Vassar scientists make national news

Joshua Goodman Assistant Life Editor

Misho Ishikawa Guest Writer

In recent months, several Vassar science professors have generated excitement on campus and off for their various projects and research grants. Professors Janet Gray, John Long, and Joseph Tanski have all recently landed themselves scientific acclaim and received considerable media attention for their work.

ERBC research emphasizes awareness

Vassar Psychology Professor Janet Gray recently released an interactive CD-ROM entitled “Environmental Risks and Breast Cancer (ERBC).” The CD-ROM is the culmination of a two-year project aimed at making the immense amount of material on environmental risk factors leading to breast cancer more accessible to the public. Gray’s work is currently featured in the October edition of Vogue magazine, where it has received much praise.

Gray, also the director of the multidisciplinary program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS), compiled information from more than 200 independent studies to produce the CD-ROM. The project’s primary goal was to examine how the exposure to harmful chemicals in common household products can lead to breast cancer, and to show young women, especially adolescents, that there are certain preventative measures they can take to decrease their risk of breast cancer.

Gray’s body of research revealed a surprising number of additive substances and chemicals found in many of the products commonly used even by age eight. Exposure to substances like nail polish, cosmetics, pesticides, exhaust fumes, and certain plastics and metals, Gray explained, can all increase the likelihood of breast cancer.

Gray began work on the project two years ago at the suggestion of a colleague. Already teaching a course in the STS program, Gray thought it worthwhile to explore the topic of environmental risk factors and breast cancer in a parallel seminar. When the project began to take shape in the summer of 2004, Gray enlisted the help of two Vassar students, Molly Nadelson ’05 and Mike Fischthal ’05. Their efforts quickly won support at health conferences and received sponsorship from medical organizations.

The Vassar researchers partnered with the Center for Environmental Oncology of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and received sponsorship from the Silent Spring Institute, Breast Cancer Fund, Breast Cancer Action, and Breast Cancer Options.

Since its June release, requests have come in for the CD-ROM from all over the U.S. and 31 foreign countries. The Vogue article has generated considerable buzz for the project.

Vogue highlights the project’s “easy-to-follow language” and use of “colorful, sophisticated graphics.”

Additionally, Gray and her CD-ROM will be featured in articles in the October editions of Teen Vogue, and Cosmogirl magazines.

Gray described the project’s mounting publicity as “part of an effort to reach the general public, especially teens and their parents.”

The ERBC team hopes to distribute the CD-ROM to a broader group of high school and college students. Gray is scheduled to travel to San Francisco soon in order to attend conferences to discuss her findings, and she will participate in several Vassar events. —M.I.

Long’s aquatic robot receives acclaim

Biology and Cognitive Science Professor John Long is currently receiving national scientific acclaim for “Madeleine,” a robot constructed to test theories about the swimming habits of an extinct species of a Mesozoic-era vertebrate known as the four-flippered aquatic tetrapod.

Madeleine was built with a grant provided by the National Science Foundation and is kept in the Biorobotics Lab in Olmsted Hall. Since her creation, she has generated a significant amount of press for Long and his team, and has been featured in a wide array of media from the Discovery Channel to the Iran Daily.

Long is also involved in the Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory. Inspired by the prospect of building working models of animals to better understand them, Long conceived of the idea of an autonomous robot, meaning that an abundance of sensors, motors and computers inside Madeleine allow her to behave on her own without computerized identities. According to Long, she “can navigate and avoid objects without any guidance from a human.” Long’s experiments soon helped him realize “the potential that autonomous robots had for testing ideas in biology.”

Besides being one of the first robotic fish to simulate autonomous activity, the tetrapod has garnered another distinction in the science world. “Madeleine is the first robot named after a French pastry,” said Long, alluding to the “petite Madeleine” pastry described by Marcel Proust in his writing. —J.G.

College gets grant to map molecules

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Joseph Tanski recently won a rare grant from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation Program to purchase a Bruker SMART APEX II single crystal x-ray diffraction system for Vassar’s chemistry department.

According to Tanski, the state of the art machine “allows us to determine molecular structures
for materials that can be obtained in crystalline form.” The knowledge of molecular structure is critical to scientists’ broader understanding of matter and how it may be manipulated. The machine is therefore likely to have a dramatic impact on the College’s scientific community. The technology is expected to expand and broaden student earning and preparation for advanced study.

Tanski, the principle investigator for the grant, has used the machine with students and others at Bard College and Columbia University to help expand their understanding of molecular structures. Vassar plans to invite local neighboring Hudson Valley institutions such as SUNY New Paltz to use the machine in the hope of increasing the research infrastructure in the region and creating enhanced opportunities for scholarly collaboration. Very few colleges own an x-ray diffraction system; an older model of the crystallography machine was installed at Colby College several years ago. This year, a few other U.S. colleges were awarded funding, but the machine is, according to Tanski, “still pretty unique.” —J.G.

The achievements of the Vassar faculty do not stop with these three professors. When they aren’t shaping the minds of students, professors across all departments continue to advance in their respective fields and earn their places among the nation’s eminent collegiate faculty.