Dam Shame?

When completed in 2009, China's Three Gorges Dam will harness the energies of the world's third largest river, the Yangtze. And while the gargantuan project will provide many economic benefits for its beleaguered mother country, its benefits will never match the dangers it poses for the environment, critics around the world are saying.

Hailed as the greatest engineering feat tackled by the Chinese since the Great Wall, the Three Gorges Dam already is as charged with controversy as it may ever be with hydroelectric power. Proponents see it as a great boost for China's economy, providing much-needed jobs, clean energy, flood control and even a more temperate weather pattern for the region near the reservoir. A rising, global chorus of criticism says the dam will destroy thousands of acres of prime farmland, displace thousands of people throughout an already overcrowded country and potentially alter the climate of the entire planet.

FSU oceanographer Doron Nof, after a thorough study of the project, believes critics' environmental worries may be justified. He's convinced that this manmade marvel could generate a substantial environmental shift for China's northern neighbor, Japan, and potentially for the entire Pacific Ocean.

In the late 1970s, Nof accurately predicted environmental impacts on the Mediterranean Sea after the construction of Egypt's Aswan Dam. His analysis of the China project, published recently in the official journal of the American Meteorological Society, concludes that Three Gorges will have “far-reaching environmental effects.” Nof found that climate trends, water flow characteristics in the region and meteorological data indicate that within a few months or years after the completion of the dam, the region around Japan will be bathed a warmer climate.

At stake is the historical hydrodynamics of the Sea of Japan, Nof says. Each second, the Yangtze River pours as much as 30,000 cubic meters of freshwater into the Pacific. This vast amount of freshwater is swept north, through the Tsushima Strait and into the Sea of Japan. The resulting lighter fresh-saline mix floats above the denser saltwater lying at the bottom of the sea's two-mile-deep basin. The mixed water acts as a “lid” over the basin, preventing the atmosphere from transmitting its cold winter temperature to the deep sea.

Nof says it's hard to tell exactly how much fresh water will be diverted by the Chinese for this regional project. If, as the Chinese say officially, the dam will only be used for the generation of hydroelectric energy and flood control, Nof estimates that the impact on the average influx of freshwater to the ocean will be nominal. But if other statements to the contrary prove to be true, and the Yangtze River and its nearby neighbor, the Yellow River, are even partially diverted for agricultural use, the impact will be “dramatic,” Nof says. He calculates that if even 10 percent of the Yangtze's flow is cut off, the salinity of the water entering the Sea of Japan will increase enough to cause the surface water to sink to the bottom during the winter. This process cools the deep sea and warms the atmosphere above the sea.

While it's hard to predict the exact nature of the environmental changes that will result from this sea change, Nof says the effects could be expansive, and possibly even global.

TB Hunt Launched

Thanks to one of the largest grants yet from the National Institutes of Health-$8.1 million-FSU scientists are taking aim at finding new ways to combat tuberculosis and other diseases by unlocking the secrets of cellular communication.

A team of 13 researchers from around the country, led by Timothy Cross, an FSU chemist and researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Lab- oratory's headquarters at Tallahassee's Innovation Park, will spend the next five years developing technology for characterizing the molecular structures of key proteins that exist in biological membranes.

Mapping how these protein structures carry out their function will have a profound impact on the development of new drugs. Researchers now estimate that 90 percent of new drugs developed in the field of neuroscience in the next decade will specifically target the proteins in cell membranes.

What makes these membranes such important targets for pharmacological research is that the proteins associated with them represent the cell's way of communicating with the outside world. And these same protein structures also represent communication within a cell, among its various compartments, such as the nucleus.

Specifically, Cross says the focus of this project is on the membrane proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the biological agent responsible for tuberculosis (TB). This virulent strain of TB is currently the number one cause of deaths by infectious disease worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that a third of the world's population is infected with the bacterium. Alarmingly, TB is becoming increasingly resistant to current methods of treatment which is why developing new, more effective drugs are desperately needed.

