Cool College Memory

I got this picture from one of my good friends, Terry Swaim. This is from the end of my freshman year at NC State. That is Terry on the Right and his roommate Bill Gramley on the left. They are holding two of the three chickens that they raised in their dorm room in the spring semester of 1988.

Another one of my suite mates, Jody Harris, brought the chickens when they were just chicks. (His family raised birds for Perdue.) Bill and Terry raised the birds in their room for the entire semester... without getting caught. Yeah, our RA was right on top of things. He somehow also didn't notice the underage drinking parties that were taking place in the suite next to ours - even though there were beer bottles piled up in the hallway 6-8" deep with only a small footpath to walk on.

By the way, they are standing in front of my room - which, incidentally, is now a laundromat. Their room was put to the same purpose. Ah, it is nice to be appreciated!

The three birds were named Thunderbird (after the alcoholic beverage, of course), Frobird (after one of our suite mates, John Froberg), and ironically, Perdue. I'm not really sure which ones they are holding. I could have told you back then, but that has been 20 years ago.

Sadly, the birds met a tragic end. Terry took them home and gave them to a relative - whose dogs promptly killed and ate them.

Those were the days... Good times. Good times.

Who Needs Corn?

I just read another interesting article from NC State about their projects to develop alternate fuel sources to power America's transportation industry.

While they are working on other ethanol-based solutions, they are also looking at possible answers by extracting a glue-like substance called lignin from wood products. "Even though it's harder to work with, (Dr. Steve) Peretti (from NC State's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) likes lignin, calling it a 'higher-energy feedstock, almost like crude oil,' that is lower in oxygen. Less oxygen, he says, translates to higher energy value per gallon."

One of the really neat things about this project is that if they can get it to work on a large scale, there are a wide variety of sources for the raw materials needed for this process. It can be extracted from "Anything that has organic molecules in it – clean wood, dirty wood, forest thinnings, bark, waste paper, solid waste, even plastics." Using these sources will provide a serendipitous effect, by keeping these items from landfills and by helping to reduce the risk of wildfire.

In another article, Dr. Glenn Catts, a senior research associate at NC State who is working on a related project said, "Energy is certainly one thing that is not going away in terms of demand. The idea that we can generate energy in an alternative form while at the same time decreasing the risk of wild fires is the most compelling thing about this project."

This project will harvest debris from woodland areas for use as potential biomass. They are working with FECON, a company that manufactures mulching machines, to create a machine that can remove forest floor biomass in a cost-effective manner.

Dr. Joe Roise, professor of forestry at NC State said, "This is a resource people haven't thought of, and it's also a critical fire risk that needs to be removed.... What we have is not a product you grow, it's an existing resource that could support the energy needs of the South if you could convert it. So the real question is not how to grow biomass, but how to use the biomass that we already have." (Emphasis mine.)

On a side note, the project that Drs. Roise and Catts are working on could create some potential environmental problems, but they are optimistic that the effect will be similar to the outcome of controlled burns, benefiting many species by thinning out competing plants, and protecting housing in the urban interface.

See what people can do when they actually put their minds to it? Granted there is a long way to go with this research and a lot of work to do, but this just goes to show that there are options. I am confident that as more research is done that we will be astounded at what is discovered.

Once again I am proud to be an alumnus of NC State. They keep proving, as their commercials claim, "We all go to NC State!"

Not A Total Loss

Well, it would appear that my alma mater can't play basketball, but we can do some other pretty cool stuff.

I got an email from the university recently that had a very cool article about a process that NC State has developed that makes it possible to turn any fat into any type of fuel. You read that right. You can turn lard into jet fuel.

Sound like alchemy? Maybe, but I am interested!

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a fuel refining process that could revolutionize America's energy industry. But not everything will change. You'll still fill up your car with gasoline, use propane for your barbecue grill and reach your favorite vacation spot in an airliner powered by jet fuel.

The revolution will happen at the molecular level. Simply put, NC State researchers have developed a process that enables them to take virtually any fat source and chemically alter it so that it looks, acts and burns just like petroleum-based fuel.

