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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1980)
THE BATTALION MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1980 Page 7 Frozen zoo'may offer help Love-trio killer convicted ^ United Press Internatinn»l broker who lived next door to Jacob- Jacobson was not hom« for endangered species ‘t there nj.1 thryiie LH: United Press International 'liege,Pen DIEGO — Try to imagine o qualifv he woolly mammoth, a prehistoric nd of pljjfleaturc extinct for more than 10,000 'ears, suddenly springing to life spmiL Jr ■ , he' s “no!^' ie ic l ea * s fantastic, indcon ^ >r - Kurt Benirschke, re- ^ av y W( . earth director of the San Diego Zoo, combat ays't is possible. He is curator of the dintere vorlc l’ s onl y “frozen zoo.” ti vi The frozen zoo is actually a small Eisenho Mi meta l container in the zoo’s re- )do iC ' ear( l* laboratory. It is about the size >f a small refrigerator. more jol< h this container are the living Mess coolftp bom more than 400 species of room.’ 1 wials, stored in liquid nitrogen at me met 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Soon, it ibat eiilifiM will include living embryos, se- larecapallPeh and eggs. s great l:t Eight now, the primary work of d on an ire he “frozen zoo” is to keep a ware- rouse of living cells on hand “to I as the t>hec k the future progeny and ances- gresstor- rylof the endangered species at the moment :oo Benirschke said. , , For example, if a lowland gorilla is 'Bn with a genetic defect, the cells )fi[s parents can be thawed out and " he c hromosomes examined to find 1 " , )ut why. The process has also led to u 111 discovery of genetic differences be- ' ween animals that were once consi- lered to be alike. appost g ||t more f an tastic projects are on ombat, hhT the horizon. They include embryo transplants, artificial insemination and even cloning. There are cases on record in which nearly perfect specimens of the woolly mammoth have been disco vered in the snows of the frozen tun dra of Siberia. Benirschke said it is within the realm of possibility that a mammoth could someday be reco vered with living cells intact. “If you had such intact cells of a mammoth,” Benirschke said, “one could dream of ultimately taking an elephant embryo, injecting into it cells of the mammoth, implanting the embryo back into the elephant, and producing a mammoth at the San Diego Zoo. “It’s a dream. The problem is that it is very, very unlikely that you can find mammoth cells that are undam aged. The natural freezing process is so slow that ice crystals would most likely form that would destroy the nucleus of the cells. When we freeze cells here, we use protectants to guard against formation of ice crys tals.” Benirschke is reluctant to talk ab out such sensational ideas as bring ing extinct species back to life. “Why do you talk about the mam moth?” he asked. “The purpose of our research, and what is possible, is preventing the extinction of en dangered species.” The researcher cited a prediction by Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, that three- quarters of the animal species living today will be extinct in 25 years be cause of man’s encroachment on their natural habitats. “You need to be in a position to have self-sustaining colonies of anim als that you wish to save,” he said. “You have to draw up a list of 200 or 500 species that you know are going down the tubes.” The researcher envisions a master plan in which zoos and animal pre serves around the world would take on the responsibility of sustaining a breeding colony of a certain species. The “frozen zoo” would play a ma jor role in such an international effort, he said. Frozen animal embryos and semen could be easily shipped from zoo to zoo, thawed, and placed inside females of a spe cies. In the case of embryo trans plants, even stand-in mothers of another but similar species would do, such as a lion being given the embryo of an endangered snow leopard. The transplants, along with artifi cial insemination, would guard against in-breeding of a zoo popula tion, achieve maximum reproduc tion of its stock, and help replenish a species depleted by natural disaster, such as a flood, he said. or cot Computers still hot understood United Press International NEW YORK — Twenty-five years nd subji ifter the inception of the electronic erschiekjomputer, the data processing de- <1 Htments in many companies