This research project is significant not only in scope, but in method as well, says Cross. Membrane proteins exist in a “greasy” environment that makes preparing samples for research difficult. To overcome this obstacle, scientists with a wide range of technological expertise were assembled as collaborators on the project. Aside from FSU, researchers at universities in California, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas are involved. The labs of 13 investigators will be linked together to form a single virtual laboratory, through the use of Internet-based tools, Cross said. It is increasingly important that laboratories with diverse skills find ways to team up and work closely together to solve such major issues for world health. This project will pioneer the establishment of such a consortium.

Challenger Center Lifts Off

It was “3-2-1…lift off!” in January 2002 as construction officially got under way on the 32,000-sq. ft. Challenger Learning Center in the heart of Florida's capital city. Its primary mission is to demonstrate the wonders of space flight and aerospace engineering in ways aimed at instilling a life-long love of math, science and technology for school-age children.

Set in Tallahassee's downtown Kleman Plaza, the new center is a production of the Florida A&M/FSU College of Engineering. Chief features include a state-of-the-art space mission simulator, an IMAX theater and a domed planetarium. Boosters of the project have lofty hopes that the center will serve as both a regional educational hub as well as a new tourist destination.

The Capitol city's Challenger Center will soon take its place among the constellation of other Challenger Centers across the country. Following the horrific explosion of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986, Challenger Centers were launched as a tribute to the crew who died. The centers give school-age children opportunities to apply their math and science skills in “real-life” situations in outer space. Currently, there are centers in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Arizona, Tennessee, Louisiana and Indiana.

The center's mission simulator-eventually to include a space shuttle simulation-is designed as a mock-up of NASA's Mission Control. Visitors can get a taste of what it's like to command a mission to the International Space Station now under construction in orbit. Would-be aerospace engineers will be challenged to use their science, math and teamwork skills to resolve real-life scenarios to make sure the mission is accomplished and the astronauts make it back home safe and sound.

The 300-seat IMAX theater will feature a five-story projection screen, 8,670 watts of digital surround sound and the largest film frame in motion picture history to immerse viewers into the experience of exploring the world around them.

An adjacent 110-seat planetarium and laser theater will be nestled beneath a 50-foot dome and will use surround sound and high-tech projectors to “blast” audiences into outer space.

Organizers already envision an expansion that eventually may include a five-meter domed observatory, where viewers can observe live images of the sun, other planets, stars and the moon; and an aerospace and engineering exhibit hall housing an assortment of memorabilia from past, present and future feats in space technology. Also planned is a distance learning classroom complete with satellite uplinks for schools and other Challenger Centers across the country.

The Tallahassee center is the only Challenger Center to enjoy the direct support of two former astronauts. NormThagard, a veteran of five space flights and the first American astronaut on the Russian Space Station, Mir, is a professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. Winston Scott, now FSU's vice president for student affairs, posted three space walks during his stint with NASA.

Financial support reflects a broad coalition of community involvement. Aside from FSU and FAMU, underwriters include the City of Tallahassee, the Florida Legislature, Leon County and the Leon County School System.

Completion and a grand opening of the facility are set for March 2003. To check the progress of the Challenger Center, visit their Web site at www.eng.fsu.edu/challenger.

For-Profit Forecasting

Fed Ex, Club Med, McDonald's-what do these disparate businesses flung across the world have most in common?

They're all fat, sitting ducks to the weather.

A severe thunderstorm, blizzard, flood or hurricane can wipe out vital shipments of supplies, destroy products and deter potential customers. But not every company that feels the sting of bad weather can afford a staff meteorologist.

Enter Weather Predict-a for-profit weather forecasting service made possible in large part to the success of severe-weather research in the lab of of FSU meteorologist T.N. Krishnamurti.

