I attended a seminar last week by stem cell researcher and recently named Alumni Fellow, John D. Gearhart, a 1964 graduate of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Gearhart's talk "Instructing Ourselves to Rebuild Our Bodies" dealt with the remarkable progress being made in regenerative medicine and the ethical and political challenges we will face.
My dog Junior ate my cellphone yesterday. Chewed off the antenna and added some teeth marks. It provided just enough motivation for me to upgrade to an iPhone. After succeeding in connecting to the College's email server I tried out the camera. Behold the first image from the iPhone. It only took a few moments for me to figure out how to keep my fingers away from the lens.
This morning we were making photographs to support the College's fund raising activities for the United Way. Alyson, a junior majoring in Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, was modeling one of the sweatshirts on sale with proceeds going to the United Way. If you are interested in purchasing shirts, sweatshirts, blankets or coffee mugs contact:
With the sun going in and out of the clouds two colleagues helped control the light. That's Pete on the left holding the translucent disk. Not only is Pete a master at light control he is also the Art Director of Penn State Agriculture magazine.
Austin was working with us as we made pictures for a new brochure for one of the undergraduate programs. Since almost all labs are illuminated by florescent light it's necessary to bring in some extra light. We always use students in Ag Sciences for the pictures I shoot for print, exhibits, and the Web . For more information about undergraduate programs visit the Future Students site.
It seems the earliest snow on record has arrived in Happy Valley. Puts a damper on the leaf colors as snow brings down branches and trees across the region. A line of snow clung to the top of Mount Nittany at lunchtime today.
On my way to an assignment I stopped to look at the snow. October 15 and it looks like winter. I was expected a few more weeks of 70 degree weather. For any alumni looking at this I should remind you that I was standing over what was once Parking Lot 80, that infamous winter desert that East Halls students had to cross to get to class.
Yesterday young people across Pennsylvania were busy making biofuel as part of 4-H National Youth Science Day. I caught up to this young scientist in the Food Science Building as she and a partner were busy experimenting with ethanol production.
While waiting for one of the experiments to run I got the participants together for a quick group shot. For more information about the event visit the 4-H National Youth Science Day site or read the story on Penn State Live.
Between classes outside the auditorium in the Forestry Building. Text messaging is a common site on campus. I wish I had time to stick around and shoot this picture when class lets out. It's amazing how the campus transforms when all the students are outside the classroom.
Last weekend I spent a few minutes at the Ag Olympics in the Snider Agricultural Arena. The Ag Olympics is a student run event where clubs and organizations compete against each other in a wide range of odd and sometimes humorous events. In the above picture two students compete in an ice cream eating competition. A blindfolded team member must feed their non-blindfolded teammate a cup full of ice cream as quickly as they can.
How often do you throw logs for accuracy and distance?
I watched the above event for awhile from a distance. It seems the race to fill the milk bottle with water begins first with a race to put on a cow costume complete with udder.
Teamwork is important to most of the competitions. like charging across the Arena and then having to pass the burger to a teammate.
One by one down the row team members had to chug a cup full of cold milk. That was the easy part though I did see a few unlucky competitors with milk running out of their noses. The real challenge came afterward as one by one they set the cups upside down on the edge of the table and attempt to flip them over with one finger and have them land on the table in the same position.
A course inspired by dog agility competitions. I shuddered thinking about my knees on a concrete floor.
This picture was made during the cowpie pitching contest. The good news for competitors is they were using fake cowpies. The bad news was that the pitching for accuracy was as challenging as ever.
Nerves were on edge as this team awaited the start call from the official timer before tearing into the corn shucking contest.
Concentration and focus were essential for the archery challenge as student after student tried their luck with a miniature bow and suction cup arrow.
