HUMAN NATURE: Enzymes that break down pollutants take millions of years to evolve. So a pair of Stanford scientists have decided to speed nature up. Alfred Spormann, an assistant professor of biological sciences and of civil and environmental engineering, and graduate student Michael Liu take the same gene from several bacteria, slice the genes into segments and randomly reassemble them. They then insert them into new bacteria and test to see which ones break down toxic compounds such as chlorinated alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons.
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: Assistant art professor Paul DeMarinis downloads his e-mail through some pretty funky terminals: neon-green electrolytic Leyden jars, wired ceramic washbasins and a chorus line of plastic miniskeletons decked out in red ponchos. It’s a slow read—only one letter of the incoming notes arrives every 1.5 seconds—but, hey, it’s also art. The Messenger, DeMarinis’s installation at the Cantor Arts Center through January 27, explores the origins of telecommunications technologies and the nature of speech and silence. The artist’s tongue is wired firmly in cheek.
A FEW GOOD MEN: Stanford’s urology department and the National Cancer Institute have jointly launched the largest-ever prostate cancer prevention study. select, as the study has been dubbed, will examine whether vitamin E and selenium, separately or together, can protect against prostate cancer—a disease diagnosed in more than 198,000 Americans each year. The study will take 12 years to complete and will enroll 32,400 men in the United States and Canada. Healthy men age 55 and older (50 for African-Americans) are encouraged to contact the urology department or NCI to participate.
