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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Oct. 24, 1957
Chemistry Honors Course Features Advanced Research
Research on tranquilizer drugs and amoebic dysentery is included in the chemistry senior honors course this semester. Six seniors, including one woman, Patricia A. Loyd, St. Louis, Mo., are enrolled in the course for two to five hours credit. They will work on different research projects under four professors.
Each student chose his project from among those which members of the chemistry faculty were directing. They will be required to write reports of their work at the end of the semester. Grants which the professors have received from different foundations will furnish the equipment and chemicals used.
Mrs. Loyd is working on emetine, a cure for amoebic dysentery, under the direction of A. W. Burgstahler, assistant professor of chemistry. She is trying to find an easier way of synthesizing emetine from easily available materials.
Trying To Form Compound
Trying To Form Compound James H. McMechan, Independence, Mo., is also working under Prof. Burgstahler. They are synthesizing a complex carbon compound consisting of about 25 atoms from 2-naphol, a 16-atom compound used in rubber tires. It will take eight different steps to obtain the 25 atom compound they are seeking. It will not have any commercial value, but the processes which they perfect in this research may be of considerable use in industry and in medicine.
Richard V. Ohmart, Scott City, and Edwin Rathbun, Great Bend, are working on the synthesis of drugs which may have some use as tranquilizers. Calvin VanderWerf, professor of chemistry, is directing this research.
Clinton D. Vermillion, Goodland, is trying to find out if p-aminoben-
Biology Meeting Attended By 14
Four Staff members and graduate students of the entomology and botany departments are attending a conference on systematic biology in St. Louis today and Saturday.
Attending the meeting are faculty members Charles Michener, professor, Robert Sokal, assistant professor and George Byers, assistant professor, all of the entomology department, and Ronald McGregor, assistant professor of botany.
Dr. Michener will gave a talk on "Natural and Artificial Genera." The conference, to be held in the Missouri Botanical Gardens, is sponsored by the Gardens and the National Science Foundation. About 10 KU graduate students also are attending.
zoic acid, which is used in anesthetics and sunburn preventives, can be used to stop bacterial growth in the body.
If the experiments are a success, benzoic acid can probably be used as a medicinal agent as well as a sulfa drug. Vermillion chose this project under William E. McEwen, associate professor of chemistry, because he plans to study medicine.
Analysis By Light Waves Lawrence H. Muhlberg, Lawrence
is trying to find more uses for photometric titrations, a method of analysis of chemical compounds using light waves. He is using two electronic machines called the photomultiplier and the spectrophotometer which measure the change in the density of light waves passed through substances analyzed. Charles A. Reynolds, associate professor of chemistry, is directing the project.
The seniors' first work began in the science library where they searched through chemical literature to find procedures used by others to synthesize the compounds they are working with. For some, it meant translating several pages of German. Later on they may even have to design their own equipment.
Collapsible Butterfly Net Collector's Friend
Now they are making collapsible butterfly nets for self-conscious entomologists.
Robert E. Beer, associate professor of entomology, said that for persons who are embarrassed to carry a butterfly net, there are now nets available which can be dismantled and carried in a pocket or satchel. Some nets even look like umbrellas.
Prof. Beer demonstrated the art of butterfly catching. When the butterfly is caught, the net is flipped over the captive and the body of the butterfly pinched gently. The butterfly is rendered unconscious and then placed in a killing bottle.
"Butterflies are very fragile and the less they are handled the better specimen a collector will have," he said.
The butterflies can be taken from the killing bottle a half hour after the last movement and put on a spreading board. After they have dried for about a week they can be arranged in a collection.
Another way of collecting butterflies, rather than chasing them. was cited by Prof. Beer. He ex-
KU Heads Attend Regents Meeting
Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy and Raymond Nichols, executive secretary of the University attended the Board of Regents meeting today in Topeka.
It is the regular monthly meeting of the Board, the governing body for the University.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt were fourth cousins.
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plained that a collector could have perfect specimens if he collected them in the larval or caterpillar stage or in the cocoon.
Prof. Beer said that when he was a boy 300 of his collection hatched out in his room—to his mother's dismav.
Scientists Here Monday
The man in charge of systematic biology research grants of the National Science Foundation will be on the campus Monday and Tuesday to check the effectiveness of such grants to KU faculty members and give an address.
"Botanical Research in Fiji" at 4 p.m. Monday in 101 Snow.
Dr. Smith was formerly with the U. S. National Museum botany department.
Dr. A. C. Smith, program director of the foundation, will lecture on
Elm wood is hard to work, it shrinks and swells. It bends well. It is used somewhat sparingly in furniture though it is used for curved parts of provincial types. It is now used extensively for decorative veneers.
Three KU faculty members are now working on research grants in systematic biology.
More farm workers—3,700 last year—are killed by accident than in any other major occupation.
Americans use paper milk cartons at a rate of better than a billion a month.
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