DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Iowa Congressman Tom Latham, who had been considered the establishment Republican choice for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by retiring Democrat Tom Harkin, announced Wednesday that he won't seek the job.
Latham, a 10-term Republican from Clive, said in a statement that he could not "in good conscience launch a two-year statewide campaign that will detract from the commitment" to the new district he was elected to in November.
He faced considerable pressure to run from throughout the Iowa Republican establishment, including Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. Latham, a soft-spoken former businessman, had represented more than half of Iowa's counties during nearly 20 years in Congress and was considered a good fundraising match for Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley.
Attention now turns to U.S. Rep. Steve King, an outspoken conservative who has said he is weighing a Senate bid but was not expected to challenge Latham in a primary. King said Wednesday in a statement: "It is too big a decision to be rushed."
King gave no timeline for a decision. "A potential Senate race remains an analytic decision first and then one that requires deep conviction," he said.
Democrats would have been expected to hold the seat before Harkin, 73, opted last month not to seek a sixth term. Republicans, who need to gain six seats in 2014 to win the Senate majority, immediately claimed to have a real shot at the seat.
But in the month since Harkin made his announcement, Democrats have coalesced around Braley, a four-term congressman from Waterloo. He is the only Democrat to announce his candidacy for the seat.
Trying to foster an organized process for Republicans, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad had urged Latham this month during a private meeting at the governor's mansion in Des Moines to seek the nomination. Branstad, who also met with King privately, said he urged King to develop more of a statewide network and consider running in 2016, should Republican Sen. Charles Grassley decide against running for a sixth term.
A national group started by former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove had identified King as a potential target of attack ads in its mission to field candidates more acceptable to general election audiences after GOP Senate candidates lost in races seen as within their reach in 2010 and 2012.
Branstad, who is expected to seek re-election next year, hopes to field a strong GOP ticket and avoid a potentially nasty Senate primary that could dishearten portions of the GOP coalition.
He also is urging Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, a loyal Branstad protege, to consider seeking the GOP Senate nomination.
"I know the respect and support she has throughout Iowa," Branstad said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. "I have been greatly impressed with the work she has done here in the lieutenant governor's office and would urge her to explore a run."
In a bid to bolster its bottom line, Sony's been selling properties like a desperate monopoly player, and the latest space on the board to go is the Sony City Osaka building for 111.1 billion yen ($1.2 billion). That follows the sale of its NY headquarters for a similar sum, and the move of its global HQ from Sweden to Tokyo. The Osaka building has been purchased by a Japanese holding company who will lease the building back to Sony for a period of at least five years, which seems to be the trend for electronics companies lately. The Japanese conglomerate said all the property deals are being made to "transform its business portfolio and reorganize its assets." Translation? Sony needs the cash, natch.
'I couldn't predict where I was going to end up at the end of the night,' Green Day singer says of his alcohol and prescription drug abuse. By Gil Kaufman
Billie Joe Armstrong on the cover of Rolling Stone Photo: Rolling Stone
Is it a good thing that T-Mobile's in the crosshairs of a MetroPCS merger? We'll, see, but meanwhile the operator again shed revenue, customers and profit in Q4 2012. Total revenue dropped during the quarter to $4.9 billion from $5.2 billion last year, while income was down a whopping 25.1 percent to $1.05 billion year-over-year. Meanwhile the company lost 515,000 branded contract customers compared to 492,000 last quarter, representing a 'churn' rate of 2.5 percent in that category, a slight improvement over last year. All that culminated in a rather miserable year for the carrier, which earned $424 million less than in 2011 ($4.9 billion), while showing a total loss of $6.4 billion thanks to depreciation and impairment charges. Meanwhile, parent Deutsche Telecom said recently that MetroPCS would merge with T-Mobile as early as April -- which sounds like it can't come soon enough.
Many of us see Intel as self-serving with its chip manufacturing, but that's not entirely true: it just hasn't had very large customers. A just-unveiled deal with Altera might help shatter those preconceptions. Intel has agreed to make some of the embedded technology giant's future field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) using a 14-nanometer process, giving Intel a top-flight customer while giving Altera a leg up over any rivals stuck on less efficient technologies. The pact may be just the start -- Intel VP Sunit Rikhi portrays the deal as a stepping stone toward a greater role in contract chip assembly in an interview withReuters. We're not expecting Intel to snatch some business directly from the likes of GlobalFoundries and TSMC when many of their clients are ARM supporters, or otherwise direct competitors. However, we'll have to reject notions that Intel can't share its wisdom (and factories) with others.
The discovery of traces of horse meat in food products supposedly made of beef or pork has caused a scandal in Britain and, most recently, prompted Ikea to withdraw its Swedish meatballs from stores in 21 European countries.
Related: No horse in IKEA meatballs in the US, store says
The controversy is obviously about more than the mislabeling of food. The very idea of eating horse strikes many people in Britain and the U.S. as abhorrent ? despite the fact that horse is considered a proper food item in many parts of the world.
A new study from researchers at Oxford University says the roots of the taboo on horse meat are in the spread of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England. But the real reason may be something more pedestrian: simple economics.
Although church authorities did attempt to root out the practice of eating horse in Northern Europe and the U.K. because of its perceived connection with paganism, there's no evidence that this was the decisive factor in turning popular sentiment against horse meat.
It seems far more likely that the aversion grew out of common sense home economics. Cows are just more efficient sources of food than horses.
Brian Palmer of Slate explains that in terms of caloric content, 3 ounces of cows give you more bang per pound:
A three-ounce serving of roast horse has 149 calories, 24 grams of protein, and five grams of fat. The same amount of beef tenderloin has 179 calories, 24 grams of protein, and nine grams of fat. Horse milk, which some Central Asians drink in fermented form, has one-third the fat of cow's milk.
To the contemporary eye, that may make it sound as if horse meat is healthier than beef. But that's only because we have ample sources of calories and fat available to us. For most of human history, that hasn't been true. Medieval residents of Northern Europe would have certainly appreciated the higher calorie, higher fat content of beef. Even without the scientific ways of discovering precise fat and caloric intakes, it would have been easy to notice that a serving of beef left you feeling more full than a serving of horse.
What's more, the different digestive systems of horses and cows mean that cows are more efficient eaters. A 2002 study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology found that horses eat 63 percent more than cattle. This isn't just a matter of bulk. Horses also eat more "digestible material" with actual nutritional content than cows, according to the study.
This is rooted in the differences between the digestive systems of the animals. Here's how Jessica Walling, a graduate student at Central Washington University, explains it at the Mustang Management blog:
[Cows and horses] diverged from common ancestors into two families known as Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla ? ruminant and cecal digesters. Fermentation in the cecum and the rumen is similar. However, horses are only 70% as efficient as cows at digestion. This is because cattle regurgitate and chew partially digested food as "cud," repeatedly. Food is ground into smaller particle sizes. Another reason cattle are more efficient is because the food they intake is digested by microbes before it enters the true stomach.
Given a choice between raising cows and horses for food, it makes far more sense to raise cows. To put it differently, people who preferred beef to horse meat would have been healthier, heartier and used available resources more efficiently. They would, in short, have been more prosperous and successful. Over time, the beef eaters would triumph over the horse eaters.
