UNUSUAL BONDS • EXAMINING HEALTH CARE ASSETS

F a l l 2 0 1 0

Speaking Out for the Gulf

features

12SpeakingOutfortheGulf

By Sam Fahmy

UGAscientistandGulfofMexicospecialistSamanthaJoyesharesheroil-spillresearchwiththepublicandcolleaguesaroundtheworld.

20 UnusualBonds By Helen Fosgate UGAchemistsmakethe

unimaginablereal,defyingthetheoriesoftheircolleagueselsewhere,allwhilecreatingthepotentialforwholenewindustries.

28 ExaminingHealthCareAssets

By David Dodson Byaddingthreehealth-

economicsresearcherstoitsfaculty,theTerryCollegeofBusinessmakesamajorcommitmenttoacriticalnationalneed.

ugaresearchis published by the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Georgia. The magazine is printed with funds from the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit foundation that supports UGA research.

Michael F. Adams, PresidentJere Morehead, Senior VP for Academic Affairs/Provost David C. Lee, Vice President for ResearchTerry Hastings, Director, Research Communications

ugaresearch staff

Editor: Helen Fosgate (hfosgate@uga.edu)Circulation, Media Shelf: Laurie AndersonContributing editor: Steve MarcusDesign: Lindsay Robinson/UGA Public AffairsPhoto Liaison: Paul Efland/UGA

Writers: Sam Fahmy, David Dodson, Helen Fosgate, Philip Lee Williams, Barry Hollander, Sharon Dowdy, April Sorrow, Beth Gavrilles.

Photographers: Sandi Martin, Paul Efland, Peter Frey, Robert Newcomb, Geof Gilland, Mark Sorrow, Zhengwei Pan.

Cover photo by Sandi Martin

Articles may be reprinted with permission. For additional copies of the magazine or address changes, please contact Research Communications at 706-583-0599 or rcomm@ovpr.uga.edu. Access the electronic edition at www.researchmagazine.uga.edu.

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Research Magazine, OVPR, University of Georgia, 708 Boyd GSRC, Athens, GA 30602-7411.Call 706-583-0599; or email rcomm@ovpr.uga.edu.

In compliance with federal law, including the provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or military service in its administration of educational policies, programs, or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-administered programs; or employment. In addition, the University does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation consistent with the University non-discrimination policy. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the director of the Equal Opportunity Office, Peabody Hall, 290 South Jackson Street, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706-542-7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822

departments

26 interview TheCobbFile JamesC.Cobbtalksaboutthe

intertwiningoftheSouth’sandthenation’spastandpresentasexpressedthroughitsliteratureandmusic.

10 mediashelf A sampling of books, recordings and other creative works by UGA faculty, staff, and students.

32 viewpoint Thebadnewsabout“easy

news” People’sperceptionsofbeing

informed,whenthey’reactuallyuninformed—andevenmisinformed—posesathreattoourdemocracy.

Fall2010 Vol39,No.2 ISSN1099-7458

newsbriefs

3 Atlanta events offer insights into urban flooding

4 Daily ginger consumption eases muscle pain

5 New UGA hand sanitizer could help prevent food- borne illnesses

6 Perennial sorghum could feed millions more

7 Researchers probe rabies transmission across species

8 Temperature table could warn about heat risks inside vehicles

9 Stop-smoking treatment programs inconsistent across U.S.

WanttosupportUGAresearch?Ifyouwouldliketosupportresearchfeatured

inthisissue,contactKeithOelke,executivedirectorofcorporateandfoundation

relationsat:koelke@uga.edu

Toseebackissuesofugaresearch,visitusonlineat:www.researchmagazine.uga.edu

2 ugaresearch

Our state faces a major challenge regarding the health of its citizens. In the 2009 America’s Health Rankings, an “annual assessment of the nation’s health

on a state-by-state basis,” Georgia was seventh from the bottom. Obesity, which predisposes people to major chronic illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, is an especially prominent challenge for Georgia: we ranked 33rd overall and 47th for childhood obesity. Current estimates suggest that these chronic diseases will cost the state some $11 billion by 2018. It’s also not hard to understand why these unflattering statistics are a hindrance—or at the very least a disincentive—to economic development.

As part of its 21st-century land-grant mission, the University of Georgia is committed to improving the health of all Georgians, which means addressing these health issues and others, both directly and indirectly. Below, I outline some of the approaches, which take numerous forms and involve many of our colleges and departments.

Most prominent currently is our joint effort with the Medical College of Georgia—the MCG-UGA Medical Partnership—which addresses the state’s chronic shortage of physicians, especially in rural counties. The Partnership welcomed its first class of 40 students to the UGA campus this fall and will eventually grow to 60 students per class. This is but one part of a much larger undertaking that includes the recent expansion of UGA’s College of Pharmacy, establishment of an interdisciplinary infectious-disease research program, an increase in UGA’s life-sciences research capabilities, the addition of three health economists in the Terry College of Business (read more about the effort in this issue), and the dramatic growth of our College of Public Health (CPH).

The CPH, founded in 2005, is the only accredited college of public health in the University System of Georgia. Like most public health programs elsewhere, it focuses on the population as a whole, emphasizes prevention, and strives to improve the conditions underlying good health. Our CPH is also distinguished by robust interdisciplinary programs in aging, health-related risk behavior, violence prevention, and disaster management, to cite but a few. Though still relatively new, the College already attracts nearly $6 million per year in sponsored funding and is on a strong growth trajectory.

The CPH is also working to improve the state’s public health workforce. This fall it received a $3.2-million training grant to establish the Georgia Public Health Training Center, which aims to enhance the skills of current and future public health professionals; in partnership with the Public Health Institute at Georgia State University, the Center will address urban public health issues as well. Moreover, the CPH is in the vanguard of UGA’s efforts to reduce childhood obesity in the state. Under a grant from the Board of Regents, the College is collaborating with the highly successful Archway Partnership Project—a program of the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach—and enthusiastic partners in Clarke and Colquitt counties to develop effective and sustainable local programs that can serve as models for other Georgia communities.

UGA Committed to Improving Georgians’ Health

David Lee Vice President for Research

Pho

to b

y R

ob

eRt

New

co

mb

/UG

A

Fall 2010 3

newsbriefs

An interdisciplinary team of scientists has shown that the record-breaking 2009 floods in Atlanta were caused not

only by intense storms and unprecedented rainfall but also by unchecked development.

