TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010 Achenblog


6www.washingtonpost.com/achenblog Adapted from Joel Achenbach’s online blog.


The ROV operators Last week I visited the


PATRICK SEMANSKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS


The Ocean Intervention III has two of these robotic vehicles.


Ocean Intervention III in dock at Port Fourchon, La. It was a blazing-hot day, and Port Fourchon is a place without trees or plants or even, as far as I could tell, dirt. There’s just gravel and various makeshift structures baking in the heat.


The Ocean Intervention is a big ship that has a single


function, which is operating two robotic submersibles (ROVs, or remotely operated vehicles). The robots do all the subsea work. They’re unsung heroes of this oil spill story. For a few minutes I got to sit in the pilot chair, as though I


were going to fly one of the ROVs. They don’t “drive” ROVs, they “fly” them, because they move in three dimensions, and the pilots use a joystick, just as if it were a fighter jet. The ROVs have two claws. The left claw is for fine manipulation. The right claw is called the Conan. It’s the barbaric hand, the big smasher, the powerful fist in the deep. The ROV operators said they love the work, best job in the world. The next day I was back in Washington, monitoring the hearings in Kenner, La., into to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Mike Williams, one of the Transocean oil rig guys, gave a riveting account of how he survived the explosion. When all the lifeboats were gone, he had to jump off the rig, some 80 feet above the water. He was badly injured in the initial blast. He hit the water, surfaced and found himself burning with oil, hydraulic fluid, diesel fuel, etc., and began to do the backstroke to get away from the intense heat. Then he stopped feeling any pain. Then he stopped feeling the heat from the fire. “That was it; I was dead.”


But somehow he came back to life, heard someone calling, “Over here,” got fished out, helped rescue others. Riveting stuff.


MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST SCIENCE NEWS


Across Africa, large-mammal populations suffered major declines in recent decades


Although herds of wildebeests and zebras and prides of lions still roam Africa’s national parks, they do so in smaller numbers these days. That’s according to a study that found that large- mammal populations in those parks shrank an average of 59 percent over 35 years.


Researchers from the Zoological BRAD WALTERS/THE WASHINGTON POST


Giraffes were among the species found to be in decline in new study.


Society of London and Cambridge University collected animal census data from 78 protected areas in Afri- ca, spanning the years from 1970 to 2005. They found that 69 species had experienced a drop-off in popu- lation. “I thought there would be one or two places that weren’t doing so well,” said Ian Craigie, primary author of the study, which was pub- lished in the July issue of the journal Biological Conservation, “but it’s a problem across the entire conti- nent.” In addition to wildebeests, zebras and lions, the researchers reported reductions in giraffe, buffalo, ele-


phant and rhino populations. Results differed regionally, however. East African popula- tions declined about 52 percent. Those in the west declined about 85 percent by 2002; there was insufficient data for later years. But in southern Africa, the overall large-mammal popula- tion either maintained its size or grew. Researchers did not know why the southern populations fared better, but suggested that hunting and habitat destruction were the likely reasons for the overall decline.


Although their study did not include population trends for areas surrounding the national parks, the researchers said “however bad it is inside the protected areas, it is almost un- doubtedly worse outside.” The rhinoceros, Craigie noted, is practically extinct outside the parks. When he started this research, Craigie said, he thought he would be able to demonstrate the parks were doing a good job maintaining large mammals. But “even a tourist or a non- scientist can tell . . . there are [fewer] of these animals.” The reasons for the population decline, Craigie said, are com-


plicated but primarily “human-induced.” Creating more nation- al parks would not help much, he said, unless they were well funded and well managed. “The parks are fully aware of the problem they have,” Craigie said, “but the limiting factor is they don’t have the resources to proactively protect their species.” — Leslie Tamura


SCIENCE SCAN AGING


Decrepitude can wait “THE YOUTH PILL” (CURRENT, $26.95)


