Freedom Automotive (http://www.freedomautorepair.net) is participating in the nationwide campaign, the NALA’s Shop Local for Vets on Saturday, August 18th. Customers will receive 15% on all repairs up to $75 at their location at 16941 Walnut Street in Hesperia on August 18th. Freedom Automotive will also be sending a generous donation to the cause, The Greatest Generations Foundation.Hesperia ...
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Freedom Automotive Participates August 18 in Shop Local for Vets
FREEDOM It's all about reconnecting with your roots or putting down new ones at the 114th Freedom Old Home Week, which runs this week through Sunday.
This past Saturday in the quintessential New England village, it was hugs all around, as residents, full and part time, and returning natives met up with each other while they waited for the annual parade to start. Freedom, once a largely agricultural and home industries town, still has that kind of Our Town feel to it, with a modern twist, and this past weekend was no exception.
Where else can you attend a free yoga class, participate in a historical scavenger hunt, watch or take part in a canoe/kayak regatta, build and race a cardboard boat, or try your skills at a ping-pong tournament? These activities and more add fun to the more traditional Old Home Week events. The complete schedule of events may be found at freedomoldhomeweek.com.
This Friday is a particularly busy day in the village, with the Friends of the Library book and bake sale running from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the 8 Elm St. barn. Starting at 9:30 a.m. and ending at 3 p.m. is the 36th annual arts and craft fair, put on by the Freedom Community Club at the Freedom Elementary School.
And that free yoga class? That's on Friday, too. Certified Kripalu Yoga instructor Sharon Boggess will teach the class from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the town hall.
Saturday offers a chance for everyone to work off some of the great food consumed during the week. Registration for the annual OHW 5K Road Race is from 7 to 7:30 a.m. Walkers, with or without dogs, runners, and kids are welcome.
Later that day, the Freedom Fire Department hosts its annual fireman's lobster supper. Hungry patrons are asked to call the department at 539-4261 for tickets.
The idea for old home week was first championed by Gov. Frank W. Rollins in 1899, and the movement got official approval a proclamation in the N.H. State Legislature in 1913. It was a time of declining populations in small towns across the state, as farmers left for western lands that were easier to till than the Granite State's rocky soil, and the expanding network of railroads opened the West and Midwest to economic endeavors.
Rollins had hoped the activities would bring back former residents and that some would consider moving back home. His aim was not high off the mark. Freedom, like many New Hampshire towns with lakes and mountains, has benefited over the years from those who come back home to retire, or spend their sunset years in their newly winterized summer place.
I think Freedom is a very special place, said Sandy Kahler Gleeson after Saturday's parade. Gleeson and her husband, Rick, are seasonal residents of the town, with the day a real homecoming for her. Her parents owned and ran a summer camp in town when she was growing up, and she remembers being in the parade when she was 9.
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August 6, 2012 - Frontier League (FL) Florence Freedom Florence, KY - The The Florence Freedom(40-32)swept a doubleheader from the Road Warriors Monday night with 6-1 and 5-2 wins to complete a three game sweep. The Freedom gained a whole game in the wild card race as they now trail Windy City by 1.5 games for the final playoff spot.
The Freedom got excellent starting pitching in both games as Andres Caceres threw a complete game in game one. It was the first complete game turned in by Caceres who pitched 7 innings allowing 6 hits, while striking out 4. Caceres earned his 7th win of the season which now leads the Freedom pitching staff in wins.
In the 3rd inning the Freedom broke up a scoreless game as Junior Arrojo stole home to give Florence a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning Jim Jacquot hit a two run homer to expand the lead to 3-0. It was Jacquot's 8th of the season and his second in as many games. The Freedom took advantage of some sloppy defense by the Road Warriors in the 4th. With Victor Gomez at second base, Pierre LePage layed down a sacrifice bunt which was thrown away by pitcher Greg Hendrix(0-2) allowing Gomez to score. The Freedom also got contributions from David Harris who doubled in LePage in the same inning. Arrojo capped off the scoring with his RBI single in the 5th.
Game two followed after a thirty minute break as it saw more outstanding starting pitching by the Freedom. Ian "Bull" Durham made his first professional start and he didn't disappoint. He threw five scoreless innings, allowing 5 hits while striking out a season high five to earn his first victory of the season. It also marked his first professional victory as a starter.
