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When the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off this week, three monarch caterpillars became the first of their species in space. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Monarch Watch — a KU-based network of volunteers and researchers who study the monarch butterfly — provided a trio of caterpillars to NASA for the voyage to the International Space Station. The insects should go through metamorphosis to emerge as adult butterflies in 17 days while in low Earth orbit. Chip Taylor directs Monarch Watch.

Chip Taylor: We’re going to try to learn as much as we can about this insect and how it functions in space. This is an insect that seems to use gravity a lot. It has a lot of orientation features that indicate that gravity is very important for it. But, up in that environment, it’s only going to have microgravity. How they adapt to those conditions is going to be very interesting. There are at least five different ways that this butterfly could have problems up in space.

Monarch Watch is participating in the butterfly experiment at the invitation of BioServe Space Technologies, a center within the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Chip Taylor: They approached us last April and said, ‘We’re trying to get monarchs in space. I said, ‘Really? Well, that’s wonderful. Tell me about what you’re trying to do.’ And they asked, ‘Are you guys doing anything with an artificial diet?’ And I said, ‘You called at the right time, because we’re making good progress with an artificial diet.

At the same time, Monarch Watch will send similar collections of butterfly caterpillars and artificial diets to hundreds of elementary schools around the country, so that students can track development of the monarchs in space, and compare their growth to monarchs in the classroom.

Chip Taylor: “The students are going to get a good look at what normal larvae do, and that should help them understand what’s going on in the space capsule as well. They’re going to be placing caterpillars in their capsules at the same time that the capsules are loaded up for the Space Shuttle.”

For more about monarchs in space, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A massive research effort shows how Alzheimer's could be diagnosed in its earliest stages. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

David K. Johnson, KU professor of psychology, and colleagues from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that testing a person's aptitude with spatial relationships between objects - the same skills needed to complete a jigsaw puzzle - could indicate Alzheimer's disease years earlier than conventional methods that rely on verbal memory.

Johnson: "We saw that there were not only verbal memory changes - the classical, hallmark features of Alzheimer's disease - but there were a lot of other cognitive declines as well, most notably visuospatial defect," Johnson said.

Johnson said the first sign of Alzheimer’s could be loss of the ability to interpret visual information – such as the pencil and paper tests given to research volunteers who were later found to have had Alzheimer’s. 10

Johnson: "For instance, one test that went into this is where someone looked at squares and triangles and circles and X's randomly strewn about a page, and they get to study that for 30 seconds. Then we take away the page and ask them to draw it from memory. Even if we put that piece of paper and leave it there in front of them and ask them to copy it, they're still having trouble interpreting that visual stimulus."

Reviewing data from almost 450 volunteers, Johnson and his colleagues found that visuospatial skills declined measurably three years before clinical diagnosis.

Johnson: "We're desperate to find a treatment that can halt or even reverse Alzheimer's disease. We're pretty far away from that right now. If we can detect a person early enough, we have a much better chance of interfering with the disease, because by the time someone actually receives a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease there's unfortunately pretty significant damage done already."

For more on visuospatial deficit and Alzheimer’s disease, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the university of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Researchers seek out older adults with recollections of religion. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Student investigators are collecting memories of older Kansans’ experiences in churches, synagogues, mosques and temples before such stories are lost to time. Tim Miller, professor of religious studies at KU, leads the project.

Tim Miller: We have a number of really unusual religious stories in Kansas that I’d like to try to capture. Religion is a huge part of the lives of a whole lot of people in Kansas — and preserving that for the future is great.

Miller’s students are recording interviews, gathering documents and traveling the state to compile stories that otherwise would vanish. The materials collected will be made available to the public through a web site.

“Kansas really in many ways is the average center of America,” Miller said. “When people selling consumer products have a new product they want to test market, our area is where a lot of the national test marketing is done because we’re considered average America. And I think that’s true for religion as it is for consumer products. We’re pretty much a slice of the country.”

In addition to finding people who grew up in the most common religions in Kansas –— such as the Catholic and Methodist churches — Miller’s also is interested in tracking down members of more obscure faiths, such as followers of Alfred Lawson, a baseball player turned spiritual leader with a following in Kansas.

“He attracted thousands of followers, particularly during the Depression. He had an economic theory that was going to solve the Depression. But it was metaphysical and it was religious. He had a very wide-ranging system. And out of his work came a few churches called Lawsonian churches, and one of them was in Wichita.”

For more about the documentation and oral history project, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Climate change might cause worms, beetles, cicadas and other soil-dwellers to grow smaller over time. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Geologists Jon Smith and Stephen Hasiotis have shown that 55 million years ago, soil-inhabiting creatures contracted in size by nearly half during a spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperatures. Hasiotis said the researchers were surprised by their own findings.

Hasiotis: We thought that there would either be no change, because the animals would be protected because they’re underground, or there would be minimal and protracted change because of sop much of a buffering or there would be some sort of a delayed change.