The research effort, led by UGA climatologist Marshall Shepherd, included hydrologists, geologists, and other climatologists from UGA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Weather Service. Its results suggest that urban sprawl in the metro Atlanta area—and the proliferation of impervious surfaces such as parking lots, roads, and rooftops—combined with intense rain events last year to cause millions of dollars in damages and at least 10 deaths.

Other recent studies have also found that the southeastern United States is especially vulnerable to weather extremes because of the region’s population growth and the consequent new construction, most of which adds to the urban runoff that bloats rivers and streams. Floods in other Southern cities, including Nashville and Oklahoma City, illustrate just how serious the issue has become.

To prevent such outcomes in the future, researchers say that urban planners will have to explore new designs and water-management policies.

Contact Marshall Shepherd at: marshgeo@uga.edu

—PhilipLeeWilliams

Atlanta events offer insights into urban flooding

4 ugaresearch

For centuries, ginger root has been used as a folk remedy for common ailments such as colds or upset stomachs. But now University of

Georgia researchers have found that consuming ginger daily also reduces people’s muscle pain caused by exercise.

Patrick O’Connor, a professor of kinesiology, was drawn to this re-search in order to fill a gap. While the anti-inflammatory impacts of ginger had already been demonstrated in rats, it had yet to be explored in humans. He also wanted to confirm whether cooking or heating ginger might boost this potential benefit.

Working with colleagues David Hurley and Matt Herring, from UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and Chris Black, a kinesiologist at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, O’Connor directed two studies that examined the effect of ingesting raw or heat-treated ginger supplements on muscle pain.

For 11 consecutive days, participants took capsules containing either two grams of raw ginger, two grams of heat-treated ginger, or a placebo. On the eighth day, participants began performing repeated elbow exten-sions using a heavy weight to induce moderate muscle stress to the arm. Researchers measured muscle function, inflammation, and pain level in all three groups.

The participants taking raw or heat-treated ginger supplements showed 25-percent reductions in exercise-induced pain.

Contact Patrick O’Connor at: poconnor@uga.edu

—SamFahmy

Daily ginger consumption eases muscle pain

Fall 2010 5

A hand sanitizer developed by University of Georgia food scientists could reduce the incidence of gastroenteritis. The

sanitizer kills the norovirus, which is responsible for some 60 percent of the cases of this foodborne illness in the United States.

While the E.coli pathogen brings to mind undercooked hamburgers, the norovirus is more frequently associated with foods—such as deli meats, fresh produce, raw fruit, and oys-ters—that are consumed without cooking. The virus is easily transmitted from person to person and causes some 23 million illnesses each year. Although the hand sanitizer won’t kill the norovirus already in contaminated food, it can prevent the spread of the virus by restaurant workers and other patrons.

Cruise ships are a notorious setting for the norovirus because of the close concentration of so many people, who also touch the same surfaces on numerous occasions. And when outbreaks occur, hundreds or even thousands can be affected. But many

more outbreaks—and a far greater number of illnesses—derive from sites such as hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and day-care facilities, according to project leader Jennifer Cannon, an assistant professor at UGA’s Center for Food Safety in Griffin.

The new hand sanitizer contains a combination of ingredi-ents approved for use by the food industry. None kills the virus when used individually, but together they break down the virus coat proteins and degrade the viral genomic material. Until it is commercially available, scientists say frequent hand washing is still the best defense against norovirus-induced illness. In order to clean your hands well enough to prevent it, Cannon said you should “use warm soapy water and rub your hands together long enough to hum the ‘Happy Birthday’ song twice.”

Contact Jennifer Cannon at: jcannon@uga.edu

—SharonDowdy

New UGA hand sanitizer could help prevent foodborne illnesses

6 ugaresearch

Most Americans consume sorghum indirectly, when they eat livestock that were fed the

grain. But in other parts of the world, sorghum is eaten directly. Packed with protein and “good carbohydrates,” sorghum accounts for nearly 40 percent of the calories in people’s diets in some African countries

A University of Georgia plant breeder is trying to increase sorghum production by tapping into the perennial characteristics found in the grain’s wild ancestors. Andrew Paterson, a researcher in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, says perennial sorghum could produce much more food while helping countries to meet a variety of domestic and international challenges. These include not only an adequate food supply but security and climate change.

Annual varieties of sorghum, which have long dominated the grain’s agriculture, are replanted each year, typically sown April through May and harvested in the fall. But a perennial variety could provide a source of high-protein, high-energy food year-round. Also, naturally drought-tolerant sorghum could be grown where irrigation isn’t feasible.

Paterson has been studying wild sorghum for more than 18 years. Now, aided by a $320,000 federal Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant, he is moving forward in developing a pe-rennial variety that could readily be cultivated by farmers.

Contact Andrew Paterson at: paterson@uga.edu

—AprilReeceSorrow

Perennial sorghum could feed

millions more

Fall 2010 7

A team of scientists has devised a method for estimating the rates at which rabies infects multiple species. This

technique, the first of its kind, could be applied to other wildlife pathogens as well.

The researchers—from the University of Georgia, the Uni-versity of Tennessee, Western Michigan University, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—exploited an enormous dataset containing hundreds of rabies viruses from 23 North American bat species. They also used gene sequenc-ing, as well as tools from population genetics, to quantify how many cross-species transmission events were expected to occur between each pair of species from an infected individual.

“This research demonstrates the value of molecular sequence data that is increasingly cheap and available,” said Daniel St-reicker, a Ph.D. candidate in UGA’s Odum School of Ecology and a member of the research team.

The researchers’ analysis showed that, depending on the spe-cies involved, a single infected bat may spread rabies to between zero and two members of a different species; and that on aver-

age a cross-species transmission occurs only once for every 73 transmissions within the same species.

The scientists also studied the factors, such as foraging behav-ior, geography, and genetics, that allow diseases to move across species. “There’s a popular idea,” Streicker said, “that because of their potential for rapid evolution, these types of viruses are limited more by ecological constraints than by genetic similarity between donor and recipient.” What the research team found in-stead is that rabies viruses are much more likely to jump between closely related bat species than between those that diverged in the distant past. Overlapping geographic ranges were also correlated with cross-species transmission, but to a lesser extent.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the team will continue its work by exploring how human activities affect the transmission of the rabies virus, this time from Peru-vian vampire bats.

Contact Daniel Streicker at: dstrike@uga.edu

—BethGavrilles

Researchers probe rabies transmission across species

8 ugaresearch

A team of researchers at the University of Georgia has developed an easy-to-use temperature table to help public

officials gauge the danger to children and pets left inside hot vehicles. While the tragic consequences are well documented, the researchers say that many of the previous studies linking temperature, exposure time, and vehicle occupants’ hypothermia have been inadequate; they were conducted using too-small datasets or questionable methods.