The Freedom got on the scoreboard in the 4th, thanks to the help of a few fielding errors by the Road Warriors. Stephen Cardullo opened up the inning with a single. John Malloy then executed a sac bunt. Shawn Marquardt(0-2) fielded the bunt and was charged with a throwing error on a poor throw to first base. The Freedom capitalized on another error as the next batter Gomez reached on a fielding miscue by shortstop Aaron Glaum. On the error, Cardullo scored to give Florence a 1-0 lead. LePage then followed with a SAC fly to put the Freedom ahead 2-0. The Freedom went back to playing longball as Jacquot hit his second homerun of the doubleheader. It was a two run shot for Jacquot, his 9th of the year to give the Freedom a 4-0 lead. Jacquot has now homered in three straight games. The Freedom got another homerun in the 6th. Harris went deep for the third time on the homestand and his 8th of the season to make it 5-0.
The Road Warriors plated two runs in the 7th against Freedom reliever Brennan Flick. A bases loaded walk to Tanner Leighton forced home Wesley Jones to make it 5-1. Matt Kline was then brought in out of the bullpen. He got David Roney to groundout to second which scored Ryan Kaup. Kline then got Glaum to fly out on a line drive to left field to end the ballgame.
The Freedom will continue their season long twelve game homestand Tuesday night as they welcome the Windy City Thunderbolts to Florence. Windy City will feature RHP Tyson Corley(2-6, 3.65) as the Freedom will give the ball to RHP Alec Lewis(4-6, 4.36). The game can be heard starting at 6:50 with Steve Jarnicki on Real Talk 1160 AM and realtalk1160.com.
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Eighty-five years after U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Virginia eugenics law allowing the state to forcibly sterilize anyone it considered genetically deficient, a state lawmaker is calling on Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly to make a symbolic payment to any living victims of the law.
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Several hundred aging survivors of North Carolinas eugenics program were double crossed by callous state senators who failed to pass overdue compensation for their forced sterilizations. Gov. Beverly Perdue and the House of Representatives signed off on a commissions recommendation that each living victim receive $50,000. This culminated more than a decade of hard work by advocates.
Senate leader Phil Berger, R.- Rockingham, pledged his support at the beginning of the recent legislative session. However, when the dust settled, the Senate never even voted on the compensation measure. Republican Sen. Don East said the states past actions were regrettable but money would not fix the problem.
Some 7,600 predominately low-income and disproportionately black citizens were sterilized by the state against their will in order to prevent defectives from having multiple pregnancies and increasing welfare rolls. Eugenics activity was official state policy from 1929 to 1977. Breeding for quality was a worldwide passion, especially in Nazi Germany.
I was involved in preparing sterilization paperwork as a fledgling county social worker in the early 1970s. Progressive national and state foundations supported the practice, as did many universities and hospitals. Most other states ended state-sponsored sterilizations after World War II, but North Carolina increased the operations in the 1960s. Gov. Mike Easley officially apologized for the states heinous actions in 2002.
This July, the Senate resorted to cowardly protests that paying compensation might open North Carolina up to future financial liability.
Victims have until now never sued the state for compensation. However, state responsibility is voluminously documented by the general statutes of the time, thousands of case records, academic studies of eugenics and the heart-wrenching stories of the few hundred living victims who would benefit from compensation.
Liability has been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, and the senators excuses represent only gutless political babble.
Gov. Perdue should use her remaining tenure to provide a measure of justice for victims. She and other Democratic leaders are far from blameless. For over 10 years the Democratic-controlled legislature, with Perdue serving as a top Senate budget writer, turned a deaf ear to the crusade by Rep. Larry Womble, D.-Forsyth, and others who pleaded in vain for compensation. Blame falls on many state leaders from both parties.
Perdue should immediately take action to:
Reach out to our hospitals, philanthropic foundations and corporations for donations to partially offset the cost of compensation. Many of those organizations openly supported forced sterilization or practiced wicked silence.
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South Beaches rolls to a 12-0 victory, advancing to the Senior League Baseball Southeast Regional championship.
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South Beaches Little League Baseball Senior All-Stars cruise, 12-0
County officials have recieved permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection to use more aggressive methods to clear seaweed from Coquina Beach. PAUL VIDELA/Bradenton Herald
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MANATEE -- The county has stepped up efforts to clear Anna Maria Island beaches of seaweed after receiving permission from state environmental officials to use mechanical rakes.
