Chemistry

By BRUCE HAMILTON / Staff Writer photo: JOE CROCETTA / staff photographer Report cards typically are sent home with students, but Boonsboro High School tried something different Thursday night. [cont. from front page ] The school cut out the middlemen and gave out grades straight from the source during its first "Report Card Night. " From 6 to 9 p.m., parents were invited to visit, pick up report cards and meet briefly with any of the 48 teachers present.

Artists at Mansion House Meet artist Audrey Mentzer from 1 to 5 p.m. today. Mansion House Gallery, City Park, Hagerstown. Free. Call 301-797-6813. Discovery Station Sunday Extra will feature Jay Frantz and "The Thrill of Skydiving. " See skydiving techniques with safety first. 2 and 3 p.m. today. Discovery Station, 101 W. Washington St., Hagerstown. $7, adults; $6, ages 2 to 17; $5, seniors ages 55 and older and military. Call 301-790-0076. Victorian Christmas BRUNSWICK, Md. ?

Entertainment during the summer months in Jefferson County won't be limited to the local racetrack or casino. The new kids on the block are the Charles Town Cannons, a member of the 12-team Valley Baseball League, which celebrates its 90th season this year. Don and Brett Fuller purchased the Luray (Va.) Wranglers last year with the intent of moving them to Charles Town and becoming the first West Virginia entry in the history of the league. “We are certainly looking forward to the opportunity to play here,” said Brett Fuller at a Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce mixer at Charles Town City Hall on Tuesday.

bonnieb@herald-mail.com WILLOW HILL, Pa. - Students in Mathern Mellott's high school science classes have to study hard. Seven hours of homework per week in his classes at Fannett-Metal High School is the minimum. Only two months into the school year, his chemistry students are a third of the way through the 32-chapter textbook. "They have to do 90 percent of the questions and vocabulary in the book," Mellott said. "They'll fill a five-section notebook by the end of the year.

It's not enough that the Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater was tasked with converting the large-scale Broadway production of "Little Shop of Horrors" to its smaller, three-sided stage. The talking plant - the man-sized prop at the crux of the play's plot - fell off the back of a truck and was destroyed days before opening night and had to be rebuilt by the Playhouse's resident construction guy, Earl Moreland Jr., who is cast as the dentist and at least five other supporting characters.

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for atom-by-atom mapping of the protein-making factories within cells. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work on ribosomes has been fundamental to the scientific understanding of life and has helped researchers develop antibiotics. Yonath is the fourth woman to win the Nobel chemistry prize and the first since 1964, when Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin of Britain received the award.

Suns work on chemistry experiment during rain By BOB PARASILITI / Staff Writer The Hagerstown Suns suffered through another rainout on Friday, but manager Rolando Pino couldn't decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing. "I can't give you an answer. Ask me (Saturday)," Pino said. It's hard to say which Suns team will show up today when they host the Charleston (W.Va.) Alley Cats in a doubleheader. Most of the players are new and consistent play has shown up as often as 90-degree days this July.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Federal funding for a chemistry lab at the Shepherd College Community and Technical College cleared a major hurdle Monday, according to U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. Capito, R-W,Va., announced Monday that the Community and Technical College is in line to receive $100,000 to build a chemistry laboratory on the Martinsburg campus for students taking part in the paramedic training program. Currently, students taking part in certain programs in Martinsburg must commute to Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Hagerstown Community College professor Elaine Ashby recently worked as a consultant for the National Institute on Drug Abuse website.   Ashby, a professor of biology and chemistry who helped to create HCC's pharmacy technician program, was part of a consulting team that helped to plan, build and edit the new website, which can be viewed at www.easyread.drugabuse.gov .  According to the National Institutes of Health, the goal of the site...