While early Christian leadership may have nudged some in Europe away from eating horse meat, it's very likely the more efficient culinary taste would have won out even without a papal edict.
This week we talk to Nakuul Mehta, the handsome hunk who plays Aditya on Star Plus's hit show Pyaar Ka Dard Hai. Lets see what his views on love and relationships are.
RM: What's the best way to ask a girl out n a valentine's day?
Nakuul: I have never asked a girl out on a valentine's day date so have no idea.
RM: Do you think there should be a specific day to celebrate love?
Nakuul: I think you should celebrate love everyday, but having said that,I don't think its overrated . I think it's good you have a day marked for love where you make an extra effort to express your love . I have no issues with days like Valentine day.
RM:What's your idea of a perfect date?
Nakuul : It's changed with time. In school it was just holding hands, in college the first girl I dated is the one I married .During that time if I could take her out for coffee, that was exciting. Now that we both are busy, seeing each other, do something together like coffee ,film ,dinner..it's special.
RM:When you get free time what do you both do ?
Nakuul: We both love food, and I love trying out new cuisine.
RM: Do you believe in karma ,soulmates and destiny?
Nakuul : Yes I do. It's funny actually. I read this book called Many Lies Many Masters and the I read another book by the same author. Love is real...And I totally bought the theory of karma. Back then when I saw my wife , I didn't know but had this strong feeling that said I would get married to to this girl.
RM: We're you sure that she would say yes ?
Nakuul : She didn't say yes, ..that's another story we should not get into ( laugh). girls should always believe in the fact they are attractive and desirable. ( laughs some more) so I was turned down the first time. But then I kept on trying as I knew she was my soulmate and I couldn't let it just go.
RM:Who do you think is more romantic? Men or Women?
Nakuul: It's depends from person to person. Women need to hear it more and men need to say it more .
RM: How does one know it's not lust but love ?
Nakuul: In the morning when you want to have breakfast together it's love, and when you want to leave its totally lust! ( laughs out loud )
RM: Do you believe in falling in love completely or loosing yourself in love ?
Nakuul: It's a very poetic question. No answer at the moment , will have to think though ....
RM: What's the difference between being lonely and being single ?
Nakuul: you could be lonely in a relationship also,and being single is when you could date multiple girls. (laughs)
RM: Has your definition of love changed post marriage ?
Nakuul: Maybe to an extent.The responsibility factor increases.The care factor multiplies by many folds. But the essence is just the same .
RM: Do you remember what is the first thing you said to your wife ?
Nakuul: (thinks) infact I do. I had to think for a week for a good opening line ( laughs).We both were in Shamak Davar's class. She was in a much senior group than I was ..She was changing and I walked upto her and asked "Do you have a name ".. She gave me the most frozen look ever..
RM: How important is it to say out your feelings ?
Nakuul: I think it's very import at to verbalise your feelings.
RM: Do you think unconditional love exists in this world ?
Nakuul: Yes.. Parents have it for their children...
RM :Would you give up on a relationship just because the horoscopes said so ?
Nakuul: Never!
RM:What do you think of love in the virtual world ?
Nakuul: it's lust !! ( bursts out laughing ) one goes by DP on Facebook but it s never the same in real.
RM:Do you think familiarity breeds contempt?
Nakuul: not in my case
RM: Would you sacrifice the thing you loved the most for the one you loved the most ?
Nakuul: tough!!..maybe ....
RM:What puts you off in a relationship?
Nakuul: dishonesty
RM:What are your priorities in a relationship?
Nakuul: The way we look at life should somehow match ..it should be about the people in a relationship first and not things around us.
On that note we say bye to the actor who always warmly greets us has interesting things to say at all times! Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we did conducting this interview session.
Firefox will now?automatically block all third-party cookies, a crucial tool to help advertisers track users, and the ad industry is not happy about it.
In fact, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) SVP and general counsel Mike Zaneis tweeted that the default is a "nuclear first strike against ad industry."?
Although some responded that Apple's Safari really started the anti-third party cookie battle.
"The new Firefox policy is a slightly relaxed version of the Safari policy," said Jonathan Mayer, a researcher at Stanford who wrote an in-depth post about what the new policy means.
Chrome and Internet Explorer currently allow cookies, although Microsoft recently drew the ire of the advertising industry when it created a default do not track setting on IE 10 without any warning to its ad partners.
While Firefox users can already manually disable cookies, the new default cookies-free setting is expected to premier with Firefox 22, Mayer says. We're currently on Firefox 19. CNET writes that this might be rolled out as early as April 5.
According to Mayer,?"Collateral impact should be limited. Safari's cookie policy has been in place for over a decade, and it is included in both the desktop and iOS versions of the browser. A few websites may require a tiny code change to accommodate Firefox in the same way as Safari."?
And while the ad world is recoiling, privacy advocates can settle one more move to lock advertisers out of users' web experience.
The suspected killer of leftist opposition politician Chokri Belaid whose murder sparked a political crisis in Tunisia was arrested on Monday, police sources said.
They said the suspect was arrested along with an alleged accomplice, both members of the radical Muslim Salafist movement. The main suspect, a 31-year-old furniture maker, was arrested in the Carthage suburb of Tunis.
The second man was allegedly the getaway motorbike rider for the lone, hooded gunman who shot dead Belaid, 48, at close range in front of his Tunis? home on February 6, two police officers told AFP.
They said the arrests were carried out on the strength of the testimony of a woman who had witnessed the killing and has since been placed under police protection. Several online media also reported the two arrests, but the interior ministry spokesman was unreachable for comment.
Interior Minister Ali Larayedh, who has been tapped to form a new government in the face of the deepening crisis sparked by Belaid?s killing, said last week that arrests had been made. ?The investigation has not led yet to identify the killer, those behind the murder and its motives,? said Larayedh, refusing to elaborate or disclose the number of arrests.
Belaid?s family has blamed the ruling Ennahda party for being behind the killing, an accusation the Islamists have vehemently denied. The assassination triggered days of unrest as people took to Habib? Bourguiba Avenue, epicentre of the 2011 uprising that toppled ex-dictator Zine? El Abidine Ben Ali, exacerbating a long-running political crisis in Tunisia.
On the day of the murder, prime minister Hamadi Jebali proposed the formation of a government of technocrats as a way out of the crisis. But the initiative was rejected by his own Ennahda party, leading to his resignation.
Buying in bulk is generally cheaper, it's true. But if it encourages overuse, the potential savings could be lost.?
By Trent Hamm,?Guest blogger / February 24, 2013
A shopper leaves a Costco store in Portland, Ore.Hamm argues that buying in bulk may make groceries cheaper in some cases, but it may lead to using them more liberally, wiping away those savings.
Rick Bowmer/AP/File
Enlarge
I love orange juice. I just love the stuff. When there?s orange juice in the fridge, I am constantly tempted to pull out the container and pour me a glass of it.
Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm
The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
This is particularly true when the container is mostly full, but when the container starts to get low, I slow down. I know that the juice will run out soon, so I savor it a bit.
