Science & Technology

The Outpost's science and technology page published the last week of each month

Sep

2010

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Popular Science: MSU college lab ‘mind-blowing’

By EVELYN BOSWELL - MSU News Service

tech8-262colFUL BOZEMAN – Montana State University is one of the coolest schools in the United States with a laboratory that will blow your mind, according to the September issue of Popular Science.

For the second time in three years, MSU’s SubZero Science and Engineering Research Facility is included in a Popular Science feature. In its latest appearance, the lab that allows students and researchers from all over the world and across disciplines to conduct research in extreme cold is described as one of 15 “mind-blowing college labs” in the country. Popular Science said the featured universities - listed under a heading of “coolest schools” - offer “amazing, hands-on programs that are almost too fun for credit.”

Popular Science noted that MSU’s lab allows students to look for life in 250,000-year-old ice cores and prepares them for a career as avalanche forecasters. Other featured labs let students set off explosions in a private mine, climb 150-foot-tall trees to collect leaves for a shaman, invent toys, solve murders and swim with sharks. Among the other featured schools are Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University.

“I have read Popular Science for more than 40 years, and it is a great honor to have our subzero facility highlighted in this magazine,” said John Priscu, a longtime Antarctic researcher who co-directs MSU’s cold lab with avalanche expert Ed Adams. “Popular Science has always highlighted innovative one-of-a-kind technology, which I believe describes our lab perfectly.”

Researchers in the College of Engineering, College of Agriculture, College of Letters and Science, and College of Health and Human Development all use the SubZero facility, a suite of labs located in Cobleigh Hall. Priscu is a professor in the department of land resources and environmental sciences in the College of Agriculture. Adams is a professor in the department of civil engineering in the College of Engineering.

MSU’s SubZero Science and Engineering Research Facility first appeared in Popular Science in September 2008 when the magazine ran a feature called “A Geek’s Guide to Colleges - where to go if you want to clone mules, hunt aliens, or just build a better video game.” MSU, at that time, was one of 10 universities listed under the heading of “Smartest Schools.” Readers learned that temperatures in MSU’s lab can reach minus 80 F. Those who used the lab studied ancient ice cores from underneath the Antarctic, the best way to keep ice off roads, and the flow of snow to better predict avalanches.

The lab was also featured Aug. 18 on ESPN.com and Jan. 20, 2009, on the front page of The New York Times science section. The lab is expected to be featured sometime this fall or winter on the Weather Channel.

The cold labs draw so much attention because of the type of research they support, Priscu said. The studies he conducts involve the oldest ice on the planet and ice from polar ice sheets, which tells us about past climate conditions and potential life in and beneath the ice sheets.

“This is in addition to the cutting-edge research being conducted on snow mechanics and avalanches,” Priscu said. “As such, this facility breeds interdisciplinarity and provides students with an environment to exchange ideas and develop new ideas among their professors and peers.”

Priscu’s National Science Foundation- and NASA-funded programs are currently studying ice cores from West Antarctica that span the last glacial maximum to reveal the microbial record as the Earth went from an ice age to its current interglacial period, Priscu said. They are also examining ice, water and sediments collected in arctic lakes beneath a large ice stream in West Antarctic and in the Arctic in search of novel microorganisms with novel metabolisms, which may provide them with clues about life on other icy worlds such as Mars, Europa and Enceledus.

Adams said he is currently working on NSF-funded projects in the areas of snow metamorphism and material properties. Other researchers in the lab are studying “green” concrete to see how the cold affects concrete that contains crushed glass and fly ash. They’re also studying the performance of glue-laminated beams in the cold. They’re researching the rock glacier at Big Sky. John Seifert and Dan Heil in the department of health and human development are using the lab to conduct a variety of studies, that include the effect of cold on athletic performance, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and clothing designed for cold weather.

Adams said he believes the subzero facility – built with funds from the NSF and M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust – is popular because it deals with environmental issues and topics that have “sex appeal.” Antarctica, avalanches, snow and mountains all appeal to the media and general public, he said.

In addition to MSU faculty, the subzero facility serves high school students and MSU undergraduates and graduate students who are interested in pursuing careers in subzero science, Priscu said. Adams said two visiting scientists from Switzerland recently arrived at the lab and will conduct snow studies there for the next two years. They are funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

For more about MSU’s SubZero Science and Engineering Research Facility, visit:

• “At MSU snow, ice and cold are hot science” in the fall 2008 issue of Mountains and Minds at www.montana.edu/mountainsandminds/fall2008/index.html

• “Solving Avalanches’ Mysteries” in the New York Times, Jan. 20, 2009, at www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/science/20cold.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=avalanches&st=cse

• “Massive Antarctic project takes MSU to one of Earth’s final frontiers,” MSU News, Nov. 4, 2009, at www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=7633

• “What lies beneath; Miles below Antarctica’s icy surface, scientists are finding abundant life in liquid lakes and rivers,” The Washington Post, March 23, 2010.

Explore the MSU’s SubZero Science and Engineering Research Facility at its homepage: www.coe.montana.edu/ce/subzero/Index.html

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Sep

2010

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Mustangs go high tech

By T.J. GILLES - For The Outpost

They call it “organized” baseball, and for good reason.

The Billings Mustangs, one of the lesser cogs in the nation’s big baseball machine, are nonetheless on top of their Internet game.

A person could get lost in virtual baseball in a number of ways, and at no cost.

It’s a far cry from the 1950s and 1960s, when KGHL broadcaster Warren Kemper used to sit alone in the Cobb Field press box next to a teletype, play canned crowd noises and fill in as the balls and strikes came over the wire, striking an empty cigar box with a finger when a ball was hit or fouled off.

In those days, a youngster on a farm would have to wait for the daily Gazette to be delivered to go through the box scores and manually update the batting averages and pitching stats, as the Pioneer League would send out the league leaders maybe every week or two.

No mas.

One can attend the games in person at Dehler Park, listen to road games on KBUL radio (970 AM) with Joe Block, yet another National Basketball Association announcer (New Orleans Hornets) doing summer duty in the bucolic, friendly confines of minor-league baseball parks. Or go the Mustangs’ www.billingsmustangs.com and listen via computer.

Stats and play-by-play also are updated as the game runs on.

Each batter can be examined against a particular pitcher, against lefties or righties, in given situations, such as two outs and runners in scoring position, and on and on …

Major-league games begin being updated at 9 a.m. MDT and keep on until the cows come home or the last batter is retired.

One can do the same with any of the 17 minor leagues (including Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Mexico) from 34 AAA teams with players on the verge of the big promo to the bigs to any of the 106 rookie league teams.

Or find out that the Mustangs’ Porfirio Martinez was knocked out of the 64-player tournament where fans vote for Minor Moniker Madness. Martinez was knocked out by Atahualpa Severino and others such as Sequoyah Stonecipher, Shooter Hunt, Al Albuquerque, Zelous Wheeler, Bommer Potts, Beamer Weems and Gift Ngoepe remained in the running. Dusty Napoleon was last year’s winner and Will Startup the year before that.

Speaking of trivia, a trip to www.MiLB.com will get you the skinny on batting and pitcher leaders at any level, in any league – in any year dating back to 2005.

Past rosters for the Mustangs or any other of the hundreds of minor-league teams can be found and individual players’ careers tracked better than the CIA could dream of, a closer track than national security geeks have with people on terrorist no-fly watch, almost as close as probation officers and folks with ankle bracelets.