"It's all done, I was very pleased with the quick action of the county," said Bradenton Beach resort owner David Teitelbaum.
"They did the whole north and south of us," he said.
It was a far cry from last week, when Teitelbaum, who operates four Bradenton Beach resorts, wrote in an email message to commissioners complaining that the beaches were "a total mess," and that "the smell is simply awful."
Steve West, the local representative for the state Department of Environmental Protection, helped to provide the necessary permit to rake beaches from the
southern most end of Coquina Beach to the northern tip of Anna Maria Island, with the caveat that county crews adhere to permit requirements, such as caution around sea turtle nests, wrote Cindy Turner, county director of parks and recreation in an email update to county commissioners.
Monday, clean-up crews raked along Gulf of Mexico beaches from Cortez Road to a few blocks north of State Road 64, and then hauled the debris to a compost pile, said Holmes Beach resident Glenn Wiseman, education director for the conservation group Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch & Shore Bird Monitoring.
Wiseman rode an all-terrain vehicle alongside a mechanical beach rake in order to protect turtle nests in the sand, and help the crews to avoid shorebird nesting and foraging areas, he said.
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Manatee County steps up effort to clean seaweed from beaches
Beachgoers, get lost.
Amid the peak summer season, two of Connecticuts popular public beaches -- maintained with taxpayer money -- were closed Monday to accommodate President Obamas fundraising excursion that ends with a $35,800-per-plate event at movie mogul Harvey Weinsteins mansion. And Republicans aren't happy about it.
The 238-acre Sherwood Island State Park was closed so the presidents helicopter could land and then take off after a day-long trip that began in Stamford.
The other beach, the roughly two-acre Burying Hill Beach, is adjacent to Weinsteins mansion and is owned by the town of Westport. Both beaches border the Long Island Sound.
"This is the height of hypocrisy," state House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. told FoxNews.com.
Cafero, a Norwalk Republican, said he was so shocked to hear the parks would be closed to accommodate Obama's fundraisers that he immediate double-checked his information.
"Purely political," he said. "Can you imagine if George W. Bush in 2004 had requested that our Republican governor shut down the park? It would have made national news. This is wrong in so many ways."
This is not the first time the state park has been closed so a president could use it as an airport for reelection fundraisers in southwest Connecticut.
President Bill Clinton used the Sherwood park twice for trips that included fundraising events. He landed there in 1998 for a series of events that included a fundraiser that reportedly raised $350,000 for his party. A year later, the park was closed for much of the day for Clinton, who attended a fundraising luncheon for the Democratic National Committee and the Women's Leadership Forum that reportedly raised more than $400,000.
Obama began his trip to Connecticut with a fundraiser at the Stamford Marriott Hotel, then will attend Weinstein's evening fundraiser that is reported to include such celebrities as Anne Hathaway, Aaron Sorkin, Joanne Woodward and Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
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Connecticut beaches closed so Obama can fund-raise with Hollywood mogul
05-08-2012 09:22 Album: Works EP Artist: Aerospace Label: Planet BEN Genre: Progressive Rel. Date: 15.07.2012 Enjoy!
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European aerospace giant Airbus said Monday it plans to double the $12 billion it now spends with U.S. suppliers amid strong airplane sales, explaining that the company has a backlog that is "disturbingly healthy."
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WICHITA, Kan. - European aerospace giant Airbus said Monday it plans to double the $12 billion it now spends with U.S. suppliers amid strong airplane sales, explaining that the company has a backlog that is "disturbingly healthy."
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European aerospace giant Airbus plans to double the $12 billion it spends with US suppliers
WASHINGTON Steve Cooksey eats what he calls a cave man diet lots of meat and greens, no bread or pasta. He says it has helped him conquer life-threatening diabetes.
But when he wrote about his experiences and offered advice on his Web site, officials in North Carolina said he was breaking the law by providing nutrition care services without a license.
Charla M. Burill, the executive director of the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition, called Mr. Cooksey in January to tell him so. The conversation was by all accounts civil, and Ms. Burill had a state law on her side.
About a week after they talked, Ms. Burill sent Mr. Cooksey pages from his site liberally annotated in red ink. She said that writing a blog on your beliefs was fine. But Mr. Cookseys Dear Abby-style advice column was unlawful. So was a paid life-coaching service.
You are no longer just providing information when you do this, she wrote of the column and the service. You are assessing and counseling, both of which require a license.
