Ag and Life Sciences ONLINE

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

or patahahn@iastate.edu.



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, http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/leopold/Leopold.html,

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.)