ASU News - Science + Science

ASU professor creates joint invention with MIT

jabrewe — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:31:55 -0700

For Arizona State University (ASU) Professor Thomas Moore, an invitation to guest lecture became a demonstration in a lab which led to a seafood lunch – which led to a joint invention with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that contributed to a sustainable energy start-up company.

Moore had been asked to speak at a summer course taught by well-known MIT Professor Daniel Nocera and, after the lecture, Moore was invited to the MIT labs for a demonstration of a new catalyst that could split water into hydrogen and oxygen – a potential pathway to sustainable energy production. As the demonstration came to a close, the group got hungry and headed to a local seafood restaurant for lunch. Over lobster and crab, the ensuing discussion led Moore to suggest that a type of solar cell he was developing could serve as a power source to enhance the ability of the catalyst to create this reaction. And the idea for a co-invention was born.

MIT scientists had developed the catalyst and Moore, along with his co-inventors, came up with a dye-sensitized solar cell that could provide the power needed to make the system more cost-effective.

“This is what happens when scientists get together to dream,” said Moore, director of the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis and a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “A scientist’s job is to translate dreams into reality and that’s what we set in motion that day.”

Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), which manages intellectual property and technology transfer for ASU, entered into an agreement with MIT’s technology transfer office to protect and market Moore’s joint invention with MIT. MIT then licensed the joint invention – along with other inventions from MIT – to Sun Catalytix (www.suncatalytix.com), a Cambridge, Mass.-based early-stage renewable energy start up.

This progression of events is the perfect example of the value of scientific collaboration, according to AzTE Deputy Managing Director Ken Polasko.

“Rarely does one department or one institution ever hold all the solutions to the complex scientific and economic puzzles that face society today,” Polasko said. “The open nature of the University system facilitates the interaction of highly skilled researchers that, in this case, may lead to a pathway for sustainable energy production.”

Documentary film on mud volcano launches in Arizona

nstaab — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The School of Earth and Space Exploration hosted a symposium "Living with the Planet" Nov. 13 that featured the premiere screening of the documentary film "Mud Max: Investigative Documentary - Sidoardjo Mud Volcano Disaster."

The event included a panel discussion with earth scientists from leading European and American institutions, which concluded that the cause of the Sidoardjo mud volcano disaster (also known as LUSI) is still inconclusive.

No disaster in recent history has received as much attention nor created as much controversy as that of LUSI, the world's fastest growing mud volcano in Indonesia that suddenly erupted on May 29, 2006. Dubbed LUSI as a compendium of the Indonesian word for mud (lumpur) and the East Java town near which LUSI was born (Sidoarjo), the phenomenon has been a unique disaster. The hot mud, which first began spewing from the earth following a powerful earthquake and nearby exploration drilling, is still pouring forth at the rate of up to 150,000 cubic meters per day. Some 40,000 residents living near the eruption have lost their homes, belongings and, in some cases livelihoods and lives. Whole villages have been inundated with mud, infrastructures destroyed and reputations ruined.

International experts have been divided over the cause of the mud eruption. The early point of views favored the theory that the nearby drilling activity may have triggered the eruption, but others, after having time for considerable scientific investigation, support the idea that seismic activity linked to an earthquake just two days before the mud eruption began could have been the likely cause.

While conducting research in Indonesia, Amanda Clarke, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was interviewed by the film crew creating the documentary film ‘Mud Max.' The project was produced over a 27-month period by the British company Immodicus in conjunction with the School of Earth and Space Exploration and involved researchers, geologists, drilling experts and scientists whom explore the facts of the tragic, on-going disaster including the scientific, economic, humanitarian and political issues that have made LUSI the talk of the geophysical world. The film aims to highlight the facts and views from every side, but leaves the decision to the viewer as to what caused the mud volcano eruption.

Rather than pointing fingers and dwelling on the causes of the eruption, the Living with the Planet panelists emphasized the importance of seeking out solutions and using LUSI to learn from.

Panel member Jonathan Fink, professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and director of the Center for Sustainability Science Applications, pointed out that volcanology is a relatively young science that requires observations of active eruptions to advance knowledge.