Indeed, a North Carolina law says that assessing the nutritional needs of individuals and groups without a license is a crime. Many other states license nutritionists and dietitians, but the North Carolina law seems to be among the stricter ones.
In her markup of Mr. Cookseys site, Ms. Burill underlined examples of unlawful advice, including this one: I do suggest that your friend eat as I do and exercise the best they can.
Mr. Cooksey reluctantly made the requested changes. Then he filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Charlotte, N.C., saying his First Amendment rights had been violated.
Cookseys advice, his lawyers wrote, ultimately amounts to recommendations about what to buy at the grocery store more steaks and avocados and less pasta, for example.
The First Amendment simply does not allow North Carolina to criminalize something as commonplace as advice about diet, they added.
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Nutrition Blogger Fights North Carolina Licensing Rebuke
Before Charlotte Jarvis applied for a license to do so, no one in the Netherlands had ever created an entirely synthetic DNA strand. The young British artist claimed that honor during a ten-month stint at the Netherlands Proteomics Centre, while developing an installation that has sparked debate among scientists about the goals of genetics and synthetic biology.
On August 4th, Jarvis unveiled Blighted by Kenning, the project she developed during an artist residency at the center. In an old dairy warehouse on the coast of Suffolk, she has installed a small apple orchard of thirteen trees. Each tree was grown in the Hague, the seat of the International Court of Justice. And hanging in the trees, one contaminated apple is encoded with a message: the Declaration of Human Rights, developed more than sixty years ago by the United Nations. During the opening on Saturday, Jarvis mingled with the audience as she ate the contaminated apple. Others like it had been sent to scientists to be decoded (and consumed)--the exhibition includes images of scientists (like the Dean of Science at Utrecht University) eating them.
The process for using the DNA sequence as a code to represent natural text is well established, explains Jarvis. When they decode the apples DNA, her collaborators will find the Declaration encrypted in three-letter codons, a tri-nucleotide unit consisting of a specific combination of Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C). Jarvis originally intended to infect the apples with actual bacteria made from the DNA, but as she recently explained to Dont Panic, its nearly impossible to legally exhibit a Genetically Modified Organism in a gallery, either in the U.K. or Holland, and asking people to eat the apples would have been out of the question. Instead, she extracted the naked DNA from the bacteria, and used spray-bottles to coat the apples. Since DNA alone is no more than the building blocks used to create proteins, there are fewer restrictions on its use.
DNA is an incredibly stable substance, so it will stay on the surface of the apple for many years, she writes. In the same way that in the right circumstances DNA evidence can be retrieved decades after a crime is committed. The idea, Jarvis explains, is to involve scientists in a show of support for research about genetics and structural biology, contrary to popular opinion that such research is dangerous to humanity--a forbidden fruit, if you will.
When Blighted by Kenning is complete, scientists all over the world will have reconstructed the DNA and returned samples of it to Jarvis. Speaking over email in the days before the opening, she says she plans to continue working within the field. Its while setting up for a show that I start to have new ideas, she says. I was discussing a new genetic art project with a curator just yesterday. The Suffolk exhibition is on view until August 26th, though hilariously, its possible that some unwitting Olympic tourist has already consumed a piece of the art: Jarvis tells Dont Panic that she accidentally left one of the apples on the London Tube.
[Full interview here; Images courtesy of the artist]
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Artist Encrypts Human Rights Charter Into An Apple's DNA
$1M gift to endow UVa-Wise biology position Published August 7th, 2012 12:58 am
WISE -- The University of Virginia's College at Wise has received a $1 million gift from the estate of Carol Phipps Buchanan to create an endowed professorship in biology at the college.
The John C. Buchanan Professorship in Biology has been established in honor of her late husband, a former state senator and Southwest Virginia physician, the college announced Monday.
Sen. Buchanan, an alumnus of the University of Virginia, operated a general medical practice in Wise from 1971 until his death on April 15, 1991.
Sen. Buchanan represented a large portion of the region in the Virginia General Assembly. During his service in the state Senate, Buchanan sponsored the first state statute to provide workers compensation for black lung disease acquired by coal miners.
Carol Phipps Buchanan was a trustee of the Columbus Phipps Foundation, which has supported UVa-Wise in the past. She was known for her strong dedication to education. A community minded yet private person, she wanted her estate used to promote education.