The UGA scientists, led by Andrew Grundstein of UGA’s department of geography, used a gray Honda with gray cloth seats—i.e., a relatively low heat-absorbing color—to gather data over 58 days with the aid of high-temporal-resolution temperature sensors. Combining the resulting figures with data obtained from a human thermal-exchange model, they were able to compare and contrast the rising temperature in-side a closed car with the human thermal budget.

The findings were sobering. In hot weather in an open parking lot, the temperature inside the closed vehicle could

rise by as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit in five minutes, 13 degrees in 10 minutes, and 29 degrees in 30 minutes. In an hour, the temperature could rise nearly 50 degrees. And the scientists point out that without ventilation, the body’s natural evaporative-cooling mechanisms aren’t effective, so the body’s temperature would continue to rise.

Every year, 40 or more children in the United States die from being left in a closed, parked vehicle. Many of these deaths could be avoided, the researchers say, by using the tem-perature table in health-hazard warnings akin to the National Weather Service’s storm warnings. For example, on a 90-de-gree day, officials could announce that temperatures inside a car could reach an “excessive heat advisory” level in just over 10 minutes and get to an “excessive heat warning” level in less than 30 minutes.

Contact Andrew Grundstein at: andrew@uga.edu

—PhilipLeeWilliams

Temperature table could warn about heat risks inside vehicles

Fall 2010 9

Stop-smoking treatment programs inconsistent across U.S.

Researchers at the University of Georgia have received a five-year $3.3-million grant from the National Institutes

of Health to investigate the structural disparities between nicotine-treatment programs across the country.

Study leaders Jessica Muilenburg, assistant professor of public health, and Lillian Eby, professor of psychology, point out, for example, that some substance abuse facilities have stop-smoking programs but then don’t implement them. And “in many other programs,” said Muilenburg, “nicotine isn’t considered a dangerous drug—or it’s considered a less im-portant ‘side’ addiction that may or may not get addressed in conjunction with some other addiction.”

Yet research shows that it should get addressed—that “quit

rates” are higher when smokers seek formal treatment rather than trying to quit on their own. For this reason, research-ers say, most clients—especially low-income individuals with limited access to treatment—have the best chance of quitting while already in treatment for another drug addiction.

Muilenburg explained that clients seeking substance-abuse treatment are already making behavior and lifestyle changes that support abstinence, not only from drugs, but also from smoking.

Contact Jessica Muilenburg at: jlm@uga.edu or Lillian Eby at: leby@uga.edu

—HelenFosgate

10 ugaresearch

Sand Creek: A Childhood Legacy

by Carl Soren Hoveland, professor of crop and soil science emeritus, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences(Vantage Press, Inc., 2009)

Hoveland’s detailed memoir presents a fond, vivid portrait of growing up on a Wisconsin dairy farm in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as perspective on the evolution of dairy farming in a Norwegian immigrant community.

Bartram’s Living Legacy: The Travels and the Nature of the South

by William Bartram, edited by Dorinda G. Dallmeyer, director, Environmental Ethics Certificate Program, College of Environment and Design(Mercer University Press, 2010)www.bartramproject.com/

Bartram’s classic account of his four-year journey through the South in the 1770s is paired with essays by noted 21st century southern nature writers, and illustrated by painter Philip Juras (BFA ‘90, MLA ‘97) with scenes of long-gone landscapes that Bartram would have recognized.

Teachers Act Up! Creating Multicultural Learning Communities Through Theatre

by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, associate professor of language and literacy education, UGA College of Education; and Mariana Souto-Manning (PhD Language & Lit Ed, ’05) professor of early childhood education, Teachers College, Columbia University (Teachers College Press, 2010)

In an effort to help recruit and retain bilingual teachers, the authors adapted “Theatre of the Oppressed” techniques that show instructors how to rehearse solutions to real-life problems with co-workers and students, among others.

Orville’s Aviators: Outstanding Alumni of the Wright Flying School 1910-1916

by John Carver Edwards, university archivist emeritus, University of Georgia Libraries(McFarland, 2009)

Edwards tells the little-known story of six daring graduates of the Wright brothers’ flight training school who barnstormed, bootlegged and flour bag-bombed their way into public and military notoriety while testing the limits of early aircraft.

mediashelf

TOOLS

Impact Statements Systemcoordinated by CAES Public Affairs, College of Agricultural & Environmental Scienceswww.caes.uga.edu/Applications/ImpactStatements/index.cfm

This database, which can be searched by author, topic and year, as well as geography, provides a wealth of concise, authoritative reports on research and Cooperative Extension programs conducted by CAES faculty. Information found here may be used in communications to funding sources, government and nonprofit agencies, businesses, media and the public.

Fall 2010 11

Send suggestions for Media Shelf of

work by UGA personnel to

Laurie Anderson at: laurie@uga.edu.

Scribblers, Sculptors, and Scribes: A Companion to Wheelock’s Latin and Other Introductory Textbooks

by Richard A. LaFleur, Franklin Professor of Classics, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences(Harper Collins, 2009)

Intended for beginning students of Latin, this collection of unfiltered, annotated texts with intriguing titles such as “A Beast Hunt,” “Curses,” “Kitchen Tricks,” and “A Haunted House” brings a dead language to vibrant life.

MULTIMEDIA

Gulf Oil Blogby Samantha Joye, professor of marine sciences, School of Marine Programs, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences gulfblog.uga.edu/

Marine scientist Samantha Joye’s account of her research team’s investigations into the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico also provides links to news reports, background information, and audio and video accounts of the effects of the spill.

Aging 101 for Georgiadeveloped by Anne Glass, assistant director, Institute of Gerontology and associate professor of health policy and management, College of Public Health(Center for Teaching and Learning, 2009) training.geron.uga.edu/aging101

The UGA Institute of Gerontology presents a 90-minute educational video at this site on topics such as nutrition, adjusting to change, and other age-related issues. The video can be viewed in one sitting or by chapters, and is accompanied by a list of related links for more information.

AUDIO

Sounds of HIVby Alexandra Pajak, graduate student, School of Social Work (Azica Records, 2010)www.azica.com

Pajak assigned notes and pitches to specific amino acids and nucleotides to create a musical translation of the genome of the human immunodeficiency virus. The result: a quiet, contemplative composition reminiscent of chamber work by Aaron Copland and Arvo Pärt. A portion of sales from the 52-minute recording go to HIV research.

