Laced Rice
The people of Bangladesh and neighboring countries are battling the problem of arsenic in their groundwater, a deadly offshoot of the massive tube-well drinking water program undertaken in the 1970s in an effort to provide bacteria-free water to millions of people. This same water is used to irrigate rice paddies, where the dietary staple is grown. Professor Om Parkash, Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences, leads a research team that uses genetic engineering to produce rice plants that block the uptake of arsenic, a known carcinogen. According to Parkash, arsenic builds up in all parts of the plant, including the grains used for human food and the straw used as animal fodder, creating health problems in hundreds of thousands of people.

Mighty Math Machine
It’s bigger than a breadbox (but smaller than most refrigerators), has 608 linked processors, and can perform an estimated five billion math operations every second (compared to the average human, who needs about three seconds to perform one large multiplication operation). Cyclops, so named for its single screen, is a new supercomputer purchased for $120,000 by the College of Engineering. It can solve “horrendously complex equation systems,” says Blair Perot, director of the Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Under a grant from the U.S. Navy, mechanical engineering doctoral student Michael B. Martell is already using Cyclops, to study the difference in drag between rough and smooth surfaces on a ship’s hull. Martell says the computer has calculated a counterintuitive finding: that there is a significant reduction in drag using a material with tiny posts or ridges on its surface.

Greener Golf
Maintaining lush fairways requires intensive application of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Are chemicals poisoning golfers, and can we reduce their environmental impact? Toxicologist John Clark, Veterinary and Animal Sciences, wanted answers. In one study he conducted, volunteers played 76 rounds of golf. Some were dressed in cotton clothing and veils to measure transferred pesticide residues; other were tested directly for absorbed pesticides. The players walked 6,500 yards; each hit a ball 85 times, and took 85 practice swings on the test plot at UMass Amherst’s Turfgrass Research Center in South Deerfield, following applications of pesticides. The good news: even under a worst case scenario, exposure was 19 to 68 times below current EPA values designed to protect human health. In other studies, Clark, who also works with Guy Lanza, Microbiology, identified plants that can be employed as living filters at the edge of golf courses to remove harmful pesticides from the environment. Blue flag iris was the clear winner; after three months of growth, it reduced in the soil levels of a commonly used insecticide by 76 percent and levels of a widely-used fungicide by 94 percent.

Work Out Then Wait
Swilling a high carb sports drink or munching an energy bar after exercising could be sabotaging some of the health benefits, says Barry Braun ’91G, associate professor of Kinesiology and director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory. Grad student researchers recently published three studies on the topic. Overall, they determined that the metabolic health benefits of exercise, such as lower risk for diabetes and heart disease, can be reduced when spent calories are quickly replaced with high carb foods. While it might not apply to competitive athletes, people exercising to improve their health might be wiser to stick with water and lower carb foods for one to three hours after working out.

Follow the Money
Recent gifts to campus programs and research

$1.1 million
To Rong Shao, a scientist for Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute and adjunct professor in the Veterinary and Animal Sciences Department, to further his research of protein YKL-40 and its connection to metastatic breast cancer, from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

$1 million
To a team of researchers including John Stranlund and John Spraggon of the Department of Resource Economics to design improved emissions trading programs, from the Environmental Protection Agency.

$200,000
To University Health Services’ Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students program, to serve as a model program, continue research, and share information about effective alcohol and other drug abuse prevention programs among college campuses, from the U.S. Department of Education.

$175,000
To Kevin McGarigal and Scott Jackson, Natural Resources, to create a comprehensive statewide wetlands monitoring and assessment program, from the Environmental Protection Agency.

$150,000
To Alfred J. Crosby, Polymer Science and Engineering, to lead collaboration between UMass Amherst and UMass Medical School to develop implant materials for knee and hip replacement surgery, from the UMass President’s Office Science and Technology Initiatives Fund.

$125,000
To Wayne Burleson and John Collura, Engineering, and Kevin Fu, Computer Science, to establish a multi-campus research consortium focused on integrated payment systems, a critical technology for e-commerce, in partnership with UMass Dartmouth, from the UMass President’s Office Science and Technology Initiatives Fund.

$125,000
To James Manwell, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and director of the Renewable
Energy Research Laboratory, for research in offshore wind energy with emphasis on institutional partnerships and industry collaborations, from the UMass President’s Office Science and Technology Initiatives Fund.

$90,000
To Paul Kostecki, Vice Provost, Research, to support UMass Clean Energy Working Group initiatives such as off-shore wind power; lowcost, high-efficiency photovoltaic materials and fuel cells; cellulosic biofuels; “green” gasoline; and zero-energy homes and buildings, from the UMass President’s Office Science and Technology Initiatives Fund.

$30,000
To Stephen Schreiber, Architecture + Design program, to introduce careers in architecture and design to at-risk high school students in Springfield, from the UMass President’s Office Creative Economy Initiatives Fund.

$20,000
To David Glassberg, History, and Robert Paynter, Anthropology, to develop a master plan for heritage tourism at the W.E.B. Du Bois boyhood home site and other areas in Great Barrington, from the UMass President’s Office Creative Economy Initiatives Fund.

$18,000
To Laura Lovett, History, to develop a database, collect oral histories, and produce a narrative history detailing 40 years of women’s contributions to the creative economy of western Massachusetts, from the UMass President’s Office Creative Economy Initiatives Fund.