A couple things to think about:
First of all, if I have a lot of orange juice, I drink it faster. If I go to the store and buy one of the really large containers of orange juice, our family will go through the whole thing in three or four days. On the other hand, if I go to the store and buy a small container of orange juice, our family will go through the whole thing in? three or four days.
Why is that? Well, when we have an abundance of something, there?s a tendency to overconsume. I?ll drink it with breakfast, in the morning, in the afternoon? if I feel there?s a lot of orange juice left, I?ll drink it.
Second, although the cost per ounce of the big container of juice is lower than the smaller container, the big container does cost more. The sticker price on the 96 ounce container is substantially higher than the one on the 32 ounce container.
Now, you could easily argue that these points are moot because I?m talking about something non-essential to begin with. We don?t need orange juice, so the entire purchase is non-essential.
However, the same phenomenon exists with more essential purchases, too. Take hygiene products, for example.
Let?s say I buy a very large jug of shampoo at the store. I?m standing in the shower with it and I give it a little squeeze. Immediately, an overabundance of shampoo hits my hand. I don?t need that much shampoo. The thing is, even if I?m really careful, the nature of that large bottle often puts too much shampoo on my hand. It just goes to waste.
(On the other hand, when there?s just a little shampoo left, I tend to be very frugal and careful with it. I?ll use as little as possible so I can make the bottle last longer.)
Another example: spices. It might be less expensive per ounce to buy a large amount of dried thyme at a spice store, but if you can?t use it quickly and it sits in your pantry for a couple of years, it becomes useless, losing its flavor.
This leads us, again, back to bulk buying. Bulk buying doesn?t save you anything if you waste the excess. On top of that, having a large quantity of something often encourages wasteful use, like drinking too much orange juice or using too much shampoo or leaving too much thyme in your pantry.
Because of this, I?ve started to hold off on bulk buying unless it?s something that I?m not going to overconsume and I?m not going to waste. I buy small amounts of spices and I buy the small container of orange juice. With shampoo, I keep a small container in the shower and fill it occasionally from a big container I keep in the closet, which still causes me to have that ?I only have a bit left ? better make it last? attitude when in the shower.
What do I actually buy in bulk and use normally, though? Garbage bags. Household cleaning supplies. Liquid soap, particularly if I have a dispenser for it that allows me to dispense a squirt at a time. Individually packaged goods. Rechargeable batteries. In other words, non-perishables that I can?t easily overuse.
Bulk buying is a great idea, but if it leads to overconsumption or to waste, you?re not really gaining anything. Bulk buying only really shines when you?re buying something that you?ll use completely but not use excessively.
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thesimpledollar.com.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, walks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague as they leave Downing Street in London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Kerry has kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting with British leaders in London on the first leg of a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, walks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague as they leave Downing Street in London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Kerry has kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting with British leaders in London on the first leg of a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waves to the media as he leaves Downing Street in London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Kerry kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting with British leaders in London on the first leg of a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with British Foreign Secretary William Hague as they leave Downing Street in London, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Kerry kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting with British leaders in London on the first leg of a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, is greeted British Foreign Secretary William Hague before their meeting at Lancaster House in London on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, during Kerry?s first official trip overseas as secretary. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
The table is set for a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague at Lancaster House in London on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, during Kerry?s first official trip overseas as secretary. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
LONDON (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting Monday with British leaders in London, the first leg of a hectic nine-country dash through Europe and the Middle East.
Kerry's first diplomatic meeting abroad came with British Prime Minister David Cameron, where they discussed the prospects of a free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union and the importance of the Middle East peace process.
Cameron's spokesman, Jean-Christophe Gray, said the prime minister and Kerry also "reiterated their shared determination to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran" ahead of talks between world leaders and Tehran in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this week.
The two also spoke about the challenges posed by fragile states such as Syria, Libya and Egypt, the spokesman added.
Later, Kerry is expected to discuss the Falkland Islands with U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague before flying to Germany for meetings in Berlin.
Kerry arrived on London late Sunday as the Obama administration launched a frantic effort to try to salvage a Syrian opposition conference that Kerry plans to attend this week in Rome. Some members of the sharply divided Syrian Opposition Council are threatening to boycott the meeting.
A Chinese couple walk past a KFC restaurant at a shopping mall in Beijing Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. KFC launched a campaign Monday to rebuild its battered brand in China, promising tighter quality control after a scandal over misuse of drugs by its poultry suppliers. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A Chinese couple walk past a KFC restaurant at a shopping mall in Beijing Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. KFC launched a campaign Monday to rebuild its battered brand in China, promising tighter quality control after a scandal over misuse of drugs by its poultry suppliers. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Customers buy meals at a KFC restaurant at a shopping mall in Beijing Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. KFC launched a campaign Monday to rebuild its battered brand in China, promising tighter quality control after a scandal over misuse of drugs by its poultry suppliers. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A Chinese man and a child exit a KFC restaurant in Beijing Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. KFC launched a campaign Monday to rebuild its battered brand in China, promising tighter quality control after a scandal over misuse of drugs by its poultry suppliers. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
BEIJING (AP) ? KFC launched a campaign Monday to rebuild its battered brand in China, promising tighter quality control after a scandal over misuse of drugs by its poultry suppliers.
The company, a unit of Yum Brands Inc., promised to test meat for banned drugs, strengthen oversight of farmers and encourage them to improve their technology. It said more than 1,000 small producers used by its 25 poultry suppliers have been eliminated from its network.
KFC, which is China's biggest fast-food chain with more than 4,000 outlets, was hit hard when state television reported in December that some suppliers violated rules on the use of drugs to fatten chickens. The company estimates January sales plunged 37 percent.
"Starting now, we will stress strict management and the principle of zero tolerance in food safety," Sam Sun, the chairman of Yum Restaurants China, said at a news conference. "We will immediately drop any supplier that lacks the determination or the ability to manage breeding well."
The complaint against KFC was less serious than other product scandals in China over the past decade in which infants, hospital patients and others have been killed by phony or adulterated milk powder, drugs and other goods. But KFC's high profile attracted attention, and its status as a foreign company with less political influence meant Chinese media could publicize its troubles more freely.
Yum, based in Louisville, Kentucky, said it expects sales in China to tumble by up to 25 percent in the current quarter. The company also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Chen Hao, a stock market analyst who was having lunch at an outlet of the Japanese chain Yoshinoya in Shanghai, said Monday the KFC scandal soured him on the whole fast food industry.
"There is just no safe restaurant food in China," said Chen, 34. "I would never let my 9-year-old boy have KFC again."
Xu Xiao, a 32-year-old Japanese translator with a 17-month-old son, was having lunch in a KFC before a downtown appointment and said the food tasted fresher than that of Chinese chains. Still, she chose a shrimp burger instead of chicken because of the scandal.
"The quality problem, I'm not surprised to see it. I know that I cannot avoid this problem when I eat out," she said. "But I would not allow my child to eat in KFC."
CEO David Novak has said the company would need the "gift of time" for the controversy to die down. KFC has declined to say when it expects the business to fully recover.