All Wound Upby String Theory (Thomas R. “Tommy” Jordan, associate director, Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping Science; Richard F. “Dick” Daniels, professor, Warnell School of Forestry; Antoon Speters [BFA Art ’04]; Dale Wechsler [BA English ’88]; Ben Jordan; Susan Staley) (Independent Release, 2010)www.tommyjordan.com/AllWoundUp.htm

It’s hard not to dance or at least clap in time to this energetic mix of traditional bluegrass and old-time Americana, played with the warmth of a neighborly get-together.

12 ugaresearch

Speaking Out for the Gulf

Fall 2010 13

UGA scientist and Gulf of Mexico specialist Samantha Joye share her oil-spilll research with the public and colleagues around the world

Story by Sam FahmyPhotos by Sandi Martin

14 ugaresearch

Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences, is not the only UGA researcher who responded to the recent and monumental Deepwater Horizon oil spill into the Gulf of

Mexico. But she has undoubtedly become the most well-known, having helped to direct the world’s attention to aspects of the spill that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

In a revelation that landed Joye on the front page of the New York Times, she cited her team’s discovery of vast plumes of oil estimated to be more than 15 miles long, several miles wide, over 300 feet thick, and suspended at depths ranging from 2,300 feet to 4,200 feet. The plumes had not been reported on until then, and their discovery brought renewed attention to the oil spill—and a new level of controversy.

Skeptics denied the existence of the plumes and dismissed the findings with the simple, and simplistic, argument that oil and water

don’t mix. Any oil released from the well would simply float to the surface, they reasoned. But Joye and her colleagues, Arne Diercks and Vernon Asper, both from the University of Southern Mississippi, stood behind their data. They explained that the oil, injected into the Gulf at a great depth and high pressures and then chemically dispersed, was breaking into tiny droplets that remained suspended in the water column.

Joye embarked on a subsequent research mission to gather more data on the plumes, and she presented her findings at a news conference upon her return. The next day, she testified before Congress. Other scientists began searching for the plumes as well, and they soon confirmed the findings.

But Joye remained the media’s expert of choice, given her first-hand knowledge of the Gulf (which she had been studying for

xeribus re sunt, occus excestruc tor as molo doluptisius doluptas ex et omnias untemol oribus etum sero et faces ut ad eaquam et eaquati uriorio nserore coNon-seque veniti reium quam estrum volorem inulloribera doluptatus es apel molupta tatur, eatestetus alis aspereiur ad eium, que doluptae lab idis eatur

Samantha Joye hangs onto a rosette fitted with water collection bottles and sensors on board the research vessel Walton Smith.

Fall 2010 15

years), propensity to speak the truth as she sees it, and ability to speak it plainly. In the six-week period after the Times plumes story broke, she was quoted or mentioned in nearly 2,000 news stories and appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, and the major broadcast news networks. As of late September, she had been quoted nearly 4,000 times in media reports.

While the plumes’ existence is now largely accepted, Joye says that their nature is still confusing to many. They’re not undersea rivers of oil, she emphasizes, but more like clouds of fine mist beneath the surface that move in response to currents.

Joye also notes that the ruptured well released not only oil but also large amounts of methane and other gases. Both the oil and gas are feasts for microbes, which help to break down these materials; oxygen is consumed in the process, however. While fish and other

highly mobile creatures can avoid areas of low oxygen, organisms that are essentially anchored to the seafloor—such as mussels, clams, and tubeworms—have nowhere to go if a plume envelopes them.

After months of failed attempts and dashed hopes, the Deepwater Horizon well was capped on July 15. More than 4 million barrels—172 million gallons—of oil had been released into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of the three-month-long oil spill. The question at that point was “What has happened to all of that oil?” Georgia Sea Grant, a statewide program based at UGA, convened a group of scientists to analyze data from the federal government and come up with an answer, not only for the Gulf of Mexico itself but also for Georgia’s coast.

Where has the oil gone?

xeribus re sunt, occus excestruc tor as molo doluptisius doluptas ex et omnias untemol oribus etum sero et faces ut ad eaquam et eaquati uriorio nserore coNon-seque veniti reium quam estrum volorem inulloribera doluptatus es apel molupta tatur, eatestetus alis aspereiur ad eium, que doluptae lab idis eatur

Graduate student Kate Segarra pulls samples collected by the rossette after it is pulled from the ocean.

16 ugaresearch

The team, which included Joye and scientists from UGA and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, concluded that as of early August nearly 80 percent of the oil released into the Gulf had not been recovered and remained a threat to Gulf waters as well as to the coasts of other states, including Georgia. Their finding was in stark contrast to media reports that optimistically suggested that only 25 percent of the oil remained. Charles Hopkinson (UGA professor of marine sciences, director of Georgia Sea Grant, and a member of the team) said the belief that the oil was no longer in the system, and therefore harmless, was a major misconception. “There was no reason at that point to believe that the vast majority of the spilled oil was gone and that our coasts were no longer vulnerable,” he said.

Fortunately, Hopkinson added, the risk to Georgia’s coast was decreasing every day. He explained that a circular current known as Eddy Franklin had so far blocked the Loop Current that would otherwise transport waters from the Gulf to the Atlantic.

In addition, natural processes and microbes were continuing to break the oil down.

The team’s report once again attracted national attention to the university’s scientists. The findings were the lead story on the NBC Nightly News that evening and were also featured on the CBS Evening News. A few days later, CNN.com ran a profile of Joye that was its top story, bearing the headline “Defender of the Deep.”

Although the ruptured well had finally been capped, Joye’s work was far from complete. In late August, she embarked on a research mission aboard the research vessel Oceanus, armed with sophisticated equipment that allowed her to better assess the spill’s ecological effects. Her team took core samples from the sea floor and found a layer of oily material as far away as 70 miles from the well. The oil appears to have killed shrimp, tubeworms, and other organisms as it settled, Joye observed, and the water directly above the seafloor was a toxic stew of chemicals from the crude oil.

BP’s Discoverer Enterprise (below) burns off methane at the site of the leaking wellhead in the Gulf.

Fall 2010 17

Samantha Joye’s research cruise last June, into the heart of the BP oil spill, wasn’t blessed with calm seas. As the R/V Walton Smith motored to different Gulf of Mexico sites in and around the immediate radius of the blown wellhead, giant swells of oil-coated water sent her splashing into deep pockets of the sea, riding the roller coaster of the waves. At stop, the Walton Smith swayed constantly. But while Joye remained unfazed, others on the boat quickly grew tired of the ordeal—and seasick. Rollicking waters are unusual for this time of year, Joye said. “I think Mother Nature is mad at BP.”

Assessing the damage to the Gulf from the company’s oil-drilling blunder meant days out of port on this ship—a 96-foot catamaran on loan from the University of Miami—as well as spotty contact with the mainland and very close quarters. The researchers spent the bulk of their time in the ship’s cramped 800-square feet of lab space, frequently bumping elbows with the dozen other people hovered around computers and lab kits.

They kept odd hours, some working until dawn before retiring for a few hours of sleep. Others, like Joye, slept sporadically, taking

naps only when fatigue set in. When the team anchored at the more noxious sites, where the fumes from the oil permeated the air, anyone venturing outside donned masks for protection. At times, the hot summer sun beat down on the deck, soaking those collecting samples in sweat.

Still, not wanting to waste precious time, Joye pushed her team into overdrive. The researchers, equally determined, were up to the task; they were so productive, even in the face of bad weather and equipment failure, that they soon ran out of bottles for storing samples. Visiting enough sites was another challenge; the Walton Smith’s top speed of 10 knots seemed entirely too slow for the impatient researchers.

When the ship docked in Gulfport, Miss., a dozen reporters were there to greet Joye. They boarded as soon as the ship stopped, surrounded the beleaguered scientist, and began firing nonstop questions. Joye very nearly missed her flight home.

— Sandi Martin

Gulf trip: no Love Boat cruise

Researchers spent the bulk of their time in the ship’s crammed lab, where they analyzed water samples.

18 ugaresearch

“We sampled 13 stations within a roughly 2,000-square-mile area—that’s a big area and a small number of samples—but the troubling thing is that we found what looks like fresh sedimentation, a fraction of which was oil, at all these sites,” Joye said. “The thickness of the layers varied, but 11 of the 13 sites lacked the fauna we typically see in deep ocean sediment cores.”

In her next expedition scheduled for November, she plans to take the Alvin, a deep-ocean submersible, to the seafloor near the wellhead to map the sedimented oil. “All we can say for sure at this point,” she says, “is that a lot more work is needed on this topic.”

Joye acknowledges that her own work in the aftermath of the oil spill—the 18-hour-plus days on month-long research expeditions,

a variety of follow-up duties, and the daily scores of voice mails and hundreds of e-mails that she often receives—has been intense and exhausting. But she feels an obligation to speak out for the Gulf and to share her expertise with the public that supports her research and urgently needs unbiased and accurate information. “One of the lessons that I’ve learned from this experience is that one person can make a difference,” she said. “One person’s voice can travel a long way.”

(Sam Fahmy is a science writer in UGA’s Office of Public Affairs; Sandi Martin is communications director in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources).

Undergraduate Chassidy Mann (below left) analyzes water samples for levels of dissolved organic carbon. Pho

to c

ou

rte

sy s

am

an

tha

Joye

/uG

a

UGA Scientists on the CaseAs Professor of Marine Sciences Samantha Joye and her colleagues

assess the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, other UGA scientists are monitoring coral reefs and coastal ecosystems and reaching out to middle- and high-school students as well as policy makers.

Geneticist Mike Arnold is studying the impact of oil and dispersant on plants that are native to the Gulf Coast, specifically focusing on genetic characteristics that allow irises to survive the pollutants contained in crude oil. He says his findings could play a critical role in attempts to reintroduce species to areas where plant populations have been decimated.

Professor James Porter in the Odum School of Ecology is working on a study funded by the federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process that uses sophisticated monitoring devices to detect suspended oil in the water. He is also assessing whether hydrocarbons from the oil spill are harming coral photosynthesis. In another study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, Porter is monitoring the health of coral reefs off the Florida Keys using data that he has collected over the past 15 years as a baseline for comparison.

Along the Georgia coast, Associate Professor of Ecology Jeb Byers is sampling tissue from oysters to detect the presence of oil. He says that because oysters are filter feeders that don’t move, they’re perfect sentinels for detecting pollutants. “It’s based on the principle of ‘you are what you eat,’” Byers explained. “If oil does make it to Georgia’s coast, we’ll know it.”

In the College of Education, Professor Steve Oliver is working with Catherine Teare-Ketter in the UGA School of Marine Programs as well as Joye—and Jill Gambill of Sea Grant—to create instructional materials for middle- and high-school students. These materials will use the Gulf oil spill as a starting point for inquiry-based learning about marine sciences.

In the meantime, Georgia Sea Grant faculty and staff organized and facilitated a series of workshops and reports to advise state leaders, elected officials, and Department of Natural Resources administrators. They also developed a sampling plan for Georgia coastal waters, should oil make its way around to the state’s eastern shores. —Sam Fahmy

Fall 2010 19

Pho

to c

ou

rte

sy s

am

an

tha

Joye

/uG

a

Fall 2010 21

Chemists have been transforming the earth’s resources for centuries. Early chemists learned to make glass, render animal fats into soap, extract metal from ores, and derive chemicals from plants to make

medicines and perfumes. Modern chemists continue to synthesize new chemical compounds. Whether to develop lifesaving drugs, industrial coatings, or new semiconductors, among other applications, chemists remain essentially the only scientists to produce new forms of matter.

Within this class of groundbreaking researchers, two UGA faculty members stand out. Gregory H. Robinson (in blue shirt), Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and Yuzhong Wang (far left, in lab coat), associate research scientist, are renowned for synthesizing new compounds that many conventional thinkers believed weren’t even possible.

“The chemistry emanating from the Robinson laboratory is some of the most innovative worldwide occurring at this time,” says Jerry Atwood, Curators’ Professor of Chemistry and chair of the department of chemistry at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

UGA chemists make the unimaginable real, defying the

theories (and gaining the praise) of their colleagues elsewhere,

all while creating the potential for whole new industries.

By Helen FosgatePhotos by Peter Frey

Unusual Bonds

22 ugaresearch

In 1995, Robinson’s research group made an important discovery using gallium, the volatile metal that resides just below aluminum on the periodic table. They synthesized a compound containing the first reported gallium three-member ring. More important, the compound displayed metalloaromatic properties, meaning it was unusually stable and possessed a collection of mobile electrons around the gallium-ring system.

Two years later, Robinson’s team installed a triple bond between two gallium atoms in a most unusual chemical compound. While triple bonding is quite common for carbon, the new Robinson compound was significant because it demonstrated for the first time that a metal from the periodic table’s “main group” (whose elements are among the most abundant on earth) could form a triple bond. Their discovery generated both accolades and skepticism in the scientific community. Today, more than a decade later, the consensus is that this compound was

one of the most important inorganic molecules to be synthesized in the past 20 years.