still ■nw^pe^te like runaway locomotives, y of State ^ ys J° se P h E ' Izzo - ]• - Izzo runs a consulting firm with 1 a s y offices in Los Angeles and Chicago I ^ t | t that specializes in acute data proces- r hani s,n £ headaches and outright disas- 'elatSk h * s l ess likely,” he said, “that the nerica’s ^ or runawa Y locomotive syn- y drome rests with the computer oper- I ations people than with the top man agement of a company. ” ' Top executives, Izzo said, being )y a niar(fUnfarniliar with the computer tend to > supporl be afraid of it and lack confidence in jycott Ik their ability to control its operation ’s invasii the way they control the rest of the business. r In consequence, he said, many data processing departments are overstaffed and underproductive. A i few are inefficient because they are / 2 tl (understaffed. ^ •. “Too often top management is * watching the wrong part of the EDP iflOfcperation — the hardware instead of the people,” Izzo said. “When things vanja pj §° wrong, they are tempted just to order new hardware and ignore the real problem, which is their own fai- ine delijlure to learn about the system and its Bush t personnel.” . Failure of top management to ‘ iyu \ come to grips with the need to ’ 1)11 understand and control the compu- ;roup « r ter department can lead to all sorts of jabsurdities, Izzo said. I MU' “j t ’ s not uncomm0 n under such circumstances, he said, “to find the EDP executives living in a little world of their own and spending ■555 their time on development of reports and systems, that are of little use to management and may not have much to do with the company’s actual business. As a result, you find such oddities, he says, as a company believing its EDP department costs $5 million a year, when the real cost is above $10 million. Or the case in which the EDP department worked three months on a project to cut five days off the production cycle of one of a company’s product lines only to be told when they finished that unless 10 or 15 days could be cut, the com pany would have to give up the busi ness. There are three conventional ways of dealing with acute or chronic com puter sickness in a company, Izzo said. One is to sell the equipment to a computer operating firm and then buy service from that firm. Another is to contract with a firm like Izzo’s to come in and take over the complete operation until the problem is solved. This may take a year to 18 months, he said. The third is to hire a competent consultant to give advice and fight the battle yourself with his help until things are straightened out. Naturally, Izzo thinks his method is the cheapest in the long run and the most certain to succeed. The least desirable, he said, is just washing your hands of the computer room and turning it over to an out side operator permanently. “During the years ahead,” he said, ( “only those companies are going to ! get by whose top managements stop ; being afraid of the computer and | learn to control the data processing department themselves just as they do any other operation. “Those who don’t will find all their operations bogging down like a Cali fornia company I encountered not long ago whose management couldn’t understand how they had accumulated a two-year backlog of undelivered orders.” Barcelona \ Your place in the sun, Spacious Apartments with New Carpeting. Security guard, well lighted parking areas, close to cam pus and shopping areas, on the shuttle bus route. 700 Dominik, College Station 693-0261 Last Nov. 21, veterinarians at the San Diego Wild Animal Park re moved an embryo from a Cretan goat and implanted it into the womb of a Barbados sheep. At the same time, two pigmy goats received Cretan goat embryos, and as a control ex periment, to check procedure, a Cretan goat embryo was implanted into a like species. All of the embryos were live and not frozen. “Early pregnancy is promising,” said Dr. Barbara Durrant, who heads the project. The embryo transplants are the first ever involving zoo animals of different species. In an earlier pro ject, Durrant removed a rat embryo from a pregnant female, froze it in liquid nitrogen, then thawed and im planted it into an adult female, lead ing to the birth of Crystal. A future embryo transplant may involve the scimitar horned oryx that Durrant hand-raised from birth at the zoo. She is looking for an Arabian oryx, the animal responsible for the unicorn legend, as a donor. Also