"Mud volcanism of the scale of LUSI has rarely if ever been seen before, so volcanologists may not be able to answer all of the questions that policy makers and the public want to know," explains Fink. "Each eruption teaches us something new, so LUSI may help scientists interpret future mud events."

Adriano Mazzini, a researcher at the Physics of Geological Processes Centre of Excellence (University of Oslo), whose research has focused on mud volcanoes, has conducted extensive research on LUSI during his three visits.

"Our results support a scenario where the strike-slip movement of the Watukosek fault triggered the Lusi eruption and synchronous seep activity witnessed at other mud volcanoes along the same fault," says Mazzini. "The possibility that drilling contributed to trigger the eruption cannot be excluded. However, so far, no univocal data support the drilling hypothesis, and a blow-out scenario can neither explain the dramatic changes that affected the plumbing system of numerous seep systems on Java after the May 27 earthquake."

Preparing for and reacting quickly to natural disasters such as LUSI requires both deep knowledge of the broader Earth system context and careful monitoring of biological, chemical, and physical processes.

"The development of effective environmental monitoring systems has not progressed very far as yet, and Indonesia - with its complex geology and high risk of natural hazards - would be an excellent place to develop and test state-of-the-art monitoring technologies," says Kip Hodges, director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration. "The School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU is establishing itself as one of the premier centers for such technology development. We are very excited to explore opportunities to work with our friends in Indonesia to develop world-class hazard monitoring systems for deployment in their country."

The school sees an important aspect of such collaboration as being a cooperative educational program that would provide opportunities for bright young Indonesian students to receive training at ASU in science and engineering, such that they can return to Indonesia and play leadership roles in developing a strong intellectual foundation for Indonesia in Earth system science and engineering.

According to Clarke and other panel members, the region around LUSI is very complex geologically, making prediction of future mud activity difficult at best.

"Real-time and/or continuous monitoring of several key geophysical, geochemical and volcanological parameters will provide data to help understand the phenomenon," she says. "This type of campaign, coupled with context gained from detailed study of the area's geologic past, may help scientists predict LUSI's future."

Research efforts get $3M boost from NIH grants

jcasper — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:57:22 -0700

Arizona State University has been awarded nearly $3 million in federal stimulus funds from the National Institutes of Health. ASU's Stuart Lindsay and Paul Westerhoff will lead a pair of two-year, innovative projects designed to tackle challenges in the fields of rapid DNA sequencing and nanotechnology.

As part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“Recovery Act” or “ARRA”), the NIH has established a new program titled Research and Research Infrastructure “Grand Opportunities,” or the ”GO” grants program. Its purpose is to support innovative ideas that lend themselves to short-term funding, and may lay the foundation for new fields of investigation and a high likelihood of enabling growth and investment in biomedical research and development, public health and health care delivery.

The race for everyday DNA sequencing

In one project, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) will support work at ASU’s Biodesign Institute through a significant grant to boost research on rapid DNA sequencing technology.

Professor Stuart Lindsay’s two-year, $1.7 million research project will use carbon nanotubes to allow for vast stretches of DNA sequence information to be read in a single pass. Current technologies can only read about 1,000 chemical letters of the 3-billion-long human DNA chain at a time.

Lindsay, the director of the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Single Molecule Biophysics, was one of just seven researchers in the nation to receive funding to support his team’s efforts to bring low-cost DNA sequencing technology to the masses – a technology that promises to transform everyday medical care and research.

“While the costs of sequencing the complete DNA information of an individual have plummeted in recent years, from $1 billion to $100,000 or less, the field is still actively searching for a next-generation breakthrough technology,” said Lindsay, who also holds the Carson Chair in the Department of Physics. “Our goal is to simplify DNA sequencing like the invention of the transistor simplified electronics.”

The new NHGRI awards will stimulate groundbreaking research in studies mainly aimed at understanding the function of the human genome to lead to improvements in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human illness.