"We are deeply grateful to the estate of Carol Phipps Buchanan for the generous gift," said Tami Ely, vice chancellor for development and college relations. "Endowed professorships allow us to attract and retain excellent faculty at UVa-Wise, which enhances the educational experience for our students."
The only branch campus of the University of Virginia, UVa-Wise offers Virginia's only undergraduate degree in software engineering among 29 other degrees and professional programs in the liberal arts tradition of Thomas Jefferson.
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$1M gift to endow UVa-Wise biology position
SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/-- Mindray Medical International Limited (MR), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices worldwide, announced today its selected unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012.
Highlights for Second Quarter 2012
"Despite the challenging environments in various international regions, we have once again achieved very solid performance in sales, profits and cash generation," commented Xu Hang, Mindray's chairman and co-chief executive officer. "All major geographical areas have delivered strong growth for the quarter. We are particularly encouraged by our good performance in developed markets, considering the volatility of those regions over the past year. We have also improved our gross margin and the healthy cash conversion cycle reflected our efforts in improving operational efficiency. In addition, we have launched new products in our IVD line and closed the orthopedics acquisition recently. Our reagent sales are continuing to accelerate. All of these are in line with the company's strategy to capture opportunities in the fast-growing consumable products markets. Going forward, we intend to prudentlydeploy our strong cashposition and continue to look for attractive investment opportunities worldwide."
SUMMARY Second Quarter 2012
(in $ millions, except per-share data)
Three Months Ended
June 30
2012
2011
% chg
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Mindray Announces Second Quarter 2012 Financial Results
Debbie Allen
Debbie Allen is returning to Grey's Anatomy!
Allen, who portrays Jackson Avery's (Jesse Williams) mother Catherine on the ABC medical series, will be directing the third episode of the upcoming season, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.
The ninth season picks up two to three months after the Stranded Six Five (RIP Lexie!) were rescued after a plane crash. "You see the aftermath of what happened," executive producer Shonda Rhimes recently told us. "You're left with some questions as to how this happened and 'Why is this the way it is?' and 'Why is that the way it is?'"
Grey's Anatomy's Shonda Rhimes talks Season 9: Time jumps, new locations and new docs!
The second episode will jump back in time to answer those questions, while the Allen-directed episode will jump back to the present timeline, which will find some doctors outside of Seattle Grace with new jobs.
This is Allen's fifth time stepping behind the camera on Grey's Anatomy. There's no word on whether Catherine Avery, who was last seen having a fling with Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) will also appear in the episode.
Grey's Anatomy returns Thursday, Sept. 27 at 9/8c on ABC.
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Grey's Anatomy Exclusive: Debbie Allen to Direct Again in Season 9
Public release date: 6-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Angela Babb ababb@aan.com 612-928-6102 American Academy of Neurology
MINNEAPOLIS Fainting has a strong genetic predisposition, according to new research published in the August 7, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Fainting, also called vasovagal syncope, is a brief loss of consciousness when your body reacts to certain triggers, such as emotional distress or the sight of blood.
"The question of whether fainting is caused by genetic factors, environmental factors or a mixture of both has been the subject of debate," said study author Samuel F. Berkovic, MD, FRS, with the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
For the study, 51 sets of twins of the same gender between the ages of nine and 69 were given a telephone questionnaire. At least one of the twins had a history of fainting. Researchers also gathered information about any family history of fainting. Of the 51 sets of twins, 57 percent reported having typical fainting triggers.
The research found that among twins where one fainted, those who were identical (from the same fertilized egg) were nearly twice as likely to both faint compared to fraternal twins (those from two different fertilized eggs). The risk of fainting not related to outside factors (such as dehydration) was also much higher in identical twins compared to fraternal twins. Identical twins were much more likely to both experience fainting associated with typical triggers than fraternal twins. The frequency of fainting in non-twin relatives was low, suggesting that the way fainting is inherited is usually not by a single gene.
"Our results suggest that while fainting appears to have a strong genetic component, there may be multiple genes and multiple environmental factors that influence the phenomenon," said Berkovic.
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The study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council Australia.
To learn more about fainting, visit http://www.aan.com/patients.
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Fainting: All in the family?
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.
The largest class so far at University of Central Florida's medical school began its first year on Monday.
Fifty-five men and 45 women make up the graduating class of 2016, and while it took substantial work to be able to earn admission into the school, the real work has yet to begin.
The class size is seven times larger than UCF's inaugural class four years ago.
