paleontologist
   Dr. Robert Bakker, the famous paleontologist, will be on campus September 29 – 30 to meet with students and give a series of lectures. You are invited to these events and are encouraged to attend. They are sure to be fun, exciting, and intellectually challenging presentations.

    The first annual Peter Engel Lecture will be given on Friday, September 29, at 7:30. On the same day, Dr. Bakker will be give an additional lecture at 3:00 aimed at science faculty and students This will be a more in-depth, scientific lecture than the general audience one in the evening, and the audience will be much smaller.

    On Saturday, September 30 at 10:00 am in the Palaestra he will give a presentation for children. Following that, at 1:30 in the Peter Engel Science Center Auditorium, he will be giving a presentation for school teachers entitled, "Using Dinosaurs to Teach Science: T-rex Tasted Like Chicken".

"Tyrannosaurus rex: Family Values, an Insider's View to Dinosaurs."
   Saint John's University is proud to present the inaugural Peter Engel Lecture: Dr. Robert Bakker Friday, September 29 at 7:30 pm; Warner Palaestra - Sexton Arena . 

    Dr. Bakker is the author of Raptor Red, Raptor Revenge, and Father of Jurassic Park. He is currently the Adjunct Curator at the Paleon Foundation's Dr. Robert Bakker Learning Center in Glenrock, WY.

    He is considered to be the scientist most responsible for the new, revolutionary ideas that have won over much of the popular and technical opinion about dinosaurs. Dr. Bakker is cited several times by Michael Crichton in his novel Jurassic Park, and assisted in making the dinosaurs as realistic as possible for the motion picture.

    In his lecture, Dr. Bakker will give a first-hand account of how paleontologists have penetrated the mysteries surrounding the private lives of dinosaurs.

"The Great Dinosaur Art Contest".
   This event is an interactive activity for elementary-aged children. It will be presented by Dr. Bakker on September 30, from 10 a.m. to noon. It will be held in Warner Palaestra’s Sexton Arena.

"Using Dinosaurs to Teach Science: T. rex Tasted Like Chicken".
   This presentation by Dr. Bakker is intended for teachers. It will be held on September 30 from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. in Peter Engel Science Center.

Walk Through Time
   This is a self-guided tour consisting of a series of 90 stand-alone educational panels that allow participants to experience 4.6 billion years of history in a one-mile walk. It was developed by employees of the Hewlett-Packard Company. The exhibit will be open to the public from Sept. 20 to Oct 4.

"Cross-Cultural Issues in Healthcare: Doubling the Responsibility of Health Care Providers".
    This is a Schirber Lecture Series on Medical Ethics presentation by Elaine Fox, Ph.D, R.N., Monday October 2, 2000, 7:30 PM , The Peter Engel Science Center Auditorium, St. John's University .

From Egg to Organ: Evolution of Developmental Mechanisms - the 9th Annual U MN Symposium in Developmental Biology.
    Mark your calendars! This fall's Symposium in Developmental Biology will be held September 25-26, 2000 in the Earle Brown Center on the St. Paul campus. The meeting will focus on the interface between evolution and development and it will cover a broad range of systems including worms, insects, ascidians, fish, plants, chicks, mice and snakes! Talks will explore molecular mechanisms and evolution of limb development, skeletal patterning, meristem development, signalling systems, and developmental strategies for body patterning. In addition to platform sessions, we will hold a poster session where all attendees (especially students) are encouraged to present their own work on any aspect of biology. Attendees are also invited to a banquet held on Monday evening, Sept. 25 at the Weisman Art Museum on the Minneapolis campus. The after-dinner speaker will be Dr. Andrew Knoll, Chair of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, and the title of his talk is: "Etched in Stone: Fossils and the Early Evolution of Animals." Details concerning registration and schedule are available from the Web site: http://www.med.umn.edu/dbc/symp/2000 or from Mary Muwahid at phone: 625-5128, e-mail: muwahid@lenti.med.umn.edu.

How about joining the President of Saint John’s for Bronto Burgers, Velociraptor Legs, Triassic Tubers and Eggs, Duckbill Browse, Coelacanth Scales,Cretaceous Cukes and Mesozoic Melons ??
   On Wednesday, September 20, at 5:00 pm will be a kickoff event for the"Walk Through Time" exhibit. Join us for music, a program, and dinner at Saint John’s on the Mall. All CSB & SJU students, faculty, staff and families invited (use your meal plan or your i.d. card)

Creativity and Sustainable Environments Conference
   This conference will be held on campus October 26^th – 29^th . Among the featured speakers/activites are:

Pre-Med Meeting for First and Second Year Students
   7:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 13, 2000, Room AV1, Alcuin Library, SJU.   This meeting is strongly suggested for any first and second students interested in pursuing pre-med at CSB/SJU. We will give you an overview of the CSB/SJU pre-med program, update you on new medical school prerequisites, and show you recent statistics on medical school entering classes. Note that we are instituting major changes in the CSB/SJU program this year, so even if you went to last year's meeting we strongly encourage you to attend.

Pre-Professional Students Should Register at the Web Site.
   If you are interested in pre-professional health programs (i.e., physical therapy, physician assistant, medicine) you should register at the Pre- Professional web site at http://www.csbsju.edu/premed/.

