rsday, March 6,2003
verdance 7 star
:es rape lawsuit
AUEGAN, II. (AP) -
erdance" star Michat
ey is being sued for S35i
by a woman whodaimslif
jd her in a Las Vegas hold
lawsuit was filed Tuesdayr
? County on behalf of i
:ago-area real estate ager:
i says she flew to Las Vegas
sit Flatley in October
e lawsuit says the worn,
ise name was not revealed
in the private bedroon
of Flatley's suite at k
etian Resort Hotel-Ca*
n he raped her.
tley's lawyer, Bert Fields
ed the allegations
olutely false."
here is no truth to it what
rer. The evidence tothi!
ct is overwhelming, 1
is said.
■Ids said the woman tat
i months ago to daiit
ey had raped her unlessle
her. He said Flatley refused
ay.
Jeff Carlson of the las
is Police Department sai
nesday that the worn
rted the alleged attack It
:e but declined to press
ges.
an Auro, an attorney forth
ran, said she met the W
old dance star at an even!
as Vegas in September
ro said Flatley invited hertt
him for a day of sightsee
shopping and gambling.
iliani's 'Leadership
eeds million marl
GIULIANI
W YORK (AP) - For
>r Ruolph Giuliani's t
ig book, "Leadership,"
aded more than one mi-
copies in print since is
se in October. Jonathan
ham, president of
s, which
I i s h e d
Jeaship,"
Giuliani
authored
ection of
tations
will be
along-
:opies of
book
ming May 7.
nink what's remarkable ns
blishing phenomenon, is
jst that here are now one
n copies in print, but also
ite of sale has been si
the beginning of the year,'
ram told the Daily
ednesday's editions,
augh a spokeswoman
ni told the newspaper he
'truly honored and
to have reached the mile
of one million copies,
book of quotes,
ership Through the Ages,
elude sayings from histoi-
figures like Eleanor
rvelt, Winston Churcf
/illiam Shakespeare,
iham said the form
's next book will be
»ir about his career as
I prosecutor in Manhattan
s America' will
in Atlantic Citf
iNTIC CITY, NJ. (AP)-
she is. And there she' 1
for now.
America Organization
Is signed a five-year coo'
Tuesday to keep It
/ pageant in Atlantif
T months after threaten’
leave.
deal, which will contfflt
nual $678,000 subsid)
the Atlantic Ci|
ition & Visitors Authoiil)
itions that could add H
3 the term,
mportant, perhaps, if
t doesn't call for: 0
ies.
t from buying ligi!
und equipment needet
ke Boardwalk Hall If
for the annual teleri’
how, the convention
ity didn't have to sweet
a pot, said chains
jliano.
change for the subsid)
-kind services to Miss
a, the authority gets at
: City plug on the an#
ant telecast and used
gning Miss America to
earances each year d
lows and other events
America really doesnt
anywhere but in
City," Juliano said.
SciITech
■ the Battalion Page 5 • rinirsday, March 6, 2003
Trotter lecture touts scientific heavy-hitters
By Robert Stackhouse
THE BATTALION
Two distinguished professors pitted religion
against the human mind Tuesday in the second
Trotter Endowed Lecture Series, bringing differ
ing viewpoints to the ongoing debate about
God’s place in the world of science, as well as
the rest of the universe.
JP BEATO III • THE BATTALION
Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne, former professor
of mathematical physics and president of
Queens College, Cambridge
Dr. Alan Guth, a physics professor from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the
Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne, an Anglican priest
and former professor of mathematical physics
and president of Queens College in Cambridge,
were this year’s lecturers.
Guth and Polkinghorne presented two sides to a
story that is as yet unfinished.
“God is the ordainer and sustainer of natural
laws,” Polkinghorne said. “In my view, religion and
scientific theory can live in hanuony.”
The big-bang theory ties into what
Polkinghorne has to say about God’s role in the
universe.
“No explanatory system of the universe can have
an unexplained starting point. Nothing comes from
nothing,” he said.
Guth, however, struck a more humanistic tone.
“Do we really need the concept of God to under
stand the universe. I don't really see how God helps
this idea. I do believe there is a purpose for our exis
tence, but I believe it is a purpose that we must find
for ourselves,” Guth said.
Regardless of their views, both scientists bring a
lot to the table when it comes to scientific theory.
Guth is known as the father of the inflationary
universe theory - a tie-in to the classic big-bang
theory - which proposes that the universe started
in an extremely small state, where the laws of
physics are not applicable.
“Inflationary theory takes advantage of results
from modern particle physics, which predicts that
at very high energies there should exist peculiar
kinds of substances which actually turn gravity on
its head and produce repulsive gravitational
forces,” Guth said.
