German Aerospace Day – Comet lander, parabolic flight aircraft and a centrifuge

Touching down on a comet - Philae; Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

Aerospace research covers a broad spectrum of activities – missions to celestial bodies are just as much a part of it as checking the health of astronauts or experimenting in microgravity on parabolic flights. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will present these and other aspects of spaceflight during German Aerospace Day in Cologne, on 22 September 2013.

Ready for touchdown with the Philae comet lander

Tucked away on board ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, the Philae comet lander has been slowly but surely flying to its destination, the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, since 2004. In late 2014, the very first comet landing will take place. During German Aerospace Day, scientists and engineers at the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) will be presenting and explaining a full-scale model, and allowing visitors to take a look in the control rooms from which Philae and various experiments on the International Space Station are monitored and controlled.

A model in a simulated martian atmosphere; Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

Test runs in the wind tunnel

When an Ariane rocket is launched into the skies or a space capsule re-enters Earth's atmosphere, one thing is for sure – extreme thermal and mechanical stresses. The heat and pressure are very high; the speeds surpass sound. Researchers from the Supersonic and Hypersonic Technology Department at the DLR Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology use five wind tunnels to analyse how these and other factors affect the in-flight behaviour of space transport systems and capsules. A wind tunnel will be operating on German Aerospace Day. There will also be an exhibition of the various models used to test engines and spacecraft in the wind tunnels.

A scientist during parabolic flight; Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

:envihab – earthly sister to the ISS laboratory

A centrifuge that generates six-fold gravity to examine the impact on the human body and permits ultrasound examinations of the test subject's organs as it spins; a hypobaric chamber to simulate altitudes up to 5500 metres and a clinical facility for bed rest studies and investigating the effect of light on the test subjects. :envihab, the new major research facility that is part of the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine, consists of a variety of modules in which scientists can research the health of astronauts in space and also people on Earth. Visitors to German Aerospace Day can inspect the various modules and test whether their fitness makes the grade for space travel.

Twenty-two seconds of microgravity for research

There are few opportunities to test the influence of gravity and microgravity on material samples, plants or even the human body. The DLR parabolic flight campaigns give scientists the opportunity to experience up to 31 sequences of 22 seconds in a weightless environment. On German Aerospace Day, the A300 'ZERO-G' will return from its 23rd parabolic flight campaign and will be on show to visitors in the aircraft exhibition.

EAC – a look at astronaut training

Astronauts undergo a rigorous training programme before they set off into space. Experts from the European Astronaut Centre will take part in brief, moderated panel discussions to describe the wide variety of topics covered in training and supporting astronauts, including medical services and ground control. Models of the Columbus research laboratory and the European ATV space transporter will also be on show in the training hall. Reporting from the ISS, astronaut Luca Parmitano will provide a glimpse into living and working in space, while other astronauts such as Hans Schlegel, Alexander Gerst and Samantha Cristoforetti will relate their experiences during 'Astronaut Talk'.

Programme highlights, photographs and background information can be found on the special DLR page for German Aerospace Day 2013.

Contact:

Manuela Braun 
German Aerospace Center (DLR) 
Corporate Communications, Editor, Human Space Flight, Space Science, Engineering 
Tel.: +49 2203 601-3882 
Fax: +49 2203 601-3249

MIT News: Terramechanics research aims to keep Mars rovers rolling

Simulations predict safest path for rovers to travel.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- In May 2009, the Mars rover Spirit cracked through a crusty layer of Martian topsoil, sinking into softer underlying sand. The unexpected sand trap permanently mired the vehicle, despite months of remote maneuvering by NASA engineers to attempt to free the rover.

The mission mishap may have been prevented, says MIT’s Karl Iagnemma, by a better understanding of terramechanics — the interaction between vehicles and deformable terrain. Iagnemma says scientists have a pretty good understanding of how soils interact with vehicles that weigh more than 2,000 pounds. But for smaller, lighter vehicles like the Mars rovers, the situation is murkier.

“There’s a lot of knowledge in civil engineering about how soils will react when subjected to heavy loads,” says Iagnemma, who is a principal research scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “When you take lightweight vehicles and granular soils of varying composition, it’s a very complex modeling process.”

