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Table of Contents:
1. ACS/BBB/PHP
(American Chemical Society, Beta Beta Beta/Preprofessional Health Programs)
Activities.
2. It’s the
6th Annual Youth & Vitality vs. Old Age Charity Volleyball
Game, benefiting the Church Health Center, Wednesday, April 10!
3. The
Princeton Review is currently hiring part-time teachers for upcoming MCAT
courses in Memphis.
4. If, and when, you
take the MCAT, make sure the exam center administrator sprays the
classroom’s chairs and door handles with WD-40 to eliminate squeaky chairs
and noisy doorknobs -- From the
March 2008 WD-40 Fan Forum.
5. Weighing
Cancer's Price, from the Baltimore Sun:
Appearing in the March 25, 2008 issue of Science in the News.
6. U.S.
Researchers Create Protein Map of Human Spit, from the San Diego
Union-Tribune (Registration Required):
Appearing in the March 26, 2008 issue of Science in the News.
7. Genetic
Testing Gets Personal, from the Washington Post (Registration Required): Appearing in the March 26, 2008 issue of
Science in the News.
8. Marginalia: What it’s like to fly in a
F-14 Tomcat.
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1. ACS/BBB/PHP
(American Chemical Society, Beta Beta Beta/Preprofessional Health
Programs) Activities.
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- Monday,
March 31: Practice date for the
annual Youth and Vitality vs. Old Age and Deceit Charity Volleyball
Game, 5-7 p.m., in the Canale Arena
- Thursday,
April 3**: ACS officer
nominations for 2008-2009, Room S155, starting at 12:30 p.m.
- Saturday,
April 5: Tennessee Academy
of Science, at the University
of Memphis
- Wednesday,
April 9: Annual Youth and
Vitality vs. Old Age and Deceit Charity Volleyball Game, starting at 6
p.m., in the Canale Arena
- Thursday,
April 10**: ACS officer
elections, S155, starting at 12:30 p.m.
- Tuesday,
April 15: Senior Research
Poster Session
- Thursday,
April 17: Senior Day
*NOTE: You *must* be at these
meetings if you are an officer. NO
EXCEPTIONS.
**NOTE: If you intend on running
for officership again, nominating another person, or voting in the election,
you must attend these meetings as well. These meetings will be joint meetings
with Tri-Beta, as they are nominating and voting on officers the same days we
are.
Also, there are tours of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
scheduled on several dates:
Friday, April 11th 10:30a. to 11:
30a. or 1:15p. to 2:15p.
Friday, May 2nd 10:30a. to
11:30a. or 1:15p. to 2:15p.
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2. It’s the 6th Annual Youth & Vitality vs. Old
Age Charity Volleyball Game, benefiting the Church Health Center, Wednesday,
April 10!
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(Editor’s Note:
WHADDAYAMEAN, “Old geezer dress-up contest?!!?”
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3. The
Princeton Review is currently hiring part-time teachers for upcoming MCAT
courses in Memphis.
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From an e-mail sent to me by Danielle Throneberry
Director of Operations, The Princeton Review - Tennessee
2317 Elliston Place,
Nashville, TN 37203
The Princeton Review (review.com)
is currently hiring, for work in Memphis,
part-time teachers for the MCAT (well, all test types really, but we need
MCAT teachers immediately). No previous teaching experience is necessary, and
schedules are flexible – classes are generally on nights and weekends, and
tutoring is scheduled on a one-on-one basis.
Recent test scores are a bonus, and the score minimums for
MCAT are ≥ 10 per subject. After taking a brief content test, you can
be trained in any of all of 5 areas – Organic Chemistry, Biology, Physics,
General Chemistry and Verbal. TPR pays you for the time you spend in
training.
Placement for teaching MCAT classes is possibly immediate
– we are hiring for classes starting in June and July as well as the fall.
Once you teach a class, you qualify to tutor.
If you’re interested or you want more information, give us
a call at 615-329-2900 or e-mail TeachTN@review.com
.