The researchers dug trenches then searched the soil for specific geometric shapes indicating ancient nests, cocoons and burrows left behind from the P-E-T-M, the prehistoric global warming event that mirrored our own. Jon Smith.

Smith: We’d measure the diameter and then compared like trace fossils —so, in other words, fossils that occurred before the PETM event, within the event, and after the event. Then I’d look for changes in those diameters through time and surprised to find that they were in fact smaller through the PETM.”

The research could foreshadow changes in biology that may result because of the planet’s current jump in C02 concentrations and temperatures — what’s more, Smith says the biological changes could impact humanity’s ability to grow food.

Smith: There can be cascading effects that ripple through an ecosystem when you change just one aspect. It’s when these things start tinkering with the organisms that are actually controlling and participating and controlling our nutrient cycling — we could be changing soil conditions over vast portions of the world and affecting the soil organisms themselves.

For more about climate change and soil-dwellers, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A researcher tracks shrinking tax bases and economies across the state. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Art Hall, executive director of the Center for Applied Economics at the KU School of Business, studies population shifts by looking at data collected by the IRS. He finds that Kansas is vulnerable to a dangerous loss of citizenry.

Hall: “The Great Plains is just undergoing this massive transition. Kansas is fully imbedded in that. And the forces are beyond any local community to overcome I believe. Once you fall below a critical mass of people, unless it’s a resource-based town, like there’s oil or natural gas there — because agriculture is simply not going to do it any more — it’s a very painful process. Towns are dying. But there’s no silver bullet. Kansas has the highest number of isolated communities in the county. So people are regionalizing in order to get a critical mass of population to sustain basic businesses.”

Hall suggests that consolidation of services of the state’s 105 counties could lessen consequences of the loss of people in rural areas.

Hall: “There is a perennial discussion about whether Kansas has too many counties and should consolidate them. It’s kind of a ‘third-rail’ type of issue. But it’s not really and either-or question. What communities need to be able to do is have the freedom to partner with other communities. Right now, there is actually a law saying you need permission from Topeka to do this. If folks started thinking about tearing down that structure so that they could create their own innovative solutions to their own local problems, that will take some of the pressure off.”

The KU researcher says communities must be flexible to survive.

Hall: “Everybody’s chasing the same people to move and the same businesses to create. It’s my personal approach that a much more balanced approach in terms of defining good government services, of defining reasonable tax rates, oar not being biased against the types of businesses that come to your community, that’s one of the best perspectives in terms of being able to nurture community growth.”

For more on Art Hall and the depopulation of Kansas, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A researcher hopes to improve treatment for children exposed to trauma and abuse. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Yo Jackson, associate professor of applied behavioral science and clinical child psychology, became interested in children’s resiliency during her clinical work as a psychologist.

Jackson: “I was finding that so many of the kids that I saw in clinical work had symptoms that required treatment, but often had histories that spoke to significant events that had happened to them that were the sort of out-of-the-ordinary experiences. And I became fascinated with that process. I also spent a lot of time in graduate school studying things like aggression and kids who had problems following the rules and kids who had conduct problem. And I was interested not only in the mechanisms or risk factors that created those situations but also what were the mechanisms that reversed those situations.”

Jackson is the principal investigator on a new $1.7 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institutes of Mental Health. She’ll investigate how abused children cope with their experiences.

Jackson: “Our particular focus in this project is child maltreatment. That broadly defined includes all of the different types of experiences related to what most people call child abuse. So, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, psychological abuse. But it is important to note that children who are exposed to maltreatment and even the subgroup of those that are in foster care, also experience all of those other stresses that kids experience.”

Jackson says the results from her project will benefit psychologists; inform administrators who design programs for children exposed to trauma; and enlighten lawmakers who direct funds to such programs.

Jackson : “We really do see this on an individual level — for therapists and for the field. But then also broader hopefully to help inform policy about where we put our limited resources in an effort to improve the lives and welfare of these children.”

For more about Yo Jackson and resiliency in children, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Historic and sociological research into a play can change the way a director and actors stage a production. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

List: I try and focus on three different areas of a play. First, we talk in terms the world of the playwright. The play was written in a specific historical moment and written by a specific person. We also look into the world of the play. In Macbeth, we’re talking about Scotland, we’re talking about a real Macbeth. Third is the theory and criticism that has been generated surrounding a play.

In addition conducting to historical research concerning a play, a dramaturg looks at a play’s record of theatrical performances.

List: We try and do a fairly comprehensive production history, meaning we go back and see how the first production was made in some sort of significant production sense. Just to look at how Macbeth has evolved since 1606 — 400 years. We’ll go back and look at different journals and different reviews.

For Macbeth, List has focused his investigation on superstitions of Shakespeare’s day.

List: I like to go back to some of the original writing of the time. One that I found interesting is that James I wrote his book “Demonology” in 1597. He goes through and does a through discussion of witches, the role of witches in society and why more women than men are witches — and their power. And he even goes specifically into who is susceptible to being bewitched. We know that Shakespeare tried in some respect to ingratiate himself to King James.

