THE UNIVERSITY DARLY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008
NEWS
STUDY ABROAD
5A
Students enjoy participating in study abroad activities. The EU Atlantis program is a joint effort between two American and two European universities. It is funded by the federal FIPSE program.
Chemistry majors find formula for success Atlantis to whisk students away
BY CALEB SOMMERVILLE
csmommerville@kansan.com
The University of Kansas is offering a study abroad program in Germany and Ireland, but it's not for architecture or art.
It's for chemistry.
Last year, the KU chemistry department started the EU Atlantis Program, a study abroad program with the University of Arkansas, Dublin City University in Ireland, and the University of Regensburg in Germany.
There are six slots available, and a $12,000 scholarship will be given to all students that participate.
The program is split between Dublin and Regensburg and is for a full school year.
"This is really the first year that we're really advertising broadly," said Jeffrey Aube, professor of medicinal chemistry.
Last year, the University was busy making arrangements.
The $12,000 scholarship is funded by a part of the Department of Education and the European Union.
Funds for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, or FIPSE, provided the funding.
Aube said that this program was unique, because there weren't as many chemistry study abroad programs as others.
Students who participate in the program will be taking the same kind of courses they would at the University, as well as studying German.
Students who complete the program will be eligible for a Bachelor of Science chemistry degree from the University of Kansas and the University of Regensburg.
The deadline for the fall semester is March 17 and the deadline for spring is Oct. 1. Students who are currently working toward a degree in chemistry are eligible to apply.
Edited by Sam Lamb
INTERNATIONAL
Bull breeder hopes to clone prize fighter
GUADALIX DE LA SIERRA, Spain — Alcalde, a bulking black bull, is quite the stud. He sires up to 40 calves a year, most of them top-grade fighters, even though in human terms he would be almost 80 years old and is nearing the end of his life.
Victoriano del Rio, a fifth-generation breeder of fighting bulls, cringes at the thought of losing an animal with such good genes. So he is going to clone him — an unprecedented marriage of modern technology and the Spanish-speaking world's ancient, beloved pastime.
"I am extremely fond of this bull," del Rio said at his ranch in this town outside Madrid, watching 16-year-old Alcalde graze with some of his latest offspring. "He has given us tremendous satisfaction."
While a bull in its prime can sire as many as 80 calves a year, Alcalde's record is "exceptional" for an animal of his advanced age, del Rio said.
The Spaniard is not alone in the adventure. Rancher Jose Manuel Fernandez in Mexico plans to replicate Zalamero, another aging bull that achieved the rare feat of dodging death in the ring: In 1994, Zalamero put up such a relentless fight one autumn day that judges spared his life. Since then he has been a priceless stud.
While Alcalde never fought in the ring, he comes from a prestigious bloodline and has proved to be a producer of champions.
Fernandez is so bullish on cloning he envisions a future in which an afternoon at the arena — usually three matadors taking on two bulls each — might involve six genetically identical twins created from the same beast.
"What I am looking for is a path toward innovation in bullfighting." Fernandez said from Mexico City. "We are trying to give the show greater quality."
If all goes as planned, Zalamero II — or several of them, because Fernandez is trying for four or five — will be born in November or December. Alcalde's clone would be born in May or June of 2009.
It involves inserting the nucleus of a somatic cell from the bull — any cell that is not a sperm cell — into a cow egg cell that has been stripped of its nucleus. The egg undergoes electrical and chemical stimulation to make it divide and grow into an embryo. This is then implanted in a surrogate cow to be carried to term.
Both breeders have hired ViaGen, a cloning company based in Austin, Texas, to do the job. The technique is essentially the same one used in 1996 to copy the sheep Dolly, the world's first cloned mammal.
ViaGen spokesman Ben Carlson confirmed the orders from del Rio and Fernandez, but would not comment on pregnancies or expected birth dates. Carlson said the breeders would pay standard cattle cloning prices: $17,500 for the first calf, $15,000 for the second, $12,500 for the third and $10,000 for the fourth and beyond.
LIVE MUSIC
Band combines genres, creates beat
BY ANDREW WIEBE
awiebe@kansan.com
San Francisco - based Chow Nasty wants everyone who attends its shows to come away with something. As such, the "electro-sexual" trio's music and stage act are intended to appeal, above all, to a live audience.
"We try to get everybody," bass player Joey Enos said. "Even the drunk, pissed-off guy at the end of the bar. If we can get him listening and tapping his foot then we've done our job."