“Whenever a chemist synthesizes a new molecule or discovers a new mode of bonding for an element, it is often provocative because most of our long-standing theories of structure and bonding are largely based on carbon,” says Robinson. “However, these theories frequently do not adequately characterize the bonding behavior of heavier main-group elements.”

Subsequently, other chemists showed that aluminum, too, behaves like gallium (and not like carbon) in similar bonding processes. “We discovered that with heavier elements, the rules governing carbon—that iconic main-group element—do not always apply,” says Robinson. “Essentially, our work led to a more nuanced definition of multiple bonding among main-group elements.” While this expanded definition is now widely accepted, Robinson continues to push the boundaries of tradition in other ways.

The Un-CarbonsAssociate research scien-tist Yuzhong Wang (above) prepares an air-sensitive crystal for an x-ray diffrac-tion experiment.

Fall 2010 23

The next big discovery came in 2007, when Robinson’s lab synthesized the first compound containing a double bond between two boron atoms—the first diborene. Boron, a main group element often used in refractory materials and in reagents to effect chemical transformation of organic compounds, frequently forms compounds that are electron-deficient. This “makes the boron-boron double bond particularly reactive,” Robinson explains. “So we asked ourselves, ‘Might there be a simple way to quench boron’s thirst for electrons while, at the same time, stabilizing the boron-boron double bond?’”

After some trial and error, the scientists decided to try carbenes, a class of organic compounds in which one of the carbon atoms has a lone pair of electrons that can be “donated” to another atom in a different compound. As recently as two decades ago, carbenes themselves were considered so unstable and temporary as to be unsuitable for routine laboratory study, but the team’s idea worked: the carbenes stabilized the boron-boron double bond—and at room temperature. “It was like Jedi mind control at the molecular level,” says Robinson, laughing. “The carbenes fooled the boron atoms into behaving as if they were carbon atoms.”

The scientists now plan to explore whether they can make a boron-based polymer, which also has never been done. Robinson said it would have different properties than traditional polymers and perhaps certain advantages over them as well. Meanwhile, the team’s boron success led it to another, even bigger, discovery.

In 2008, Robinson and Wang stunned the scientific community by creating a new form of elemental silicon, again using carbenes to stabilize this highly reactive disilicon molecule. In this compound, two silicon atoms—each bonding to one carbene—are connected by a silicon-silicon double bond.

The achievement was hailed in top journals, including Science, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Nature, and Chemical and Engineering News. Reviewing scientists called it “a major advance in low-valent, low-coordinate, main-group chemistry” and one that “opens new, unprecedented possibilities in organometallic chemistry.

Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Chemistry at MIT, wrote: “Silicon was discovered in 1823; I am overwhelmed that a new allotrope [a structurally different form] of a long-known element can be discovered almost 200 years later, though I admit I am not surprised. My community looks to Professor Robinson for the unimaginable, and he continues to deliver, time and time again.”

In addition to research, Robinson also loves to teach, especially introductory chemistry for non-chemistry majors. “Three years later, I’ll see these students somewhere on North Campus, and they’ll say ‘I had you for chemistry, and I learned so much.’ I enjoy that because these are students I’d otherwise have never met,” he says.

New Forms of Boron and Silicon

24 ugaresearch

Robinson and Wang have now used carbenes to stabilize highly reactive allotropes of the main-group elements boron, silicon, phosphorous, and arsenic. Their technique of employing such bases as stabilizing influences for otherwise fleeting molecules is now considered a seminal scientific discovery—and one of potentially great practical importance. Not only does their work challenge traditional theories of structure and bonding, it is also “pushes the boundaries of current understanding and paves the way for unthinkable applications and insight into chemical processes,” according to Jonathan Steed, professor of inorganic chemistry at Durham University, United Kingdom. “But what I like most about Robinson’s contribution to science is not just that he does new, exciting chemistry in a painstaking and rigorous way, but that he communicates the results…in meaningful terms.”

Marcetta Darensbourg, professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University agrees. “I always enjoy reading Greg’s papers. He makes interesting connections between significant chemical events in the past and in current research. He has a perspective that frequently opens my eyes.”

In 2010, Robinson was named a Creative Research Award recipient by the University of Georgia Research Foundation—its highest honor—to recognize his contributions to chemistry. Robinson and Wang have since filed a patent application on their new form of silicon and are now exploring its characteristics and potential uses. Some have suggested it may have application in the solar energy industry as a base layer that could increase the energy efficiency of individual panels, but the possibilities are wide open. “It’s often the case,” says Robinson, “that we don’t have a specific application in mind when new discoveries come our way.”

Contact Greg Robinson: Robinson@chem.uga.edu

(Helen Fosgate is editor of ugaresearch; Peter Frey is a UGA photographer.)

Seminal Contributions

Fall 2010 25

Yuzhong Wang (above), who Robinson calls “his partner and right-hand man,” coordinates the work of undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs in the Robinson lab.

interview

Hometown: Hartwell,Ga.

Education: A.B,M.A.,Ph.D.(1975),UniversityofGeorgia

Researchareas: TheAmericanSouthfrommanydifferent perspectives,including:globaleconomicand culturalcontext,theinfluenceofsouthernmusic andliterature,andsouthernidentity

Coursestaught: U.S.History1865toPresent;SeminarinRecent UnitedStatesHistory;ColloquiuminSouthern

History;andmanyothers

Best-knownbooks: AwayDownSouth:AHistoryofSouthernIdentity, andTheMostSouthernPlaceonEarth:The MississippiDeltaandtheRootsofRegionalIdentity

Latestbook: TheSouthandAmericaSinceWorldWarII (OxfordUniversityPress,November2010)

FavoriteJimmyBuffettsong:“ChangesinLatitudes,ChangesInAttitudes”

26 ugaresearch

Pho

to B

y G

eof

Gil

lan

d/u

Ga

Ph

oto

Fall 2010 27

Q: WhystudytheAmericanSouth?

A: If you had asked me when I was starting out, back in the late ’60s, I would’ve said it was because the South was such a problem for the country. We historians who were studying the South wanted to figure out where it went wrong, what had made it different, why it had endured as a sort of contradiction to what America was supposed to be about. But as we learned more and more about the rest of the country too, we realized that a lot of the traits we once ascribed solely to the South were not purely southern at all. We found out that economic weakness and racism and other sorts of intolerance were just as typical throughout the nation. We have now come to understand that the South is actually an excellent window on America.