The stakes are high for Yum. Even before the chicken scare, sales growth in China was slowing and fell into negative territory in October.
Executives blamed slower Chinese economic growth and the comparison with earlier explosive expansion. But KFC and other Western fast food chains also face mounting competition from young but ambitious Chinese rivals.
The locals started out copying global brands but are developing their own identity and the elusive skills to manage chains of hundreds of outlets and networks of far-flung suppliers.
One chain, Yonghe Dawang, copied KFC's Colonel Sanders logo so closely with its image of a smiling, grandfatherly Chinese man that Western tourists did a double-take at its restaurants.
More recently, Yonghe Dawang has developed its own image and switched to a logo of a noodle bowl. Since being acquired by Jollibee Foods Corp., a Philippine fast food upstart that has expanded throughout Southeast Asia, Yonghe Dawang has expanded to 307 restaurants.
Zhen Gong Fu, which sells bowls of rice with beef, pork and other meat, has 479 restaurants nationwide. Other competitors include Master Kong Chef's Table, with 100 outlets in 30 cities.
Executives note that Yum has bounced back from other troubles, such as an avian flu scare in 2005 that dragged down sales by as much as 40 percent.
The company says it plans to maintain its rapid pace of new restaurant openings in China.
Another 700 new sites are planned for this year, with Yum focusing more on cities outside Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen where it sees greater potential for growth.
___
AP Business Writer Candice Choi in New York City and AP researchers Flora Ji in Beijing and Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed.
Two PlayStation Vita apps from international waters are making their way to North American Vitas this Spring, Sony announced today. Both Friend Network and Imaginstruments are headed to the PlayStation Network on Vita, and neither was given a price -- each is free in its given country of origin (Japan and Europe, respectively). The former is a social networking app that encourages new relationships (with strangers! gross!) through a variety of minigames, and it stars little known PlayStation mascot Toro. You can also integrate Twitter and Facebook to find real life friends, with the ultimate goal for reaching 100. The latter is a music app that enables some light music composition; think of Imaginstruments as a pared down Korg synth. Take a look at each app in action, just beyond the jump.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk. Delays await at airports. Padlocks are ready at national parks.
The nation will suffer greater risk of wildfires, workplace deaths, and even surprise weather events, if government predictions are to be believed. Our entire military readiness and superiority are at risk.
What if nobody cares?
President Obama sure does. He's making the case, aggressively and comprehensively, that the automatic spending cuts set to go into effect at the end of the month will have a devastating impact, both on the economy and on essential government services.
"They will slow our economy. They will eliminate good jobs. They will leave many families who are already stretched to the limit scrambling to figure out what to do," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio address.
But there are few signs to suggest the public is listening. A poll out late last week found that barely one in four Americans said they'd heard much about the automatic spending cuts - known unhelpfully for public-comprehension purposes as "sequestration" - and four in 10 said they were comfortable with the cuts going into effect.
"Here's yet another deadline, and everyone's telling us everything will be destroyed if we go past it," said Michael Dimock, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which conducted the poll. "It's very hard to get the same sense of urgency for a third time in a row, just two months after the last one."
Call it cliff fatigue. After a series of dramatic confrontations with congressional Republicans, an American electorate that has little trust in Washington - and that's seeing a soaring stock market, plus a recovering housing market - looks to be tuning out the latest round of fiscal fighting, at least for now.
That's troublesome news for Obama, and not just for the recurring fights over spending and deficits. As his second-term agenda gets cranking with Congress' return this week, the president needs to convince the public not just on the merits of his priorities but also on the urgency.
This may be the only time in his presidency where heavy legislative lifts are realistic. That period is starting with a rough stretch: The spending cuts Obama once guaranteed would never take place now almost definitely will.
The fight is displaying Washington at its worst - all accusations and finger-pointing, no real attempts at problem-solving. Both sides have plans, but the president is spending far more energy explaining why the sequester is the Republicans' fault, and how bad the consequences of those cuts will be, than he is trying to negotiate something that would stop it.
"It really is sad. The president's stock in trade is political games, and this is another political game he's playing," Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., vice chairman of the House Budget Committee, told ABC News. "It results in greater cynicism on the part of the public, and none of the things he's saying are true. And people recognize this - it's 2-and-a-half cents on every dollar."
Price said the president is exaggerating the impact of cuts that amount to less than 2.5 percent of federal spending - an estimated $85 billion this year, out of a federal budget in the neighborhood of $3.5 trillion.
Moreover, Price said, the public will wind up blaming the president - notwithstanding polling that suggests the opposite for now. While many Republicans are on record preferring alternatives to the across-the-board cuts, they also argue that the president could mitigate their impact if he so chose.
"People know that if bad things occur, it's because the president wants them to occur," Price said. "The president is the president. He's in charge of the government. He has the authority right now to make sure bad things don't happen."
The White House disputes that such flexibility exists, given the blunt mechanisms in a law that was designed to never be implemented because it was so draconian.
"Only Congress can avoid this self-inflicted wound to our economy and middle class families," White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri wrote in an official blog posting last week.
Lawmakers may wind up explicitly granting the administration flexibility in distributing the cuts as part of a compromise that would only be passed after they go into effect. Beyond that, however, one side will have to give to avoid the once-unthinkable from being reality.
In the meantime, the president will continue to make the case that the sequester is Republicans' doing. He'll be at a shipyard in Newport News, Va., on Tuesday, to highlight the particular impact on defense programs.
The president needs the public to care deeply about budget cuts. If the sequester doesn't register in the national consciousness, airport lines will be nothing compared to the wait for Republicans to join the president at a negotiating table again.
Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Bioscience Education Canada
Survey, testimonials reveal career-shaping impacts of competition mentoring by major-league scientists
Testimonials and responses to a survey from 375 past teen participants in a Canadian biotechnology competition -- mentored in professional labs by expert scientists -- show a majority of respondents were influenced by the experience to pursue science research studies and careers, offering a model for countries worldwide to advance their health and economic interests.
In a survey of 375 past participants by Bioscience Education Canada, which runs the "Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada," 84% said their participation helped determine their field of study or career plan; 74% were pursuing biotechnology-related education or professions, with 12.5% undecided. Some 55% were current university students, 24% planned to apply after high school, and 21% were post-secondary graduates now in the workforce. Nearly 60% of respondents were female and 79% had or have bursaries and/or scholarships.
"This program has been infecting teens with what one mentor calls the 'research virus' and inspiring bioscience careers since 1994," says Jeff Graham, who Chairs the Board of Toronto-based BEC. "And with hundreds of dedicated partner organizations and mentors nation-wide, we are extremely proud of the success achieved so far as we mark the 20th annual competition in 2013."
Unexpected bonus benefits from the competition experience for many teens over the past 20 years have ranged from six-figure scholarships, a fast track to medical school, valuable networks and commercial patents to peer-reviewed journal citations and international conference invitations.
But the reward cited most often by SBCC alumni is the eye-opening experience of watching their inventive ideas succeed and being encouraged in a professional lab, creating in many a career-shaping passion for science.
"That's a benefit shared throughout Canada's economy, which has a growing, $86 billion biotechnology sector, as well as with people worldwide," says Mr. Graham.
