Broad Branch Road Gets a New Look Plans to transform the historic experiment building and annex on the Broad Branch Road campus into an attractive center for conferences, meetings, and social activities are well under way. The renovation, estimated to cost $2 million, will be funded as part of the institution’s ongoing Carnegie Campaign for Science. Most recently, the structure has been used for storage. The three-story main room has protective foot-thick walls, which were needed in past years to shield against experiments that used explosives. It will become a large, modern kitchen and eating area. A patio, for outdoor activities, will link the building to the Van DeGraff Generator tower. The complex will also include a badly needed auditorium that will seat about 140 people. The current seminar room in the Abelson building seats only about 80. There will also be smaller meeting rooms and a gallery to display items that were on exhibit at the centennial exhibition. “The history of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism happened in those buildings,” explained Staff Scientist Alan Boss, who is involved in the renovation planning. “Now it will be a showcase for the campus.” The remodeling design is by architect Lynne Iadarola of Archeus Studio in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Weather permitting, demolition and construction will begin late this year or in early 2003. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2003. The current seminar room, kitchen, and dining areas in the Abelson building will become much-needed office and lab space. This architectural rendering shows the renovated experiment building and annex on the Broad Branch Road campus, which is home to the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and the Geophysical Laboratory. |
Forensics, First Light, and Fresh Fields Foods
In celebration of Earth Day 2002, the Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE) and First Light staff and friends conducted an outdoor class in biology for customers of Fresh Fields/ Whole Foods Market on P Street in Washington, D.C. The April 20 event was a collaboration with the market, forensics experts from the FBI and George Washington University, and biologists from the Living Classroom. While kids and adults extracted visible amounts of DNA from fruit,* the forensics experts explained how the process is linked to human DNA analysis. Other activities included looking through microscopes to study flower anatomy and learning about the wildlife to be found in and along the Anacostia River. The event, which drew 300 people and featured a market-sponsored fund-raising barbecue for Carnegie’s Saturday science school, was the most successful community outreach effort ever hosted by the P Street Fresh Fields. A measure of its success was the recruitment of four new students for the school. Fresh Fields and Carnegie look forward to making this an annual event. *(See http://www.caseciw.org/first_light_case/horn/DNA/berrydna.pdf. to find out how!) |
A
diverse crowd experiences hands-on science. These children are
using microscopes to examine flower anatomy. First New Staff Member at Global Ecology
Greg Asner collects spectral information from an Argentinean grassland.
Greg Asner is the first new faculty member to join the Department of Global
Ecology. A biogeochemist, Asner is interested in nutrient cycling
in terrestrial ecosystems, especially those affected by human disturbances.
Understanding the processes that regulate the availability of nitrogen
for plants is one focus of his research. He uses novel approaches for
analyzing satellite data, and has increased the scale of studying nitrogen
cycling from individual plants to large regions. He also uses satellite
data for quantifying the impacts of logging, monitoring shrub invasion
in savanna ecosystems, and determining the chemical composition of forest
canopies. His work combines mathematical modeling with field studies,
which take him to Hawaii, Texas, Argentina, and the Amazon Basin.
Asner’s undergraduate training was in engineering. He received a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Colorado. He was a postdoc in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford. Prior to joining Carnegie, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado