r
Weather!
Clear to partly cloudy Wed
nesday; partly cloudy
Thursday. High both days
mid-90’s. Low tonight 74.
Che Battalion
Inside
Pollution detector p. 6
Turbines p. 7
Defense
.p. 9
Vol. 68 No. 126
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, July 9, 1975
fcliiiiihiiliBilitaiMi'utilities compromise likely
Degree deadline set
Degree application deadline for the second summer session is
Friday, July 18.
Students who expect to be graduated this summer must file
for the degree by the deadline. Registrar Robert Lacey said
applications must be made by graduate and undergraduate stu
dents.
He noted that the application is the responsibility of the
graduating student.
Applications are taken in the Richard Coke Building, after
payment of an $8 graduation fee in the Fiscal Office. Under
graduates make formal application by presenting fee receipts in
Room 7.
Graduate student applications are taken in the office of the
Graduate College, Room 209.
Summer commencement, with Speaker of the Texas House of
Representatives Bill Clayton as speaker, will be Aug. 15.
Funds total reported
New research funds for TAMU totaled $1,856,802 during
June, bringing the cumulative total for fiscal year 1974-75 up to
$32,984,054.
The College of Science had the largest influx of funds last
month, $808,060, most of which came in the form of grants from
the Welch Foundation to 38 professors for chemistry projects.
The College of Engineering was second in the Office of Univer
sity Research’s monthly tabulations, with $610,342, followed by
Agriculture, $306,447; Geosciences, $78,532, and Liberal Arts,
$53,421.
TAMU ranks 18th on the National Science Foundation’s list of
the leading universities in research and development expendi
tures.
Pool to open soon
Wofford Cain Olympic Pool should be back in operation in
about two weeks, Dr. C. W. Landiss, head of the Health and
Physical Education Department, announced Tuesday.
The swimming pool has been closed because of clouded
water.
Landiss said Dr. William L. Hoover, state chemist who is
based on campus, analyzed the water and determined the
problem was the result of a chemical reaction between lime that
blew over from the adjacent parking lot construction and the
paint applied to the pool earlier in the season.
The manufacturer of the paint has agreed to prepare a special
mixture and apply it at no cost to the university, Landiss noted.
He said the July 24 target date is dependent on favorable
weather conditions.
Color film movie
“The Imperfect Miracle,’ a film about custom still color
photography, will be shown by the MSC Camera Committee on
July 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rudder Center Forum. The film
features Ulric Meisel of Dallas, and will be followed by a discus
sion of the new darkroom facilities in the MSC. Interested
persons are invited to attend.
Refrigerators due
Students may turn in their refrigerators in the basement of
the old hospital from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. until this Friday. Re
frigerators will also be available for rent at $6 for the second
summer term, with a $10 deposit.
Registration set
Registration for the second summer term will be held to
morrow in Duncan Dining Hall. Students whose last name
begin with “H” through “O” will register from 8 to 9:15 a.m.,
“P” through “Z” from 9:15 to 10:45, and “A” through “G” from
10:45 to 12:00. After enrolling for classes, students will turn in
fee assessments and assignment-class cards in G. Rollie White
Coliseum. Classes will begin Friday after fees are paid in the
coliseum.
Piano rooms open
Four piano practice rooms are now open for student use in
the Memorial Student Center basement. One room will be
available strictly on a reservation basis (Call 845-6942). The
other three rooms will be on a first come, first served basis. A
student needs to show his or her ID card of a current fee slip to
use these facilities.
Auditions scheduled
Auditions for “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” the
second dinner theater production this summer, will be held
Thursday and Friday in the MSC ballroom. Players are needed
to fill three male and two female parts. The part of Snoopy will
be chosen on ability alone, regardless of gender. Rehearsals will
start Friday, with the play being staged July 31 and August 1, 7,
and 8. Tickets are nowon sale in the Rudder Center Box Office.
“Bus” tickets on sale
Tickets are available in the Rudder Center Box Office for
the presentation of “Bus Stop” by the Premier Players. They
play will be performed at 8 p.m. on July 10-12 in the Rudder
Center Forum, and all seats will cost $1.00.
