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9/6/2005 3:10 AM
The world's largest book, Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey across the Last Himalayan Kingdom, a five-foot by seven-foot, 130-pound tome, was unveiled at the University's Elmer L. Andersen Library in May. The book's creator, Michael Hawley, a photographer and MIT professor of digital media, had dual purposes in mind when he conceived the project: show off the reclusive Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and advance digital photography and printing. Bhutan tightly controls tourism; only about 5,000 people are permitted to visit a year. The book features full-page color photographs of the architecture, dance festivals, native costumes, and people of a place some have called “the last Shangri-la” because of its rich ecology and traditional culture. Squeezed between India and China, Bhutan has only slowly opened itself to the outside world and uses an idea called “Gross National Happiness” to judge its progress. To advance digital photography, Hawley and other photographers made four trips to Bhutan, each time refining photographic and printing techniques with the help of experts from computer and photo companies. The resulting images remain crisp and colorful even when reproduced in an enormous size. The U's edition of Bhutan is one of the first 25 produced out of a planned run of 500. Each printing requires a $15,000 donation to Friendly Planet, Inc.; the U's volume was made possible by an anonymous donation. Friendly Planet is a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that benefits Bhutanese education. In addition to its striking beauty, Bhutan is also a poor, sparsely populated country with little modern infrastructure. The vast majority of Bhutanese-populations estimates range from 600,000 to 900,000 in a nation the size of Switzerland-work at subsistence agriculture. The nation's capital, Thimpu, may be the world's only such city without a stoplight. Television did not arrive until 1998. Through the Gross National Happiness idea-which rests upon four “pillars”: sustainable development, pristine environment, preservation and promotion of Bhutan's culture, and good governance-Bhutan's monarchy and elected parliament closely control most aspects of the economy and some of daily life. “We thought we could allow readers to literally step into this beautiful corner of the world,” Hawley said at the unveiling of the U's book. “The images give a taste of an inspiring way of life in a truly special part of the world.” The University's copy is currently on public display in the Elmer L. Andersen Library on the West Bank of the Minneapolis campus. Don't Dial and Drive Taking turns behind the wheel of a black Saturn S2, 48 men recently raced down rural highways, talking on cell phones, fiddling with air conditioning knobs, and sipping vodka and cranberry juice. University of Minnesota researchers Mick Rakauskas and Nic Ward were measuring how distracting various in-car activities are on drivers. But the drivers were never a danger to themselves or other motorists-they never left the third floor of the U's Mechanical Engineering Building. “You can do things in the lab that you can't ethically do in the real world,” Ward explains. Cell phones, they concluded, are more distracting than driving at Minnesota's new legal blood-alcohol limit of .08. Ward has the confident, slightly exasperated manner of a researcher who knows something people just don't care to hear: “There's a time and place for cell phone use. But it's not while driving a car.” Ward is director of the Human Factors Interdisciplinary Research in Simulation and Transportation (HumanFIRST) Program lab. Surrounded by a 210-degree screen, the Saturn trails wires and various monitors. Slightly cartoonish images that respond in a mildly dizzying way to each turn of the wheel and touch of accelerator or brakes are projected onto the screen. Cameras track the drivers' eyes and other movements, and monitors measure brain activity and other invisible physical factors. The lab is also used to test how drivers react to new road or intersection designs and new vehicle safety designs. Funded by the U's Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, the distraction study used a hands-free style phone with the conversation broadcast through a speaker system so that there would be no physical manipulation or contact with the phone to potentially skew results. Distraction was measured in how well drivers responded to factors such as changes in the speed of a car traveling in front of them and how their brain function changed during the test. Brain response to unusual sounds was surprisingly similar whether impaired by alcohol or cell phones and differed markedly from non-impaired brains in both delay in processing the sound and in the site in the brain in which the stimulus occurred. As expected, tasks that engaged mind, hands, and eyes-like adjusting air conditioning controls-were the most distracting. “Every time you look down for a second and a half to adjust the CD player,” Ward says, “you're playing Russian roulette.” The problem with cell phones is that the driver is focusing on a conversation with someone who can't see what the driver sees. Where a passenger is likely to stop talking when traffic conditions warrant it, the person on the other end of the cell phone will keep up the distracting conversation. Ward holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Queens University in Ontario, Canada, and Rakauskas is about to begin work on a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at the U. Although the lab is part of the Mechanical Engineering department, it is allied with programs in at least three U colleges and psychologists comprise the majority of its researchers. Computer scientists and several types of engineers collaborate to help design the technical side of HumanFIRST studies. Rakauskas and Ward will present their findings later in September at the annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. But they've already appeared at safety and transportation seminars, where the message-it's the conversation with an unseen party that causes the distraction, not the phone itself-does not always get through. At one discussion someone asked Ward why he doesn't just design a cell phone that is easier to use while driving. “I quipped that I could also design a piano to be easier to use while driving,” Ward recalls, “but that doesn't mean it's safe to drive while playing the piano.” The Secret Lives of Squirrels, There's a “fascinating natural world between the front door and the school bus