Researchers Discover Secret of Speedy Dolphins.  “Sir Gray was certainly on to something, and it took nearly 75 years for technology to bring us to the point where we could get at the heart of his paradox,” said Timothy Wei, professor and acting dean of Rensselaer’s School of Engineering, who led the project. “But now, for the first time, I think we can safely say the puzzle is solved. The short answer is that dolphins are simply much stronger than Gray or many other people ever imagined.” Wei presented his findings at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics in San Antonio, Texas. Collaborators on the research include Frank Fish, a biologist at West Chester University in Pennsylvania; Terrie Williams, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz; Rensselaer undergraduate student Yae Eun Moon; and Rensselaer graduate students Erica Sherman and Paul Legac.

For more information, visit: http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2518

Dr. Oné Pagán presented an invited seminar entitled, “Planarians as an animal model in behavioral pharmacology: Recent Developments,” at the Universidad Central del Caribe Medical School in Puerto Rico on December 18, 2008.

Dr. Giovanni Casotti, in collaboration with S. Christen, J. Moritz, E. Falkenstein, K. Van Dyke, and H. Klandorf, has published “Inosine Ameliorates the Effects of Hemin-Induced Oxidative Stress in Broilers” in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, (2008), 151, 670-675.

Drs. Giovanni Casotti, Maureen Knabb (Biology), and Loretta Rieser-Danner (Psychology), published the article “Successful implementation of inquiry-based physiology laboratories for undergraduate majors and non-majors courses” in Advances in Physiological Education, (2008), 32, 286-296.

Biology undergraduate student Elizabeth Barchi received a Fall 2008 CAS Undergraduate Research Award to support her research under the supervision of Dr. Erin Gestl.

Dr. Frank Fish was featured in the August issue of Science News for the article “Built for Speed” and he was featured in the September issue of EARTH (formerly GEOTIMES) magazine for the article “A whale of a wind turbine.”   Professor Fish was featured in the chapter, “A Whale of a Turbine” in the book, The Daily Planet Book of Cool Ideas: Global Warming and What People Are Doing about It, by Jay Ingram, published by Penguin, Canada.  He gave an invited seminar entitled “Swimming performance of an Olympic caliber by dolphins” at the Chestnut Hill Academy on October 20. Dr. Fish was mentioned in the articles “Fabulous flippers: Dolphins have quite the kick” on Yahoo! News on November 24 and on the Rensselaer webpage “’Gray’s Paradox’ Solved: Researchers Discover Secret of Speedy Dolphins” on November 25.  He has been selected to continue on the editorial board of the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.

Dr. Frank Fish was filmed on campus for the television show Animal Planet.  This was in connection with the publication last year “Death roll of the alligator: mechanics of twist feeding in water” by Professors Fish; Nicastro (Physics); Beneski (Biology); and Biology student Sandra Bostic.

The following Biology undergraduate students were recognized during the Spring 2008 semester: Amanda Rowlands received an Honorable Mention at the 2008 CAS Outstanding Student Awards; Radhika Bhatt, Sara Farjo, and Erica Szonntag received awards for their presentations at The WCU Research Consortium Research Day. 

Dr. Maureen Knabb, Dr. Erin Gestl, and Dr. S. Anne Boettger were each awarded a 2008 CASSDA Grant.  Dr. Knabb's project is entitled "Does quadraplex (G4) DNA exist in normal and cancerous cells?" Dr. Gestl's project is entitled "Interaction of Proteins (DNA Polymerase) during DNA Replication".  Dr.  Boettger's project is entitled “Disease Diagnostics of Hematopoietic Neoplasia in the Soft-Shell Clam Mya arenaria.”

Dr. Greg Turner, Biology, published the article, "Oak seedling growth and ectomycorrhizal colonization in adjacent oak stand and declining eastern hemlock stands infested with the hemlock woolly adelgid" with J. Lewis, J. LiCitra, A. Tuininga, and A. Sirulnik, in Tree Physiology, 28: 629-636, 2008. 

Lori Timm, Biology graduate student, was co-author on a presentation with Dr. Frank Fish entitled 'Hydrodynamic flow through the nasal cavity of sharks.'

Biology students Amanda Rowlands, Kimberly Urban, Apurva Bidja, Danielle Roy, Ryan Feeney and Lilly Afshari and Dr. Oné Pagan published the article "Reversal of cocaine-induced planarian behavior by parthenolide and related sesquiterpene lactones" in Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior 89: 160-170 (2008). The article was also coauthored by Dr. Mahrukh Azam (chemistry).

The shape of humpback whale flippers could make wind energy more efficient; this intriguing possibility was recently revealed in an interview given by Dr. Frank Fish to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.