Life-changing impacts of major-league mentors
Among the latest bonus prize winners are Jeanny Yao, 18, and Miranda Wang, 19 of Vancouver, invited last summer to describe their SBCC-winning project at TED@Vancouver. They were among a handful picked to reprise their presentation at the prestigious global TED 2013 conference in California. They'll describe how they identified a species of bacteria from the Fraser River's muddy banks that helps decompose plastic at TED Feb. 27.
Sharing a stage with fellow speakers like U2's lead singer Bono and PayPal Founder Peter Theil is a five exclamation mark adventure for a couple of university frosh.
"We are extremely excited about this opportunity...!! We couldn't have done this without your help!!!" Miranda wrote, announcing the news to SBCC's Vancouver coordinators, LifeSciences BC.
Jeanny, Miranda, and many other SBCC student alumni illustrate the varied, sometimes profound life-changing impacts the mentored competition has had on many of the estimated 4,500 teens who have taken part since 1994.
Examples of other life-changing experiences:
Ottawa's Maria Merziotis, $5,000 first place winner in the national 2008 SBCC, found her prize included an academic fast track. At 21, when those her age at university typically complete an undergrad degree, she's finishing second year at the University of Ottawa's medical school, with papers about her flu-related research in preparation for academic publication.
And, just seven years after he first impressed SBCC's august panel of national judges as a Grade 11 student, Ottawa's James MacLeod, now 23, is completing a Queen's University master's degree in pathology and molecular medicine and applying for early acceptance into the department's PhD program.
Both credit SBCC with helping them reach medical career doors unusually soon. Says Maria: "The SBCC competition is the main reason I stand where I am today. It allowed me to explore the field of research, and through the doors it opened, gained me early acceptance into medical school."
Says Rui Song of Saskatoon, who in Grade 9, age 14 (a veteran of Saskatchewan's unique SBCC program for kids in Grades 7 and 8) prevailed over much older teens to win the #1 national award in 2010: "Before the SBCC, I hadn't even considered being a researcher. I now hope to continue my research journey in university and in my career to continue creating beneficial change in the world."
Her 2010 work to genetically fingerprint a lentil crop-killing fungus left the expert national judges "astonished." She also placed 2nd in last year's national competition, accepted an offer to spend last summer doing research at Harvard, and today, in Grade 12, is weighing full-time university offers.
The 2012 top national winner, Janelle Tam of Waterloo, Ontario, says "SBCC was a huge part of why I started laboratory research at the university in high school, which was instrumental in my decision that I want to be a professor."
Janelle, completing Grade 12 with studies at Princeton University ahead this fall, detailed the anti-ageing potential of a nano compound found in wood pulp, capturing media attention in at least 36 countries (http://bit.ly/XduBJd), including a social media blog by then-Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Last summer in Qubec she detailed her findings to staff and researchers of CelluForce's, Domtar Corp. and FPInnovations -- Canadian firms leading the commercial development of nanocrystalline cellulose.
At 17, Sarai Hamodat of St John's, Newfoundland, entered a prize-winning SBCC project showing that a traditional Asian oil remedy could ease the suffering of asthma patients, a project inspired by her hope of helping her asthmatic uncle.
Says Sarai, now 23 and a medical resident in pharmacology at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax: "SBCC was my first real introduction to what the world of science has to offer."
Taneille Johnson entered the regional SBCC competition in 2009 from Fort St. John (pop. 22,000) near the Alberta border in northern British Columbia. At 16, she lived alone for a summer to work with a University of Calgary mentor in a quest to decipher DNA mutations that may lie behind a rare disorder which causes early onset aging and progressive bone marrow failure.
Taneille, the first student from northern BC to enter the regional event, won it in 2010 and placed third overall at the national finals in Ottawa. Now 20, she's a second year BSc student of immunology at McGill University, Montreal, with a goal of medical school studies at the University of British Columbia.
"Not many first year university science students can approach their professor and show them the amount of lab experience I had from the SBCC," she says, adding "I really cannot overstate how unique the SBCC experience is for high school students."
A year after his first place national win in the 2011 SBCC, Toronto's Marshall Zhang faced a tough decision: offers from three of the world's most prestigious Ivy League universities -- Yale, Harvard and Princeton.
"The SBCC changed the course of my life," says Marshall, now a Harvard freshman, who at age 16, and mentored at the Hospital for Sick Kids, used a powerful supercomputer cluster to create a potential new treatment for cystic fibrosis.
On CBC's "The Nature of Things," host Dr. David Suzuki cited Marshall and his ideas as an example of the marvels of uninhibited teenage thinking. CF patients and their parents from across Canada and elsewhere wrote or called out of the blue to congratulate and thank Marshall for his efforts on their behalf. He was in Grade 11.
"I'd never met a CF patient before then," he says, adding that the most memorable part of the entire adventure was realizing the real impact his research could have on people.
At 17, Ted Paranjothy of Winnipeg, Manitoba, inspired by a memory from five years old of a friend who died from leukemia, invested 3,000 research hours over two years after school with a mentor at the University of Manitoba, developing innovative ideas for cancer treatment. Ted's framework for an anti-cancer agent able to kill human cancer cells without harming healthy ones is an innovation on which he now holds a patent.
His Grade 12 project earned a triple crown of high school biotech science: a first place sweep of the 2007 SBCC regional and national competitions, as well as the Sanofi-sponsored International BioGENEius Challenge -- the only Canadian to achieve that distinction so far. The three first prize cheques totaled $15,000.
Later awarded some $150,000 in scholarships from other sources, Ted continued work with his distinguished mentor, Dr. Marek Los, and had three papers in peer-reviewed journals by the end of first year at UofM. Now 22, Ted is an independent researcher in cell science at UofM. He credits SBCC with enabling his university graduate-level research while still in high school, and says it "inspired me to pursue a career in biomedical research."
In 2011, a trio of Montreal students entered the national SBCC with their new sorbet for vegetarians, having discovered a substitute for animal-based gelatine normally found in the frozen dessert. They won 2nd prize overall, a special award for that year's project with the greatest commercial potential, and a lot of public attention, which helped create connections with several patent lawyers.
Today, all three are at universities studying science. "The SBCC definitely pushed to me to explore research opportunities in medicine," says one team member, Simon Leclerc, adding that feedback from top scientists who evaluated their project and the experience gained was "inestimable... The SBCC is of great help for young, otherwise non-connected students to push their projects forward."
Hyperlinks to full profiles of SBCC student alumni:
High fives in lab a mentor's delight
"Thanks to hundreds of top scientist mentors who have shared their expertise and lab space with the student competitors, we've discovered and nurtured incredible talent in high schools and CEGEP classrooms nation-wide," says Rick Levick, Executive Director of BEC and head of the national competition since its inception,
"The mentors are the unsung heroes of the SBCC program. They often bring out a passion for science and talent for research in kids who didn't know they had any."
Dr. Gavin Clark, the respected, now-retired U of T microbiology professor, when first asked to mentor students in early competitions, recalls being a little overwhelmed by the idea of adding "free range" high school teens to his low key lab which specialized in food poisoning bacteria.