planned is an embryo switch be tween the Przewalski horse from Mongolia, now extinct in the wild, and a domestic horse. “Obviously what can be done with people or mice or cattle can be done with endangered species,” Benirs chke said. How small is it? United Press International SARNIA, Ont. — Scientists at Dow Chemical of Canada Ltd., trying to explain the concept of one part per trillion, have conceived of an awesomely dry martini. One part per trillion, the scientists say, would be roughly equivalent to a drop of vermouth in 250,000 hogs heads of gin. Dow’s researchers also proffered “the relationship of one flea to 360,000,000 elephants” to lend scale to the ratios with which they work. One part per trillion would also be equivalent to one second in 320 cen turies, a pinch of salt on 10,000 tons of potato chips, one misspelling on all the front pages of2,000 newspap ers publishing daily since the inven tion of the printing press. TASCO TIRE & WHEEL New in Town by AGGIE GRADS Open Monday to Saturday 8 A.M.-6 P.M. SALE Retail Price Distributor Special A7814 $ 33.52 $23.52 Flyer E7814 $ 37.75 $27.75 (poly.) G7814 $ 39.97 $29.97 G7815 $ 40.81 $30.81 Super Stag N7815 $ 84.52 $72.55 bold tread 10-15 $ 92.00 $79.21 with raised 12-15 $110.35 $95.54 white letters 9.50-16.5 $105.10 $90.87 SUPER STAG The Bold One 3700 S. College 846-1912 109-111 Boyett St (Next Door To Campus Theater) 846-8223 w/yu * HAPPY HOUR Monday through Friday BEER Vz PRICE Mlchelob & Coors on Tap. DOLLAR DAYS #2s (Pressed Ham & Cheese) and #11s (Turkey & Cheese) Sf 00 Just I Monday and Tuesday THE FRIDAY BIG MEAL Roast Beef & Cheese or Peppered Beef & Cheese or Ham & Cheese Sandwich, 16 oz. beer or soft drink and chips. $^49 3 p.m.-6 p.m. Frl. £ April 18 Only (Reg. S3.00) OPEN 7 DAYS — WEEKDAYS 11 a.m.-l a.m. FRL & SAT. 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Ask About Our 2-Foot and 4-Foot Subs. We'll Cater Your Party — Call Us! United Press International NEW YORK — Howard “Buddy” Jacobson, once the leading horse trainer in the nation, Saturday was found guilty of murder in the slaying of his rival for the affections of cover- girl Melanie Cain. The jury found that Jacobson, 49, had murdered John Tupper, a res taurateur with whom Cain, 24, had been living. Earlier, the jury heard the testi mony of Leslie Hammond, a stock broker who lived next door to Jacob son on the seventh floor of his Man hattan apartment building. Tupper lived down the corridor on the same floor. Hammond’s testimony corrobo rated Cain’s testimony that Jacobson was there shortly before the slaying, and discounted statements by a doorman in the building next door who said he saw Jacobson leave at 9 a.m. The defense had maintained Jacobson was not home at the time Tupper was murdered and claimed that the restaurateur was killed by drug dealers over a narcotics sale. Cain moved out of Jacobson’s apartment and into Tupper’s two weeks before the murder. She testi fied for 9 days as the key prosecution witness and the credibility of the model’s account appeared to be a key issue for the jury of nine men and three women. KEN MARTIN'^ - st&K, Try our Great-Tastin' CHICKEN FRIED STEAK $ 1" special served with baked potato or french fries. Reg $2.69. Good Mon.-Thurs. from 4:30 P.M.-10 P.M. Tyfer expires Thurs., April 17 SPECIAL NOTICE Optional Board Plan Summer Students may dine on the board plan during the first session of summer school at Texas A&M University. Each board student may dine three meals each day except Sunday evening if the seven day plan is selected, and three meals each day, Monday through Friday, if the five day plan is preferred. Each meal is served in the Commons. Fees for each session are payable to the Controller of Accounts, Fiscal Office, Coke building. Board fees for each plan are as follows: Plans First Session Seven Day - $160.95 June 2 through July 3 Five Day - $145.71 and plus tax July 7 through July 9 Day students. Including graduate students may purchase either of the board plans. *±0 «£• nL* •X* sL* <sL* si* sL* "Af * - 25% OFF! ‘’"V- 4:- P?'# X '* T ■■ . . A ALL. WOMEN'S AND T-SHIRT DRESSES! KLOUPOT'SK Special good through Sat., April 19 Northgate — At the Corner Across from the Post Office «JLa —il— --.l,— *JLa —L- —Jf- ^3i0 f <6 ^/7 Great Buys and a Great Show Tonight through Thursday 8-11 p.m. on CHANNEL 15 This ad made possible in part by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.