Grove opens Friday
Friday night will see “Bonnie and Clyde” return to the
A&M campus, as the Grove reopens its movie series after a
break for the holidays and first term exams. Saturday night’s film
will be “The Owl and the Pussycat”. “Zachariah” will be shown
Sunday.
Mlart seeks books
The Student Government Book Mart is seeking used
books. It will be open every day this week. Students should go to
the second floor of the MSC, in rooms 216 A, B, andE, to either
sell or to buy used books. The Book Mart will be open from 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Councils to vote on proposal
By JERRY NEEDHAM
City Editor
A College Station subcommittee
on electrical utilities met with a
Bryan subcommittee last Wednes
day to try to iron out disagreements
over the utilities rate increase.
Lloyd Joyce, Bryan mayor, said,
“We came out of the meeting with
the understanding that they (the
College Station City Council) would
come back with some type of new
proposal.”
Councilman Jim Dozier, of Col
lege Station, yesterday said, “I will
make a motion presenting a
counter-proposal to the city of
Bryan at the Thursday night (Col
lege Station City Council) meeting.
We think we have an agreement
that this particular subcommittee
can live with.
None of the subcommittee mem
bers would reveal what figures the
new proposal might offer but there
were indications the figure will be a
compromise between the two cities
offers.
“If we have room to give in work
ing with them it’s probably in the
water rather than the electricity,”
said Joyce.
Dozier said, “The whole con
troversy arises over the cost of sup
plying electricity to the city of Col
lege Station.
If a new proposal is submitted,
Joyce said the Bryan Council will
meet on Saturday or early next week
to act on it.
According to Dozier and Joyce, if
either council does not approve a
new proposal the matter will end up
in court.
“I think the future of the two
cities lies together,” said Dozier. “I
think if College Station went to
other sources it would drive a
wedge between the two cities which
would be impossible to remove in
the future. We could go to court and
have a great deal of difficulty and we
would still not have a working ar
rangement with Bryan when the
contract expires.
Gary Halter, College Station
councilman, who was not at the
meeting and was unaware of any ag
reements reached at the meeting
said, “I think the offer we made was
more than fair. Their demands for
an increase are vague and unsatis
factory, and I will vote against any
increase other than what we have
offered.”
All America
selections
in full bloom
Flowers in the TAMU Floral
Test Garden remain fresh even
in July heat. The test garden is
located on the southern edge of
the campus near the Educa
tional Television Building.
Photo by Tom Kaysei
TAMU to train utility workers
as U.S. accepts nuclear power
The United States is on the
threshold of a nuclear power-
production age. TAMU’s Nuclear
Science Center, with its research
reactor, is expected to be a major
facility for training people to work in
the field.
Non-nuclear engineers from var
ious Texas utilities already have re
ceived a firmer grasp of many fun
damental principles following train
ing on the research reactor.
The TAMU reactor can also
simultaneously accommodate a
large number of experiments. As a
result, irradiation services are pro
vided to other colleges and univer
sities, hospitals and research cen
ters, governmental agencies and
commercial and private organiza
tions.
“Since the reactor has been in op
eration, it has provided services to
24 university departments, 92 other
colleges and universities, eight gov
ernmental agencies and 45 com
mercial organizations. Last year a
total of 6,166 samples were ir
radiated for all users,” said Dr. John
Randall, director of the Nuclear
Science Center.
“The reactor core, which isn’t
much bigger than a breadbox is sus
pended from a movable bridge in a
water-filled, 150,000-gallon pool,
Randall said. “The reactor can be
moved next to a window in the large
end of the pool to provide radiation
to a large exposure room. The room
can be used to irradiate large ani
mals, a group of small animals or
complete engineering systems to
study the effect of mixed radiation
on their performance.”
Radiations provided by the reac
tor can be classified as fast neutrons.
thermal neutrons and gamma rays.
Fast neutrons are produced directly
by fission. After undergoing a
number of collisions, the fission
neutrons lose energy until they are
in thermal equilibrium with the
pool water. These are called ther
mal neutrons. Gamma rays are pro
duced directly by fission and by the
radioactive decay of the fission pro
ducts in the fuel elements.
“Isotopes produced at the center
are used in many ways, Randall
said. “Many of the isotopes are used
in tracer experiments.