Every one of the incoming medical students will train at UCF using medical simulation tools, which essentially are just video games.
The school is already one of the top universities in the nation for game design, which is poised to create a massive job boom in the metro area, and medical simulation could make it one of the top spots in the nation.
Many of the simulations will be built by graduates of the school's video game design school, which according to the Princeton Review, is ranked fourth in the nation after Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Being able to simply hold up a device like this iPad and focus on the poster and have it come to life," said David Metcalf, of the UCF Institute for Simulation and Training.
And future employment for game designers is booming.
The VA is set to open a major medical simulation center in late 2013, which will train thousands of VA technicians across the nation.
Continued here:
UCF's largest medical class to train on video game simulation tools
ABINGDON, Va. --
The Abingdon Town Council is scheduled to hear a presentation tonight from Tariq Zaidi, interim president and CEO for the proposed King School of Medicine, tonight.
Nearly two weeks ago, Zaidi spoke before the Washington County Board of Supervisors and got a mixed reaction of optimism and uncertainty.
Zaidi said the project, which is backed by the county, the town and the Virginia Tobacco Commission, could be shifting focus to a less expensive and more comprehensive health care education center.
Abingdon Mayor Ed Morgan said he is optimistic about the medical school projects future.
Im pleased with the progress Mr. Zaidi is making; hes building on the work of [King College President] Dr. Jordan did and bringing a lot of leadership and technical skills, Morgan said. Im optimistic he can bring the project to fruition.
The council is scheduled to meet for a work session at 5:30 p.m. today and a regular meeting, at 7:30. Zaidi is scheduled to speak during the regular meeting. The agenda and information packet are available online at http://www.abingdon-va.gov/.
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Medical school update to come tonight
The Olympic Games are filled with chemistry. Metaphorically speaking, chemistry is felt both on and off the playing field, while literally the chemicals used in different medicines help athletes overcome pain and injury. And lets not forget the inorganic, metal-based chemistry displayed during the award ceremonies. Medallions of gold, silver and bronze (a copper-tin alloy) are draped around the necks of Olympic champions, recognizing their achievement on a global stage.
Chemistry, figuratively and literally, plays a significant role in the Olympic Games. However, the goal of Olympism is to place sports at the service of the harmonious development of humankind. The XXX Olympiad which began on July 27 exemplifies this mission statement as athletes from 205 countries unite for 17 days of global competition.
I didnt have to wait until the Opening Ceremony in London to feel this sense of unity. Since June, Ive been spending my time in a different sort of international community: the chemistry laboratory. Under Chemistry Prof. Melanie Sanford, Ive been working on my honors thesis. Together the undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who conduct research in Sanfords lab represent nine nations and three of the five continents depicted by the Olympic rings.
United by our curiosity in the chemical sciences, my lab-mates and I speak two mutual languages, English and chemistry. English is the second, or even third, language spoken by half my lab-mates, but by drawing out reaction mechanisms, we have the ability to transcend language barriers. Nonetheless, its still not uncommon to walk into my lab and not always understand the conversation at hand.
While my German is limited to a few phrases, my fluency in the language of chemistry has flourished during my research experience. Working in a multi-cultural environment has allowed me to view chemistry from many different perspectives. We all approach our research from diverse educational and personal backgrounds. The exchange of ideas from these distinct viewpoints enrich and broaden the path toward the overall solution. In the case of my thesis, these questions deal with the development of reactions used to change carbon-hydrogen bonds into carbon-carbon bonds using palladium as a catalyst.
Working in this lab has not only increased my knowledge in the field of chemistry, but provided me with the opportunity to learn about a diverse range of cultures. Taking advantage of my past Spanish classes, Ive been able to get to know my Guatemalan lab-mate through speaking all three of the languages we share. Different aspects of our personalities and past knowledge flourish depending on the language were using. Nine years of studying Spanish, including a semester abroad in Seville, Spain, have provided me with a solid understanding of the language. My fluency and comfort level, however, continue to improve during these shared conversations.
Though the 2012 Summer Olympic Games come to a close on Aug. 12, the sense of international unity promoted by the Games will continue in my everyday life. While I dont compete for gold on a daily basis, my research in palladium-based chemistry allows me to work with chemists from around the globe. Chemistry, like the Olympics, unites people from all over the world and acts as a catalyst for multicultural exchange.
Cydney Seigerman is a LSA senior.
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Viewpoint: United by chem