NHGRI has identified the development of technologies that can sequence a human genome for $1,000 or less as its Recovery Act Signature Project. Leaders of the federal agency believe that truly inexpensive genomic sequencing will revolutionize health and medicine, and Recovery Act funding will accelerate Biodesign’s research program in this area.

In recent years, ASU has had several ongoing DNA sequencing projects funded by the NHGRI.

“We are very thankful for the NHGRI’s support to drive innovation in DNA sequencing technology,” Lindsay said. “Our technology aims to save costs because there is almost no sample preparation and use of costly reagents, and we will use a direct electronic readout from a small, computer-chip-like device.”

Nanotechnology and human health

In the other NIH-sponsored “GO” project, researchers at ASU will improve the detection and assessment of potential health risks of engineered nanomaterials in water, food, commercial products and biological samples.

The ASU team will be led by Paul Westerhoff, a professor and the interim director of the School of Sustainability and the Built Environment, a part of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Researchers at the Colorado School of Mines will work on the project with Westerhoff’s team.

They will be supported by a grant of more than $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project is part of a larger endeavor involving a consortium of research teams based at 12 universities and other research institutions throughout the country. The consortium will work on methods to better measure the size and concentration of nanomaterials that are increasingly used in the manufacture of commercial products and end up in the environment and in humans.

At the same time, they will seek ways of more precisely determining exposure levels to nanomaterials and the human health risks that specific exposure levels may pose. With the proliferation of nanomaterials in manufactured products, people may eventually be exposed to thousands of different types of nanomaterials.

“Current detection capabilities fall short of enabling accurate quantification of the sizes and concentrations of nanomaterials, making it difficult to determine the potential for health risks and significant environmental impacts,” Westerhoff said.

Members of Westerhoff’s ASU team include: Rolf Halden, a Biodesign Institute researcher and an associate professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment; Pierre Herckes, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; and Kiril Hristovski, an assistant professor in the Department of Technology Management in ASU’s College of Technology and Innovation

Project partners at the Colorado School of Mines are James Ranville (chemistry and biochemisty) and Christopher Higgins (environmental sciences and engineering).

The federal investment in ASU research in Recovery Act funds promises not only to create and retain biomedical research jobs for ASU, but advance research that should significantly enhance the knowledge of the human genome and of nanotechnology, as well as accelerate the application of that knowledge to improve human health.

Bacterial ‘ropes’ tie down shifting Southwest

mcoulomb — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Researchers from Arizona State University have discovered that several species of microbes (cyanobacteria), at least one found prominently in the deserts of the Southwest, have evolved the trait of rope-building to lasso shifting soil substrates.

These tiny filamentous cyanobacteria are typically found in the environment as multicellular single strands or threads. Though known as pioneers in the biostabilization of soils, scientists have long puzzled over the factors that control and promote the twisting of some species’ individual threads into thick cords sometimes inches in length.

Ferran Garcia-Pichel and Martin Wojciechowski, researchers in ASU’s School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, examined genetic markers of rope-makers, relating them to shear stress, soil particle size and friction velocity (linked to erosion) to develop an understanding about the relationship between bacterial behavior, evolutionary fitness and environmental effectors.

The results of their study, published Nov. 17 in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE, revealed that rope-building cyanobacteria, typically found in fine, sandy desert soils, marine subtidal stromatolites and coastal sand flats, are able, because of their larger size, to hog-tie sand grains and resist eroding wind and fluid at velocities that would typically wash away their thread-like relatives.

"While forming thick ropes seems to have apparent disadvantages, such as limiting access to light or nutrients, bundling-up actually turns out to be, literally, like throwing your neighbor a life-line," Garcia-Pichel says.

Wojciechowski adds: “These microbes rope-building attributes have added to their success as the true Western pioneers.”

Garcia-Pichel believes that it was environmental effectors that led to the selection of genetic traits to promote rope-building. Phylogenetic analyses performed by the researchers have further shown that the evolution of the trait occurred separately in three different genera; an example of convergent evolution, rather than a tie to a single common rope-building ancestor.