For more about Macbeth and the role of a dramaturg, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A researcher makes a career studying toxins while training a new generation of scientists. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Researcher Robert Hanzlik, a professor of medicinal chemistry at KU since 1971, studies drug metabolism and toxicology.

Hanzlik: “How do simple chemicals that you might encounter in drug use, in industry, in agriculture, in the environment — how do they cause toxic effects on cells? Toxic effect could be broadly defined as anything you don’t like in the way of a biological action of a chemical could be called a toxicity.”

At KU, Hanzlik also heads the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Protein Structure and Function. The center has two missions, a scientific undertaking plus a charge to recruit junior faculty in the biosciences at universities across Kansas.

Hanzlik: “Equipment doesn’t do research, people do research. Whether you’re a scientist, or a trainee in a laboratory or a core lab director, you need good equipment. But without good people, nothing much happens. It’s very easy to support a piece of equipment and then forget about it. But it’s really something else to support people on a continuing basis. That’s when real progress really gets made.”

Hanzlik’s effort to recruit young researchers to the state has drawn a host of well-known young investigators who, in turn, have generated new scientific breakthroughs.

Hanzlik: “My job as the so-called principal investigator of the COBRE program is not to just simply to provide administrative oversight and budget management, but it is to provide scientific guidance to the overall program, to keep it on track, to keep the individuals interacting working with one another synergistically and collectively accelerating not only the career development of the individual participants but all of the students and technicians working in their research labs and to accelerate the acquisition of new scientific information through our collective research effort.

For more about Robert Hanzlik, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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KU’s newest top-flight cancer researcher seeks innovative ways to affect biology in cells. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Blake Peterson arrived at KU recently as the Regent’s Distinguished Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. The Kansas Bioscience Authority also named Peterson as one of the state’s original three Eminent Scholars. On KU’s West Campus, his new lab is equipped with a combination of mundane science tools and sophisticated wonder gizmos, such as a confocal laser-scanning microscope.

Peterson: I have a lab that peruses research really both in organic chemistry – we build molecules from scratch – but I also have a biology lab and I hire cancer biolofists for example that test molecules that we create in the lab to try to find new anticancer agents and also anticancer drug delivery systems.

In particular, Peterson uses fluorescent markers — dubbed fluorophores — to see biological activity at the molecular level within cells. He also designs molecules that interact with cells to make delivery of drugs more effective.

Peterson: “We’ve created small molecules that we can insert into cellular membranes and that give cells new capabilities. They cycle between the surface of the cell and internal compartments called ‘endosomes’ the way natural receptors cycle. And in that way they can pull drugs or other molecules into the cell through a new mechanism. And I’m interested in using that new technology as aw way to enhance he volume of distribution in the body. That is, to enable to drugs to hit tissues that they normally can’t hit.”

Because he already holds a grant from the National Cancer Institute to spin out cancer fighting drug delivery systems, Peterson hopes his contributions will assist in KU’s quest to win designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center from NCI.

Peterson: “I’m certainly planning to work with the cancer center closely and will help them raise money through the NCI and other mechanisms to make caner research really a major force at KU – as it already is — but we plan to even boost it further and achieve this comprehensive cancer center designation.”

For more on Blake Peterson and his work to develop anticancer therapies, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A lung cancer investigator earns more than three hundred thousand dollars from the National Recovery Act. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Emily Scott always has worried about smokers’ health. As a girl, the assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas would hide her grandfather’s cigarettes.

Scott: “He was a very heavy smoker. And when I was a young child, I knew from school and my parents that smoking was not a good thing and I loved my grandfather. So I would visit him and I would steal all the cigarettes I could find and either flush them down the toilet or hide them in the doghouse. And the dog would get really sick because he was eating the cigarettes.”

Today, Scott continues her fight against disease caused by smoking — and her innovative research has been rewarded with a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The award supports use of nuclear magnetic resonance to see how cytochrome P450 enzymes work to cause lung cancer in smokers.

Scott: “To understand how these enzymes work and how they bind differently shaped chemicals, what we’ve been doing is using a technique called x-ray crystallography, where we use e-rays and particle accelerators and crystals of the enzyme in order to get what is essentially a ‘before’ snapshot – before the chemical is bound — and an ‘after’ snapshot — after the chemical is bound. And the new technique we’re using –— NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance — will enable us to essentially generate a video of what happens to the small molecule.”

On top of scientific progress, the Federal government sees jobs resulting from Scott’s work. Richard Okita oversees her grant at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Okita: “This is an excellent example of the Recovery Act enabling a collaboration that will accelerate research on a metabolic enzyme that has been linked to human lung cancers. By collaborating with an expert in NMR spectroscopy, Scott will be able to get a closer look at cytochrome P450 2A13’s structure, bringing her closer to finding new anti-cancer agents. The funding will also go toward hiring additional researchers — another goal of the Recovery Act.”