Now Iagnemma and researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., have developed a model called Artemis that accurately simulates rover mobility over various types of soil and terrain.

The model works much like a video game: A user plugs in commands to, for example, move the simulated rover forward a certain distance — instructions similar to those that NASA engineers give to rovers on Mars. The simulation then predicts how the rover will move, based on the underlying soil properties, vehicle characteristics and a terrain’s incline.

The team tested the model against observations in the field, including actual drive paths from previous Mars rovers, and found that the simulations behaved much like actual rovers in various terrains. The researchers also performed experiments in the lab, rolling a replica of a Mars rover’s wheel over Martian-like sand. The tests established relationships between wheel dynamics and soil properties — information that the team used to further refine the model.

“Once you have a model you trust that is really representative of how the rover behaves, it can help mission planners make path plans in a safer way,” says team member Carmine Senatore, who is a research scientist at MIT. “It could say that this path looks shorter and faster, but if the soil is not what we expected, it may be much more dangerous, so it’s better to go another way.”

Senatore, Iagnemma, Raymond Arvidson of Washington University, and collaborators will outline the details of the model in a paper to appear in the Journal of Field Robotics.

Beach sand and cake flour

For the most part, the terrain over which Mars rovers travel — including the most recent Curiosity mission — is relatively benign, consisting mostly of flat, firm surfaces. But occasionally, rovers encounter more challenging environments, such as steep dunes covered in fine, loose soil.

“Think about the difference between beach sand, which you can walk on and even play volleyball on, and cake flour,” Iagnemma says. “The reason [for that difference] goes down to the microscale of the material.”

To know how much work is required for a rover to get over a dune, Iagnemma says one needs to understand the properties of an environment’s soil. To develop its model, the team estimated soil properties on Mars based on a variety of data sources, including measurements of the planet by orbiting sensors and images from the rovers themselves, as well as data on the amount of torque required to drive a wheel through a particular type of terrain.

The team coupled Martian soil data with properties of the rover, such as its size and weight, and developed a model to predict the likelihood and extent to which a rover may sink into a given terrain.

Iagnemma and Senatore refined the model with experiments in the lab. The researchers set up a bed of both coarse and fine soil, similar to sediment that has been observed on Mars. They built a straight track overhead, and attached a spare wheel from the Mars rover Opportunity. Powering the wheel with a motor, the team observed the wheel’s performance, noting how much the wheel sank into the soil, and the amount of torque needed to overcome sinking.

“Sometimes in a car you end up doing things like rocking it back and forth,” Iagnemma says. “There’s limited strategies for a Mars rover because it’s not a very dynamic vehicle, and moves very slowly. So we have to be more creative and develop strategies to get out.”

On the dunes of escape

To test the model against real-world scenarios, scientists from Washington University and JPL performed tests of roverlike vehicles in the Mohave Desert’s Dumont Dunes. The researchers drove the vehicle over multiple locations, and measured the extent of sinking by analyzing images taken of wheel tracks. The model, simulating the same soil and vehicle conditions, produced very similar driving patterns.

Along the same lines, the researchers analyzed images taken by the rover Opportunity of its own wheel tracks on Mars. In particular, the team studied the rover’s path as it crossed a ripple of sand in a region called Meridiani Planum, just south of the planet’s equator. The model accurately reproduced the vehicle’s behavior as it climbed over small dunes, making its way across the sandy ripple.

Iagnemma says that going forward, Artemis may be used to help planners chart the safest routes for the rover Curiosity, which is expected to traverse more challenging topography in the future.

“There are goals for taking the rover into places that are more difficult to travel, like dunes and steep slopes,” Iagnemma says. “That time hasn’t really been reached yet, so there’s a little time to get the model refined for Curiosity.”
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Written by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue Building 11-400, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 United States

UCSB Study Shows Relationship Between Landscape Simplification and Insecticide Use Varies Greatly Year to Year

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A new UC Santa Barbara study that analyzed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census of Agriculture data spanning two decades (1987-2007) shows that the statistical magnitude, existence, and direction of the relationship between landscape simplification –– a term used for the conversion of natural habitat to cropland –– and insecticide use varies enormously year to year.