Like a modern-day Ponce de Leon, science journalist David Stipp sets out in search of the Fountain of Youth — in capsular form — in his book “The Youth Pill.” As a re- porter at the Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine, Stipp had “gotten hooked on aging science and followed it more closely than any other topic I covered.” His book was inspired, in part, by the 2006 Harvard study that found that daily doses of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, seemed to induce anti- aging effects in mice. He believes that drugs called CR mimetics — which mimic the ben- efits seen in lab rodents that were fed a re- duced-calorie diet — in the near future will


be capable of postponing the onset of major diseases for five to 10 years. Stipp also predicts that someone involved with the mo- lecular biology of life-span extension will win a Nobel Prize be- fore 2020.


SCIENTIFIC ETHICS


Skirting the rules MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY, JULY/AUGUST ISSUE


Ethical crimes in the laboratory don’t always fall into the “big


three” — fabrication, falsification and plagiarism — that consti- tute fraud, according to the article “Sins Against Science.” Most misdeeds fall into the category of “everyday misconduct.” Ac- cording to the article, the National Institutes of Health forbids a researcher from taking leftover chemicals or other materials purchased through a grant for one study and using them in a different study. The researcher is supposed to buy a redundant bottle of the chemical, “but of course I use [the chemical] for something else,” admits an anonymous scientist. In addition to skirting bureaucracy, the article cites pressures to publish, get tenure or win grant money as motivations to fudge data.


— Rachel Saslow


MATHEMATICIAN-TURNED-UNIVERSITY-PRESIDENT FREEMAN A. HRABOWSKI III is known for encouraging minority students to pursue science and engineering careers. When the head of University of Maryland Baltimore County started as vice provost in 1987, black and Hispanic students were struggling in science at the school, he says. He helped launch the Meyerhoff Scholars Program for young black males in science and engineering fields in 1988; since then, it has expanded to include people of both sexes and all races. UMBC, a predominantly white university, is now a national leader in the number of minor- ity graduates who go on to earn doctorates in medicine, the sciences and engineering. Hrabowski, 59, grew up in Birmingham, Ala., where he marched for civil rights and was arrested and jailed for five days at age 12. He graduated from Hampton University in Vir- ginia at age 19 with a mathematics degree. He went on to earn a master’s and a doctorate from the University of Illinois. He has been president of UMBC since 1992. In November, Time magazine named Hrabowski one of the 10 best college presidents, and in May Har- vard gave him an honorary degree for his work with minority students, among other achievements. We spoke to Hrabowski about molding young scientists.


— Rachel Saslow What spurred your interest in


mathematics? I was fortunate to grow up in a middle-class home with two hardworking parents who en- joyed both reading and math- ematics. My mother was an Eng- lish teacher who decided to be- come a math teacher, and she used me as a guinea pig at home. My father had been a math teach- er and then went to work at a steel mill because, frankly, he could make more money doing that.


Also, my principal at Ullman


High School in Birmingham was a mathematician. He would write a problem on the board each day for the gifted kids in the school and we would get little presents — a nickel or a dime, something like that — if we solved it that day. I was always


Science and engineering doctoral degrees awarded in the U.S., by selected racial/ethnic groups:


1998


White Black


White Black


Hispanic 14,313 668


Hispanic 660 2007


13,981 964 1,071 SOURCE: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


determined to get it because I wanted a Tootsie Roll. That prin- cipal, Mr. George Bell, was a sym- bol for us of what it meant to be smart. And powerful. Did you experience any dis-


crimination in the classroom? The problem came when my mother sent me to a high school in Springfield, Mass., to have an integrated experience in the sum- mer, and no one would talk to me. I was the only black in the class. Now, I was allowed to be in the class, which was different than Birmingham in 1963. In all my classes [in Spring-


field], teachers would not call on me and kids wouldn’t speak to me. I could be the only student raising his hand and the teacher wouldn’t call on me; he’d look right through me. My parents taught me that I didn’t have the time to be a victim and to take the education that I needed and move on. And the education was superb.


