USF showcases creationism critic tonight

Posted Feb 9, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 9, 2012 at 06:42 PM

In honor of Charles Darwin’s birthday 203 years ago, USF is presenting famous science teacher Eugenie Scott.

Her message: Students can’t understand science without understanding the central role of evolution.

She speaks tonight at 7 in the Fine Arts Hall, room 101, focusing on state lawmakers’ efforts to undermine the teaching of evolution.

Scott, an anthropologist, is a former chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2009 she was the first recipient of the Stephen Jay Gould Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution.

As the director of the National Center for Science Education she leads the movement of scientists and educators who oppose the teaching of creationism and its offshoot, intelligent design.

It’s a “science stopper,” she says.

While she’s here she’ll host a workshop for school teachers to show them that evolution is a key part of a science curriculum.

And because no university news is complete without a mention of STEM, USF Humanities Institute Director, Elizabeth Bird, notes the irony of Florida’s politicians challenging the teaching of evolution while pushing for more science, technology, engineering and math training.

“Many people, including Florida politicians, don’t understand that scientific literacy and competency can’t be achieved without a grasp of the core principles of evolutionary theory.”

You can read more here.

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Times reporter goes to work at USF St. Pete

Posted Feb 7, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 7, 2012 at 04:00 PM

USF St. Petersburg has a new media chief.

Tom Scherberger, recently of the Tampa Bay Times and years ago with the Tampa Tribune, is the new communications director.

He takes over for Melanie Marquez, who left USF St. Pete for a media job with Pinellas County Schools.

Scherberger will handle media relations and develop internal and external communication strategies for the campus.

“We are excited to welcome someone with Tom’s breadth of experience to our growing campus,’’ Chancellor Margaret Sullivan said in a news release.

Scherberger, 56, spent 20 years at the Times, where he was a reporter, editorial writer, state editor and Tampa city editor. He recently returned to reporting, covering Tampa International Airport, the Port of Tampa and tourism for the newspaper’s business section.

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USF Poly board member quits, saying USF is scuttling the “Poly model”

Posted Feb 2, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 2, 2012 at 09:05 PM

The Poly drama continues.

One of the biggest cheerleaders for USF Polytechnic’s independence, Mark Kaylor, has resigned from the Poly governing board with a flourish.

Kaylor, a lawyer for another independence advocate, state Sen. JD Alexander, sent a letter to USF President Judy Genshaft last week saying there was a “systemic problem” with the governance of the USF system.

“While it may not be clear to many, it is very clear to me that the true underlying intentions of USF Tampa is to scuttle the polytechnic model and otherwise thwart any opportunity to meet the benchmarks set forth by the Board of Governors when it granted status for a 12th university,” he wrote.

The letter was dated Jan. 27, just four days after Kaylor commended Genshaft and USF at a Poly campus board meeting. Genshaft and USF trustee Brian Lamb met with the campus board to update members on the independence effort.

“I’m glad to see board members from Tampa engaged,” Kaylor said to them.

But the next day the new Poly chief, David Touchton, fired five top administrators in a reorganization that he said would save the campus $1 million. They included the people who ran the international recruiting programs.

That set Kaylor off, it seems.

In addition to Genshaft, he wrote Morteza “Mori” Hosseini, a member of the state university Board of Governors who leads a board committee monitoring the independence moves.

He said Hosseini must “act swiftly to prevent further dismantling of the polytechnic/business plan model.”

Kaylor was part of a community group, led by Alexander, who began pushing in July for Poly to separate from USF.

In a long, emotional debate in November, the state university Board of Governors struck something of a compromise, voting to give Poly its independence once it met several benchmarks showing it could stand alone.

The following month, Genshaft dismissed then-Poly Chancellor Marshall Goodman, whom Kaylor had supported.

Hosseini chided Genshaft for her seemingly sudden decision to replace Goodman with Touchton, who had opposed the local independence effort. Genshaft vowed to keep board members in the loop in the future and in meetings since then, Hosseini has praised Genshaft and USF trustees for their cooperation.

She will decide who replaces Kaylor.

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USF gets big grant for veterans research

Posted Jan 31, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Jan 31, 2012 at 11:54 AM

USF is marching forward with its veterans initiatives, receiving $1.6 million from the Department of Defense to combat traumatic brain injury and other battlefield injuries.

The money will pay for work on “everything from drug discovery and preclinical work to clinical, social and behavioral trails,” said principal investigator Paul Sanberg in a USF news release.

Sanberg is with the USF Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, but the grant will bring together researchers from across the university, from the Morsani College of Medicine to the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences.

One study focuses on how to treat TBI with a growth factor called GCSF that stimulates the body’s own stem cells. Another seeks a better way to diagnose mild TBI. Yet another uses high-tech tracking devices to figure out how rehab is working with injured vets.

This is all part of the Veterans Reintegration program that caught First Lady Michelle Obama’s attention earlier this month.

You can read more about the new grant here.

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Researchers say cell phone waves can reverse Alzheimer’s

Posted Jan 30, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Jan 31, 2012 at 10:45 AM

Two years ago we told you about researchers who found evidence that they could beat back Alzheimer’s in mice by exposing them to electromagnetic waves – the kind emitted from cell phones.

Mice were exposed to cell signals for two hours a day for several months

Now they think they know why it works and they’ve published their findings in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinsonism.

It’s important to say they’ve tried this only with mice. They envision human studies one day,  but they don’t know when.

What they do know is that the treatment speeds up nerve cell activity in a part of the brain called the entorhinal cortex.

It’s the hub of a network of brain functions that creates memories. It’s also one of the first areas to be affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers, Gary Arendash, of USF and Takashi Mori, of Saitama Medical Center in Japan, also found that the EM treatments revived diseased neurons and helped remove from the brain the toxic protein believed to be a root cause of Alzheimer’s.

They have a long way to go before something like this is publicly available and they don’t recommend self-treatment with cell phones.

But Arendash says they don’t think it will take as long to get this on the market as it would to develop a new drug.

You can go here to read more about it.

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