lifestyles
NASA's KU CONNECTION
The University has a longstanding relationship with the U.S. space program
By Brenden Sager
Kansan staff writer
KU's Nichols Hall and NASA both are working on the frontier — NASA is working in space, and Nicholas Hall is working on West Campus.
Nichols Hall had a mission when it was built, which was conceived by NASA, said Robert Waltera, the first and only research facilities manager for the 23-year-old Space Technology Center at Nichols Hall. "That is, as a research facility, to benefit the University."
In the building's history, NASA has provided millions of dollars to support KU research for space technology and data analysis. Even in the face of federal budget cutbacks, NASA's money keeps coming, said Sivaprasad Goghment, director of the Radar Systems and Remote Sensing Lab at Nichols Hall — the Technology Center's largest and most grant-laden program.
NASA's first and largest grant was awarded in 1968 to pay for the building's $2 million construction, which was completed in 1972, Walters said. The grant was the culmination of efforts by faculty in several of the University's departments that had a science-related curriculum, including engineering, biology and geology. The faculty wanted to show that the University was producing the kind of research that deserved federal support, he said.
But the faculty also had a little help.
"I was the ranking Republican on the Science and Technology Committee," said former Congressman Larry Winn, R-Kan.
The Science and Technology Committee set NASA's budget, which made Winn a key player in securing NASA grants for the University. Walters said.
During his 18-year term in Congress, Winn never lost a race — if he had, Nichols Hall might never have been built. Walkens said.
KU engineering professors, eager to get their projects off the ground, first approached Winn in the late 1960s.
"It was a time of prosperity for NASA," Winn said.
He was eager to bring some federal dollars back to his constituency in Douglas County.
"I encouraged their research and helped them get funding," Winn said. "I knew there would be some NASA money."
Winn said he was more than happy to talk to professors about supporting the NASA research facility. Winn's parents met at the University; he graduated from KU in 1941, and his five children also graduated from KU.
Once the money was secured, NASA launched the Space Technology Center, which still has programs soaring today: the Radar Systems and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Educational Systems Laboratory, Flight Research Laboratory, Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Laboratory, Kansas Biological Survey, Radiation Physics Laboratory and Telecommunications and
A third common building on
functioning as an incubator
failure and
Watson holds a master's degree in geology from the University and worked on processing radar imagery with the Remote Sensing Lab in the 1980s.
When it was first damaged, Nichols Hall was to be a place for the free exchange of ideas. Walters said, Also, some interior walls of the building were designed to be moved around when needed, so the building could meet the changing needs of some of the world's most advanced space research
"We've built for turn-over," he said.
It is the design of Nichola that makes it a special place for researchers who dream of the star. he said.
On the south side of the building, a statue of Icarus hurding back to Earth greets those entering through the main doors. In Greek mythology, Icarus attempted to
Pam Dishman / KAMBAN
This statue of Icarus, a Greek mythological character, sits in front of KU's Nichols Hall at West Campus.
escape a labayrinti by building wings of feathers and wax. His ambitions led him to fly too close to the sun, and the wax melted.
The statue serves as a reminder not to be over ambitious, he said.
Nichols has no classrooms; only labs and a lecture hall. The foyer is an open area with displays of space suits, flags flown in space and pictures of astronauts. Of the astronauts pictured, Ron Evans, Joe Engle and Steve Holly were KU graduates.
Winn said he was given many of the items when he retired from Congress and later donated them to Nichols.
Walters said the foyer was designed so that people with new ideas could discuss them in an open environment among inspiring space artifacts.
"The people that work here are pretty serious about what they do," he said.
A large spiral staircase ascends the technology center's three floors. At each level, hallways extend from balconies that enclose the staircase. In each hall, there is a blackboard on every wall — if someone has an idea, it can be shared with others who traverse the hallways, he said.
*Nichols Hall is rich ground for ideas and inventions.* Waffers said.
The most important aspect of Nichols is the faculty that produces the ideas and inventions, he said. It is also Walters' job to make sure the faculty is comfortable while working.
"I want them to be warm and fuzzy and cuddly as much as possible," he said.
Redenbacher dies at age 88
'Kernel King's reign ends'
The Associated Press
CORONADO, Calif. — Orville Redenbacher, a one-time county agriculture agent who developed a multimillion-dollar line of gourmet popcorn and became a TV advertising star, was found dead in his apartment yesterday. He was 88.
He was found in his bathtub around 6 a.m., said Coronado City Manager Homer Bludau. The cause and time of death were under investigation by the Medical Examiner's Office.