"The process is flexible enough that we can make any fuel we want," says Dr. Bill Roberts, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. "By changing the catalyst, temperature and pressure over time, we can make gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and even jet fuel."

It's not magic, Roberts says, it's chemistry.

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That's what I want to see - my university sticking it to the man.

Of course this won't solve global warming... because it really isn't a problem. Global warming is a hoax perpetrated on us to line the pockets of a few unscrupulous folks. (But that is a rant for another post.) Unfortunately, it also won't solve the air quality issues that we have from petroleum-based propulsion. Perhaps the university can tackle that one next. I am just glad to see someone coming up with an alternative fuel source to the oil companies.

Another new development from my alma mater is the creation of fabrics that actually kill viruses.

Michielsen, a chemist by trade and an associate professor of textiles technology in the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University, was working at DuPont in the mid-1990s when he developed a better way to grease the skids for carpet fibers spinning through machinery at 350 mph. Manufacturers typically soaked the fibers with lubricants that they later washed off. But that meant flushing about 500 million pounds of lubricants into the nation's water system every year. Michielsen found that he could chemically bond a five-nanometer layer of lubricant to the fibers so they could glide through the spinning machinery and wouldn't need a wash later.

DuPont never adopted the technology – Michielsen says the nanocoating attracts other grease, so carpets dull quickly – but he began experimenting to see how other surface properties of fibers could be affected by nanocoatings.

"We could use a number of physical properties of fiber surfaces both to address a commercial problem and learn more about the underlying science," he says, ticking off a list that includes friction, surface tension, adhesion, and electrostatic charge.

The biggest success to date has come by adding anti-microbial agents developed at Emory University to his coating. The combination was initially expected to defeat odors in carpets and clothing, but tests show the light-activated agents work better against viruses than bacteria.

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This stuff is cool. I kind of wish I hadn't been a Liberal Arts major now! Stuff like this would have been really interesting to develop.

So, while you other schools are out there developing your hoops skills, my university is excelling at things that really matter. I don't care about basketball anyway! So there!

SWEET!!!!! WOLFPACK BEATS CAROLINA 31-27!

Eugene, Sutton Lead Pack to 31-27 Win Over Heels

My Wolfpack has managed to salvage what was looking like an AWFUL season by winning their past 4 games including the Heels today.



I would personally like to take some credit for today's win. How did I help? I didn't watch or listen to the game. Well, I watched for just a few minutes and this is what happened:

The third quarter belonged to the Tar Heels. They scored the second half’s first points on a 50-yard touchdown pass from fullback Bobby Rome to wide receiver Brandon Tate. They also had several opportunities to tie the score after two short punts by NC State’s Bradley Pierson that gave the Tar Heels the ball in Wolfpack territory.

But the Wolfpack defense held Carolina’s offense to a single field goal in those two possessions, a 27-yarder by Barth on the first play of the fourth quarter, closing the margin to 24-20.

The Tar Heels took their only lead in the game, 27-24, with 9:40 remaining in the game when redshirt freshman Kendrick Burney picked off a tipped pass and returned it 76 yards for a touchdown. It’s the first time since 1994 that the Tar Heels have returned two interceptions for a touchdown in the same game.

I quickly realized that if the Pack was going to have any chance at all I had to get away from the TV. The rest, as they say, is history.

Eugene, a workhorse for the Wolfpack offense in the absence of injured tailbacks Toney Baker and Andre Brown, scored three rushing touchdowns, including what proved to be the game-winner with 1:41 remaining in the game, to lead the Wolfpack to its first win over the Tar Heels since 2003. Eugene finished the game with a career-high 159 yards on 32 carries and had five catches for 33 yards.

With 20 seconds to play, the Tar Heels had first-and-goal at the NC State 7-yard line, knocking on the door for a game-winning touchdown. But UNC quarterback T.J. Yates threw three consecutive incomplete passes. On fourth down, Yates threw a fade pass to Hakeem Nicks in the end zone that was intercepted out of bounds by cornerback Jimmie Sutton III to end the Tar Heel threat.

I know, I know, Tarheel fans, just wait 'till basketball season. Meanwhile I will gloat! (Perhaps I'll be gloating then too!)

My alma mater. Cool, now I can include pictures!