Q: WhyisitproductivetostudymusicandliteratureassocialhistoryintheSouth?

A: Because the South has produced great writers and musicians who have been so skilled at capturing the emotions and the sentiment and the tensions across social classes. Sometimes we historians succeed in documenting these things, but we don’t illustrate or convey them as well as writers can. Also, even though much of our music is now commercialized, it does stem from a base that was a pretty clear cultural expression of what was going on at any one time. I can’t think of two forms of music more revealing in this regard than country music and the blues.

Q: WhyshouldtheSouthbeviewedinaglobalcontext?

A: The South has probably been the most globalized part of the United States throughout the nation’s history. It was the area most affected by market conditions elsewhere in the world—even before New England was—and the Industrial Revolution in Europe was the force behind the international demand for cotton and the expansion of slavery. The economy of the South has always been globalized, and now we’re on a cusp in that regard—simultaneously losing jobs because of industrial migration to cheaper labor markets while on the receiving end of some of the country’s best direct foreign investment. So our economy, being much more globally connected than many people have realized, should not be studied in isolation.

Q: Howimportantiswritingstyletoahistorian?

A: I always tell my students that no matter how smart you are or the value of what you’ve got to say, if you can’t say it effectively you’re not going to have very much impact. Hawthorne pointed out that “Good reading is damn hard writing.” Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t want to do the work—to put in the extra time, sometimes wrestling with every sentence and every word, so as to get the maximum impact from the way they express themselves. I don’t think you can cover for a lack of ideas with good writing, but you can certainly enhance the power of the ideas you do have with good writing.

Q: Whatisthemainmessageofyournewbook,TheSouthandAmericaSinceWorldWarII,comingoutinNovember?

A: Over the course of the book, you get an idea of how much has changed in the South, but the title—the South and America—is what it’s really about, because it shows that the South was always an integral part of America. It hasn’t just recently rejoined the Union. Everything that was happening in the South you could also find elsewhere in the country. People were just distracted because it was happening so much more dramatically in the South. What I’d like for people to take away from the book is that you can’t really understand the South or America except when one is seen as a reflection of the other.

ContactJamesC.Cobbat:cobby@uga.edu

James C. Cobb, UGA’s B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor in the History of the American South, talks with Philip Lee Williams about the intertwining of the South’s and the nation’s past and present, the early and continuing globalization of the South, and the region’s social history as expressed through its literature and music.

JamesC.Cobb

Examining Health Care

Assets

Examining Health Care

Assets

Fall 2010 29

The fact that no one lives forever is concisely expressed in the language of corporate finance. “Health,” said economist Sara Holland, “is a depreciating asset.” But we can delay the inevitable by making investments in our health, be it simple things such as a gym membership or bigger commitments—a long-term drug regimen, for example, or heart surgery—when necessary.

Understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of how we allocate resources, both individually and collectively, to preserve health is at the center of the field of health economics. UGA’s Terry College of Business made an investment of its own this year, bringing in three new faculty members—Holland, Christina Marsh, and William Vogt—whose research agendas are all focused on the health care system and on the institutions, including employers, insurers, and hospitals, that support it.

Holland joined the College’s Department of Banking and Finance in 2010 after finishing her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. She is combining “health capital” with the broader measure of “human capital”—the accumulated knowledge, motivation, and skills of workers—that businesses use in the production process. Because they can invest in human capital, just as they can in technology or buildings, businesses often spend huge sums of money on health care—which is where Holland’s research is directed.

“I am exploring why firms spend so much on the health of their employees and how it affects firms’ financial results,” said Holland. “The big takeaway so far is that investing in health capital is not destroying shareholder value. Controlling for a number of factors and only looking at large publicly traded firms, my findings suggest that they are close to equilibrium with respect to their health capital investments. This goes against the conventional wisdom that providing health benefits is burdensome to businesses because it exposes companies to higher health costs and takes resources away from production.”

By adding three health-economics researchers to its faculty, the Terry College of Business makes a major commitment to a critical national need.

By David Dodson

Examining Health Care

Assets

Examining Health Care

Assets

Investing in Human Capital

30 ugaresearch

Marsh completed her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota earlier this year and promptly joined UGA’s Department of Economics. Her research addresses the problem of predicting price responses in health care when the formula is complicated by the presence of “nonlinear reimbursements.” The most common such “nonlinear” is the health insurance deductible, whereby a patient pays medical costs out of pocket until the deductible is met; from that point on, the costs are fully or mostly covered by the insurer. “The advantage of my approach over those previously cited in the literature is that I was able to control for the bias that the deductible introduces,” Marsh said.

Applying her method, she is able to test scenarios in which employees have higher deductibles or spend more on copayments but are given lower insurance premiums in return, and vice versa. “I find that the best scenario has the employee and the employer sharing the costs,” Marsh said, “even if it’s in the form of patients paying small copayments from the very beginning in exchange for a lower monthly premium.”

Vogt, the most senior of the new health economics faculty, came to UGA from the RAND Corp. in Pittsburgh, where he was a senior economist. Earlier, he was a health economist at Carnegie Mellon University.

At UGA, Vogt is currently the principal investigator on a million-dollar grant and coinvestigator on a multimillion-dollar grant, both funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The first project is a reanalysis of data from the 1990s Women’s Health Initiative, a series of mammoth randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that addressed heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.

“Although RCTs are the gold standard for measuring the effects of medical treatments, they can only measure these effects for people enrolled in the trial,” Vogt said. “When you are evaluating the effect that a policy change—such as changing the price or availability of a medication—will have on health, you need to consider the population that will start or stop taking the medication in response. I’m developing

SHARING THE COSTS BEYOND THE GOLD STANDARD

“The big takeaway so far is that investing in health capital is not destroying shareholder value. This goes against the conventional wisdom that providing health benefits is burdensome to business.” -Sara Holland

Photo By Mark Sorrow

Fall 2010 31

economic and statistical tools to apply RCT results to these policy-relevant populations.”

Vogt’s second NIA-funded study examines Medicare Part D, the prescription-drug-coverage program administered by private health plans, which are given wide latitude in the benefits they cover and at what price. “This study is examining the differences in Part D benefit plans, how these differences affect the health and spending of the beneficiaries, whether these plans’ benefit designs steer less-risky beneficiaries into joining, and whether the benefit designs can create niche markets for the insurer and blunt price competition,” said Vogt. “Of course, all the potential downsides of flexible benefit designs must be balanced against the benefit of greater consumer choice, and we will be addressing that issue as well.”

