DIVERSITY AWARENESS A 21st CENTURY PREREQUISITE
According to Patreese Ingram, assistant professor of agricultural and extension education, diversity awareness will be an important prerequisite for life in the 21st century. “If we project our population into the year 2025, in Pennsylvania alone, the Hispanic and Asian-American populations are expected to double, and the African American population is expected to grow, as well,” she says. “All communities will have much greater diversity by the time our children grow up and enter the workforce.” Ingram recently chaired a Diversity Essay Contest for middle and high school students in Centre, Clearfield and Clinton counties. Students addressed the issue of diversity and difference defined broadly. Some essay topics included a first encounter with a child of another race, the importance of the immigrant experience and the challenge of overcoming prejudices against disabilities or sexual orientation. The eight winning essays, along with the honorable mentions, are on the Web at http://agexted.cas.psu.edu/diversity.html. The full story by Celena Kusch appears in the Fall 2001 issue of Penn State Outreach.
MINI MOTOR COULD AID MICROMEDICAL APPLICATIONS
While the age of nanobots is not with us yet, an easy to make, tiny, inexpensive motor may soon become the motivating force in micromedical applications, according to a Penn State engineer. The smallest of these ultrasonic, piezoelectric motors developed by researchers at the Materials Research Institute is about the size of a grain of rice. They are 1.8 millimeters in diameter and 4 millimeters long. “Initially, our applications for these motors are aimed at medical uses,” says Kenji Uchino, professor of electrical engineering. Some of these applications include specialized urinary catheters and endoscopic instruments. And because the motors are not electromagnetic, with proper choice of materials they could be used in surgery performed using Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The researchers have fabricated the prototype motors from readily available materials because they want to be able to mass produce the motors inexpensively. Besides medical applications, they could function in appliances, computers and even wristwatches. For the full story by A’ndrea Elyse Messer, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/tinymotor.html
NEUTRINOS MAY LEAD THE WAY FOR GAMMA-RAY BURSTS
The most powerful explosions in the universe, gamma-ray bursts, may come with a 10-second warning - an equally violent burst of ultra-high-energy neutrinos. Peter Meszaros, distinguished professor of astronomy at Penn State, and Eli Waxman, of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, describe this theory in the October issue of Physical Review Letters. Gamma-ray bursts occur about once a day from Earth’s vantage point, yet randomly across the sky, and last for only a few seconds. As such, they are difficult to detect and analyze. The researchers say that about two-thirds of all gamma-ray bursts could arise from a fireball formed when the core of a massive star collapses into a black hole. Before the fireball exits the stellar envelope to make gamma rays, internal shocks accelerate protons, which collide with X-ray photons to create electrons, neutrinos and anti-neutrinos. According to the theory, the neutrinos punch through the stellar envelope at least 10 seconds before the gamma rays form. For the full story by Christopher Wanjek, visit http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Meszaros11-2001.htm.
IBM DONATION BOOSTS PENN COLLEGE MIS PROGRAM
IBM recently donated computer hardware and software valued at nearly $750,000 to Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport for use in the new Business Administration-Management Information Systems (MIS) Concentration major in the School of Business and Computer Technologies. The donation includes an iSeries/400 Model 270 server system with special software to accommodate training in CICS, MQSeries, Database, Networking and WebSphere. The donation is a result of Penn College’s participation in IBM’s Partners in Education initiative with SCS, Inc., Williamsport. Graduates of the MIS program work in such fields as systems analysis, information system management, quality assurance, financial and market research and production planning. For more information, call (570) 327-4517 or visit http://www.pct.edu/.
UPCOMING LECTURES AT UNIVERSITY PARK
Tim Dean, associate professor of English and interpretive theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “Normalizing Emily Dickinson,” 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, in the Nittany Lion Inn’s Penn State Room, part of the Millennium, Approached Literary Studies series. For more information, visit http://english.la.psu.edu and check under “Forthcoming Events” or contact Vincent A. Lankewish at (814) 865-4383.Anthony J. Leggett, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “Does the Everyday World Really Obey Quantum Mechanics,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in 117 Osmond Laboratory, part of the 2001 E. W. Mueller Memorial Lectures in Physics. For more information, visit http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Mueller10-2001.htm.
Donald J. Waters, program officer for scholarly communications for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, “The Development of ArtSTOR,” 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, in 101 Pattee Library. ArtSTOR is an independent, not-for-profit organization that will develop, “store” and electronically distribute digital images and related scholarly materials for the study of art, architecture and other fields in the humanities. For more information, visit http://www.libraries.psu.edu/pubinfo/news/artSTOR1001.html.