Pre-Medical Admissions Visit.
   Dr. Marilyn Becker, Director of Admissions, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and Dr. Greg Vercellotti, Associate Director of Admissions, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, will talk to interested premed students at 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, October 3, 2000 (D3), in 142 Ardolf Science Center, CSB. We strongly encourage all interested premeds, regardless of class standing, to attend this meeting to hear about new developments and policies in the UM-TC admissions process. Dr. Becker has started as Director of Admissions this year, and this will be a valuable opportunity to hear first hand from her concerning profiles of the 2000 entering class, trends in the UM-TC admissions policy, among other topics. Since almost all of our students eventually apply to UM-TC , this is a talk you shouldn't miss.

The Dung File. (thanks to Dr. M. Reagan for this gem)
    This is a web site devoted to the study of coprolites - fossilized feces. Scientists can learn quite a lot about diet, parasites, and physiology by closely examining coprolites. Check this site out and learn about techniques for excavating ancient latrines, among other fascinating studies!  The site is at: http://www.ualberta.ca/~abeaudoi/stuff/dung.htm

Prairie Planting Volunteers Sought
   The Wild Ones, a native landscaping group, has been working with others to plan and plant a native prairie site at Whitney Park in St. Cloud. The site is about 0.5-1 acre. On Saturday, September 23, the planting is scheduled to occur. The day's activities will include raking, seedingn and packing the soil. Depending on the number of workers, it shouldn't take more than half a day. As Wild Ones is a fairly small group, we are looking for volunteers to help. Contact Dr. Brian Johnson, Chemistry Department for more details.

Hansen and Reagan Visit Washington.
    This is a report from the trip to Washington, D.C. that Senior Biology major Ryan Hansen and Dr. Reagan took so that Ryan could present the results of his summer research project in Dr. Reagan's lab at the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) "Posters on the Hill" event. Ryan was one of 60 students selected from a nationwide pool to present his research at the poster session. We arrived in D.C. on Wednesday evening and checked into our hotel 2 blocks from the White House. We strolled down to see the White House and were lucky enough to see the Presidential helicopter land in the back yard!

    Thursday we went to the Capitol to the event. In the morning session at the Rayburn House Office Building, Congressman Rush Holt (D, NJ) spoke to us about the importance of funding science research and about specific initiatives being discussed in Congress this session. Then Holt's Congressional Aide, Christopher Davis, talked with us about how to get our message across to our Congressional delegations when we met with them. Your Congresspersons and Senators are extraordinarily busy (Congressman Holt's schedule that day began at 7AM and did not end until 11PM), so you need to be brief, be specific, and thank them for their support. In the early afternoon Ryan and I traveled between the Senate and House office building where the MN congressional delegations have their offices and talked to Science and Education aides to Senators Grams and Wellstone, and Representative Peterson (who represents the 7th Congressional district, in which CSB/SJU is located). We stressed the importance of undergraduate research and the great things happening at CSB/SJU.

    Later that day we participated in the poster session, held at the Rayburn House Office Building. In attendance were Representatives and Senators, their aides, about a dozen NSF program officers and officials, three individuals from NIH, and representatives of NASA, the Department of Energy, and the US Department of Agriculture. Three different federal agency EPSCoR programs were represented. CUR also invited representatives of scientific societies, and we noted the presence of folks from the American Chemical Society, American Society for Microbiology, American Psychological Society, and others.

    Ryan and I feel that this was a very worthwhile event. We were able to spread the message about funding undergraduate education and research and we learned a lot about how things work in Congress. We were also able to enjoy an absolutely beautiful day, sunny and 70s. It is spring in Washington! We will long remember the sight of the Capitol as the sun came up on the dome, and the vast expanse of the view of the Mall from the rear of the Capitol, with the Washington and Lincoln monuments, the Smithsonian and the White House all in view. We hope that some of you will be able to enjoy this event next year!

    You can see a story about our trip and a photo at this web site: http://www.csbsju.edu/Connections/news2.htm

BBMB Symposium @ Iowa State University- Nov. 10-11, 2000. This is the seventh annual symposium in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology and this year features plants. For more details: http://molebio.iastate.edu/bbhtml/symp.htm.

St. Croix River Research Rendezvous- Oct. 17, 2000. Marine on St. Croix, MN. Scientific investigations centered on the watershed of St. Croix River will be presented and discussed. For more information call 651- 433 – 5953.

U of M Doctoral Fellowships in Plant Biotechnology- The Plant Biological Sciences graduate program will award USDA National Needs Fellowships for doctoral students interested in plant biotechnology. Applications due December 15, 2000. For more information contact dmarks@biosci.cbs.umn.edu.

    The fire at Los Alamos has one significant consequence. A secret scientific document was discovered in a bunker whose security systems were mostly destroyed by the fire. This document was leaked to the public last weekend.

    Actually it reveals nothing that we didn't already suspect. But it does show that the government has known all along that besides arsenic, lead, mercury, radon, strontium and plutonium, one more extremely deadly and pervasive element also exists.

    Investigators at a major research institution have discovered the heaviest element known to science. This startling new discovery has been tentatively named Governmentium (Gv) but kept top secret for 50 years. This new element has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number of 0. It does, however, have 1 neutron, 125 deputy neutrons, 75 supervisory neutrons, and 111 team leader neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

    These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since it has no electrons, Governmentium is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.

    According to the discoverers, a minute amount of Governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second.

    Governmentium has a normal half-life of approximately three years; it does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the deputy neutrons, supervisory neutrons, and team leader neutrons exchange places.

    In fact, Governmentium sample's mass will actually increase over time, since with each reorganization some of the morons inevitably become neutrons, forming new isotopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as the "Critical Morass."

McGreevey Receives Young Botanist Award.
Check out the story in the Plant Science Bulletin, published by the Botanical Society of America at: http://www.botany.org/bsa/psb/2000/psb_00-2.html