In the desert, the initial stabilization of topsoil by rope-builders promotes colonization by a multitude of other microbes. From their interwoven relationships arise complex communities known as “biological soil crusts,” important ecological components in the fertility and sustainability of arid ecosystems.

Lin lauded for chemical engineering leadership

jkullman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:59:27 -0700

Only one chemical engineer in the world each year is selected to receive the American Institute of Chemical Engineering award for outstanding contributions to the theory and practice of chemical separation technologies.

This year the Institute’s Award for Excellence in Industrial Gas Technology went to Arizona State University’s Jerry Y.S. Lin.

Lin is a professor of chemical engineering in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering, a part of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

He was presented the award Nov. 8 at the Institute’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn. It’s the first time an ASU chemical engineer has received the prestigious honor from the Institute.

The award recognizes Lin’s achievements in fundamental research that is advancing inorganic membrane science for gas separations, and his pioneering work on high-temperature adsorption separation technologies.

Inorganic membranes and adsorption technologies are used in many industrial processes, including air separation to produce pure oxygen and nitrogen, hydrogen production as a fuel for fuel-cell cars, and carbon dioxide capture for carbon sequestration to prevent global warming. These technologies are also used in processes that have a direct impact on human health, including purification of drinking water and clarification of beer and other drinks.

The Institute noted Lin’s stature as an internationally recognized authority in inorganic membrane science and adsorption, pointing out that his work over two decades has advanced the field “from its infancy to a major subdivision of membrane science.”

Numerous invitations to present keynote lectures at international conferences attest to Lin’s reputation in the field, the Institute said in its award statement.

In his letter nominating Lin for the award, Robert Pfeffer, a research professor of chemical engineering in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering, described Lin’s accomplishments as “monumental research and educational contributions” in the areas of industrial gases technology, including inorganic membrane science, membrane catalysis, biological membrane systems, adsorption, ionic conducting ceramics, and solid oxide fuel cells.

“His [research] papers are widely read and cited by other engineers and scientists. Many of them have opened up new vistas of research and have reported major scientific breakthroughs with important applications to specific industrial processes,” Pfeffer said.

Lin has been granted four patents related to his work, published 180 journal articles – most of them in the leading chemical engineering publications – 49 science and engineering conference proceedings papers, and four book chapters. His work is some of the most often cited in other chemical engineering researchers’ published articles.

He is the editor of Journal of Membrane Science and serves on editorial boards of several other journals.

Before coming to ASU in 2005, Lin was a professor and co-director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Membrane Applied Science and Technology at the University of Cincinnati. He was won numerous awards, including an NSF Career Award, given to scientists and engineers who demonstrate leadership and innovation in teaching and research.

During his career, he has been the primary adviser for as many as 50 students who have earned doctoral and master’s degrees. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Zhejiang University in China, and master’s and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

Cluster Devils prepare for battle in cyberspace

jkullman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:38:40 -0700

ASU engineering students take on a supercomputing challenge before an audience of industry heavyweights

After months of intense training, a team of Arizona State University students is set to compete in an especially challenging marathon on an international stage. But it isn’t a road race. This race takes place in cyberspace.

Six students in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering will have their computing skills vigorously tested in a contest that demands roughly 48 straight hours of brain power, technical ability, and mental and physical endurance.

The ASU Cluster Devils will face several teams from universities in the United States and other countries in the Student Cluster Competition during SC09 – the Supercomputing Conference 2009 – Nov. 14-20 in Portland, Ore.

Cluster computing involves networking (or “clustering”) at least several advanced computers together to provide the computing capacity necessary to work out especially complex mathematical and technical problems.

“It’s about having many computers communicating with each other, except these computers are powerful enough to do something in hours that would take your typical personal computer at home about a week or so to do,” says Benjamin Jimenez, a senior ASU aerospace engineering student.

He is joined on the ASU Cluster Devils by Richard Wellington, a senior computer science student; Tricia Hurd, a senior chemical engineering student; Megan Kearl, a junior computer science and biology and society student; Patrick Lu, a junior computer systems engineering student; and Michael Johanson, a senior computer science student.