For more on Emily Scott, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University if Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A new book shows that cues from our ancestors can guard against depression. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Depression, according to researcher Stephen Ilardi, is a disease of modernity.

Ilardi: A century ago, the rate of depressive illness in the U.S. was about one percent. The rate is now 23 percent lifetime, and about 8-to-10 percent at any given point in time. So we’ve had roughly a 20-fold increase over the course of a century. Since World War Two, it’s roughly a 10-fold increase.

In his book … The Depression Cure … Ilardi shows that some aspects of a primitive existence reduce depression better than therapy or drugs. The KU professor of psychology heads a study, dubbed Therapeutic Lifestyle Change … or T-L-C for short. He tells patients to eat omega-3s; engage in activity to stop negative thinking; to get more sunlight; boost exercise; connect socially; and get more sleep.

Ilardi: We’ve now recruited over 80 depressed individuals. The majority had tried medications or traditional therapy and hadn’t gotten well. We randomly assigned them either to get the TLC protocol medication and psychotherapy. The folks who underwent treatment-as-usual had a clinically significant reduction in symptoms of 18 percent. Folks in our TLC have had a positive response rate of 75 percent.

Ilardi points to low rates of depression among people whose lives are akin to our remote ancestors such as the Kaluli people of New Guinea or the American Amish, both of whom experience little to no depression.

Ilardi: We as a species were never designed for modern life. We are designed for a different time and place when people were physically active, when they were outside in the sun, where they spent face-time with their friends and loved ones, when they had a much different diet, when the got much more sleep, and less in the way of a relentless, stress-filled existence. Let’s reclaim these protective features from the past.

For more about Therapeutic Lifestyle Change, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A new unmanned aerial vehicle will help experts gauge dwindling ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Emily Arnold, an aerospace engineering major from Hillsboro, is a long-serving undergraduate member of a team designing a robot plane for the KU-based Center for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, or CReSIS.

“For the last two years, I’ve been working with the structures and integration team. Our head designer will design a part, and I’ll help make it. So I’ve basically built the whole airplane at least structure-wise. And I’ve also helped with integration issues. Like when we have these two parts, how to we get them together? “ I’ve earned an informal leadership role on the team,” Arnold said. “I’ve helped train new undergraduates that come and work.”

The UAV Arnold helped build will carry advanced ice-penetrating radar and other equipment. The aircraft — dubbed the “Meridian” — will soar through subzero conditions too dangerous for human pilots, and recover data vital to science’s understanding of ice sheet loss. Arnold also is designing a light sport aircraft for a local company.

“A light sport aircraft is really a totally new category for the FAA,” said Arnold. “In my senior design class, one of the options you could design was an LSA. So I chose that since it seemed like the most appealing. I thought I could really go somewhere with my design. And in talking with people at KU and with the person who started the company, things just meshed together.”

Arnold’s co-workers on the Meridian see a great future for her as an aerospace engineer and entrepreneur. But Arnold said she’d always remember the support she’s received along the way.

“This was really stepping out of where I came from,” she said. “KU is ten times the size of my hometown. I had no idea what to expect. I was pretty successful academically in my hometown. But I thought, ‘Well, I’m competing against 45 other people, I don’t know what’s going to happen when I go to this big university.’ The Aerospace Engineering department changed my life. Whatever you put in, the department gives back to you. I’ve really experienced that stepping out really forces you to grow.”

For more about UAVs log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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During the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, one astronomer watches with uncommon insight into the work of the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Today, Steve Hawley is a mild-mannered professor of physics and astronomy at KU. But Hawley previously served for three decades as a daring NASA astronaut, logging five shuttle missions that included both deployment and servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Steve Hawley: Of those five missions three of them were associated with NASA’s great observatories — two Hubble missions and one was the deployment of the Chandra observatory. So for me as an astronomer and then as an astronaut, the chance to participate in three space missions that had directly to do with either putting the great telescopes in space or improving the great telescopes in space was great.

Launched in 1990, the Hubble observatory has provided dazzling images of the universe along with a revolution in astronomical understanding. But the satellite has needed a tune up.

Steve Hawley: Hubble is showing its age. Because the shuttle will retire in 2010, this is the last opportunity we’ll go to Hubble, at least with the shuttle. So we really want to do everything. We’re going to upgrade some systems, we want to install some new instruments, and we want to fix the two instruments that have currently failed and are not usable. If we can do all of that, then Hubble will be almost pristine and good for several more years. But it’s a very difficult mission — that’s a lot to do.

Asked what guidance he would give to the crew of a spaceflight to the Hubble, Hawley’s advice was: go slow.

Steve Hawley: Take your time and think about what you’re doing,” he said. “Because we always had a rule on the crews that I was on which is no matter how bad things are you can always make it worse. It’s a strange environment to be in particularly if you haven’t been there before. And there are very few things you have to do right this instant. So its always important to think about the next step and make sure that what its about to be is proper.

