Vol. 8. Num. 3 - Apr 2008
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George Washington Carver by Betsy Graves Reyneau, 1942 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the George Washington Carver Memorial Committee 2008 Smithsonian Institution |
A tip of the hat to George Washington Carver and his lengthy legacy
When Iowa's legislature accepted the provisions of the Morrill Act
of 1862 and conferred land-grant status to Iowa State—then known as
Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, they created an
institution where a gifted but disadvantaged student like George
Washington Carver was able to flourish. Carver, the institution's
first African American student and faculty member, completed his
undergraduate degree in 1894 and his master's of agriculture in
1896.
Not just another brick in the wall
Plant cell walls are central to cellulosic ethanol because they are
the raw material for next-generation biofuels. For this reason, the
Plant Sciences Institute is investing in plant cell wall research,
laying a foundation to advance feedstock development for cellulosic
ethanol production in Iowa.
Maize manual now in-hand
Just two years ago, a team from Iowa State joined the $32 million
effort to sequence the corn genome led by The Genome Sequencing
Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In
February, the completion of the first draft sequence of the inbred
B73 line of Zea mays L. was announced.
Exploring space
For some, the outer reaches of space are far-flung galaxies, for
others, the unknowns are closer to home. Exploring space was the
topic of an interesting paper published last year by Prusinkiewicz
et al (2007) in the journal Science. The "space" in this study was
not outer space but so-called "morphospace," and the question is
whether plants and "Mother Nature" have explored and now occupy all
morphospace.
PSI adopts theme of "Plants and Climate Change"
Join us on Arbor Day, April 25, 2008, to educate and address ourselves to the important issues of climate change.