Ashley Larsen, Credit: Andy McDonald

While there was a positive relationship in 2007 –– more simplified landscapes received more insecticides –– it is absent or reversed in all previous years. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

The author, Ashley E. Larsen, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, built on an earlier study published in PNAS by extending the temporal dimension of that analysis. That study found a strong positive relationship between landscape simplification and insecticide use when examining 2007 data for seven midwestern states. Larsen's results also showed 2007 was positive, with increased land area in cropland leading to increased cropland treated with insecticides. But in 2002 and 1997, there was no statistically significant relationship; 1992 was negative (increased cropland but decreased insecticides); and 1987 was generally negative, but sometimes null depending on the model specification used.

According to Larsen, the increase in agricultural production over the past four to five decades has corresponded to massive changes in land use often resulting in large scale monocultures separated by small fragments of natural land. Ecological theory suggests that these simplified landscapes should have more insect pest problems due to the lack of natural enemies and the increased size and connectivity of crop-food resources.

"There is a debate currently in ecology about what the most efficient land use policy for agricultural production is," said Larsen. "Some think that complex landscapes are better, that they have minimal effect on the environment, in which case we'd need to grow over a larger area. Others think that we should grow in a concentrated area and preserve what isn't in agricultural production. This land sparing-land sharing debate is getting a lot of attention. My study results don't support either land sharing or land sparing. They just show that we don't really understand how either of those policies will affect insecticide use."

Larsen used USDA county-level data for 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, and 2007 as well as from the National Agricultural Statistics Service Cropland Data Layer for 2007 for the same seven Midwestern states as the earlier PNAS analysis –– covering more than 600 counties in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. She performed a single-year cross-sectional analysis for each year followed by a fixed effects analysis for all years together. She then compared fixed effects models with year, county, and year- and county-fixed effects. County-fixed effects control for unobserved effects, such as the soil quality unique to each county, and year effects control for year shocks, such as droughts shared by all counties in the study region.

With just county-fixed effects, the analysis showed a strong negative relationship between landscape simplification and insecticide use. When year-fixed effects were included, that relationship dropped to null. Including both year- and county-fixed effects, the relationship remained null and similar to the year-only model, indicating that year effects are very important.

"It would be very difficult to inform policy questions, such as land sparing or land sharing in terms of insecticide use, if the relationship between landscape simplification and insecticide use flip flops year to year," concluded Larsen. "These varied results make it hard to say a complex landscape is better or a simplified landscape is better. My next step would be to try to unlock what's behind that variation."


UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 • (805) 893-8000

The World Food Prize Recognizes Young Kenyan Woman for Scientific Biological Breakthroughs

Combating Deadly Grain Mold as Winner of 2013 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation


The second annual award recognizes researchers under 40 who emulate the scientific innovation and dedication to food security demonstrated by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug.

Dr. Charity Kawira Mutegi,
Copyright: The World Food Prize Foundation 

Des Moines, Iowa (September 5, 2013) – A young Kenyan scientist who made major breakthroughs in combating the deadly aflatoxin mold contamination that occurs in stored grain, which has been a serious problem in Africa and around the world for decades, was today named the 2013 recipient of the prestigious “Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation.”

Dr. Charity Kawira Mutegi, 38, who currently serves as the Kenya Country Coordinator for the Aflasafe Project for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), on assignment from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), was named winner of the award. At the request of the World Food Prize Foundation, Mamadou Biteye, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Managing Director for Africa, made the announcement during the renowned African Green Revolution Forum in Maputo, Mozambique.

