University Daily Kansan / Friday, January 23, 1987
7
For some students, it 's stars over bars
By JOSEPH REBELLO
Staff writer
Most Fridays, while other students go to parties to unwind, about 50 visitors gather at the KU observatory to peer at the stars.
The occasion is the weekly open house session in Lindley Hall of the Astronomy Associates of Lawrence, a group of amateur astronomers consisting of both students and Lawrence residents.
For the pleasure of a close look at the planet Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere, the craggy features of the moon, or even a faint glimmer from a distant star, these people will gladly up their Friday night party plans.
"It's being able to see things that are mind-hogging that brings them up here," said Stephen Shaw, associate professor of physics and astronomy.
The group's Friday night activity has been taking place regularly for nearly 13 years, starting shortly after the astronomy group was formed in 1873.
"It was done to promote an interest in astronomy among students and the community," said Tamara Whitacre, Kansas City, Kan., graduate student
and former president of the group.
The 50-member group has about 10 volunteers who take turns every week at showing visitors how to use the telescopes, pointing out interesting things to observe and answering questions.
About six telescopes in the observatory are turned toward the stars between 8 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. every clear-skied Friday, said Erich Heim, the group's president and Lavrance senior.
On a good night, the observatory's most powerful telescope, a 27-inch reflector telescope, can view objects nearly a billion light years away, although only faintly, Shawl said.
Heim said that many visitors took their greatest delight in getting a glimpse of the planets Jupiter, Neptune, Mars and Venus.
One of the more popular sights that can be seen through the observatory's telescopes is the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, he said.
The giant spot that appears on Jupiter's surface is actually a cloud of red dust thrown into the atmosphere by a raging 300-year-old hurricane. What caused the hurricane to form remains a mystery to scientists, Shawla said.
Man keeps battling common cold Asphalt fumes, socks, vaporizers or herbal tea can't cure it
Bv HISA A. MALONEY
Kleenex feels like industrial-strength sandpaper against the nose, and a hacking cough threatens to dislodge lungs, many people wonder why no one has found a cure for the common cold.
Staff writer
Jerry Stannard, professor of history, who is teaching a course in the history of folk medicine this semester, said a variety of cures and preventive measures for colds had been tried through the centuries.
It's not because no one's tried.
One common practice was for sick people to drink a hot herbal tea made from mint, eucalyptus or chamomile.
One English variation in use up until the 1930s involved forcing the patient to breathe in the asphalt fumes from a freshly paved road, Stannard said. Breathing in hot, moist fumes from a vaporizer is a similar practice in use today.
Another remedy called for the sick person to tie a sock — "preferably his own." Stannard said — around his neck. Like many folk remedies, no
Mustard plasters were another popular method, he said. A sheet of brown paper, coated with some type of fat, such as butter, was placed on the sick person's chest Freshly spread the bandages could be spread on the paper where they would stick and begin to generate heat.
The sick person would go to bed feeling warm, Stannard said, but if the plaster wasn't removed after a few hours, it would blister the skin. The red skin and perspiration caused by the plaster was thought to be a sign of the germs being driven out of the body.
Stannard remembers having his childhood colds treated with Vick's vapor rub.
"My mother would smear this all over my chest until I thought I was going to die." Stannard said. "Now, I probably would have gotten better without it, but it made Mother feel better, which is not an unimportant part of folk medicine.
reasons exist that explain why the sock was thought to help, he said.
"What you really have to do is let nature take its course."
Today, some people use natural herbs and vitamins in the hopes of preventing or curing colds.
Steve Wilson, a manager at the Community Mercantile Coop. 700 Maine St., said that most of his customers purchased vitamin C to treat their colds but that several also bought various herbs.
One of these is Echinacea, or Kansas snakeroot, an herbal tincture used as an immune system stimulant. Echinacea was grown in Kansas.
Stannard said the snakeroot could also be ground and used as a snuff. Sneezing temporarily clears nasal passages.
Some people use golden seal, an antibiotic herb, Wilson said. Osha root cough syrup, made from a southwestern herb gathered in the mountains, has been used by Ameri-
many herbal medicines and natural foods.
Wilson said recent scientific research had supported the use of
“There’s a lot of scientific value to these things,” he said. “It’s not just because ‘Mom says it’s great’ or because grandma used it.”
Bob Johnson, owner of Nature's Best Health Foods, 711 W. 23rd St., said that in addition to golden seal and Echinacea, his customers purchased chewable zinc lozenges, made with zinc, vitamin A, vitamin C, slippery elm and bee propolis, a natural antibiotic.
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The Indians believed in sweating out a cold. They would wrap sick babies in warm clothes and place them in teeepees next to a fire, Johnson said. Today, drinking lots of fruit juices with vitamin C accomplishes the same system flushing.
Rod Smith, a pharmacist with the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy, 1901 Massachusetts St., said that because most colds were caused by some form of virus. "The best thing you can do for a cold is treat the symptoms."
choose from
- Sweet and sour chicken
- Nappa beef (sliced beef with bamboo shoots, carrots, snow peas, and cabbage)
- Four season chicken (diced chicken with bamboo shoots, celery, carrots, and mushrooms in brown sauce)
All dinners served with egg drop soup, fried won
tons, hot tea, and almond cookie.
CLOSED MONDAYS
LUNCH 11:30-3:00 p.m.
DINNER 4:30-10:00 p.m.
TUES.-SAT.
SUN. NOON-9:30 p.m.
A 1987 University Arts Festival Event. Funded in part by the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts; additional funding provided by the KU Student Activity Fee, Swarthout Society, and the KU Endowment Association.
MALLS SHOPPING CENTER 711 W.23rd ST. 841-4599
Public $11 & $9, KU & K-12 Students; $5.50 & $4.50;
Senior Citizens & Other Students; $10.8 & $8
Half price for KU Students
Seat Yourself with the First Family of Chamber Music
Mozart
Debussy
Beethoven
Presented by The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts Chamber Music Series
Tickets on sale in the Murphy Hall Box Office
All seats reserved/For reservations, call 913/864-3982
VISA/MasterCard accepted for phone reservations
Robert Mann, Violin Joel Smirnoff, Violin Samuel Rhodes, Viola Jokros Krocki, Cello
Program:
Quartet in D major, K. 575
Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131
3:30 p.m.
Sunday, February 1, 1987
Crafton-Preyer Theatre
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DANCE FLOOR WITH DISC JOCKEY STARTING THIS FRIDAY!
V
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THE BUM STEER Bum Steer 3rd Annual DAR-B-Q Superbowl Slab Sale!
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