At SC09 they will be given a series of science and engineering problems to analyze and solve in an allotted period of time – and with an allotted limit of power – using an array of computers they have assembled and linked.

“Sometimes we will all be working at once, other times we’ll go in shifts,” Jimenez says. “It’s pretty much nonstop for a couple of days. You usually end up with students sleeping under tables and behind banks of computers.”

The competition is designed to test students’ mastery of analyzing codes and optimizing computing performance. “They give you tough problems that reveal your ability to think logically and creatively,” Wellington says. “It really tests your levels of patience and determination. It’s a mental marathon.”

Fortunately, the Cluster Devils have strong allies. The team is sponsored by the Microsoft and IBM companies. Microsoft’s high-performance computing team has provided software and IBM has provided hardware for the Cluster Devils’ systems.

The team will use Microsoft’s Windows High Performance Computing Server 2008 and IBM’s System x iDataPlex.

Both companies also have sent representatives to help demonstrate the equipment for the Cluster Devils, and provided team members trips to Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to get training from professional computer scientists and engineers.

“The trips were phenomenal,” Jimenez says.

“We’re excited about this competition,” says Matt Blythe, a member of Microsoft’s Windows marketing team. “This is a fun part of our academic outreach. This will help us test the quality of our products, to see how well students are able to use this technology and be successful.”

In addition, the team has been able to make use of hardware, work space and power sources at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering High Performance Computing Initiative (HPCI) center. The Cluster Devils are now part of HPCI’s undergraduate student outreach team.

The Cluster Devils also are getting the benefit of coaching from Earl Duque, manager of applied research for Intelligent Light, a high-tech company specializing in high-performance computing for fluid flow simulations (www.ilight.com).

Duque also is a mechanical engineering associate research professor at Northern Arizona University (NAU). A former member of an advanced computational research methods group for NASA, he currently teaches and develops high-performance computing software and methods for computational fluid dynamics.

Team members are drawing on his expertise in these advanced areas of engineering and computing to guide their competition strategy.

The Cluster Devils will compete in front of a global audience, including some of the computer industry’s leading companies and research institutions. SC09 is expected to draw several thousand participants and more than 10,000 overall attendees from throughout the world.

Besides Microsoft and IBM, such companies as Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, Intel and Dell will be represented, as well as national laboratories such as Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos, and NASA labs.

Along with exposure to heavyweights in the computer world, ASU team members get an opportunity to gain engineering career experience beyond the classroom.

Two members of last year’s team, including Patrick Lu, were hired for internships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a result of their participation in the student supercomputing competition.

Jimenez and Wellington also were on last year’s team – the first ASU student team ever to compete at the supercomputing conference.

They say there’s more of a lure to the event than the spirit of competition. “All of our team members either got internships or made some contacts that could lead to future opportunities,” Jimenez says.

Supercomputing “is a fascinating and cutting-edge field that’s going to be more important in every area of science and engineering,” he says. “I think more students need to become aware of what great opportunities there are.”

For more information, see the ASU Cluster Devil’s Web site and blog at http://clusterdevils.com/

With venom and vigor bugs vie to be crowned ‘ugliest’

chughes3 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:16:37 -0600

A paper wasp whose sting can cause anaphylactic shock and a scorpion that crushes its prey with pincers and injects them with a neurotoxic venom, are just two of the 10 contenders in this year's Ugly Bug Contest.

The champion will be determined by how passionately the public appreciates the atrociousness of their traits and uniqueness of their attributes. The ability to inject enemies with poison, suck the blood of innocent bystanders, or crawl under the skin of unsuspecting hikers are some of the characteristics that could earn one bug the crown and title: 2009 Ugliest Bug.

Until Dec. 15, insect enthusiasts around the world have the opportunity to vote and learn more about some of the planet's most creepy creatures, including "The Hammer," a carpenter bee and "La Cucaracha," a cockroach.

To cast a vote or gain insight into the lives of these cuticle-covered organisms visit the contest's Web site at Arizona State University: http://askabiologist.asu.edu/uglybugs.

