Scientists

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- Students from across West Virginia got up to their knees in the fun of science during the past week to test the waters of possibility at the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA). Open to qualifying students entering ninth grade, the academy engages select West Virginia teenagers in scientific disciplines. In exchange, their college tuition is waived. Shepherd University was one of five institutions across the state to host the 2009 summer camp, said Darlene Stradwick, HSTA field site coordinator.

Kathleen Parker ("In God and Darwin We Trust," Tuesday, May 12, page A4) probably imagines she has helped to resolve the apparent incompatibility of belief in God and an acceptance of Darwinian biology. She does this by her praise for Dr. Francis Collins, a geneticist and professed fundamentalist Christian who writes and lectures about his conviction he can make a case for the mutual compatibility between the world of science and the domain of faith. Their claims of success are premature.

Almost to a person, we would not hesitate to support the proposition that we are dramatically improved in character and personality by exposure to higher levels of education. Yet, we are reminded of the limits of this expectation daily when we witness reports of seriously unacceptable behavior by those who ought to do better. In an earlier study, I have made mention of an especially egregious instance of rank prejudice and discrimination regularly perpetrated upon a brilliant young physicist in Germany before Adolf Hitler came to power and accelerated thereafter.

Chambersburg, Pa., resident Greg Paulson's images might look like a yet-to-be-discovered foreign world. What seems to be the valley of the Red Planet is actually the wing of a dragonfly. What looks like an extraterrestrial being is actually a pollen basket. What looks like a scene from "Alien" is really a parasitic wasp jumping out from its host, a psylla. Actually, the Shippensburg (Pa.) University biology chair said, every image comes from Earth. And to Paulson, 53, who is an entomologist, every hair, every curve, every thorn-like object is a piece of art. "I like the abstract beauty of it all," he said.

She is a scientific sleuth in pursuit of a killer. Specifically, Meena Chandok is hunting the earliest signals that human blood cells give one another when they begin mutating into what she calls cancer "culprits. " "What we're trying to detect is when the earliest communications occur, at the point of conception of the disease," Chandok said. "Achieving that could dramatically increase a person's chance of survival," she said. Since May, the 42-year-old Chandok has done her research in a 17-foot-by-18-foot lab she rents at the Technical Innovation Center at Hagerstown Community College.

Fusheng Guo held up a test tube and pointed to the clear liquid about the size of a child's marble in the bottom. "Sometimes," Guo said, "you can get $3,000 to $5,000 a gram" for this. "More valuable than gold," added Chris Marschner, manager of the Technical Innovation Center where Protein RST - Guo's life science company - and four others do their work. Guo (pronounced Gew-ah), who works by himself, said he produces "very pure" batches of concentrated protein for other biotech labs doing basic biological research for medical advances.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Stephanie Slocum-Schaffer, associate professor of political science at Shepherd University, has been chosen as a recipient of the Mentoring Award by the Women's Caucus of Political Science. She will be honored at a ceremony during the Women's Caucus Business Meeting on Aug. 29 at the American Political Science Association (ASPA) annual meeting in Boston. The Women's Caucus for Political Science is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the status of women in the profession of political science by promoting equal opportunity for women political scientists in employment, promotion and tenure decisions, as well as graduate school admissions and financial aid decisions.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Forensic scientists from Marshall University and the West Virginia State Police crime lab are expected to testify at the Sept. 2 trial of a Hedgesville, W.Va., man charged in the death of a Martinsburg woman whose decomposed body was found last year in northeastern Berkeley County. Fred Dwayne Douty II of Martinsburg and Anthony Charles Juntilla of Hedgesville each were indicted on charges of first-degree murder. Tina Marie Starcher, 40, allegedly was picked up by two men May 27 and taken to a home in Hedgesville where she was forced to have sex with them and was killed, according to authorities.

To the editor: I am relieved to learn that there is only one tribe left in "Judah" (Mr. Miller's letter of June 28) because, judging by the accomplishments of the descendants of the ancient Hebrews, it would be too time-consuming to add the other nine tribes' achievements. Though being the 100th smallest state with less that 1/1000 of the world's population, Israel-Judah can claim an astounding number of society's advances in almost every direction. Intel's new multi-core processor was completely developed at facilities in Israel.

Science has come a long way since '70s To the editor: I would like to respond to the letter on June 17, 2008, entitled "Environmentalism is License to Intrude" by Edgar Foltz. I, too, read the commentary by George Will on May 28, and I remember from the 1970s seeing the comments in the news that Will referred to stating the climate was getting colder. I differ, however, with the conclusions reached by Will and Foltz that the statements made in 1975 are evidence that the current conclusions on global warming are wrong and that climatologists are confused.