stop,” says Christopher Goodwin, interpretive programs coordinator at the Bell Museum of Natural History. To prove it, and to get kids involved in the scientific process, the Bell Museum has come up with a program called The Secret Lives of Squirrels. In essence, school groups and others can track one of a half-dozen squirrels wearing radio transmitters on a leather collar. Having completed a two-year pilot run, the program kicks off in fall. As students wander the area near the museum, taking turns pointing a tall antenna and listening to clicks on a small receiver, they also gather various environmental data. When they find their target, a gray squirrel differentiated by a four-inch wire sticking up from a leather collar, they plot the location on an aerial map of the Bell Museum precinct. (The radio telemetry equipment, now ubiquitous in documentaries about animal behavior, was developed at the U in the 1950s and tested on raccoons and other animals in the Cedar Creek Natural History Area.) Later, students enter their data into a secure Web site where it is mapped with other results to outline each squirrel's territory. Students are then encouraged to ask questions about how territories compare by squirrel gender, at different times of the year, in various weather conditions, and so on. The squirrel activity follows the national trend toward “nature in the city” educational programs, but with one crucial difference: the students are in charge from start to finish. “A lot of the programs send people out to do a bird count, for example, but then you turn over your data to 'the expert,' who figures out what it means,” Goodwin says. “Here, we don't have that separation between gathering and analysis. The kids enter their own data and can figure out what kinds of questions they want to ask and see what the data tells them.” There's a surprisingly small amount of data on the gray squirrel, so the Bell's program is adding to the understanding of the species. “Gray squirrels are so prolific. No one seems interested in gathering a lot of data on a species that is clearly not in any danger,” Goodwin says. “It's possible that over time we might be able to gather really important data on [when and why] territory changes, and that can become part of the scientific record.” For example, in each of the two pilot years, when only two squirrels were tracked, both vanished in March. Although it could mean the collars were disabled somehow, it may also mean that the squirrels changed territory just as new broods of young squirrels were emerging, a pattern that may hold up throughout a squirrel's five-year average life span. But at its heart, The Secret Lives of Squirrels is about getting young people out in the field actively doing science. “They really seem to like tracking animals that are extremely common and familiar,” Goodwin says. “You do get the sense that it had never occurred to them that squirrels are just as much wildlife as lions and wildebeests. Next time they see a squirrel, they won't think of them as just tree rats.” Q&ATeens and Multitasking It turns out there's a reason that adolescents can't focus on more than one thing at a time: The frontal cortex of their brain isn't fully developed. U psychology professor Monica Luciana (Ph.D. '94) put about 200 males and females from age 9 to 20 through a series of increasingly difficulty memory tasks, finishing with a task that could be completed using memory or, more quickly, by using more sophisticated strategies akin to “multitasking.” Luciana concluded that the ability to sort through information and continue working toward multiple goals continues to develop until roughly age 17. Follow-up studies are looking at motivation: Are young people better at multitasking when they have some kind of personal stake or reward? Luciana recently discussed the applications of her findings. Q: Some articles about this study concluded that your findings show that this is why teens are lousy at chores. Do you agree? A: I wouldn't say it means that at all. It turns out that if you just look at the number of items in a sequence someone can remember, it's a lot, probably five to seven even by age 13 or so. . . . But the strategic type of self-organizing is what we saw continuing to develop up to about age 17. This is the sort of thing where you've got your whole day ahead of you and a series of things you've got to accomplish-chores, sports, things you want to do with friends, maybe a job. You have to order your day and arrange your time to accomplish those goals efficiently. Managing a lot of information at the same time is still developing into adolescence, which isn't a surprise I think, to people who have teenagers. Q: Do you have teenagers? A: I have two teenagers. I'm always afraid to draw them into these things, but this study became more interesting to me as we went along because of things I see at home. Q: I thought teens were able to do several things at once-talk on the phone, listen to music, play a video game. A: The kinds of things we're talking about in this study are very effortful and have to be done with a high degree of accuracy. [But] there are limits to information capacity. . . . An example where this applies is driving, which we all know demands a lot information processing and multitasking on a cognitive level. When kids are learning to drive, their processing capacity is going to be limited. You want especially to discourage using a cell phone or driving with friends and [doing other] things that detract from information processing. Q: Are there ways to encourage and stimulate development of the frontal cortex? A: I get that question a lot. . . . I'm a little skeptical, partly because this is a part of the brain that is most active when you're presented with new challenges. Once a task becomes more automatic, the frontal part of the cortex isn't the part the helps you anymore. It's almost like it transfers the effort to another part of the brain and leaves itself for the stressful, effortful scenarios. Discoveries: Recent U Research Findings in Brief Detecting Colon Cancer Despite equal screening rates and lower overall incidence, women are more likely to die of colon cancer than men. University researchers have discovered a possible explanation: A common colon-cancer screening method, flexible sigmoidoscopy, catches about two-thirds of the cancer in men but barely one-third in women. Women tend to have more cancerous polyps in upper regions of the colon that aren't reached by sigmoidoscopies and should instead have more expensive colonoscopies done, U researcher Andrew Flood said. Colorectal cancer is the second-most common