In the end, though, he found "it's rather refreshing to have them around. We don't usually do high fives in the lab."
Among many other exemplary long-term, all-star SBCC mentors:
Dr. Ben Alman has likewise mentored many SBCC competitors over the years, despite his many roles: head of orthopaedics and a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children, the University of Toronto's chair of orthopaedics and vice-chair of its Department of Surgery, and a practicing MD specializing in child syndromes, spinal deformities, neuromuscular disorders, and tumors.
So why spend time with high school kids? "If just 10% of them catch fire," he says, "that helps create Canada's next generation of scientists," he says.
For 10 years Dr. Stephen Westcott, a professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, has mentored local high schoolers through the SBCC and loves to see kids get hooked on science. One student's SBCC research found its way into a peer-reviewed academic journal.
He calls the SBCC "a fantastic experience" for students and "a great way to grow new Canadian researchers."
In the corridors of the University of Calgary, there's a scene familiar outside hockey rinks and dance studios across Canada: Parents waiting to drive their kids home. These parents, however, are sitting outside the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology lab of Dr. Morley Hollenberg, MD, PhD, an all-star SBCC mentor for the past 10 years.
"I think it's important to catch students early on and infect them with the research virus," he says, adding that "the science they do is way beyond what I did in high school."
"For me, it's the pleasure of passing on what was passed on to me. Mentorship was very important in my own career," he says. "Quite a few SBCC competitors end up in graduate or medical school. You never know what one of these students will be able to do in the future."
Says Dr. Kurt Haas, a scientist at the University of British Columbia's Brain Research Centre and tutor of SBCC contenders for the last eight years: "Mentoring is the most rewarding part of my job."
"My lab is here to produce solid science and the high school students actually make a contribution," he says. "When teens are exposed to real research, they're excited by learning. These are the kinds of kids Canada needs."
Of all the images a visitor might expect at Agriculture Canada's research lab in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, its unlikely they include a trio of Grade 8 pupils testing biological herbicides. But that's where three Montgomery Public School students are this winter, preparing their project for this year's Junior SBCC, Saskatchewan's unique elementary school program for kids in Grades 7 and 8.
Pre-teens "have very open minds and see things differently," says their mentor, Research Scientist Dr. Karen Bailey. "A lot of science is about looking for things that don't fit the norm and asking 'why is this different?'"
"The kids bring a level of excitement to the lab," Dr. Bailey adds. And she chuckled recalling one young ward last year who told her: "It was fun doing this, but I'm not going to be a scientist. I think I'll be a doctor."
Hyperlinks to full profiles of SBCC mentors:
Origins
This year's SBCC competitors weren't even born when the first competition was held, notes Jeff Graham of BEC, adding that "thanks to the support we've received from our mentors and our many regional and national partners, we have together been able to inspire a generation of young Canadians to pursue careers in biotechnology and biosciences."
The original "BIO-Connaught Student Biotechnology Competition" featured local high school students vying for prizes in a side event to the 1994 international BIO conference hosted in Toronto.
It became an annual feature of BIO the next year (pitting top Canadian winners against those of a new counterpart US competition, organized by the Washington-based Biotechnology Institute).
SBCC in 2002 expanded Canada-wide, with regional competitions leading to a national final. And in 2008 Western Australia created a program for local students, the winners of which compete at the global BIO event. (See also Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/11MtXX9)
Supporters and judges
Sanofi Pasteur Ltd. and Sanofi Canada Inc. are the SBCC's founding sponsors and have generously funded the competition since 1994. Other national sponsors so far this year include the National Research Council Canada (NRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, York University, Genome Canada and Genzyme Canada.
Many eminent Canadian scientists have devoted a day as judges at NRC headquarters, headed by Dr. Luis Barreto (Chief Judge), Senior Advisor, Vaccine Program, Human Health and Therapeutics, National Research Council Canada; and former Vice President, Immunization and Science Policy, Sanofi Pasteur Ltd., and honorary patron of the BEC.
Student project results are secondary marking considerations; the competitors' presentation, method and depth of understanding are key, says Dr. Barreto.
"Since SBCC's creation in 1994, we've been committed to inspiring young Canadians to pursue future studies and careers in biotechnology and related sciences," he adds. "At the same time, all our program supporters sponsors, mentors, judges and many others -- have been inspired, indeed often awed, by the young competitors' innovative research and enthusiasm for science."
Many find it an uplifting event. Commented Dr. Roman Szumski, NRC's Vice President, Life Sciences at a dinner for the judges a few years ago: "I was thinking of all the challenges and troubles in the world today. After listening to those bright young people today, I feel much more optimistic about the future."
And there are typically delightful lighter moments. One year, for example, a national competitor entering the oak-paneled conference room at NRC's Headquarters where distinguished leaders of some of Canada's foremost science organizations awaited his presentation, earned a chuckle with his wonderfully self-possessed teen greeting: "How's it going, guys?"
Among many leading experts who have served as judges over the years:
Dr. Alain Beaudet, President; Dr. Marc Ouellette, Scientific Director, Institute of Infection and Immunity; and Dr. Alan Bernstein, former President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research;
Dr. John Dirks, President, and Dr. Ron Pearlman, Associate Scientific Director, The Gairdner Foundation;
Dr. Pierre Meulien, President and CEO, and Dr. Martin Godbout, former President, Genome Canada
Dr. Janet Rossant, Chief of Research, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Dr. Peter Hackett, former President & CEO, Alberta Ingenuity Fund, now Executive Professor, School of Business, University of Alberta
Dr. Denis Kay, Chief Scientific Officer, Neurodyn Inc. PEI
Dr. Eliot Phillipson, former President and CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation
###
2013 BioGENEius Challenges
SBCC Canadian regional competitions
March 21 to April 4
SBCC Canadian finals
Project presentations: Monday April 8
Awards ceremony: Tuesday April 9, 1 p.m. EDT
National Research Council of Canada headquarters
100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa
International BioGENEius Challenge
Project Presentations: Monday, April 22
Awards Ceremony: Tuesday, April 23
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) conference
McCormick Place Convention Centre, Chicago, IL
For more information:
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Bioscience Education Canada
Survey, testimonials reveal career-shaping impacts of competition mentoring by major-league scientists
Testimonials and responses to a survey from 375 past teen participants in a Canadian biotechnology competition -- mentored in professional labs by expert scientists -- show a majority of respondents were influenced by the experience to pursue science research studies and careers, offering a model for countries worldwide to advance their health and economic interests.
In a survey of 375 past participants by Bioscience Education Canada, which runs the "Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada," 84% said their participation helped determine their field of study or career plan; 74% were pursuing biotechnology-related education or professions, with 12.5% undecided. Some 55% were current university students, 24% planned to apply after high school, and 21% were post-secondary graduates now in the workforce. Nearly 60% of respondents were female and 79% had or have bursaries and/or scholarships.
"This program has been infecting teens with what one mentor calls the 'research virus' and inspiring bioscience careers since 1994," says Jeff Graham, who Chairs the Board of Toronto-based BEC. "And with hundreds of dedicated partner organizations and mentors nation-wide, we are extremely proud of the success achieved so far as we mark the 20th annual competition in 2013."