For more about Steve Hawley and the Hubble Space Telescope, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Study of fruit fly mating earns an undergraduate researcher a ticket to medical school. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters.

As Anne Vezeau graduates KU with dual Bachelor’s degrees in biology and Spanish, she’ll conclude a stellar undergraduate career marked by a passion for research. Indeed, her work to shed light on fruit fly mating has borne results significant enough to be submitted to a major journal of biology.

“They’re a good model species. And reproduce quickly. And their organ systems and are especially applicable in human medicine. My first big project that I started work on last year just gives us a look sexual selection has come about in the world or if sexual selection even exists.

The Drosohila nebulosa fruit fly is particularly interesting to science because it mates differently than other fruit flies.

“This one species in particular that I was looking is in a species group that specifically doesn’t have song. And in an effort to figure out what exactly were the driving forces in their mating, we wanted to explore other sensory modalities that might be important in that courtship, including vision and olfaction. Those are specifically what I looked at.”

Studying with Jennifer Gleason, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Vezeau honed her skill at measuring and observing natural phenomena. Vezeau showed that female fruit flies had to smell to mate, although males did not, and that vision is important for the flies’ mating. Her aptitude for research should benefit the aspiring doctor as she enters the KU School of Medicine this summer.

“It’s dedication, dedication, dedication. What my mom told me when I came to KU was, ‘Your job right now is to go to school — and you work your butt off at it.’ So I’ve tried to treat my education as a career, and tried not to say, ‘I can skip my classes’ or ‘I don’t want to go into lab today.’ It’s seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and not giving up.”

For more about the mating of fruit flies, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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LAWRENCE — Research has attracted millions of dollars of new investment in a mammoth natural gas field underlying southwestern Kansas. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

The Hugoton natural gas field is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. It exists beneath much of southwestern Kansas and runs south through the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas. Rex Buchanan is deputy director of the Kansas Geological Survey at KU.

“The Hugoton is the 800-pound gorilla of energy production in Kansas. It was discovered in the 1920’s and since has made Kansas one of the top ten natural-gas-producing states in the country.”

Unfortunately, the giant field has seen a decline in natural gas production in recent years. But in 2007, perceptions of the Hugoton brightened when the geological survey in conjunction with energy companies completed a four-year research project on the gas reservoirs. Buchanan describes the study.

“There was a huge amount of data available for the Hugoton. The problem was that it was scattered in various places. So the idea was to bring along a lot of industry partners, along with the expertise here at the survey, and try and accumulate the massive amount of drilling data into one place, then use that to construct computer models of what the reservoirs look like.”

Leaders of the KU study were Tim Carr, Marty Dubois and Alan Byrnes. Dubbed the Hugoton Assessment and Management Project, the study surprised drillers and regulators. The models proved there was more recoverable natural gas in the field than previously thought. The result has been a rush of new investment in the Hugoton, with more than eighty new wells drilled, and upgrades to more than two hundred twenty existing wells.

“It’s hard to look at this and not say that it’s a good thing in almost any way, shape or form,” Buchanan said. “At the end of the day you’ve not only generated more income, but you’ve produced more energy. We all know that we’ve got energy problems in this country. And you’ve produced domestic energy as opposed to importing energy from oversees. That’s all to the good. The more of that we can do, the better off we’re all going to be.”

For more on the Hugoton natural gas field, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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LAWRENCE —A researcher has found what could be an ideal target for an anti-cancer drug therapy, focusing her work on brain tumors. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Natalie Ciaccio has shown that hindering a protein called ATF5 killed cancerous brain cells — without harming surrounding, healthy brain tissue. Today, the graduate student in pharmaceutical chemistry is working to better understand the structure of ATF5.

Ciaccio: It’s known that ATF5 is required for brain development, but once we have adult brains and they’re fully developed, we don’t detect any ATF5 present in adult normal brains. Somehow the instruction for the gene that regulates ATF5 gets turned on when it’s not supposed to be on anymore. And maybe that’s why we have high levels of ATF5 in the cancer. Then these cells start to grow uncontrollably — and that results in cancer.

Producing ATF5 with genetically modified bacteria and studying its makeup, Ciaccio hopes to find a way to stop the protein from advancing cancer. She says the work is at least a decade from resulting in a drug that could help patients.

Ciaccio: We’re the first group to ever isolate it and study its structure at all. But just because there remains a lot of work to be done but just because there’s a lot of work that remains too be done doesn’t mean it is not worth pursuing., We’re sort of more on the end of basic research. So it takes investment, it takes times. But certainly the long-term achievements that are possible make it worthwhile.

In 2008, there were more than 21 thousand diagnoses of brain tumors and related disorders in the U.S. alone, leading to some 13 thousand deaths. Worse, brain tumors are the leading cause of solid tumor death in children. Ciaccio says improvements are needed in how we take care of such patients.