Aflatoxin, a naturally occurring mold, is a major concern for farmers and consumers worldwide; it is toxic to people who consume it either directly through contaminated grain, or through milk or meat if livestock have been fed contaminated grain. It is one of the most carcinogenic substances known.
Dr. Mutegi spearheaded efforts to identify the cause of, and solution to, a 

Dr. Mutegi gathering data from a farmer in Kenya,
Copyright: The World Food Prize Foundation

deadly outbreak of aflatoxicosis in 2004-05, fatal to 125 people in eastern Kenya who consumed contaminated grain. Her diligent research led to innovative solutions to avert future outbreaks and safeguard the region’s staple crop of maize. Dr. Mutegi is leading efforts for the development of a biocontrol product in Kenya that can be used to significantly reduce aflatoxin levels in maize. This works by introducing naturally occurring non-toxic strains of the fungus, which have a competitive advantage over the strains that produce the deadly aflatoxin, a technology that was developed by the US Department of Agriculture – Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS), and locally adapted for use in several African countries by IITA and partners.  The non-toxic strains outcompete the toxic strains, thus reducing aflatoxin contamination in the maize crop. The microbial bio pesticide she and her team are developing – “aflasafe KE01” – is affordable for farmers, is natural and environmentally safe, and once applied to a field, the effects last multiple growing seasons, making it extremely effective.

“Dr. Mutegi is an inspiration to other young scientists around the world. She tackled a critical problem, and has effectively transferred her own scientific knowledge to farmers and policymakers to help improve food safety for the entire region,” said Amb. Kenneth M. Quinn, President of The World Food Prize. “Like Dr. Borlaug, she has put the needs of people first, and has shown persistence, innovation, effective communication, contribution to science, and application of that science to improve lives and livelihoods.”

The award is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, and administered by the World Food Prize. In 2011, during the 25^th Anniversary World Food Prize Award Ceremony, Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, announced a $1 million contribution to the World Food Prize to endow the new award in honor of Dr. Borlaug, who did his groundbreaking research on improving wheat crops while working for the Rockefeller Foundation, and went on to found the World Food Prize. This year’s announcement is especially momentous as we near the 100^th anniversary of Dr. Borlaug’s birth in March 2014, and also celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Dr. Mutegi will be formally presented with the $10,000 award on World Food Day, October 16, 2013, in Des Moines, Iowa, as part of this year’s World Food Prize international symposium.

Dr. Mutegi is originally from Kenya and has dedicated her time and efforts to improving food security there.
During her studies of the 2004-05 outbreak, through support by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Dr. Mutegi compiled the first-ever report in the country that provided a holistic outlook on possible avenues for contamination, and also proposed an integrated approach to managing aflatoxin contamination along the maize value chain, including regulatory and policy measures. As part of her work, she facilitated the training of more than 300 agricultural extension officers, who then worked with farmers, and over 70 maize traders and millers to increase awareness and management of deadly aflatoxin.  She reached over 46,000 farmers in education campaigns about aflatoxin.

At the same time, she has engaged the government and sparked Parliament to establish a committee to investigate sources of contaminated grain, create heavy penalties for traders dealing contaminated grain, and investing in education efforts directed at Kenyan farmers who contribute to 75 percent of the country’s maize production. She has also documented the extent of aflatoxin contamination in peanuts, and proposed affordable means to prevent it.

Dr. Mutegi is currently leading the Kenyan collaborative project funded by USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to develop the biological control approach as a long-term solution for managing aflatoxin.
Dr. Mutegi credits her success to her “supportive work environment, guidance from senior scientists, mentorship and my personal work ethics. I do share the United States Marine Corps’ perspective that ‘no one ever drowned in sweat,’” she said. “An extra effort towards a worthwhile course as to save the lives of numerous non-suspecting citizenry is indeed worth the effort.”
Dr. Mutegi said she has dedicated her life’s work to food security because she has seen the effects of contamination firsthand.

“The devastating effects of maize grain contaminated with aflatoxins on many Kenyan households cannot be understated. Several lives have been lost, tons of staple food destroyed, millions of shillings worth from the livestock sector have been lost; and by extension, several livelihoods have been destroyed through death and/or economic disempowerment,” she said.