Unexpected bonus benefits from the competition experience for many teens over the past 20 years have ranged from six-figure scholarships, a fast track to medical school, valuable networks and commercial patents to peer-reviewed journal citations and international conference invitations.
But the reward cited most often by SBCC alumni is the eye-opening experience of watching their inventive ideas succeed and being encouraged in a professional lab, creating in many a career-shaping passion for science.
"That's a benefit shared throughout Canada's economy, which has a growing, $86 billion biotechnology sector, as well as with people worldwide," says Mr. Graham.
Life-changing impacts of major-league mentors
Among the latest bonus prize winners are Jeanny Yao, 18, and Miranda Wang, 19 of Vancouver, invited last summer to describe their SBCC-winning project at TED@Vancouver. They were among a handful picked to reprise their presentation at the prestigious global TED 2013 conference in California. They'll describe how they identified a species of bacteria from the Fraser River's muddy banks that helps decompose plastic at TED Feb. 27.
Sharing a stage with fellow speakers like U2's lead singer Bono and PayPal Founder Peter Theil is a five exclamation mark adventure for a couple of university frosh.
"We are extremely excited about this opportunity...!! We couldn't have done this without your help!!!" Miranda wrote, announcing the news to SBCC's Vancouver coordinators, LifeSciences BC.
Jeanny, Miranda, and many other SBCC student alumni illustrate the varied, sometimes profound life-changing impacts the mentored competition has had on many of the estimated 4,500 teens who have taken part since 1994.
Examples of other life-changing experiences:
Ottawa's Maria Merziotis, $5,000 first place winner in the national 2008 SBCC, found her prize included an academic fast track. At 21, when those her age at university typically complete an undergrad degree, she's finishing second year at the University of Ottawa's medical school, with papers about her flu-related research in preparation for academic publication.
And, just seven years after he first impressed SBCC's august panel of national judges as a Grade 11 student, Ottawa's James MacLeod, now 23, is completing a Queen's University master's degree in pathology and molecular medicine and applying for early acceptance into the department's PhD program.
Both credit SBCC with helping them reach medical career doors unusually soon. Says Maria: "The SBCC competition is the main reason I stand where I am today. It allowed me to explore the field of research, and through the doors it opened, gained me early acceptance into medical school."
Says Rui Song of Saskatoon, who in Grade 9, age 14 (a veteran of Saskatchewan's unique SBCC program for kids in Grades 7 and 8) prevailed over much older teens to win the #1 national award in 2010: "Before the SBCC, I hadn't even considered being a researcher. I now hope to continue my research journey in university and in my career to continue creating beneficial change in the world."
Her 2010 work to genetically fingerprint a lentil crop-killing fungus left the expert national judges "astonished." She also placed 2nd in last year's national competition, accepted an offer to spend last summer doing research at Harvard, and today, in Grade 12, is weighing full-time university offers.
The 2012 top national winner, Janelle Tam of Waterloo, Ontario, says "SBCC was a huge part of why I started laboratory research at the university in high school, which was instrumental in my decision that I want to be a professor."
Janelle, completing Grade 12 with studies at Princeton University ahead this fall, detailed the anti-ageing potential of a nano compound found in wood pulp, capturing media attention in at least 36 countries (http://bit.ly/XduBJd), including a social media blog by then-Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Last summer in Qubec she detailed her findings to staff and researchers of CelluForce's, Domtar Corp. and FPInnovations -- Canadian firms leading the commercial development of nanocrystalline cellulose.
At 17, Sarai Hamodat of St John's, Newfoundland, entered a prize-winning SBCC project showing that a traditional Asian oil remedy could ease the suffering of asthma patients, a project inspired by her hope of helping her asthmatic uncle.
Says Sarai, now 23 and a medical resident in pharmacology at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax: "SBCC was my first real introduction to what the world of science has to offer."
Taneille Johnson entered the regional SBCC competition in 2009 from Fort St. John (pop. 22,000) near the Alberta border in northern British Columbia. At 16, she lived alone for a summer to work with a University of Calgary mentor in a quest to decipher DNA mutations that may lie behind a rare disorder which causes early onset aging and progressive bone marrow failure.
Taneille, the first student from northern BC to enter the regional event, won it in 2010 and placed third overall at the national finals in Ottawa. Now 20, she's a second year BSc student of immunology at McGill University, Montreal, with a goal of medical school studies at the University of British Columbia.
"Not many first year university science students can approach their professor and show them the amount of lab experience I had from the SBCC," she says, adding "I really cannot overstate how unique the SBCC experience is for high school students."
A year after his first place national win in the 2011 SBCC, Toronto's Marshall Zhang faced a tough decision: offers from three of the world's most prestigious Ivy League universities -- Yale, Harvard and Princeton.
"The SBCC changed the course of my life," says Marshall, now a Harvard freshman, who at age 16, and mentored at the Hospital for Sick Kids, used a powerful supercomputer cluster to create a potential new treatment for cystic fibrosis.
On CBC's "The Nature of Things," host Dr. David Suzuki cited Marshall and his ideas as an example of the marvels of uninhibited teenage thinking. CF patients and their parents from across Canada and elsewhere wrote or called out of the blue to congratulate and thank Marshall for his efforts on their behalf. He was in Grade 11.
"I'd never met a CF patient before then," he says, adding that the most memorable part of the entire adventure was realizing the real impact his research could have on people.
At 17, Ted Paranjothy of Winnipeg, Manitoba, inspired by a memory from five years old of a friend who died from leukemia, invested 3,000 research hours over two years after school with a mentor at the University of Manitoba, developing innovative ideas for cancer treatment. Ted's framework for an anti-cancer agent able to kill human cancer cells without harming healthy ones is an innovation on which he now holds a patent.
His Grade 12 project earned a triple crown of high school biotech science: a first place sweep of the 2007 SBCC regional and national competitions, as well as the Sanofi-sponsored International BioGENEius Challenge -- the only Canadian to achieve that distinction so far. The three first prize cheques totaled $15,000.
Later awarded some $150,000 in scholarships from other sources, Ted continued work with his distinguished mentor, Dr. Marek Los, and had three papers in peer-reviewed journals by the end of first year at UofM. Now 22, Ted is an independent researcher in cell science at UofM. He credits SBCC with enabling his university graduate-level research while still in high school, and says it "inspired me to pursue a career in biomedical research."
In 2011, a trio of Montreal students entered the national SBCC with their new sorbet for vegetarians, having discovered a substitute for animal-based gelatine normally found in the frozen dessert. They won 2nd prize overall, a special award for that year's project with the greatest commercial potential, and a lot of public attention, which helped create connections with several patent lawyers.
Today, all three are at universities studying science. "The SBCC definitely pushed to me to explore research opportunities in medicine," says one team member, Simon Leclerc, adding that feedback from top scientists who evaluated their project and the experience gained was "inestimable... The SBCC is of great help for young, otherwise non-connected students to push their projects forward."
