Tuesday
April 18, 2006
S CENBat
SC IE NCE
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news@michigandaily.com
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Gov't to
launch
li0vestock
tracking
System will not include
age of animals, despite
importance of age in mad
cow disease investigations
WASHINGTON (AP) - A livestock
tracking system planned by the govern-
ment will not include the age of animals,
despite the key role age has played in
mad cow disease investigations.
Agriculture Department officials say
they don't want to overburden ranchers
and can track most birth dates.
Critics said the omission could
make the system worthless.
"So what's the point of having this
animal ID system? This is one fact you
actually really need to know when it
comes to mad cow" Jean Halloran,
director of food policy initiatives at
Consumers Union, said yesterday.
The department promised to create
the system after the nation's first case
of mad cow disease two years ago and
has already spent $84 million on it.
Earlier this month, Agriculture Secre-
tary Mike Johanns promised it would
be in place by 2009.
The system also applies to pigs and
chickens and to many other diseases.
But the controversy is about mad cow
disease, medically known as bovine
spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
"When you're dealing with conta-
gious diseases such as foot-and-mouth
disease or exotic Newcastle, age really
isn't all that important," department
spokeswoman Dore Mobley said. "It's
important when you're talking about
BSE, to estimate when an animal may
have become infected."
The goal is to allow authorities, within
48 hours after a disease is discovered, to
pinpoint a single animal's movements.
Industry groups are collecting and keep-
ing the data, which the government
intends to tap when there is an outbreak.
Mad cow disease doesn't spread like
the flu; scientists say it spreads only when
cattle eat feed containing diseased cattle
tissue. Ground-up cattle remains were
once commonly added to cattle feed as
protein, but the government essentially
halted the practice nine years ago.
Virginia physics teacher raps his lessons
For physics teacher
Daron Moore, 'Moore
rapping' means 'more
learning'
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - Daron
Moore is a physics teacher and science
department head at I.C. Norcom High
School.
Wearing a white shirt accented with
a neatly knotted dark tie and a pen in his
pocket, he looks scholarly.
Students are often caught off-guard
when he breaks out into what he calls
"the physics rap."
"Physics phun, ICN class No. 1, com-
ing at you fast like a bullet from a gun. But
don't run, cuz you gotta stand and face the
challenge. Understand how Newton's laws
keep the whole world in balance."
Moore, who goes by the enter-
tainment name "The Tcha," recently
released a gospel rap album, not-so-
coincidently called "The Formula."
The equation he's talking about isn't
one you'd find in a textbook. On his CD
cover, Moore says the formula is U+JL
(infinity); or you plus Jesus equals infi-
nite life. He's a missionary, who happens
to teach physics. Moore produced 1,000
copies of the album and distributed about
700 copies. He gave some away and oth-
ers he sold - under his own Portsmouth
label, Reformation Records. CDs sell for
$999 at DJ's Music & Video in Norfolk
and Portsmouth.
Rhyming comes in handy during
class and in the community. Beyond
telling students that physics is cool, he
said, his music shows a wider audience
alternatives to the violence and sexism
and a lack of creativity that he said plays
out on television, the radio and in their
neighborhoods every day.
Sitting in his classroom laboratory
with displays of science projects hang-
ing on the walls, he said that to reach
out to youth "you have to have what is
called the wow factor."
Moore jogs over to a corner filled
with balls, yardsticks and other props.
He grabs an old pogo stick and
bounces up and down. Then, a bit out
of control, he smacks a couple of desks
and bangs against a cabinet.
Breathing harder but still bouncing,
he asks what law of physics this demon-
strates. Hearing the answer, Newton's
Third Law - every action has an equal
and opposite reaction - Moore smiles.
Another day, he didn't hesitate to
jump on top of a desk and drop orange-
sized balls from the ceiling to demon-
strate the forces of weight and gravity.
Then, he handed students 20 sticks
of fettuccine and a meter of tape and
offered extra credit to the team who
builds a bridge that can withstand the
most weight.
"Please, do not eat your building mate-
rials," Moore said, smirking to his class.
"He's goofy," said Chanelle Benton,
a 16-year-old junior, and one of Moore's
students. He's always cracking jokes,
telling stories and rhyming.