On Monday at the Replay Lounge, Chow Nasty will perform in Lawrence for the first time as part of the tour promoting its second full album, "Super (Electrical) Recordings". Lead vocalist and guitar player Damon Harris said Chow Nasty combines electronica, funk, R&B and soul into a dance beat heavy mixture that's "primal" nature is especially conducive to live performances.
"We love playing live," said Harris, who includes James Brown, Tom Petty and the Beach Boys as some of his musical influences. "It's the cornerstone of our thing."
Percussion expert Zac Hewitt said the band's high energy music and stage presence have been getting audiences to hit the dance floor since the band's beginnings in Chicago. Chow Nasty eventually moved onto the West Coast.
"We put on a show that they couldn't have expected at all."
who, when, where
Who: Deamend, Kid Dakota and Chow Nasty
When: 10:30 p.m. to close,
Monday, March 10
Where: The Replay Lounge
Cost: $2
Hewitt said. "You see them and they're all riled up and had a good time."
Chow Nasty's driving bass is a result of the drum machines and synthesizers it uses in place of a human drummer, Harris said. The band got its start playing warehouse parties, but its current tour includes stops in smaller, more intimate venues. Harris said the trio was originally scheduled to perform in Lawrence at the Jackpot, but a mix up moved the performance to the Replay.
Although Chow Nasty has never performed in Kansas, Enos said they were looking forward to performing in front of people who may have never heard of them or their music. Harris agreed. He said the band takes pride in making everyone in the venue comfortable, involved and moving to the beat.
"We really try to not have any pretension or judgment in the room." Harris said. "Just something where people can really feel free."
—Edited by Jared Duncan
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
INTERNATIONAL
From left, Joey Enos, Damon Harris and Zac Hewitt make up the San Fransisco-based band Chow Nasty. They will be performing Monday at the Replay Lounge, marking their first show in Kansas.
Palestine agrees to peace talks with Israel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — The moderate Palestinian leadership agreed under heavy U.S. pressure Wednesday to resume peace talks with Israel, dropping a demand that Israel first reach a truce with Islamic Hamas militants acting as spoilers.
The announcement gave Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a modest accomplishment for a brief troubleshooting mission. It left open the question of how both sides will eventually confront Hamas militants in charge of the 1.4 million Palestinians — nearly half the population — living in the sealed-off Gaza Strip.
"The peace process is a strategic choice and we have the intention of resuming the peace process," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. He did not say when talks would restart, but U.S. and other officials predicted it would be in about a week.
Rice said Abbas had assured her he will return to talks. Doing so is a political risk for Abbas, who had broken off negotiations last weekend to protest an especially deadly Israeli military incursion into Gaza. More than 120 Palestinians were killed, along with three Israelis, over a week of heightened violence.
If Israeli-Palestinian talks resume as pledged it will essentially restore the precarious balance in place since President Bush announced last fall that the two sides would resume full negotiations for the first time in seven years. The talks are supposed to frame a deal for a Palestinian state this year.
Israeli and West Bank Palestinian negotiators had been meeting regularly, and keeping their discussions secret, before Abbas pulled out. The talks had produced nothing in public, and were undermined on the one hand by continued Israeli housing activity on land the Palestinians claim
ASSOCIATED PRESS
and on the other by the inability of Palestinian security forces to control militants.
Earlier Wednesday, Abbas had said he would not restart negotiations until Israel declared a truce in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Although he holds no authority in Gaza since Hamas' violent takeover there last June, a Gaza truce could benefit Abbas. Israeli military action is so unpopular in both territories, and across the Arab world, that it undermines Abbas' authority and makes it politically difficult for him to negotiate with Israel.
Israel and the United States fear that negotiations for a cease-fire would give Hamas a political legitimacy it does not deserve.
Abbas backed down after Rice called him in alarm just before an afternoon press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, where Rice planned to announce an agreement reached that morning to revive talks.
Gaza, and the deep Palestinian leadership split it represents, hangs over the discussions. Israel and the United States have pinned peace hopes on Abba's moderate-led government in the West Bank while refusing contact with Hamas, which they call a terrorist organization. Israel has also tried to punish the militants for indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by closing borders with Gaza and cutting utilities.
U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, speaks during her joint press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, right, in a Jerusalem hotel, Wednesday. Rice said that the Palestinians and Israel plan to return to the negotiating place.
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