Based in Raleigh, North Carolina with an office in Tallahassee, Weather Predict is the first commercial spin-off of research in meteorology based at Florida State. The start-up company offers customers an hourly check of the weather, complete with multiple real-time weather forecasts, and more. Weather Predict claims its special know-how in building and manipulating various forecasting models enables them to provide a “single consensus” forecast that is highly accurate and less prone to forecast error.

All of the start-up company's top personnel all hold advanced degrees in meteorology, science or mathematics, and some have strong ties to FSU and Krishnamurti's research.

Over the years, Krishnamurti has gained international fame for his special talents in tropical meteorology and in particular, predicting where hurricanes, once formed, will go. His research efforts focus primarily on high-resolution hurricane forecasting (including tracking the storm's path, landfall and intensity), as well as forecasting monsoons. Weather Predict takes the meteorological information gathered by Krishnamurti, as well as his expertise in analyzing the data, and gives it a real world application, providing advanced weather predicting services for its clients.

For a fee, Weather Predict provides its clientele with a daily meteorological profile custom-tailored to meet their needs-whether they need a global, regional or local forecast. Forecasts are made in one-hour increments for every 24-hour period, for a seven-day window. Forecasts cover more than 220 major population centers in the United States. New forecasts are generated hourly, 365 days a year, and are delivered to clients via email, an FTP site or through the Web site.

For more on Weather Predict, visit the company's Web site at www.weatherpredict.com.

$52M Navy Power Move

It's known as “power engineering”-a special branch of engineering that focuses on developing better ways to generate and distribute power for a variety of needs.

Florida State's ambitions to beef up its educational offerings in this increasingly important field got a major boost in May when the U.S. Office of Naval Research awarded the university's Center for Advanced Power Systems a $52 million, five-year contract.

Jim Ferner, CAPS associate director, said the center was tapped by ONR to lead a multi-university effort to help address a national shortage of qualified power engineers and to pursue basic research into new propulsion systems planned for tomorrow's navy.

Under the agreement, FSU will coordinate a partnership between CAPS and researchers at the University of South Carolina, Mississippi State University and the University of Texas at Austin. Of the $52 million coming to CAPS through 2007, FSU will distribute an estimated 60 percent to its partner institutions, Ferner said. Each campus will play different, complementary roles in the project.

ONR has a long history of funding basic academic research associated with meeting national educational objectives in science and technology. In 2000, the agency gave $12.7 million to CAPS, funding that is helping build an $11 million, 80,000-square-foot research facility in the heart of Innovation Park, near central campus.

Ferner said the first phase of the project will focus on building a testing facility for new marine propulsion systems. He said CAPS may be in line to test a 5,000-horsepower superconducting electric motor now being designed by American Superconductor, a firm under contract with ONR. The Navy has high hopes of developing a high-powered class of such motors that some day will augment all-new propulsion systems that are being designed for tomorrow's naval fleet. CAPS' Innovation Park neighbor, the National High Field Magnetic Laboratory, specializes in superconducting technology research.

In April, the Navy awarded the Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corporation a $2.88 billion, three-year contract to design the prototype for a new breed of warship that promises to test the mettle of the company's power engineering teams. Dubbed the DD-X, the prototype destroyer will feature a host of high-tech gadgetry that prominently features a power-distribution system unlike anything any naval vessel has ever seen.

All of the DD-X's onboard systems-from main propulsion to weaponry-will run on electricity supplied by massive, multiple gas turbine generators fed by diesel fuel. Navy officials say such technology-which shows promise for increased speed, stealth, crew safety and fuel economy-is the way of the future for naval defense.

Northrop Grumman will design the prototype DD-X at its Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. It's partner, Raytheon Systems Corporation of El Segundo, California, will design the ship's electrical and weapons systems. When assembly and testing is completed in 2005, the Navy will open bids for construction of the first operational destroyer featuring the new technology.

Ferner said that ONR's confidence in FSU should open doors for researchers and students to apply their newly acquired knowledge and training to a wide range of applications in industry.