Hyperlinks to full profiles of SBCC student alumni:
High fives in lab a mentor's delight
"Thanks to hundreds of top scientist mentors who have shared their expertise and lab space with the student competitors, we've discovered and nurtured incredible talent in high schools and CEGEP classrooms nation-wide," says Rick Levick, Executive Director of BEC and head of the national competition since its inception,
"The mentors are the unsung heroes of the SBCC program. They often bring out a passion for science and talent for research in kids who didn't know they had any."
Dr. Gavin Clark, the respected, now-retired U of T microbiology professor, when first asked to mentor students in early competitions, recalls being a little overwhelmed by the idea of adding "free range" high school teens to his low key lab which specialized in food poisoning bacteria.
In the end, though, he found "it's rather refreshing to have them around. We don't usually do high fives in the lab."
Among many other exemplary long-term, all-star SBCC mentors:
Dr. Ben Alman has likewise mentored many SBCC competitors over the years, despite his many roles: head of orthopaedics and a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children, the University of Toronto's chair of orthopaedics and vice-chair of its Department of Surgery, and a practicing MD specializing in child syndromes, spinal deformities, neuromuscular disorders, and tumors.
So why spend time with high school kids? "If just 10% of them catch fire," he says, "that helps create Canada's next generation of scientists," he says.
For 10 years Dr. Stephen Westcott, a professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, has mentored local high schoolers through the SBCC and loves to see kids get hooked on science. One student's SBCC research found its way into a peer-reviewed academic journal.
He calls the SBCC "a fantastic experience" for students and "a great way to grow new Canadian researchers."
In the corridors of the University of Calgary, there's a scene familiar outside hockey rinks and dance studios across Canada: Parents waiting to drive their kids home. These parents, however, are sitting outside the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology lab of Dr. Morley Hollenberg, MD, PhD, an all-star SBCC mentor for the past 10 years.
"I think it's important to catch students early on and infect them with the research virus," he says, adding that "the science they do is way beyond what I did in high school."
"For me, it's the pleasure of passing on what was passed on to me. Mentorship was very important in my own career," he says. "Quite a few SBCC competitors end up in graduate or medical school. You never know what one of these students will be able to do in the future."
Says Dr. Kurt Haas, a scientist at the University of British Columbia's Brain Research Centre and tutor of SBCC contenders for the last eight years: "Mentoring is the most rewarding part of my job."
"My lab is here to produce solid science and the high school students actually make a contribution," he says. "When teens are exposed to real research, they're excited by learning. These are the kinds of kids Canada needs."
Of all the images a visitor might expect at Agriculture Canada's research lab in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, its unlikely they include a trio of Grade 8 pupils testing biological herbicides. But that's where three Montgomery Public School students are this winter, preparing their project for this year's Junior SBCC, Saskatchewan's unique elementary school program for kids in Grades 7 and 8.
Pre-teens "have very open minds and see things differently," says their mentor, Research Scientist Dr. Karen Bailey. "A lot of science is about looking for things that don't fit the norm and asking 'why is this different?'"
"The kids bring a level of excitement to the lab," Dr. Bailey adds. And she chuckled recalling one young ward last year who told her: "It was fun doing this, but I'm not going to be a scientist. I think I'll be a doctor."
Hyperlinks to full profiles of SBCC mentors:
Origins
This year's SBCC competitors weren't even born when the first competition was held, notes Jeff Graham of BEC, adding that "thanks to the support we've received from our mentors and our many regional and national partners, we have together been able to inspire a generation of young Canadians to pursue careers in biotechnology and biosciences."
The original "BIO-Connaught Student Biotechnology Competition" featured local high school students vying for prizes in a side event to the 1994 international BIO conference hosted in Toronto.
It became an annual feature of BIO the next year (pitting top Canadian winners against those of a new counterpart US competition, organized by the Washington-based Biotechnology Institute).
SBCC in 2002 expanded Canada-wide, with regional competitions leading to a national final. And in 2008 Western Australia created a program for local students, the winners of which compete at the global BIO event. (See also Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/11MtXX9)
Supporters and judges
Sanofi Pasteur Ltd. and Sanofi Canada Inc. are the SBCC's founding sponsors and have generously funded the competition since 1994. Other national sponsors so far this year include the National Research Council Canada (NRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, York University, Genome Canada and Genzyme Canada.
Many eminent Canadian scientists have devoted a day as judges at NRC headquarters, headed by Dr. Luis Barreto (Chief Judge), Senior Advisor, Vaccine Program, Human Health and Therapeutics, National Research Council Canada; and former Vice President, Immunization and Science Policy, Sanofi Pasteur Ltd., and honorary patron of the BEC.
Student project results are secondary marking considerations; the competitors' presentation, method and depth of understanding are key, says Dr. Barreto.
"Since SBCC's creation in 1994, we've been committed to inspiring young Canadians to pursue future studies and careers in biotechnology and related sciences," he adds. "At the same time, all our program supporters sponsors, mentors, judges and many others -- have been inspired, indeed often awed, by the young competitors' innovative research and enthusiasm for science."
Many find it an uplifting event. Commented Dr. Roman Szumski, NRC's Vice President, Life Sciences at a dinner for the judges a few years ago: "I was thinking of all the challenges and troubles in the world today. After listening to those bright young people today, I feel much more optimistic about the future."
And there are typically delightful lighter moments. One year, for example, a national competitor entering the oak-paneled conference room at NRC's Headquarters where distinguished leaders of some of Canada's foremost science organizations awaited his presentation, earned a chuckle with his wonderfully self-possessed teen greeting: "How's it going, guys?"
Among many leading experts who have served as judges over the years:
Dr. Alain Beaudet, President; Dr. Marc Ouellette, Scientific Director, Institute of Infection and Immunity; and Dr. Alan Bernstein, former President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research;
Dr. John Dirks, President, and Dr. Ron Pearlman, Associate Scientific Director, The Gairdner Foundation;
Dr. Pierre Meulien, President and CEO, and Dr. Martin Godbout, former President, Genome Canada
Dr. Janet Rossant, Chief of Research, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Dr. Peter Hackett, former President & CEO, Alberta Ingenuity Fund, now Executive Professor, School of Business, University of Alberta
Dr. Denis Kay, Chief Scientific Officer, Neurodyn Inc. PEI
Dr. Eliot Phillipson, former President and CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation
###
2013 BioGENEius Challenges
SBCC Canadian regional competitions
March 21 to April 4
SBCC Canadian finals
Project presentations: Monday April 8
Awards ceremony: Tuesday April 9, 1 p.m. EDT
National Research Council of Canada headquarters
100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa
International BioGENEius Challenge
Project Presentations: Monday, April 22
Awards Ceremony: Tuesday, April 23
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) conference
McCormick Place Convention Centre, Chicago, IL
For more information:
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
RM:What's your idea of a perfect date?
RM: Do you believe in falling in love completely or loosing yourself in love ?
RM: How important is it to say out your feelings ?
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sSRyb60GY2wjd9MtEdKAtW6d4co1kriPeXlgjmZXkUW-xUIC7jSLvh79GXWyoQcHiq3EvYhTFMkc3dxnYrFLgRT3tarmA9CsZiq258fcI=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 20-Feb-2013
Share ]