cause of cancer-related death in Minnesota. Bubble Up Drinking carbonated soft drinks appears to be a major cause of nighttime heartburn, according to a new study at the University and elsewhere. Heartburn at night, or nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux, strikes an estimated 44 percent of Americans at least once a month, disrupting sleep and potentially damaging the esophagus and leading to other complications. In studying thousands of cases, the two main related factors were a high body mass index and consumption of one or more carbonated drinks a day. Oily Hazard U researchers have discovered that when heated for as little as 30 minutes, polyunsaturated vegetable oils from plants like soybeans and sunflowers produce a toxic compound associated with a variety of illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and liver problems. The amount of the compound, known as HNE, increases with each heating for up to 6.5 hours. HNE forms when linoleic acid, an otherwise healthful component of unsaturated oils, oxidizes. Other studies have shown HNE is absorbed by food along with the oil. While more study is under way on HNE, the American Dietetic Association recommended that concerned individuals not heat oil to the point of smoking, not reuse oil, and avoid fried foods in restaurants. Building Blood In a breakthrough that promises to lead to better treatments for blood diseases and leukemia, University researchers have identified 14 genes that allow blood stem cells to replicate themselves. Each day, stem cells in the bone marrow produce about 200 billion new blood cells; to keep a fresh supply the stem cells also create new stem cells to take up production. The hope is that by understanding the mechanism by which blood stem cells replicate, new stem cells can be coaxed to grow for transplantation. For example, stem cells from umbilical cord blood that now provide partial transplants for adults and older children could be grown into much larger reservoirs of healthy stem cells. Web Hit: A Site for and about Somali Immigrants A University-based bilingual Somali-English Web site aims to help immigrants from Somalia make the transition to life in Minnesota, while also teaching Minnesotans something about the East African nation. Developed in partnership with the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, the site (www.somaliresource.net) includes a large collection of employment, health, housing, transportation, and education resources-including discussion of rights and responsibilities of immigrants. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in North America, with a population estimated at 35,000. Of more interest to non-Somalis may be the listing of almost 40 Twin Cities restaurants and markets with Somali influence. And a lengthy history section should help current Minnesotans understand their new neighbors better. One of the primary challenges of building such a Web site is that Somali culture has a verbal, face-to-face tradition of communication. A team from the U's Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel held a workshop for Somali residents to give basic instruction in computer and Internet use and to demonstrate the new Web site. Feedback was positive and the Web team hopes word about it spreads. Strategic Positioning Task Forces Form As soon as the University of Minnesota Board of Regents approved President Bob Bruininks' strategic positioning recommendations in June, 20 task forces began forming to figure out how to implement what administrators say will be the most sweeping makeover of the U system since the post-World War II enrollment boom. Realigning and reducing the number of colleges and programs, streamlining administration, and beefing up academic requirements are the hallmarks of a plan with the stated goal of making the U one of the three best public universities in the world. “The real work of transforming this very good university into a great one is now upon us,” Bruininks said in a campus-wide e-mail in July. Of the more than 40 recommendations in Bruininks' plan, the most visible changes will come out of task forces looking at the very shape of the U itself. The integration of three colleges into other, possibly renamed, units brings about the biggest structural changes. But task forces will also study how liberal arts, health sciences, and engineering are taught on campus. Those task forces could recommend further structural adjustments. The task forces, formed over the summer, will begin meeting in September. Reports will be issued early next year, with the approved changes, and possibly more, implemented by July 1, 2006. For details, timeline, and reasons behind the strategic positioning process, visit www.umn.edu/systemwide/strategic_positioning. A Survey of Student Views Students in University of Minnesota professor Ronald Anderson's Sociological Research Methods class gained hands-on experience this spring designing, administering, and analyzing an online current issues survey. Some 2,500 U students were e-mailed unique passwords and invited to complete the online survey between March 10 and April 6. Almost a third of the students responded; the margin of error is plus or minus between 3 percent and 4 percent. Some of the findings provide an interesting snapshot of the student body. 47 percent of those who attended at least five football games (at any level) in 2004 believe the Iraq war is justified. 39 percent of respondents believe the Iraq war is justified. 25 percent say the Iraq war is effective in fighting terrorism. 72 percent believe same-sex marriages should be legal. 41 percent favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder. 22 percent of those who did not attend any football games in 2004 believe the Iraq war is justified. 23 percent support Minnesota's “conceal and carry” handgun law. 11 percent of non-white students support “conceal and carry.” Overheard on Campus “He plays online poker more than anyone I've ever seen and he still manages to get his schoolwork done.” -U junior Phil Mackey, quoted in the Minnesota Daily, on his roommate, junior Chad Flood. Flood won $41,000 in scholarship funds and $1,000 for charity in a recent online poker tournament against 25,000 college students from 55 countries. “Last year it was, 'Oh my, oh my, oh my, we won!' This year, especially that last match, we weren't nervous or too excited.” -U College Bowl captain Ray Anderson (B.A. '05) on winning the College Bowl National Championship (sometimes called “the varsity sport of the mind”) for the second consecutive year. | |||||||||||||||
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