Thursday was the third \u201cStudent Researcher Day\u201d at the lab. Junior and senior<\/p>\n
high school students throughout the Tri-County Area were invited to apply for a day of hands-on lab work, discussions with practicing scientists and lunch with staff at the center, including scientists who rank among the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
Student Researcher Day is part of the center\u2019s effort to turn high school students on to the excitement of basic scientific research untethered by corporate sponsorship or grant money.<\/p>\n
In brief remarks, Isbell explained how his lab is trying to cleave the coriander seed and split the fat molecule into oleic acid and lauric acid. Students grappled with the conundrum of trying to figure out how to use oxidation, but to stop the process in the first phase in order to extract the lauric acid.<\/p>\n
Isbell explained that lauric acid is a detergent component in shampoo, and American manufacturers currently depend on imported lauric acid.\u00a0 Having a domestic source would help America\u2019s trade imbalance.<\/p>\n
The other component, oleic acid, is used in nylon, he said, \u201cso out of one crop, two products can be used.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told students coriander, also called cilantro, can be grown in central Illinois and many regions of the United States as part of a crop rotation following winter wheat, thereby producing additional farm income.<\/p>\n
During a lunch break, lab director Paul Sebesta told students that basic science means signing on for a \u201ccareer of discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis lab opened in 1940 with our first generation of scientists working here. We\u2019re now on our third generation of scientists,\u201d Sebesta said. \u201cStudents in high school today are our fourth generation. This program is our opportunity to entice you to seek careers in science. Today is your opportunity to work in a lab, not a classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lily Liu, a junior at Dunlap High School, walked out of Nancy Alexander\u2019s lab after photographing DNA and said, \u201cReally cool. We get to do a lot more here. There is definitely a lot of exciting hands-on work in the labs here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liu, 16, is thinking about pursuing a career in biochemical or biomedical engineering. She was the only girl in a class of 20 last year in her high school\u2019s introduction to engineering class.<\/p>\n
Blake Holzgrafe, a junior at Notre Dame High School, is considering a career in health sciences and found work in Alexander\u2019s lab separating DNA \u201cextremely exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI signed up for the day because in my education so far I haven\u2019t really experienced first-hand science. A lot of this is more advanced than I imagined,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get as much experience as I can with science before I start applying to medical schools. The work going on here is about using your brain to make leaps ahead in critical discoveries. We\u2019ve got to solve problems by thinking outside the box. Obviously, we can\u2019t keep doing things they way we have in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexander, a molecular biologist, told students, \u201cI never do the same thing day after day. I\u2019m not on an assembly line. Every day I\u2019m challenging my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is working on fungi and ways to keep the food supply safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI highly encourage young people to go into science. There is still an incredible amount of work to be done. If we don\u2019t keep up with science and technology, our society will go down hill,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to figure out how to feed the world without fighting. If we are to keep the food supply safe, we need to be ahead of the game. We can\u2019t be behind the fact and still stay ahead of bioterrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexander, who has been at the lab 30 years and is close to retirement, said when she applied to graduate school, an administrator tried to discourage her, saying that she would end up leaving her career to marry and have a family.<\/p>\n
She has always tried to make positions in her lab available for students and tries to encourage female students.<\/p>\n
Last week, Alexander stopped by Proctor First Care and was diagnosed with pneumonia. The female physician had been a student working in Alexander\u2019s lab 25 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe came here as a high school student and worked here for two more summers, then I lost touch with her,\u201d Alexander said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to change politicians or the bureaucracy, but we can take little steps here to help students. It feels good to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read the original article from Journal Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n High school students worked on \u201ccleaving\u201d a coriander seed Thursday in Terry Isbell\u2019s chemistry lab at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research. It wasn\u2019t abstract or irrelevant busy work. Isbell explained the relevance of the work to America\u2019s trade imbalance and the national farm economy. That was an astounding and exciting correlation, and one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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