Monday, May 17, 2010

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Oil’s well that ends well.

As the massive BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates, oil and water don’t mix. However, Dr. Preston MacDougall, chemistry, says there is a way to get oil and water to mix. “For instance, olive oil and vinegar, which is mostly water, form an emulsion when shaken vigorously,” he says. “If you let this mixture sit for awhile, it’ll separate into two liquids with the oil layer floating on top. To prevent this from happening or to stabilize the emulsion, surfactants are added to the mixture. This is the only purpose of many of the odd-sounding ingredients you see on a bottle of salad dressing or shampoo such as sodium lauryl sulfate. Without going into too much chemical engineering, these surfactant molecules like being at the interface of the two immiscible liquids, but try to keep their distance from each other.”

Contact MacDougall at 615-898-5265.
pmacdoug@mtsu.edu

Grading trading

China and Tennessee have a trade relationship that has burgeoned enormously in the last decade. Dr. Steven Livingston, editor of Global Commerce, says, “Over the past 10 years, Tennessee exports to China have increased more than sevenfold. The Chinese market has grown roughly nine times as fast as the total world market. … Most of this tremendous growth actually came in the first part of the past decade. The Chinese market didn’t fare any better than anywhere else during the recent global showdown. … In 2000, (Tennessee) ranked 22nd among the states in the value of its exports to China. By 2009, it had risen to 14th. Its 10-year growth rate was the 11th best of the 50 states.”

Contact Livingston at 615-898-2720.
slivings@mtsu.edu

The drain of brains leads mainly to disdain.

Many Russian scientists who have left Russia are ready to return there or to cooperate with its scientific enters. However, they don’t think they’ll find conditions conducive to their academic activities, according to Dr. Andrei Korobkov, political science. “Of course,” he says, “the new leadership of Russia now actively suggests otherwise. … Conditions for classes of scientific activities in Russia remain, to put it mildly, complicated. This is confirmed by new polls that are conducted among serious scientists and researchers. … Approximately three-quarters of Russia’s professors of post-Soviet years left to work abroad from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk (from 1993-2007). And 28 percent of these people now reside in the United States.”

Contact Korobkov at 615-898-2945.
korobkov@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

GOING THROUGH CUSTOMS--CUSTOMS orientation at MTSU will get underway Wednesday, May 26, and run through late July. Two-day sessions will acquaint students with what will be their academic and social home for the next four years. Admissions, Financial Aid, Housing and Residential Life, advising and other departments will be involved with the orientation process that will integrate new students into the intellectual, cultural and social climate of the university. Gina Poff, director of New Student and Family Programs, says organizers “are adding orientation leaders to work specifically with parents” this year. The general assembly portion of CUSTOMS will move to Murphy Center since Tucker Theatre is under renovation. CUSTOMS participants will be taken onto the field at Floyd Stadium at the beginning of the morning for a video message from head football coach Rick Stockstill. For more information, call 615-898-2454 or visit www.mtsu.edu/customs.

ADOPT A VET--The Albert Gore Research Center is an official partner in the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. The center participates as part of its public service mission. Currently, the Gore Center has about 50 veterans of World War II and Korea on its list of those willing to be interviewed for the Veterans History Project at MTSU, but these vets are in their 80s and 90s. It is urgent that the Gore Center have funds in hand to record their stories in 2010. With each tax-deductible contribution of only $50, the Gore Center can fund one interview with a WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War or Iraq/Afghanistan veteran, or a civilian who supported the war effort by working in war industries or volunteering for the USO, Red Cross or other support organizations. Your donation will pay for tapes and other supplies, transcription, permanent archiving and posting of the materials on a website. For more information, go to http://gorecenter.mtsu.edu/adoptvet.hem.

APRENDA CON ME--The University School of Nashville is hosting MTSU’s 2010 Summer Language Institute, where you can learn Spanish in a fun, low-stress environment. The methods employed are Total Physical Response (TPR) and Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS). These methods mimic the way you learned your first language. Movement, games, songs and storytelling are all part of the instruction. Brian Roberts will teach Spanish I for ages 16 and up from July 19-23 at the University School and from Aug. 2-6 at the O’More School of Design in Franklin. Jason Fritze will teach Spanish II for ages 16 and up from July 19-23 at the University School. The cost for all language classes is $350 with a $20 materials fee due on the first day of class. Contact Dr. Shelley Thomas at 615-898-5757 or shthomas@mtsu.edu.