A form of matter possessing high energy would
be capable of producing a sort of reverse gravity that
drives objects away from each other, a concept
known as gravitational repulsion. Assuming that a
small portion of this matter was present at the very
beginning of the universe, Guth’s theory proposes
that only an amount one billion times smaller than a
proton is all that was necessary to set in motion the
expansion of our universe.
“The universe today is in fact not slowing down
due to gravity,” Guth said. “It is in fact accelerating.
This acceleration is attributed to repulsive gravity
material, which goes by the name of ‘dark energy’
because we don't know what it is.”
This dark energy is believed to comprise 60
percent of the matter in the universe, according
to modern astronomers.
Polkinghorne takes a more metaphysical
approach to his theory of the origin of the uni
verse. He suggests that the existence of scientific
law does not discount the existence of God, nor
does the existence of God discount science.
To explain the phenomenal ability of mankind to
explain the mechanics of the universe around us
JP Bl.ATO III • THE BATTALION
Dr. Alan Guth, professor of physics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
with the use of physics, Polkinghorne said that the
physical laws of the universe and human imagina
tion share a common source.
“The reason is our minds and the structure of
the universe have a common origin,” he said.
“That is God.”
The Trotter Endowed Lecture Series was
established in the memory of Dr. Ide P. Trotter,
former dean of the Graduate School at Texas
A&M, in Fall 2001.
Artificial skin provides hope for burn victims, despite high cost
By Justin Pope
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — For many of the badly
burned survivors of the Rhode Island
nightclub disaster, the best hope for a
successful recovery may lie in a sub
stance that is manmade and half-alive.
Artificial skin nurtures the body’s
own skin cells, sometimes even deceiv
ing them as they struggle to grow and
replace burned tissue. The technology is
promising — but doctors warn it’s costly
and not always completely effective.
Covering a patient who is 50 percent
burned can require $50,000 worth of the
material, said Dr. Paul Taheri, director of
the University of Michigan Trauma Bum
Center. The new skin also remains vul
nerable to infections.
“While it’s awfully useful, it’s not the
thing that we hoped: to be able in one set
ting to completely replace skin that has
burned,” said Dr. Colleen Ryan, a co
director of the bum unit at Massachusetts
General Hospital.
“It’s never like God made it again,”
she added.
The Feb. 20 fire at The Station
nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., killed
98 people and injured more than 180,
many of whom were critically burned.
Investigators believe a rock band’s
pyrotechnics ignited polyurethane
foam used for soundproofing, causing
the fast-moving blaze.
Burned, dead skin must be
replaced with something that does
everything the old skin did: regulate
temperature, keep in fluids and keep
out invaders like bacteria.
One option is to move a thin layer of
healthy skin from elsewhere on the body
to cover the burn. But if more than 50
percent of the body is burned, there obvi
ously isn’t enough healthy skin. Skin
from cadavers can help temporarily, but
after a few weeks will be rejected by the
body’s immune system.
Two companies that have attempted
to market artificial skin have had
mixed success.
San Diego-based Advanced Tissue
Sciences Inc., the maker of one leading
product called TransCyte, has been
forced to turn production over to British
firm Smith & Nephew after filing for
bankruptcy protection.
The other leading product, Integra, by
Integra LifeSciences of Plainsboro, N.J.,
reported record fourth-quarter profits last
month, but its artificial skin product
accounts for only $4.3 million of the
company’s $117.8 million in annual rev
enue, estimates First Albany analyst
William J. Plovanic.
“There’s a big difference between a
good technology and a good business,”
Plovanic said.
TransCyte helps repair the upper, or
epithelial layer of skin, while Integra is
used to reconstruct the lower layer, called
the dermis.
TransCyte contains skin cells called
fibroblasts, which act as a kind of skin
stem cell, growing, if conditions allow,
into the variety of tissues that comprise
healthy skin.
But they don’t just grow; they need
something to cling to, and TransCyte is
made of a kind of scaffolding, not unlike
a garden lattice that encourages vines to
grow up around it.
Patients with third-degree burns,
however, may require Integra to
replace the dermal skin layer. It also
provides a kind of scaffolding that
helps the dermis regenerate itself, in
part by tricking it into thinking there
are healthy epithelial cells above it.
SPECIALTIES
PHOTOGRAPHY
'Engagement
'BricCaC
'Wedding Day
979 260 9016
www.speciaCpfioto.com
3514 East 29tCi S
Birth Control
(including the new patch)
Emergency Contraception
Pregnancy Tests
Treatment of Infections
HIV testing
Breast Exams
Annual Exams
1 .800.230.PLAN www.pphouston.org
Bryan Clinic: 41 12 E. 29th St., Bryan, TX 77802
Bring in this ad for $10 off office visit
. ceci* 15
Lunch SP
Soups, Sala<* 5
sandwiches
KUI * 260-8850
r%