“The current protocol of treatment involves major brain surgery to remove the tumor, followed by radiation and some type of chemo. These can have terrible side effects and make you sick. So for patients, not only do they only have 12 to 18 months to live, but they can be very ill during that last year. So we’d like to find treatments that are more effective and have fewer side effects.”

To learn more about ATF5, log on to Research Matters dot KU dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Does happiness equal health? A sweeping new investigation suggests that it does. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Researcher Sarah Pressman, the Beatrice Wright assistant professor of psychology at KU and a Gallup research associate, has mined data from an ambitious worldwide survey from Gallup. Pressman found that positive emotions hold sway over health in all parts of the world – and in some parts more than others.

Pressman: “By working with Gallup, we were able to look at their world poll data. And what that does is it looks at about 95 percent of the planet by sampling 140 countries, with about one thousand people per country, and asks them questions about things – such as their subjective well being; whether or not they have a disease; whether or not the experience pain -- and we were able to look across all theses 140 countries to see if the relationships between emotions and health are consistent around the world.”

While the link between a positive outlook and good health already has been proven in the industrialized world, Pressman’s research made the breakthrough discovery that the link is strongest among impoverished people, where little research has been carried out before.

Pressman: “The relationship between emotion and health was actually stronger in places that were doing worse. So in countries where they’re only living into their Forties, places where they consistently go hungry, don’t have shelter. In those places, positive emotion was actually more strongly connected to health. So there seems that there is something really key about emotions that seems to becomes even more important in the worst-off areas around the world.”

Why does the KU researcher believe that emotions play a bigger role in health among the world’s poorest people? Pressman says it all comes down to medical access.

Pressman: “Medicine really protects us in a lot ways, and maybe even down the relationship between emotion and health in first-nation countries. Because even if you’re the most hostile, depressed person, you have medicine to help you. So you can go on statins and blood-pressure-lowering drugs and that kind of thing. But in a Third World country, you can’t do that. So in that case when emotion affects your physiology and builds up over time you don’t have anything to stop that from having an impact on your health.”

For more on the happiness health link, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A young researcher maps sinkholes that undermine a vital Kansas highway. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Underground salt beds near Hutchinson are being dissolved by groundwater to create sinkholes that deform US Highway 50. Now, A.J. Herrs, a first year Master’s student in KU’s Department of Geology, is charting the sinkholesprecisely with state-of-the-art technology.

HERRS: There are two prominent sinkholes where U.S. 50 is being affected. It’s a major transportation corridor to connect Hutchinson with the Interstate. It’s been repaved several times over the past decade because of the subsidence.

With funding from KU's Transportation Research Institute, Herrs is using a remote sensing system known as LiDAR, for Light Detection and Ranging. With this high-tech gear, Herrs creates three-dimensional images of the sinkholes on the surface of the terrain.

HERRS: Basically, we set up the scanner on a tripod at several points in the study area and we just tell it where to scan and it does all the work. By doing that, we can spatially constrain where the sinkholes are and how fast they’re sinking. If we know the subsidence rate, we can start to plan for budget reasons and also for just when you should go out and resurface or even build a new road if you need to.

The KU researcher is working with the Kansas Department of Transportation to save taxpayers money on roadwork, and also to make driving U.S. 50 a safer journey. Additionally, Herr’s research will provide greater knowledge of the state’s geography.

HERRS: Long ago in the Permian there was a large sea that’s since evaporated of course, and that’s created the large salt beds that we see in the subsurface of Kansas. The main area where all these problems occur is where the Hutchinson salt member underlies the surface, and that takes up about 37,000 square miles of the subsurface of Kansas. On the eastern side it's 200 feet below the surface and it can be up to 600 feet below the surface toward the center.

For more on mapping of sinkholes near Hutchinson, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A researcher looks at the meaning of friendship on booming Internet social networking sites. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Facebook. MySpace. Twitter. For many, such web sites have redefined interpersonal communication in the past decade. Nancy Baym, associate professor of communication studies at KU, has researched how people connect online though social networking sites.

Baym: They start in the mid late nineteen nineties based on this idea that Stanley Milgram had about everybody’s connected by six degrees of separation — and the first one was actually called sixdegrees.com. And they’re based on the premise that you’re more likely to want to get to know people who know people you already know than all-out strangers. So rather than a dating site that just has people putting up profiles and trying to randomly match, what if you could put up profiles of people that had shared fiends. Wouldn’t those be more likely?

As an avid user of such networks myself, I asked Baym why it was that I checked Facebook twenty times a day.

I think different people have different reasons for compulsive Facebook use. But I think it comes down to the fact that there’s a continuous dribble — there’s always something new — so every time you go something has changed; somebody has updated their status; someone has sent you a request; someone has posted an item. So it’s a continuous link of hanging out in the halls with your friends between classes or hanging around the water cooler at the office.

Baym has focused recent research on Last.fm a niche site that connects fans of similar music. She found that online friendship based on common taste in music tended to be weak, although people also used the site to maintain close relationships.