“Having studied and understood the subject matter on aflatoxins, I was confident that the solutions were not far-fetched, but rather required a dedicated course. In addition, my desire to engage in identifying lasting solutions for the aflatoxin problem was propelled by the fact that I come from an area that suffers perennial risk to aflatoxin contamination and exposure. I therefore could not overlook an opportunity to be part of the solution.”
Dr. Mutegi was educated at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Post-Harvest Technology. She received her MSc in Food Science and Technology at the University of Nairobi. She earned her PhD at the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

Dr. Mutegi may be reached for interviews at c.mutegi@cgiar.org or +254 731 670 911.

# # #

ABOUT THE NORMAN BORLAUG AWARD FOR FIELD RESEARCH AND APPLICATION, ENDOWED BY THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION: An independent jury of experts chaired by Dr. Ronnie Coffman selected Dr. Mutegi from an impressive group of more than 40 candidates who were evaluated based on the attributes and accomplishments that reflect those demonstrated by Dr. Norman Borlaug during his work at the Rockefeller Foundation in developing high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat in Mexico and introducing adaptable wheat varieties into India and Pakistan during the 1950’s and 60’s, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. The first recipient of this award, named in 2012, was Dr. Aditi Mukherji, a social scientist and water expert from India. More details at www.worldfoodprize.org/borlaugfieldaward.

ABOUT THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE:  The World Food Prize was founded in 1986 by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, The World Food Prize has honored outstanding individuals who have made vital contributions to improving the quality, quantity or availability of food throughout the world. The Prize also hosts the annual Borlaug Dialogue international symposium on global food security issues and a variety of youth programs that aim to inspire the next generation to work in the fields surrounding global agriculture. More details at www.worldfoodprize.org.



Contact information: The World Food Prize Foundation , The World Food Prize - CST, 666 Grand Ave Ste 1700, Des Moines, 503092500 

UCSB Research Demonstrates West Antarctica Ice Sheet Has Long Played a Role in Regulating and Responding to Earth’s Climate

Adelie penguins walk in file on sea ice in front of US research icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer in McMurdo Sound. Credit: John Diebold

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– The results of research conducted by professors at UC Santa Barbara and colleagues mark the beginning of a new paradigm for our understanding of the history of Earth's great global ice sheets. The research shows that, contrary to the popularly held scientific view, an ice sheet on West Antarctica existed 20 million years earlier than previously thought.

The findings indicate that ice sheets first grew on the West Antarctic subcontinent at the start of a global transition from warm greenhouse conditions to a cool icehouse climate 34 million years ago. Previous computer simulations were unable to produce the amount of ice that geological records suggest existed at that time because neighboring East Antarctica alone could not support it. The findings were published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

Given that more ice grew than could be hosted only on East Antarctica, some researchers proposed that the missing ice formed in the northern hemisphere, many millions of years before the documented ice growth in that hemisphere, which started about 3 million years ago. But the new research shows it is not necessary to have ice hosted in the northern polar regions at the start of greenhouse-icehouse transition.

Earlier research published in 2009 and 2012 by the same team showed that West Antarctica bedrock was much higher in elevation at the time of the global climate transition than it is today, with much of its land above sea level. The belief that West Antarctic elevations had always been low lying (as they are today) led researchers to ignore it in past studies. The new research presents compelling evidence that this higher land mass enabled a large ice sheet to be hosted earlier than previously realized, despite a warmer ocean in the past.

"Our new model identifies West Antarctica as the site needed for the accumulation of the extra ice on Earth at that time," said lead author Douglas S. Wilson, a research geophysicist in UCSB's Department of Earth Science and Marine Science Institute. "We find that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet first appeared earlier than the previously accepted timing of its initiation sometime in the Miocene, about 14 million years ago. In fact, our model shows it appeared at the same time as the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet some 20 million years earlier."

Wilson and his team used a sophisticated numerical ice sheet model to support this view. Using their new bedrock elevation map for the Antarctic continent, the researchers created a computer simulation of the initiation of the Antarctic ice sheets. Unlike previous computer simulations of Antarctic glaciation, this research found the nascent Antarctic ice sheet included substantial ice on the subcontinent of West Antarctica. The modern West Antarctic Ice Sheet contains about 10 percent of the total ice on Antarctica and is similar in scale to the Greenland Ice Sheet.