When he first did "the physics rap"
in class, Chanelle admitted, "I thought
he was kind of corny - you know, a
teacher rapping?"
But then she thought about it. "With
4
AP PHOTO
Norcom High School physics teacher Daron Moore stands on a table as he outlines an assignment in his
"honors physics" class April 5.
everything he talks about, he gives us
a demonstration," she said. "I see how
things are, instead of somebody just tell-
ing me."
On Friday nights, he steps out of sci-
ence mode and serves youth a dose of
gospel rap at the Sanctuary of Hope
Urban Outreach Center's hip-hop night,
called Da Jump Off.
About 30 youth are in a group that
meets every week at the church in the
city's Westhaven neighborhood, near
the Midtown area.
Moore's expertise and support is wel-
come, said Adrian Worth, the director
of teen services at the center.
"It's very powerful. He's got a mes-
sage that changes lives," Worth said.
"He has the respect of the teenagers. He
has their attention."
He raps to them about turning their
lives over to Jesus - not drinking or
doing drugs. He tells them to turn away
from music that exploits women and
encourages men to participate in activi-
ties that could land them in prison.
Moore, 30, said young people aren't
the only ones who have learned from
his music. As he developed his musical
talent, he grew stronger as a Christian.
Climate change
Air temperatures
have warmed over
Arctic since 1950s
WASHINGTON (AP) - It's becom-
ing harder to find the right snow to
build an igloo, and melting permafrost
is turning land into mud. With cli-
mate change the nature of the Arctic is
changing, too, in ways that worry the
people who live there.
The Smithsonian's National Muse-
um of Natural History opens a pair
of exhibits on Saturday: "Arctic: A
Friend Acting Strangely," and "Atmo-
sphere: Change is in the Air," discuss-
ing what is happening to the climate
and how it affects people living in the
planet's northernmost areas.
"They are truly co
pologist Igor Krupnik
the Arctic natives.
Indeed, the Arcticc
from an Inuit word na
describe the changing
naqtuq - suggestingL
ior or "a friend acting
The ocean is eatin
ice melts and storms er
wash away fishing co
ing climate means ne
areas and changes in
of animals people de
weather is stormier an
polar bears and caribo
Since the 1950s,
have warmed over ml
rain and snowfall hav
ice is in decline.
affecting Arctic
)ncerned," anthro- While some government scientists
said last week of have reported political pressure to limit
their comments on climate change, Rob-
exhibit title comes ert Sullivan, the museum's associate
atives have used to director for public programs, said that
climate - uggia- did not happen in the development of
unexpected behav- this exhibit,
strangely" "Here's the data," Sullivan said. "This
g their land as sea is not a political position, it's just scien-
rode shorelines and tific data"
mmunities, chang- "There have been some suggestions
ew plants in some that the data is unclear; well, the data is
migratory routes not unclear,' Sullivan added, standing
pend on for food, near a map of Greenland illustrating the
id food sources for melting of that island's giant ice cap.
u change. In addition to Smithsonian staff, sci-
air temperatures entists from the National Oceanic and
uch of the Arctic, Atmospheric Administration, NASA
e increased and sea and the National Science Foundation
took part in developing the exhibit.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A
Tennessee professor who teaches
the biblical version of creation will
lead the Center for Theology and
Science at the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary.
Kurt P. Wise, currently a profes-
sor at Bryan College in Dayton,
Tenn., is replacing William Demb-
ski, a leading proponent of intelli-
gent design theory, who left to take
a teaching job closer to his Texas
home.
Wise was also director of
Bryan College's Center for Ori-
gins Research, which supports the
"validity of the biblical account" of
creation, according to its web site.
Wise, who holds degrees in phi-
losophy and paleontology from Har-
vard University, advocates a form of
creationism that says God created
the Earth relatively recently.
The intelligent design theory tout-
ed by Dembski and others says life
is too complicated to have arisen by
chance, though it does not explicitly
identify the designer as God.
Federal courts have ruled that
both creationism and intelligent
design are religious rather than sci-
entific ideas. Most biologists say the
scientific evidence overwhelmingly
supports the theory of evolution.
Creationist hired as
leader for science center
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