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THE BATTALION Page 3
THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1978
pon
es of
mut-
e in-
se is
igh construction costs make
sub-surface homes, businesses popular
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ROTHER’S BOOKSTORE
340 Jersey — At the Southgate
High utilities and construction
sts are driving folks up the wall
and may soon drive them under-
>wer
ig a
tion.
; her
it an
the
nger
its
la, it
lifor-
;den,
mea-
; the
One solution being adopted by
increasing numbers of people is
sub-surface homes.
Homes, housing developments,
even business complexes may be
leaded underground, where com-
ort can be had for lower cost.
Preparation for the move is
jlanned at Texas A&M University,
through an Earthshelter Research
facility. The project, by Texas
&M’s Texas Engineering Experi
ment Station, will provide for test
ing of sub-surface construction ma-
|erials, techniques and practices.
It relies on the expertise of civil
ngineers Bob Callaway, Dr. Dale
Webb and Gary Sorensen.
Underground house plans range
from completely underground living
space to partly buried homes—to let
in light and breezes--to earth-
mound techniques.
History shows man has long
known the benefits of living under
ground, Webb said. At depths near
30 feet, a six-month lag occurs be
tween air and soil temperatures. It
is coolest there during the hottest
part of the year and warmest in the
winter.
“The only way we can solve the
problems and learn sub-surface con
struction is to get down among the
elements and do it,” Webb said.
“When something is built, we can
study the temperatures, humidities,
air flow rates, condensation and
Chemist copies nature’s way
ground temperature factors.”
The facility they plan will utilize a
tract of almost 11 acres at Texas
A&M Research Extension Center in
Bryan. Contoured to a plan devised
by Sorensen and Webb, it will fea
ture groups of excavation sites on
which “earthhomes” or “earthshel-
ters” can be constructed and tested.
The site is next to the Heavy
Equipment Training Division of the
Texas Engineering Extension Serv
ice, another unit of Texas A&M.
TEES trainees will cut excavations
and a holding pond, using spoil to
build a sound-blocking, wind
channeling and view-enhancing
berm around the acreage.
“It’s typical, flat Texas terrain,
like is found in Houston and Dal
las,” Sorensen said. “As is, it has a
good view to the south but buildings
make it unspectacular in other di
rections.”
Scott receives grant
to continue research
Dr. A. Ian Scott of Texas A&M
University has received a $62,353
National Science Foundation grant
to continue his basic research into
copying natural processes that pro-
,duce vitamins, hormones and pro
tein.
Such processes can be duplicated
in the laboratory, Scott explains, but
must rely on an enzyme catalyst that
does not naturally occur in the living
tissue.
“We re not trying to create life in
a test tube here,” Scott said. “We
fust want to copy the same processes
nature uses in making vitamins,
hormones, antibiotics and protein
without interjecting an outside
enzyme.
“Nature has a machinery for mak
ing these things and we are trying to
copy nature,” said Scott, one of the
world’s foremost organic chemists.
“This is a very primitive model
we re evolving,” he noted. “We’re a
long way from using DNA in this
research. Right now, we are using a
simpler polymer from one of the
basic elements in genetic material.”
Studies by Scott and his research
team are just now becoming fully
operational at Texas A&M following
his move here last year from Yale
University.
House votes conservatively
on emotional social issues
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The House
said “no” to abortions for the poor,
no” to hiring quotas for minorities,
and “yes” to an across-the-board cut
of $1.8 billion before approving $56
billion for the Labor and HEW De
partments next year.
The conservative stands on two of
the most emotional social issues in
the country promised another long,
hard fight with the Senate before
f final enactment of the bill financing
the two departments for the fiscal
year that starts Oct. 1.
On a 212-198 vote, the House re
jected a compromise proposal that
could have headed off another long
abortion battle with the Senate. In
stead it insisted poor women receive
federally funded abortions only if
the continued pregnancy would
threaten their lives.
In addition, the House voted
232-177 for an amendment blocking
use of federal funds to draft or im
plement programs setting broad
J targets, numerical goals or timeta
bles to increase minority college
! enrollment and minority hiring or
promotion.
The House last week cut $1 bil
lion from the HEW budget to
encourage a war on fraud, waste and
abuse in its programs, and Tuesday
it pared another $800 million as a
cost-cutting measure before giving
final approval to the combined bill
on a 338-61 vote.
On a 287-122 vote, the House de
feated an amendment by Rep. Louis
Stokes, D-Ohio, to strike all restric
tions on federally funded abortions
and give poor women the same ac
cess to legal abortions as wealthier
women who can afford them.
Then the House defeated, 212-
198, an amendment by Democratic
Leader Jim Wright of Texas to sub
stitute the compromise language in
current law that settled last year’s
abortion dispute.
That language now permits feder
ally funded abortions in cases of
rape and incest if the attacks are re
ported to law officers or public
health authorities, and to women
who would suffer “severe and
longlasting” health damage by con
tinuing the pregancy.
Anti-abortionists argued the law
has been interpreted too liberally by
HEW and resulted in too many
abortions.
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Perimeter buildup with dirt from
homesites and the “lake” will block
undesired views and provide wind
control. On the north side the earth
airfoil will send the winter wind up
and over homesites.
“A gentle slope on the southern
side will feature broader breaks to
accelerate summer breezes and
cause them to swirl around inside,”
Sorensen pointed out on a plan
view.
Building sites are planned to
match natural slope drainage, to
remove water by gravity from
around the structures.
No buildings are now planned.
“But we ll have an area on which we tN/
can probally interest builders and N.
contractors in testing earthshel- N
ters, Webb said. S.
“At the worst it will be refilled as
a heavy equipment training
project,” he smiled.
Battalion Classifieds
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For more information call
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