In all, the Terry College hired 19 new faculty members in 2010—a banner year that included 15 research-active faculty who are tenured or tenure-track. To commit three of those openings to faculty engaged in health economics was an exceptional measure. “If you look nationally, it’s actually quite unusual to have even one health economist in an economics department,” Vogt said.

“Entering the field of health economics is an important step for the Terry College,” explained Daniel Feldman, associate dean for academic affairs. “With growing public attention to the affordability of health care, it is critical that Terry has a strong set of faculty who can address these issues in rigorous ways. Adding the field of health economics also complements several other health care initiatives of the university as a whole, such as the start of the medical school campus and the recent accreditation of the College of Public Health.”

(DavidDodsonisawriterintheTerryCollegeofBusiness.)

UGA health economists William Vogt (below left) Christina March (center) and Sara Holland (right).

Photo By Mark Sorrow

32 ugaresearch

viewpoint

By Barry Hollander

People’s perceptions of being informed, when they’re actually uninformed—and even misinformed—poses a threat to our democracy.

Pho

to b

y Pa

ul

efla

nd

/uG

a

Spring 2009 33

The Bad News about “Easy News”

Barry HollanderEducation: BS, University of North Alabama (1981); MA,

University of Florida (1988); Ph.D., University of Florida (1991)

Work History: Professor of journalism at UGA (1991-present). Before graduate school, worked as a journalist for daily newspapers in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, winning awards for investigative reporting and spot news coverage

Research Interests: Political learning, the effects of new media, the intersection of religion and media

Research Funding: Under latest grant, is presently studying (with two other faculty members) whether e-readers such as the Kindle offer a successful alternative to newspapers in delivering the news.

Courses Taught: Undergraduate: Introduction to News Writing and Public Affairs Reporting. Graduate: Mass Communication and Society; and Public Opinion

Other Stuff: Writes a blog at whatpeopleknow.com, has published over 50 short stories, and for 15 years served as a god on an online virtual world.

W hen it comes to politics, there is what people know and what they think they know.

The difference is important. A successful democracy depends on a truly knowledgeable electorate, able to offer reasoned opinions on the issues of the day and wisely choose among candidates. Yet studies conducted since the 1940s consistently find most Ameri-cans to be ill-informed about public affairs.

That the general public lacks political knowledge won’t surprise anyone who has spent an interminable holiday afternoon listening to a wacky uncle weave his latest conspiracy theory. A bigger problem for the nation is that their uncles—and a great many other (presumably less wacky) people, believe they are well-informed. As such, they may no longer pursue new information, espe-cially if it challenges their preexisting beliefs. Or they may fill up on news-like content that gives them the sense of being informed when, often, they are not.

The media, it turns out, both help and hurt in this regard.

The self-satisfying sense of being informed has many names, depending on the scholarly field you happen to plow—self-efficacy, internal efficacy, feeling of knowing, and perceived knowledge, just to cite a few. For me, the issue is less that people feel this way than how they get there, and the consequences of their misperception.

I first examined this phenomenon in the early 1990s while studying the effects of an emerging political force at that time: political talk radio. My initial study found that for less-educated people, listening to talk radio increased their perception of being informed but did little to boost their actual political knowledge. Better-educated indi-viduals, on the other hand, did glean useful information from such programs. I found similar results for young people who watched such programs as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

My best explanation is what I call the “empty calorie hypothesis.” In nutrition, fill up on empty calories such as a soft drink and you’re less hungry and therefore less likely to eat the food that’s good for you. Analogously, filling up on entertaining or highly partisan news may have a similar effect. Instead of eating their veggies—that is, the traditional yet often boring news—people turn to content that’s more flavorful, more fun.

Hence “easy news” is on the rise, and there is less consumption of serious news. Or, in the words of that great philosopher Mary Poppins, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, in a most delightful way.”

But in this case the “sugar” dilutes the medicine; it lessens learn-ing. In much the same way, I suspect that social media such as Facebook and Twitter, with their links and comments and sharing of messages among people very much like ourselves, may do more to give us the sense of being informed than actually informing us.

As a journalism professor this trend clearly worries me, as it bodes diminished influence for my field and fewer useful oppor-tunities for my students. But of greater concern is a public less capable of making sense of an increasingly complicated political world.

I love Jon Stewart, and I even like talk radio, but for many people this blurring of the line between entertainment and news may seriously affect how they deal with politics and public affairs. Or, as Neil Postman wrote a few decades ago, we may be “amusing ourselves to death.”

Contact Barry Hollander at: barry@uga.edu

behind the scenes

Office of the Vice President for ResearchResearch Communications708 Boyd Graduate Research CenterAthens, Georgia 30602-7411

www.researchmagazine.uga.edu

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDUniversity of

Georgia

A New Breed of Long-Persistent Phosphors

ThisUGAlogoandchild’sartwork(right)weredrawnusingpaintmadefromanovellong-persistentphosphordevelopedinthelabofZhengweiPan,anassistantprofessorinthedepartmentofphysicsandastronomyandamemberofUGA’sFacultyofEngineering.Adigitalcamera,withtheaidofaGenerationIIInight-visionmicroscope,capturedtheimageinadarkroom.

Pan’sgrouprecentlydevelopedtwoseriesofsuchphosphors,whichareuniqueinthattheyemitinthenear-infraredmicrowaveregion(asopposedtotheubiquitousphosphorsinthevisibleregion).Theyareactivatedbysolarradiation;secondstominutesofsolarradiationexposurecanresultinupto400hoursofpersistent,intense,near-infraredlightemission.Thesematerialsalsohavesuperiorcapabilitiesforsolarenergyabsorption,storage,andconversion,andarenotsensitivetocorrosionorwater(infact,theycanbeexcitedandemitlightevenunderwater).

Thenear-infraredlong-persistentphosphormayfindpromisingapplicationsintagging,tracking,andlocatingforsecurityanddefensepurposes,insolarenergyabsorptionforultrahigh-efficiencyphotovoltaics,passiveheatingdevices,andinopticalprobesforbioimaging.LastSeptembertheUniversityofGeorgiaResearchFoundation,Inc.,(UGARF)filedapatentapplicationforeachofthetwoseriesofphosphors.Theresearch,originallysponsoredbytheOfficeofNavalResearch,iscurrentlybeingsupportedbyUGARFthroughitsintellectualpropertydevelopmentprogram,andthePetroleumResearchFoundation.

Contact Zhengwei Pan at: panz@uga.edu