Baym: What I found on Last FM was that on average these relationships are not very strong. Other people have described them as on average being weak ties, which means that you don’t discuss a wide range of topics. You don’t do a variety of activities together. You tend to be kind of specialized in what topics you talk about. You interact when you run into each other but you don’t seek each other out and your communication is confined to fewer media.

For more on social networking sites log onto Research Matters dot KU dot edu. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Researchers target an illness that takes the lives of young children. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Every hour, 22 people die from measles, mainly in impoverished nations. The disease is most lethal to kids. Now, the Laboratory for Macromolecular and Vaccine Stabilization at KU has taken on the problem of making a more durable vaccine to prevent measles. Graduate student Julian Kissman led the research effort.

Kissmann: “It’s funny when I told my mom that I was working on it she said, ‘I remember getting you vaccinated for that, for one thing, and secondly, no one’s had that since I was a kid.’ And it’s true we have an excellent vaccine here. It’s extremely unstable, especially to temperature, In undeveloped counties where it hard to find a refrigerator Measles is still a problem because its hard to effectively deliver the vaccine.”

The challenge for Kissman was to stabilize the virus that causes measles, which is the vaccine’s main ingredient. If ultimately successful, the vaccine one day could be so stable that a shot is unneeded.

Kissmann: “The hope is to actually develop an inhalable dry powder version of the vaccine which would be a benefit for many reasons, not the least of which is that because children are the ones who seem to suffer the most from this disease, if you were able to administer the vaccine through an inhaler rather than a needle, I think you’d be much better off in terms of compliance and happiness.”

Kissmann conducted the research into measles at the lab of Russell Middaugh, Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at KU, a man uniquely qualified to supervise work on a measles vaccine.

Kissmann: “Russ has a proven track record in formulating vaccines. In fact before he came to KU he was a one of the leading scientists a Merck. And he actually formulated the measles vaccine that we use in the United States today. So he’s got a lot of experience with the disease and in general with formulating of vaccines. And so that’s why I’m here as a student and I think that’s why he was recognized as someone who whold be able to help with this new vaccine formulation.”

For more on research into a new measles vaccine, log on to Research Matters dot KU dot EDU. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Study of economic history brightens one researcher’s view of the recession. From the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

As Mark Hirschey surveys the economic situation facing the U.S., he does so with keen awareness of the annals of finance and the stock market. Hirschey, the Anderson W. Chandler Professor of Business at KU, takes the long-range view on investments.

“The history of the U.S. stock market is slow, steady advance punctuated by sharp, irregular declines. We’re in a huge irregular decline right now, but that’s pretty rare.”

Hirschey finds much of the commentary on the U.S. economy to be overblown. For example, he said the present-day recession is nothing like the Great Depression.

“The old joke was that a recession is when your neighbor loses a job and a depression is when you lose a job. The Great Depression and the current economic situation have very little in common. During the Great Depression you saw unemployment of 25 or 30 percent. We presently have unemployment in the 6-plus percent range and people are concerned it might go to 8 percent. It very well might.”

In general, Hirschey has an upbeat outlook on the nation’s economic wellbeing, even in the current downswing. In fact, Hershey said that frequently it’s around the time when statisticians confirm a recession’s start that a recession comes to an end.

“The typical recession lasts less than 18 months. The National Bureau of Economic Research says we entered a recession in December 2007 — I believe it. If you look at history as a guide here, it would suggest that sometime between now and the Fourth of July in 2009, you’d expect business to once again turn up and start to reflect the basic strengths of the U.S. economy.”

For more examination of the recession, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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New research shows that aerobic workouts can help seniors to maintain healthy brain aging. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

David Kevin Johnson, assistant professor of psychology at KU, is an expert on cognition in seniors. It’s a research field that includes Alzheimer’s disease — the most prevalent form of dementia. During the past year, Johnson has been encouraged by his research showing that aerobic exercise could stave off the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s.

Johnson: “The same risk factors for cardiovascular disease are at play in Alzheimer’s. When you say something like ‘heart-healthy is brain-healthy,’ we know that aerobic exercise is good for the heart. It also seems to be very good for Alzheimer’s or cognitive decline, however you specify it, in any aging population.

Johnson aims to determine what forms of aerobic exercise are best for seniors. Also, how much exercise is most helpful? And he wants to find out if there is a point of diminishing returns for an exercise prescription. But it is clear already that seniors should exercise regularly.

Johnson: Older adults should not be sedentary. Older adults should try not only to engage socially with friends and families but also be active and fit. They should be walking or exercising at whatever level they’re capable and comfortable with.

Johnson, who works in conjunction with the Life Span Institute's Gerontology Center, says the demographics of dementia gives his research more urgency.

Johnson: One in 10 older adults over the age 75 has moderate or even worse cognitive impairment — and the risk of cognitive impairment doubles every five years after that. are a lot of older adults who are having some type of cognitive problem, and we don’t understand the process fully yet. It’s very important, now that the older adult population in this county is growing nearly exponentially, that we understand those processes quickly.