Do African Americans face specific challenges that make


them less likely to excel in sci- ence? For African Americans, Hispan- ics and low-income whites, the quality of their K-12 education is not as strong as that of their white counterparts. It’s rare that an Af- rican American has had AP Calcu- lus in high school. African Amer- icans and Hispanics are more likely to have low SAT scores. Also, more-advantaged students have more likely learned how to study hard and be disciplined enough to put in time and effort to succeed. A disproportionate amount of minorities are not from highly educated families. There’s also a major gap be-


tween the number of men who go into science and math and the number of women. Do you work on that issue as well? It’s important to talk with spec-


ificity. In life sciences, we find a reasonable balance between men and women. In engineering and computer science, we have a ma- jor problem. A very small per- centage of women will be in com- puter science. Why?


Computer games tend to be boys’ games, warlike games with more violence. We have not spent enough time thinking through how to encourage more girls to be involved in computing before coming to college so they can see a possible career in information technology.


Is there a secret to helping


minority students succeed in science? It’s the faculty. It takes re- searchers to produce researchers. That’s the difference: faculty in- volvement paired with nurturing, high standards and high expecta- tions.


KLMNO


FIELD OF INQUIRY INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE IN SCIENCE


“


I could be the only student raising his hand and the teacher would look right through me.”


Science


E3


Companies consider factory-roof gardens by David Runk


Using heat from a forge that turns out car parts and hand tools, a Michigan manufacturer is developing an energy-efficient way to warm a year-round green- house on the company’s roof. David Moxlow, president of


Trenton Forging, started growing fruit and vegetables atop his plant southwest of Detroit in No- vember; he has already harvest- ed greens, peppers, broccoli, strawberries and tomatoes, which are shared with employees and visitors. The company is among a number nationwide that are developing technology and techniques for rooftop gar- dening as interest in local and homegrown food grows. Sky Vegetables aims to build


hydroponic farms on roofs in New York and Washington and in the Boston and San Francisco areas to make more fresh pro- duce available in cities. Another company based near Chicago, GreenGrid Roofs, sells a modular system of plastic bins that make it easier to install rooftop beds. Rooftop gardens provide envi- ronmental benefits similar to traditional green roofs, in which plants are used to reduce storm- water runoff, filter pollutants


and cut heating and cooling costs. The gardens also can make it easier for city residents to get fresh fruit and vegetables, which is seen as a way of improving public health. Manufacturers, meanwhile, of-


ten have large, unused flat roofs but little land to spare. Moxlow, who grew up garden-


ing, built a plastic-covered green- house, known as a hoop house, on a stretch of his company’s flat roof and used forced air and a hot-water heater to keep it warm during the winter. But he has de- signed and is testing a system to harness heat from the forging op- eration that would otherwise be wasted. The forge heats metal to be- tween 1,600 and 1,800 degrees.


After pieces are formed, they are put into big bins and set outside to cool. Moxlow’s system would roll some bins under a 4,000- gallon tank inside the plant to heat water to warm the green- house. In northern states where greenhouses often shut down for the winter because of the high cost of heating, the system could make year-round growing more practical, he said. Sky Vegetables, based in Need- ham, Mass., says its hydroponic systems could help building owners save money on heat. De- signed for roofs of at least 10,000 square feet, its systems would use solar panels to heat green- houses where plants grow in wa- ter. The greenhouses should low- er buildings’ utility costs by ab-


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sorbing sunlight in the summer and providing additional insula- tion in the winter, the company says. Sky Vegetables may eventually license its technology, but right now it plans to rent roofs where it will install its greenhouses and then sell the produce to super- markets and other customers. GreenGrid, owned by Weston Solutions Inc. of Vernon Hills, Ill., makes gardening systems that can be used on smaller roofs. —Associated Press


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