Redenbacher, known for his trademark glasses and bow tie, was an advertising spokesman who was also an agribusinessman and scientist who worked at improving lines
"Many people thought he was a media creation, but what people saw on television, that was him."
Orville Redenbacher
improving lines
"He's been one of the greatest forces for promoting popcorn. It'll be a great loss," said William E. Smith, executive director of the Chicago-based Popcorn Institute. Smith knew Redenbacher for 43 years.
of corn for years before he began selling gourmet popcorn on TV. He estimated he cross-bred 30,000 hybrids during 40 years before coming up with his own gourmet line.
He and his partner sold the Orville Redenbacher brand in the mid-1970s for a reported $2 million but remained the star of its advertising. It's now owned by Hunt-Wesson.
A native of Indiana, Redenbacher grew popcorn on his family's farm to earn extra spending money. He graduated from Purdue University in 1928, receiving a degree in agronomy. He then worked as a county agricultural agent.
Smith said
Redenbacher later organized and managed the 12,000-acre Princeton Farms, where he
Redenbacher's popcorn career took off when he teamed with Charles Bowman and bought Chester Inc., a diversified agricultural company in Valparaiso, Ind. At first, he sold what he called "the very first gourmet popping corn" by traveling by car across the country.
He and Bowman sold popcorn under the Redbow brand, created from their last names. In the early 1970s, an advertising agency decided to make Redenbacher the focus of the advertising.
started production of commercial popcorn in 1943.
He continued to return to Indiaana each year for the ValjarapaPopcorn Festival, said Glenna Kueck, the festival's executive director, though a bad back kept him away this year.
At around the time he and Bowman sold the company, by then a household name, Redenbacher and his wife, Nina, moved to the San Diego area. Nina Redenbacher died in 1991.
"At 88 years old, age had caught up with him to some degree, but he was as sharp as ever," she said.
In interviews, Redenbacher said that his love of popcorn developed in the family garden when he was a child.
No medicine can make the ubiquitous head cold go away, not even chicken soup. And nothing can keep the runny nose, the aching sinuses, the sore throat and all the rest from striking in the first place.
At Purdue, he liked to joke, he played in the marching band, saying: "That's where I learned to tow my own horn."
Help on the way for those suffering from the sniffles
The Associated Press
The latest approach is intended to protect vulnerable nasal passages from invasion by the rhinovirus. It seems to work - at least in chimpanzees.
If this treatment works out — and it's still far from proven and years away from drugstore shelves — it will be a rare victory against an exceptionally wily enemy.
SAN FRANCISCO — Sorry, the common cold still has no cure. But the next best thing is in the works: a simple nasal spray to protect people from catching the sniffles.
Whether humans will fare so well remains to be seen. The precise dosage is a future matter, too, but scientists believe they can develop a spray that will be squirted in the nose just once or twice a day to keep colds away through the worst season.
But that may be changing. In recent years, scientists have learned a lot about how the cold virus raises havoc. And this new understanding is beginning to pay off with strategies that may at last fend it off.
If the blocking agent pans out, it will be the first medicine that stops infection using the variety of the virus that causes about half of all colds.
He outlined the work yesterday at an infectious disease meeting sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology.
"The idea is to take advantage of how the rhinovirus enters the body," said Dr. Edward D. Huguenel of Bayer Corp., who leads the team developing the drug.
About 100 varieties of rhinovirus exist. Catching one of these makes people immune to that particular bug.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
But they are still susceptible to all other strains. That's why the average adult catches two or three cows a year.
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SEPTEMBER 20,1995
KU Theatre for Young People will sponsor "The Butterfly," 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at Crafton-Preyer Theatre. Tickets $3, $5 and $6.
EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES
Cultural Calendar
The Renegade Theatre presents East Side Comedy Shop, 8 p.m. Sept. 23 at 1801 Massachusetts St. Tickets $5.
Exhibition—Basic Studies Scholarship Show, through Sept. 22 at the Art and Design Gallery.
Lecture Women's Place on the Color Palette, sponsored by the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center, 7 tonight at the Regionalist Room in the Kansas Union.
Department of Music and Dance will sponsor a Faculty Recital, featuring John Boulton 7:30 tonight at Swarthout Recital Hall. Free.
PERFORMANCES
Helen Hocker Center for the Performing Arts presents "Grand Hotel," 7 p.m.Sept.26, at the theater in Gage Park, Topeka.