For more on brain aging in older adults, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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A student researcher braves Antarctica to gauge ice thickness. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

It will be freezing and desolate. But the West Antarctic ice sheet holds scientific mysteries that KU graduate student Anthony Hoch wants to solve. While he completes his doctoral degree in geophysics, Hoch works as a data analyst with the Center for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, a group that predicts the response of sea level to changes in ice sheets.

Anthony Hoch: I’ll be operating a ground-penetrating radar in order to look at ice thickness and to see what’s at the bottom of the ice — and anything else we can see. A lot of people say they know exactly how much ice is down there, but until you actually measure it, we don’t know for sure. As far as sea level rise goes — until you know how much ice there is, you don’t know how much water there could be.

This month Hoch travels to New Zealand and then will ride on a military transport to McMurdo Station on Antarctica to undergo survival training. Next, he’ll fly to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Base and set out on a five-day trek across the bitter plane — to be followed by a month of living inside a tent. His research will be highly focused.

Anthony Hoch: I don’t really look at if the ice is melting or not. My research is dedicated at each individual field site where I work. Internationally, there are a large number of groups that work together to gather this data. Then, they put all the data together to determine if overall the ice is melting or not. But I just collect the data. I don’t form the opinions that are released.

While Hoch plans for the work to yield important results, he recognizes the challenges of scientific investigation in a bone-chilling climate.

Anthony Hoch: Machinery breaks down. Sometimes, we can fix it in the field. But Antarctica is not a very friendly environment for putting electronics back together. So we take spare parts and we’re well-trained on how to fix equipment in the field — but things do break.

For more on the West Antarctic ice sheet, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Three years after Hurricane Katrina, new research shows state emergency managers still underutilize the Internet. From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I’m Brendan Lynch.

Through surveys and examination of web sites, David Guth, associate professor of journalism at KU, has found that state emergency management agencies don’t use the Internet effectively in public outreach.

David Guth: Even though they are doing the angels, sometimes they are not seen as doing the work of the angels, and sometimes they get bedeviled by it, as they did in Katrina. It is important that all public agencies — especially emergency management agencies — have an ongoing outreach to the public to help them better understand what their mission is and at the same time listen to the concerns of the people so that they can anticipate and better respond during emergencies.

But in work funded by the KU Transportation Research Institute, Guth found that state emergency management web sites often leave the public out of the equation.

David Guth: Although the public information officers say that the people of their state are the most important target audiences of their state, clearly they are not. The most important audiences tend to be internal audiences. The most common information you find on these emergency management sites tends to be training information and information designed for other AMS and first responders. The public information tends to be outdated.

While emergency management web sites for Maryland and Kansas were exemplary, other states such as Texas still need work. In a report sent to emergency managers, Guth says one approach should be common to all emergency management sites.

David Guth: The top recommendation is that state EMS must do a better job of identifying the purposes and targeted stakeholders when designing the web sites. Clearly, I don’t think that in some cases they have done that. I also think they need to recognize that the internet and emerging social media are as important in public outreach, even in emergencies, as more traditional media.

For more on emergency management web sites, log on to Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.

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Across Kansas, agencies that safeguard children are challenged to find skilled staff that can produce the best outcomes for kids. But now help is on the way. From the University of Kansas, This is Research Matters, I’m Brendan Lynch.

KU associate professor of mechanical engineering Lisa Friis has first-hand experience with the misgivings many fourth grade girls have when learning principles of science and engineering.

Lisa Friis: About two years ago, when she was in fourth grade, she came home and told me she was not good in math and science. That shocked me because she’s a straight-A student and very smart, and I think she has a good role model with a mom who is an engineer. When she came home and said that we started looking into why might she be thinking this way, and it turns out it is not at all uncommon.

Fourth-grade girls tend to be focused on human needs. So Friis believes a targeted curriculum in bioengineering – the study of the human body as a machine -- will attract more female students to science and engineering. With a half-million dollars from the National Science Foundation, Friis is leading an effort to put bioengineering toolkits into classrooms across Kansas.

Lisa Friis: Toolkits will be hands-on activities for the students, reading materials at their level that explain basic curricular concepts for the fourth-grade. And the toolkits will give them activities to study what’s going on with the human body. They’ll explain forces and moments and lever arms in terms of body mechanics – things that all the students can relate to directly.”

KU bioengineering faculty and graduate students will join with Kansas grade school teachers at the Greenbush Southeast Kansas Education Service Center to create these toolkits. Results will be measured over time.

Lisa Friis: Greenbush will be surveying teachers, surveying classes of these students before and after presentation to see what retention has been like. In terms of the long-range, long-goal outcome, we’ll be able to tell you in another ten or 15 year when we have more students coming though who are interested in the biosciences and are engaged early in the field.

For more on fourth-graders and bioengineering, log onto Research Matters dot K-U dot E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I’m Brendan Lynch.