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4. If, and when,
you take the MCAT, make sure the exam center administrator sprays
the classroom’s chairs and door handles with WD-40 to eliminate squeaky
chairs and noisy doorknobs -- From the
March 2008 WD-40 Fan Forum.
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At the University of Missouri,
students taking the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) were finding it hard to
concentrate. Squeaky chairs and noisy doorknobs were distracting them, and
test administrators needed to find a way to create an environment more
conducive to test-taking.
So, What Did They Do?
Testing Services Supervisor Khesha Duncan dashed
outside, grabbed a can of WD-40 from her
car and
sprayed all of the classroom's chairs and door handles with it.
» Check
out the story here!
WD-40 is known for quieting squeaky chairs and door handles, but did you know
the multi-purpose problem solver can also be used to silence
squeaks and creaks on hundreds of other things? Use it to:
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5. Weighing
Cancer's Price, from the Baltimore Sun:
Appearing in the March 25, 2008 issue of Science in the News.
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WASHINGTON (Associated Press) - You've just been diagnosed
with cancer, and
the doctor is discussing
treatment options. Should the cost be a deciding
factor?
Chemotherapy costs are rising so fast that later this
year, oncologists
will get their first guidelines on how to have a straight
talk with
patients about the affordability of treatment choices, a
topic too often
sidestepped.
"These are awkward discussions," says Dr. Allen
Lichter of the American
Society of Clinical Oncology, which is writing the
guidelines. "At least we
can bring this out in the
open."
To read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-
te.cancer25mar25,0,1267085.story
Or: http://snipurl.com/22jy1
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6. U.S. Researchers Create Protein Map of Human Spit, from
the San Diego Union-Tribune
(Registration Required): Appearing in
the March 26, 2008 issue of Science in the News.
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CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have identified
all 1,116 unique
proteins found in human saliva glands, a discovery they
said Tuesday could
usher in a wave of convenient, spit-based diagnostic tests
that could be
done without the need for a
single drop of blood.
As many as 20 percent of the proteins that are found in
saliva are also
found in blood, said Fred Hagan, a researcher at the
University of
Rochester Medical Center
in New York
who worked on the study.
"This is potentially a large field that has many
clinical implications in
the area of disease diagnostics," said Hagan, whose
work was published in
the Journal of Proteome Research.
The researchers hope saliva-based tests
could be used to diagnose cancer, heart disease, diabetes
and a number of
other conditions.
To read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20080325-0414-spit-
proteins-.html
Or: http://snipurl.com/22ld7
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7. Genetic Testing Gets Personal, from the Washington Post
(Registration Required): Appearing in
the March 26, 2008 issue of Science in the News.
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In January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
movers and
shakers lined up to spit into test tubes -- the first step
to having
snippets of their DNA analyzed by 23andMe, a personalized
gene-testing
company that for $999 promises to help people "search
and explore their
genomes."
Those wanting an even more complete analysis of their
biological
inheritance can turn to Knome, a Cambridge, Mass.,
company that, for
$350,000, will spell out all 3 billion letters of their
DNA code -- an
unparalleled opportunity, the
company says, to "Know thyself."
For singles on tighter budgets and with narrower interests,
there is
ScientificMatch.com, which says that its $995 genetic test
will help
clients find DNA-compatible mates who will smell sexier to
them, have more
orgasms and produce healthier
children.
To read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402750.html
Or: http://snipurl.com/22lbd
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8. Marginalia: What it’s like to fly in a F-14 Tomcat.
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Below
is an article written by Rick Reilly of Sports
Illustrated. He details his
experiences when
given the opportunity to fly in a F-14 Tomcat.
If you aren't
laughing out loud
by the time you get to 'Milk Duds,' your sense
of humor is
seriously broken.
'Now this message is for America 's most famous
athletes:
Someday you may be invited to fly in
the back-seat of one of your country's most
powerful fighter jets.
Many of you alrea dy hav e . John Elway, John Stockton, Tiger
Woods to name a few.
If you get this opportunity, let me urge you,
with the greatest
sincerity... Move to Guam .
Change your name.
Fake your own death!
Whatever you do.
Do Not Go!!!
I know.
The U.S.
Navy invited me to try it. I was
thrilled. I was pumped. I was toast!
I
should've known when
they told me my pilot would be Chip (Biff) King of
Fighter Squadron 213 at
Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia
Beach .
Whatever you're thinking a Top Gun named
Chip (Biff) King looks like, triple it.
He's
about six-foot, tan,
ice-blue eyes, wavy surfer hair, finger-crippling
handshake -- the kind
of man who wrestles dyspeptic alligators in his leisure
time. If you see this
man, run the other way. Fast.
Biff King was born to fly. His father,
Jack King, was for years the voice of NASA
missions. ('T-minus 15
seconds and counting .' Remember?) Chip would charge
neighborhood kids a
quarter each to hear his dad. Jack would wake up
from
naps surrounded by
nine-year-olds waiting for him to say, 'We have liftoff'.
Biff was to fly me in an F- 14D Tomcat, a
ridiculously powerful $60 million weapon
with nearly as much
thrust as weight, not unlike Colin Montgomerie. (N.B.: This is Colin Montgomerie):
I was worried about
getting airsick, so the night before the flight I asked Biff
if there was something
I should eat the next morning.
'Bananas,' he said.
'For the potassium?' I asked.
'No,' Biff said, 'because they taste about
the same coming up as they do going down.'
The next morning, out on the tarmac, I had
on my flight suit with my name sewn over
the left breast. (No
call sign -- like Crash or Sticky or Leadfoot.
But, still, very cool.)
I
carried my helmet in
the crook of my arm, as Biff had instructed. If ever in my life I
had a chance to nail Nicole Kidman, this was it.
A fighter pilot named Psycho gave me a safety briefing and then
fastened me into my
ejection seat, which,
when employed, would 'egress' me out of the plane at such a velocity
that I would be
immediately knocked unconscious.
Just as I was thinking about aborting the flight,
the canopy closed over me, and Biff
gave
the ground crew a thumbs-up. In minutes we were firing nose up at 600 mph.
We leveled out and then canopy-rolled over another F-14.
Those 20 minutes were the rush of my life.
Unfortunately, the ride lasted 80.. It was
like being on the roller
coaster at Six Flags Over Hell. Only without
rails. We did barrel
rolls, snap rolls, loops, yanks and banks. We
dived, rose and dived again, sometimes
with a vertical velocity of
10,000 feet per minute. We chased another
F-14, and it chased us.
We broke the speed of sound.
Sea was sky and sky was sea. Flying at 200 feet we did
90-degree turns at 550
mph, creating a G force of 6.5, which is to say I felt as if 6.5
times my body weight was
smashing against me, thereby approximating life as Mrs.
Colin Montgomerie. (N.B.:
This is Mr. and Mrs. Montgomerie, together):
And I egressed the bananas.
And I egressed the pizza from the night
before.
And the lunch before that.
I egressed a box of Milk Duds from
the sixth grade.
I made Linda Blair look polite. Because of
the G's, I was egressing stuff that never
thought would be
egressed.
I went through not one airsick bag, but
two.
Biff said I passed out. Twice. I was coated in sweat. At
one point, as we were coming
in upside down in a banked
curve on a mock bombing target and the G's were flattening
me like a tortil la and
I was in and out of consciousness, I realized I was the first person
in history to throw
down.
I used to know 'cool'. Cool was Elway
throwing a touchdown pass, or Norman
making
a five-iron bite.
But now I really know 'cool'. Cool is
guys like Biff, men with cast-iron
stomachs and freon
nerves. I wouldn't go up there again for Derek Jeter' s black book,
but I'm glad Biff does
every day, and for less a year than a rookie reliever makes in a
home stand.
A week later, when the spins finally stopped,
Biff called. He said he and the fighters
had
the perfect call sign
for me. Said he'd send it on a patch for
my flight suit.
What is it?? I asked.
'Two Bags.'
God
Bless America
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