October 12, 2006
Peer portfolio: A compilation of what’s happening at our peer institutions
BARGAINING AHEAD? The Employee Forum, a staff group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has passed a resolution calling for the repeal of a North Carolina law banning collective bargaining, according to an article in the campus newspaper, The University Gazette.
The article quoted Ernie Peterson, chairman of the UNC Employee Forum saying that the resolution would have impacts far beyond the UNC campus. “We should do what’s right by people, and if something, such as this law, is oppressing people, we should stand against it.”
GOODBYE READING GLASSES: Presbyopia, or the inability to focus on close objects, affects just about everyone, to some degree, by the time the hit age 50. Laser surgery has been used to correct this of late, but researchers at the University of Michigan are developing a tool that the U-M newspaper, The Record, says greatly improves this process, providing “a potentially noninvasive, painless fix to presbyopia using tiny bubbles that help opthalmologists reshape the eye’s lens and restore its flexibility and focusing ability.”
Heretofore, the researchers state, opthalmologists have had no way to see what they are doing as they trim the eye’s lens. The new tool, however, could guide surgeons by using the bubbles to measure the thickness and rigidity of the lens during laser surgery. “The bubbles would show you where to cut,” one of the tool’s co-developers said. “If it’s still too hard, you cut some more. If it’s soft enough, you stop.”
MINI-GEIGER: A number of talents at the University of Michigan lent their creativity to the development of a hand-held Geiger counter, according to the university’s newspaper, The Record. The postage-stamp-sized device could be used in a network to cover large areas and communicate information to a central source. “We could cover a wide area with these small devices so you don’t have to have one person going around scanning everything,” a researcher said.
FLIES IN SPACE: On a recent shuttle flight, some fruit flies flew along, too. They were from the University of California, Davis, and the University of Central Florida, sent to the heavens in an experiment designed to learn how space travel can affect the immune system.
On a recent shuttle flight, in July, NASA sent up one tray of adult flies and another of embryonic flies to mature during the 12-day mission. Also along for the ride were test tubes of a fungus called Beauveria bassiana. After the flight, both sets of flies and a third control group were to be exposed to the fungus to test their immune responses. The immune systems of fruit flies and humans are similar enough for some research purposes.
“The primary question being asked is whether the immune system is compromised from prolonged space travel,” said Laurence von Kalm, associate professor of biology at Central Florida. “Are they more susceptible to infection than flies that don’t travel into space?”
MISSOURI STREAMLINING: An administration streamlining plan begun last year at the University of Columbia-Missouri has exceeded its stated $12.5 million goal, according to the university’s newspaper, MizzouWeekly. Throughout the system’s four campuses, MU is looking to pare about $20 million — from administrative streamlining, position eliminations, considations and reallocation of resources. “The savings will be redirected to a number of high-priority areas at Mizzou such as teaching, research and student support.