Other creatures on this year's roster of repugnant gladiators are "The Blade," an aphid; "Stretch," a snakefly; "The Ringleader," Jerdon's jumping ant; "Sweetness," a honey bee; "The Leaf Foot," a coreidae; and "The Gollywopper," a crane fly.

Each has a photo and a bio on the Web site, with details including their size, weight and Latin genus names. Most of the bugs in this year's contest weigh less than 3 grams – the weight of 10 average grains of table salt.

The images of the bugs are made possible by a scanning electron microscope, providing a view of the bugs unattainable with the human eye. The colorful close-ups allow students and teachers an intriguing new level of intimacy with creatures often dismissed as detestable.

There's also a YouTube video that imitates an Ultimate Fighting Championship® bout, with each bug emerging into the octagon at the sound of a bell.

In addition to serving as the contest's voting hub, the "Ask A Biologist" Web site is a scientific sanctuary for students and teachers alike. Complete with downloadable wallpapers, a poster and pages to color, and inter-active reasoning modules designed to improve student's skills, the site is laden with material aimed at introducing students of all ages to the capacious field of biology.

The Ugly Bug Contest was started in Flagstaff, Ariz., by Marilee Sellers of Northern Arizona University. For 10 years, it was a local fixture – part of the Flagstaff Festival of Science and the Mount Campus Science Day.

Last year, she teamed up with Charles Kazilek to bring the contest to the Web. Kazilek, a senior research professional in ASU's School of Life Sciences, sports the moniker "Dr. Biology" to host the popular children's podcast "Ask a Biologist."

In its first year on the Ask a Biologist Web site the contest accumulated more than 3,000 votes.

"We are talking about bugs here," Kazilek says when asked why kids are attracted to the contest." You are either excited by them or scared to have one next to you. They certainly can get under your skin. It is fun to see these really tiny animals in a way that just is not possible with the unaided eye."

Last year, the winner was "The Tick" with 1,056 votes – more than twice the amount any other bug received.

"I think it was the blood sucking ability that gave it the edge," Kazilek says.

"There is a lot of science hidden in the contest, but maybe the best part is people get to participate by looking and reading about each of the bugs before they vote," he says. "It is also a fun way to get up close and personal with the bug that might be walking, crawling or flying next to you."

Pointing out that many of the bugs contending for the crown are far from ugly, Kazilek adds: "In fact, they are very elegant and often quite beautiful. Somehow calling it the Beautiful Bug Contest seemed contrary to most people's idea of bugs."

Other sponsors for this years contest include Dow AgroSciences, NAU's Imaging and Histology Core Facility, and ASU's W.M Keck Bioimaging Laboratory and International Institute for Species Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Written by Dan Moore (dhmoore@asu.edu) for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Engineering new approaches to cancer research

jkullman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:19:34 -0600

Deirdre Meldrum, dean of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, is a key member of a team leading a new Arizona State University research center that will embark on a novel approach to understanding and treating cancer.

Meldrum directs the Center for Ecogenomics at ASU’s Biodesign Institute. The center will play a role in work for the new Center for Convergence of Physical Science and Cancer Biology at ASU.

It’s one of 12 Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers being supported by the National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health, to pursue development of new methods of arresting tumor growth and metastasis in the fight against cancer.

Research at the Center for Ecogenomic focuses in part on the study of the fundamental mechanisms governing the birth, growth and decline of human cells with the aim of better understanding and finding ways to combat the most widespread diseases and other threats to human health.

ASU’s new cancer research center will use technology developed in Meldrum’s ecogenomics lab, specifically a medical imaging technology called cell CT. Pioneered by researcher Roger Johnson and Alan Nelson, it enables true three-dimensional computed tomography imaging of individual cancer cells.

For more information visit: http://asunews.asu.edu/20091026_ASUcancer

Researchers tackle clouds, rivers with NSF Career awards

jgreen1 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:29:47 -0600

Two ASU faculty members have earned Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The CAREER program is NSF’s most prestigious, and supports the early career development activities of teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the mission of their organization. It provides five-year research grants to each recipient.