West Antarctica and Greenland are both major players in scenarios of sea level rise due to global warming because of the sensitivity of the ice sheets on these subcontinents. Recent scientific estimates conclude that global sea level would rise an average of 11 feet should the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melt. This amount would add to sea level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet (about 24 feet).

The UCSB researchers computed a range of ice sheets that consider the uncertainty in the topographic reconstructions, all of which show ice growth on East and West Antarctica 34 million years ago. A surprising result is that the total volume of ice on East and West Antarctica at that time could be more than 1.4 times greater than previously realized and was likely larger than the ice sheet on Antarctica today.

"We feel it is important for the public to know that the origins of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are under increased scrutiny and that scientists are paying close attention to its role in Earth's climate now and in the past," concluded co-author Bruce Luyendyk, UCSB professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Science and research professor at the campus's Earth Research Institute.

Other co-authors include David Pollard of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University, Robert M. DeConto of the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Stewart S.R. Jamieson of the Department of Geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
The National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs and the United Kingdom's Natural Environment Research Council supported this research.

UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 • (805) 893-8000

‘Conjuring India' Exhibit Presents Diverse British Views on India in the Late 18th and Early 19th Century

Illustrations like the one here, made by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Ramus Forrest, demonstrate the British penchant for depicting India as a civilization in a state of decay. Copyright: UCSB

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– When the British East India Company began its

explorations in India, the subcontinent captured the attention and the imagination of the people back home. Merchants, soldiers, artists, and travelers, lured by the promise of riches and adventures, wrote numerous stories and articles of their encounters on the subcontinent. A selection of some of these fascinating accounts are the subject of the exhibit "Conjuring India: British Views of the Subcontinent, 1780-1870." The exhibit is located at UC Santa Barbara's Davidson Library, Special Collections, Third Floor.

"An European Gentleman with his Monshee or Native Professor of Languages" depicts everyday life in the colony. Copyright: UCSB

Done in the form of books and illustrations that come from the university's collections and that of philanthropist and UCSB supporter Sara Miller McCune, the exhibit gives its visitors a window into the diverse attitudes toward and perspectives on India, beginning with the late 18th century, as the British East India Company sought to increase its holdings and standing on the world stage, and ending with the age of imperialism, when India had acquired the status of the jewel in the crown of the British empire.

"We have all these myriad views, piecing together what it means to constitute India," said Mira Rai Waits, UCSB doctoral candidate charged with the curation of the exhibit. One view comes from a military official, another from a philosopher, while yet another gives an ordinary woman's perspective on a land completely foreign to the people who came to colonize it.

The illustrations, and later the accompanying texts, were made largely by amateurs, people who saw India as a land of opportunity, said Swati Chattopadhyay, professor in the university's Department of History of Art and Architecture. These publications –– part travelogue, part journal, part sales pitch –– were meant to inform people back home, as well as entice would-be investors and participants in the projects of the East India Company, a conglomeration of merchants that became a driving economic, political, and social force in the organization of the British empire in India. While some of these would become instant classics as authoritative historical works, others functioned as the coffee-table books of their time, with fanciful observations on various aspects of Indian life, such as descriptions of domestic scenes, the caste system, clothing, religion, and architecture.

Doctoral candidate Mira Rai Waits, left, and Swati Chattopadhyay, professor in the Department of Art and Architecture, curated the exhibit. Behind them is a painting of the iconic Taj Mahal by Colin Campbell Cooper. Copyright: UCSB

"‘Conjuring' has both this aspect of making something up, but also invoking the otherworldly, the magical," said Chattopadhyay, on the choice of language for the title of the exhibit. Later European visitors used these works as "guides" to the subcontinent, and it is through repeated use that these depictions, filtered through a personal lens, gained the authority of the "real."

More than just an aggregation of print and illustration of a unique time in world history, the collection also reflects the evolution of the British view of itself, and the world outside the confines of its European boundaries. The publications show views of India merged with British frames of reference of the time, such as pastoral landscapes, or a fetish for ruins, demonstrating the vantages through which India was seen through European eyes. In the beginning, said Chattopadhyay, geographical accounts of India were necessarily first person, but as the British empire in India expanded and imperial power became more assured, some of the producers of these works could claim authority without ever having set foot in the subcontinent.

