Caduceus Newsletter: Spring 2003.16 , Week of May 5

(The Spring 2003 dog wash issue)

è 1. BBB is sponsoring a dog wash THIS SATURDAY!
è 2. And a good time was had by all, but don't take my word for it…
è 3. There will be a lunar eclipse visible in North America during the evening of May 15-16.
è 4. For those of you planning on taking BIOL 413 during the upcoming Fall semester, the following may be of interest to YOU…

è 1. BBB is sponsoring a dog wash THIS SATURDAY  

CBU's chapter of Beta Beta Beta (the Biology honor society) is holding a fundraising Dog Wash!

It will be on Saturday, May 3, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the CBU Central parking lot.

Please help us spread the word by telling your dog loving friends and family to bring their pets. It should be a lot of fun to meet everyone's canine pets!

For more information, contact Michelle Driscoll, BBB Chapter President 2003-04 (email pdriscol@cbu.edu).

è 2. And a good time was had by all, but don't take my word for it…

On Tuesday, April 29, 2003, the students of BIOL 103, Biology of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, sponsored a Chocolate Tasting Session, featuring Godiva™ Chocolates. As some individuals guessed, there really was a hidden agenda, to determine whether women respond more to chocolate than men. Here are the results:

Null hypothesis 1: Women and men will respond equally to an announcement regarding a chocolate tasting session.
 Forty-one (41) women and 24 men signed the guest book. A Chi-square goodness of fit test indicates that the probability of such an uneven distribution is <.05. Hence, we can conclude that more women responded to the announcement.

Null hypothesis 2: Women and men will sample equal numbers of chocolates in a tasting session
Women reported sampling an average of 4.59 pieces, while men reported sampling 4.57 pieces, so the differences are not significant. HOWEVER, the total number of chocolate which were REPORTED as having been sampled was 199. We estimated that Ms. Marian Badger, manager of the Godiva Chocolatier store at the Oak Court Mall, provided us with over 800 pieces, most of which were GONE by the end of the afternoon. Class members have suggested that individuals must have, um, LIED, about the magnitude of their chocolate sampling.

Null hypothesis 3: Women and men will spend equal lengths of time in a chocolate tasting session
Women reported an average "resident time" of 6.88 minutes, while men reported an average "resident time" of 5.29 minutes. Most of the individuals spent less than 10 minutes at the session.

Null hypothesis 4: Women and men will report similar preference distributions for their favorite flavor.
Although the preference distributions of women and men were similar, men showed a clear aversion to the dark chocolate Easter eggs with coconuts.

 (l-r): George Caruso, Amar Bhula, Nicole Bingham, Dr. Mary Ogilvie, Leslie Aldrich, Niki Patel, Marian Badger (Store manager)

 (l-r). Dr. Mary Ogilvie, Marian Badger, Andy Christensen, Allan Whittington.

è 3. There will be a lunar eclipse visible in North America during the evening of May 15-16.

According to the May 2003 issue of Sky & Telescope, "the full Moon will pass through the northern part of the Earth's shadow, providing a colorful spectacle for observers throughout the Americas, Europe, and Africa."

For observers in South America on May 15-16, the total phase coincides with the Moon being high overhead at midnight. In western North America (Ed. note: that means you guys at SDSU) the eclipse will already be under way as darkness falls on May 15^th, while east of the Mississippi River the entire event can be seen later in the evening.

By the way, if you're in Reykjavik, Iceland on May 31, 2003, you'll be able to see a complete (annular) solar eclipse, starting at 4:04 a.m.

è 4. For those of you planning on taking BIOL 413 during the upcoming Fall semester, the following may be of interest to YOU…

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 17, 2002: from http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200209/17/eng20020917_103392.shtml

Chinese Scientists Treat Internal Parasites in Wild Pandas

Chinese scientists are experimenting with mixing medicines with the food and drink of wild giant pandas to treat the animals' internal parasites.

A survey on the health of wild giant pandas showed some of them are infested with more than 20 kinds of parasites.

Some pandas have above-normal levels of parasites and may suffer from intestinal inflammation, dropsy and metabolic disorders.

Scientists from the No.4 Military Medical University put an anti-parasite remedy in cuts on fresh bamboo shoots and in streams in panda habitats at an altitude of 2,000 meters.

The plan was when the animals came for their daily food and drink, they unknowingly took the medicine. Three days after the medicine was laid, scientists confirmed the pandas had taken it. The numbers of parasites killed increased.

But as pandas may not return to the same bamboo patch and stream for a very long time, the remedy left in the water may weaken and be less effective.

To solve this problem, Chinese scientists plan to work with foreign scientists to make a new kind of slow dissolution treatment.

(Editor Note: The reason why this is relevant is because the University of Memphis is one of 4 universities which will be receiving fecal samples from Ya Ya and Le Le, the newly-acquired pandas, for analysis. It may be worthwhile to join the project. With Ya Ya and Le Le producing 160 pounds of, um, excrement per day, it should NOT be difficult to get a fecal sample for analysis.)