The CAREER award winners are Pierre Herckes, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; and Hilairy Hartnett an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. ASU junior faculty were awarded six CAREER awards earlier this year.

Cloud chemistry; often the unexpected

Pierre Herckes will investigate the impact of clouds on atmospheric composition.

More specifically, he will study how cloud droplets act as miniscule chemical reactors that can transform atmospheric gases and particles into new and sometimes threatening chemical forms. This has a direct impact on atmospheric composition with implications for human health and global climate.

The health related aspect of his research stems from chemical reactions in clouds or fogs that might transform some relatively innocent chemicals into, for example, the potent carcinogen and mutagen, N-nitroso dimethylamine (NDMA). Herckes will tackle the problem through laboratory and observational field studies.

In the laboratory Herckes can simulate reactions occurring in cloud droplets under controlled conditions. This allows for identification of reaction products, the determination of reaction mechanisms and rates, which can later be used in complex atmospheric models.

“In the field, we will study clouds and fogs in a variety of environments,” Herckes says. “These will include highly polluted fogs in the Central Valley of California, more pristine mountain clouds in Arizona as well as marine clouds on the East Coast. This will yield novel insights into cloud chemistry, as observations of this type are quite rare.”

Herckes’s will use part of the grant (more than $560,000) to reach out to K–12 students through educational class modules that teach about the formation of clouds and their role in the water cycle, their impact on air pollution and their role in climate processes. A Web-interface will allow students and the general public to check on the latest status of field experiments, including real-time images from Web cameras, movies of cloud events and chemical composition data.

Organic carbon in the Colorado River system

Hilairy Hartnett’s research will develop a regional carbon budget for the Colorado River system using a combination of field measurements and laboratory manipulation experiments. Rivers are the dynamic link between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

“Our basic understanding of river carbon cycling is based largely on data from pristine rivers,” Hartnett says. “Yet today virtually all rivers are managed to optimize water supply, flood control and hydropower. On the Colorado River, the system of dams and reservoirs has dramatically altered hydrodynamics and geomorphology, light conditions and sediment-water interactions.”

Hartnett wants to develop a broader understanding of the effects of these reservoirs on carbon biogeochemistry of the rivers. Organic carbon is the currency of ecosystems. Plants produce it and animals consume it. Understanding where the carbon in the Colorado River comes from and what happens to it along the way will tell Hartnett something about the role of the river with respect to regional carbon budgets and also, more generally, about how large managed rivers contribute to the transport of carbon to the sea..

The goal is to construct a carbon budget for each of the major reservoirs, to determine how much carbon comes in from upstream, how much is stored in sediments, how much is released as carbon dioxide and how much is transported downstream to the next reservoir. Hartnett also will investigate the composition of the organic carbon in each reservoir and assess how the composition changes downstream. The project requires both field sampling – to measure the amounts of carbon and nitrogen in sediments – and laboratory experiments. The latter are designed to show how reactive the carbon is to different processes like microbial degradation, photo-oxidation and sorption to mineral surfaces.

Hartnett’s project (award is more than $570,000) also will enhance learning outcomes for geoscience students through field-based teaching. The education component of the project will provide field science experiences for undergraduates and improve learning by giving them a real research project to participate in rather than a controlled laboratory experience.

CAREER awards provide an example of the economic benefit that a research university can bring to its state. Each year, Arizona universities pour nearly $1 billion into the Arizona economy from their research, most of which is funded by the U.S. government and entities from outside the state. Research money brought in by universities is restricted money that can be used only for the research activity it supports. It cannot be used to compensate for cuts in other parts of the university’s budget.

New consortium explores how war weapons impact society

msjps — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:11:51 -0600

In the year 2009, when astronauts live in a space station, people send messages around the world with the touch of a finger and diseases such as polio have virtually been eradicated from earth, warfare between nations still includes men with rifles shooting at each other.

The scenario of boots on the ground is on the verge of enormous changes, thanks to technology, but innovations that take men off the battlefield have a lot of implications for society that we may not be thinking about when we only consider our “old-fashioned” wars where humans toss grenades.