Spectrometer may be
used as cancer detector
The assault on cancer and heart
attacks is being aided by a one-of-a-
kind device at TAMU.
The world’s largest Mass Spec
trometer, called “Maggie” (Mass
Analyzer of Gossamer Groups of
Ionized Entities), may hold the sec
ret to detecting many diseases even
before symptoms appear to the vic
tim.
“Maggie,” according to head ol
the research group, Dr. R. D. Mac-
Farlane, can take a blood sample
and simultaneously analyze it for
1,000 different chemicals.
“Currently, we are studying vari
ous biological molecules that have
potential use for cancer therapy,”
MacFarlane said. “We re analyzing
samples of anti-tumor drugs from all
over the world.
“As scientists develop and refine
new drugs, they inject them into
mice and look for anti-tumor activ
ity,” he said. “If it is spotted they
ship the drug to us to analyze so they
will know exactly what they’ve got.
“This research group is also
studying a class of neuro-toxins
found in a species of frogs in Central
America that has medical applica
tions,” MacFarlane said. “This toxin
will be used in the study of heart
disease. With it at any time a re
searcher can stimulate a heart attack
in an animal so the heart attack can
be studied.
“This is the only spectroscope in
the world that can study these com
pounds, so right now we have a uni
que capability, he said.
The 30-foot-long machine of
aluminum and steel has been in op
eration about a year and a half.
Monday the Energy Research and
Development Administration
notified TAMU that the project had
been funded an additional $38,000.
With “Maggie,” a routine blood
test can be turned into a complete
analysis that can be compared with
known disease patterns. Early iden
tification of the chemicals associated
,with a disease, can lead to earlier
treatment.
The device uses irradiation for
identifying chemical molecules and
biological compounds. The time of
flight of the resulting ion down the
30-foot tube allows measurements
as fine as one-tenth of one-billionth
of a second. This in turn, allows ac
curate identification of molecules.
The device is so sensitive that
local radio station interference had
to be shielded from the wiring on
the instrument. The magnetic pull
of the earth carried the ion com
pletely out of the tube and necessi
tated the use of an anti-magnetic
shield. Finally, an energized wire
was run the length of “Maggie” to
induce a spiral orbit of the ion
around the wire to get it to the end
of the tube.
“We have developed a new ap
proach which solves the problems of
isolation of individual molecules
that are fragile and break easily
when exposed to heat. We have ob
tained data on well-known
molecules such as cholesterol, vit
amins, and various amino acids to
demonstrate that this technique is
indeed one which can be used to
obtain structure information on
biologically important molecules,”
MacFarlane said.
Project members include Mac
Farlane, Dr. David Torgerson, Dr.
Kunja Chung and Raymond
Skoronski.
“A classic example of this is the
irradiation of a piston ring, ” he said.
“When this radiactive piston ring is
placed in an operating engine, the
radioactivity picked up in the oil can
be used to determine the amount of
wear on the ring with great accua-
racy.
“Another more recent application
is putting radioactive tracers in
oil-well piping to measure the cor
rosion rate of pipe that is imbedded
as much as three miles below the
earth’s surface in an acidic environ
ment of high temperature and pres
sure,” Randall said.
“Neutron radiography is also
done here at TAMU, he said. “It is
very sensitive to the lighter ele
ments like hydrogen. Neutron
radiography is so sensitive that it
can detect a tiny drop of water
through several inches of lead.
“An example of an important use
today is to insure that plastic items
are properly located inside metal
devices after manufacture, ” Randall
said. “An example is the inspection
of explosive bolts such as those used
to close hatch covers on spacecraft
to insure the plastic explosive is in
deed in the device and in proper
contact with the fuse.
“These examples show that the
research reactor at TAMU has a
wide variety of uses in research, de
velopment, and routine quality con
trol and inspection,” he said.
“There are undoubtedly many other
problems that could be solved by
the nuclear facilities. It only re
quires that someone with an inquir
ing mind ask, Ts it possible that nuc
lear technology could solve this
problem?’
1
Plane lands
on campus
polo field
The TAMU Flying Club
brought one of its planes to
campus to advertise a member
ship drive. The plane was land
ed Monday on the Polo field
and pushed in front of Krueger-
Dunn Dormitory by club mem
bers.
Photo by Tom Kayser
J