The exhibit, which contains books that will be deeded to the university upon Miller-McCune's death, will be on display until December 15. On October 15, the Davidson Library will host a free public event around the exhibit, with a lecture by Chattopadhyay.



UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 • (805) 893-8000

An easier way to control genes

New method for turning genes on and off could enable more complex synthetic biology circuits

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT researchers have shown that they can turn genes on or off inside yeast and human cells by controlling when DNA is copied into messenger RNA — an advance that could allow scientists to better understand the function of those genes.


The technique could also make it easier to engineer cells that can monitor their environment, produce a drug or detect disease, says Timothy Lu, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biological engineering and the senior author of a paper describing the new approach in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology.

“I think it’s going to make it a lot easier to build synthetic circuits,” says Lu, a member of MIT’s Synthetic Biology Center. “It should increase the scale and the speed at which we can build a variety of synthetic circuits in yeast cells and mammalian cells.”

The new method is based on a system of viral proteins that have been exploited recently to edit the genomes of bacterial and human cells. The original system, called CRISPR, consists of two components: a protein that binds to and slices DNA, and a short strand of RNA that guides the protein to the right location on the genome.

“The CRISPR system is quite powerful in that it can be targeted to different DNA binding regions based on simple recoding of these guide RNAs,” Lu says. “By simply reprogramming the RNA sequence you can direct this protein to any location you want on the genome or on a synthetic circuit.”

Lead author of the paper is Fahim Farzadfard, an MIT graduate student in biology. Samuel Perli, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science, is also an author.

Targeting transcription

In previous studies, CRISPR has been used to snip out pieces of a gene to disable it or replace it with a new gene. Lu and his colleagues decided to use the CRISPR system for a different purpose: controlling gene transcription, the process by which a sequence of DNA is copied into messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries out the gene’s instructions.

Transcription is tightly regulated by proteins called transcription factors. These proteins bind to specific DNA sequences in the gene’s promoter region and either recruit or block the enzymes needed to copy that gene into mRNA.

For this study, the researchers adapted the CRISPR system to act as a transcription factor. First, they modified the usual CRISPR protein, known as Cas9, so that it could no longer snip DNA after binding to it. They also added to the protein a segment that activates or represses gene expression by modulating the cell’s transcriptional machinery.

To get Cas9 to the right place, the researchers also delivered to the target cells a gene for an RNA guide that corresponds to a DNA sequence on the promoter of the gene they want to activate.

The researchers showed that once the RNA guide and the Cas9 protein join together inside the target cell, they accurately target the correct gene and turn on transcription. To their surprise, they found that the same Cas9 complex could also be used to block gene transcription if targeted to a different part of the gene.

“This is nice in that it allows you do to positive and negative regulation with the same protein, but with different guide RNAs targeted to different positions in the promoter,” Lu says.

‘A lot of flexibility’

The new system should be much easier to use than two other recently developed transcription-control systems based on DNA-binding proteins known as zinc fingers and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), Lu says. Although they are effective, designing and assembling the proteins is time-consuming and expensive.

“There’s a lot of flexibility with CRISPR, and it really comes from the fact that you don’t have to spend any more time doing protein engineering. You can just change the nucleic acid sequence of the RNAs,” Lu says.

The researchers also designed the transcription-control system so that it can be induced by certain small molecules that can be added to the cell, such as sugars. To do this, they engineered the genes for the guide RNAs so that they are only produced when the small molecule is present. Without the small molecule, there is no guide RNA and the targeted gene is undisturbed.

This type of control could be useful for studying the role of naturally occurring genes by turning them on and off at specific points during development or disease progression, Lu says.

Lu is now working on building more advanced synthetic circuits to perform applications such as making decisions based on several inputs from a cell’s environment. “We’d like to be able to scale this up and demonstrate the most complex circuits that anyone’s ever built in yeast and mammalian cells,” he says.

The research was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Institutes of Health New Innovator Award and the National Science Foundation.
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Written by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue Building 11-400, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 United States