For, as Peter French says, what impacts the military will eventually impact all of society. New weapons and means of fighting wars could bring profound changes to all aspects of society – and introduce ethical dilemmas that have not even been thought about yet.

A new organization, the Consortium on Emerging Technologies, Military Operations and National Security, chaired by Brad Allenby and managed by the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, will explore the meaning of those new weapons and their ethical ramifications.

Consider the possibility, for example, of robots that are programmed to go into combat and kill humans; telepathic helmets that enable members of military units to “think” to each other; miniature chips that can be implanted in bugs that are then sent out to spy; and non-lethal rays that make the recipient feel as though he or she is on fire.

Though some of this technology is already in use, such as drones that are ordered to attack targets in Iraq from military command posts near Las Vegas, much is still the subject of research, French says.

“We are studying the ethical implications of this technology in military and national security operations and its moving into the commercial world. For example: Is it ethical to use some of this equipment outside of war? Is it ethical to use it in war? Does it change the very nature of war? What are the implications, e.g., with respect to privacy, in civilian implementation?”

Allenby notes, for example, that insect-sized robots could be capable of both surveillance and killing.

“When that technology flows back into civic society, which it will, our privacy may be threatened," he says. "And if there’s a backlash in civic society that stops the military from using it, that could be difficult because it is an important technology for their mission.”

The ASU-directed consortium is leading the way in the study of the future of military technology, society and ethics, Allenby says. “There is no place in government that is focused on these issues. We’re filling a niche. The military tends to focus on the warfighting implications of their technology, not the social and cultural issues that arise when it flows back to civil society. We want to look farther out.”

ASU’s partners in the study are Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at Case Western Reserve University, the Stockdale Center at the U.S. Naval Academy and the Mobile Robot Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Researchers from California Polytechnic University, General Dynamics, the Brookings Institute and the Department of Defense also are on the team.

The research areas include nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, applied cognitive science, information and communication technologies, neurotechnology and law.

Researchers are divided into 10 “thrust groups,” which include such topics as “International Law, Ethics, and Governance on Robotics and National Security”; “New Military Technologies: Implications for State/Society Relationships and Questions of Democracy and Political Theory”; “Enhanced Warfighters”; “Emerging Genetic Technologies in the Military and Issues with Human Subjects Research in the Military”; and “Nonlethal Weapons.”

Participating ASU faculty members include Elizabeth Corley, Jason Robert, Gary Marchant, Christopher Buneo, Steve Helms Tillery, Orde Kittrie, Clark Miller, Veronica Santos and Brian Smith.

The thrust groups will develop grant proposals in their various areas and create scenarios and case studies that will serve as the focus of their research. Meanwhile, Allenby; Joel Garreau, Lincoln Professor of Law, Culture and Values; and others will seek to use that research to understand the broader implications of emerging technologies for both military operations and, more generally, national security.

Representatives of the consortium universities met at Case Western Reserve University in October, and will meet next February at SkySong in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Research in some of the areas sounds like purely science fiction. Under the “Enhanced Warfighters” banner, for example, the scholars are studying ways to keep soldiers from aging in order to maintain a “young” military force, and ways to keep them awake and alert for longer periods of time.

But there are ethical implications in these ideas. “If we can build the perfect transhuman war fighter, what happens when the war is over – do we ‘de-enhance’ them?” asks Allenby. Robotic soldiers also bring ethical dilemmas. “Should a robot on the battlefield be allowed to kill a soldier in battle without a human being involved in that decision? Is that legal under the laws that govern warfare?” he asks.

It may seem like there is a lot of time before society has to worry about bugs that spy or perpetually youthful soldiers, but Allenby says it’s closer than we know.

“Society as a whole doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on this research. For example, we may be on the verge of being to keep people alive for 120 years,” he says.

"The research and the implementation of the new technologies in military operations and national security, about which most people seem to be willing to allow a free reign as long as they are persuaded they are being protected from external threats, will give us a fairly good picture of what the global society will look like, indeed what humans will look like. It's the future of the world. We have to decide how we want it to look," French says.