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Textile industry spins tales of high tech recovery
Blan Godfrey, Laura Wright, College of TextilesNASCAR driver flies dog to vet appointment in North Carolina
Dave Green, College of Veterinary MedicineDiaz eyeing MTSU post
Manny Diaz, athleticsFrom the field
Cooperative Extension, N.C. Sea Grant
Hankering
for some juicy fruit?
Cooperative Extension
Widen
your art radius
Gallery of Art and Design, DH Hill Libarary
Obit.:
Katherine Lois Tew
student
Jan. 5, 2006
The Independent Weekly
By staff report
© Copyright 2005
Wendy Ewald, a longtime contributor to the Center for Documentary Studies and architect of the Literacy Through Photography program, has a major exhibition of her photography work with children, Secret Games: Collaborative Works with Children, 1969-1999, at Charlotte's MINT MUSEUM OF ART from Feb. 11-May 7. If you can get to Charlotte between Feb. 11-26, see The Land of Make Believe, a collection of illustrations from chidren's books also at the Mint.
The photography of another Triangle notable--former editor of Duke University Press John Menapace--will be shown at North Carolina State University's GALLERY OF ART AND DESIGN from March 23-May 14. Menapace has been something of a recluse, so this show will be a rare opportunity to see his work. While you are at State, be sure to check out the documentary photography galleries in the foyer of D.H. Hill Library.
For those interested in more traditional museum fare (and waiting on the fall 2006 Monet show at the North Carolina Museum of Art), good day trips include visits to Winston-Salem's and Greensboro's fine art museums. Currently at the REYNOLDA HOUSE, MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART in Winston-Salem is a great show on the paintings of J.M.W. Turner and Fredric Church (though Feb. 5). Reynolda House also has a wonderful garden and walking trails.
POPulence opens at Winston-Salem's SOUTHEASTERN CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART (SECCA) on Jan. 21. The term "populence" (coined by music video producer Sharon Orec) refers to the increasing confluence of accessibility and luxury. The show consists of 19 internationally recognized contemporary pop artists' responses to our media-saturated world.
At UNC-Greensboro's WEATHERSPOON ART MUSEUM from Jan. 8-March 26 is an exhibit of prints and scupltures by Henri Matisse drawn from the museum's Cone Collection, and, if you get out to Greensboro for this in March, you can also take in a second show curated from the museum's permanent collection entitled American Art: 1960-Present. Finally, if you can make it out to Charlotte before Jan. 15, you can catch the MINT MUSEUM's show of 60 paintings from the European collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, including the first authetic Caravaggio to enter an American museum.
Two shows in Greensboro celebrate influential artist and teacher George Ivy. These are the WEATHERSPOON MUSEUM's current show, George D. Ivy: Making North Carolina Modern (through Feb. 19) and, at the nearby GREEN HILL CENTER, A Modernist Influence: Eight Artists After Ivy (Jan. 7-March 27). The latter show chronicles the work of eight artists who studied at the "Women's College" (now UNC-G) under George Ivy. Somewhat farther afield near Asheville, at the BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE MUSEUM AND ARTS CENTER through April 6, there is an exhibition of the work of teacher and painter Joseph Fiore (himself a student of Josef Albers and William de Kooning, among others). While you're out there, be sure to check out the ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF ART's collection of 20th-century American art (and grab a bite to eat in Asheville, too--it's one of my favorite places to eat).
If you're into longer weekend trips, THE NATIONAL GALLERY in Washington, D.C., has two shows worth seeing: Cézanne in Provence (Jan. 29-May 7)--with over 100 oils and watercolors, this is the principal international exhibition marking the centenary of Cézanne's death--and Dada (Feb. 19-May 14), with works by Tzara, Arp, Taeuber, Richter, Grosz, Ernst, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. While in D.C., be sure to check out my favorite museum, THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION. The Phillips has one of the most renowned private collections of modern art in the world. There are also two fine shows at the BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART, one on the work of African-American artist Henry Ossawa (though May 28) and Picasso: The Final Years (Jan. 11-April 16). While in Baltimore, be sure to check out the AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM's show Race, Class, Gender ? Character.
If you have to choose only one far afield trip to make this season, I'd suggest you head down to Atlanta to visit the HIGH MUSEUM. It has just finished an expansion and is showing wonderful pieces by Anslem Kiefer and Georgia folk artist Howard Finster. And the Andrew Wyeth retrospective (through Feb. 26) is a jewel. It is one of the best curated shows, and one of the only I've ever seen that not only was itself stunning, but seemed to make the people in the gallery more beautiful as well.
Jan. 5, 2006
News & Observer, Bremerton Sun (WA), Record-Searchlight (CA), Scripps Howard News Service (DC)
By Tim Simmons
© Copyright 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Laura Wright cringes when people ask her whether there are any jobs left in textiles.
A recruiter for North Carolina State University, Wright spends many of her working hours in high school classrooms trying to persuade students to consider a career in the industry.
Her spiel is part pep rally, part science show as she pulls one sample after another from an oversized briefcase: a bullet-proof vest, artificial arteries, a tiny piece of material used on stealth bombers, disposable diaper fibers.
These are today's textiles. This is the high-tech recovery that textile companies are trying to spin from a disastrous fall. North Carolina alone has lost about 400,000 textile jobs since 1990.
"Some students and teachers can get pretty emotional when you talk about this," said Wright, who graduated from the NCSU College of Textiles in December 2004. "I understand. That was their family paycheck. But the changes have brought all kinds of opportunity."
The job market for today's textile students is excellent. More than 95 percent of them are employed within three months of graduation. Their typical starting salaries, roughly $45,000, are among the highest of any college at the university.
Wright's classroom visits _ like the one she made last week to an advanced chemistry class in Greensboro _ usually prompt a few kids to ask for more information. More important, she leaves many of them with a different impression of the industry.
"I thought they just did socks and shirts and things like that," said Xiu Li Wang, a senior at Ben L. Smith High School. "It's much more than that."
Reinventing itself is something the textile industry _ and the College of Textiles _ must do to survive. Some areas of academia prefer to keep corporate America at arm's length, but textile leaders and NCSU have an almost symbiotic relationship.
As mills cut thousands of jobs in the 1990s, freshman enrollment at the college shrank more than 40 percent, and graduates had fewer job offers. The need for new technology meant the faculty had to be retooled. New hires often pursued different lines of research, paid for in part with corporate contributions.
Today, the college is showing signs of a rebound. Enrollment has picked up. This year's freshmen class of 230 is the largest since 1986. Kent B. Hester, who oversees job placement for the college, said he could find work for twice the number of textile engineering and chemistry graduates.
That's because the survivors in American textiles are part of a high-tech industry that dreams up products as varied as anti-bacterial uniforms for security workers and protective tiles for space shuttles.
North Carolina still produces huge amounts of yarn and fabric found in hundreds of products, but the work is often done in automated mills with robotic looms.
"The brawn of the industry has moved overseas," Hester said. "What's left involves the brain."
That means today's textile industry is not going to replace the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost from the old mills, said Blan Godfrey, dean of the NCSU College of Textiles. In its place, the college is helping to rebuild an industry that is redefining itself one fiber at a time.
"We have a faculty member who says we should really call ourselves the College of Engineering with Fibers," Godfrey said. "It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but that's what we are doing. We are finding new ways to use fibers almost every day."
There are roughly 200 natural fibers _ think cotton or silk _ and more than 2,000 synthetic fibers and blends. Synthetic fibers are often petroleum-based. Think polyester or nylon. Each fiber has a specific molecular structure that determines how it looks, feels and reacts when manufactured in different ways. The combinations seem endless.
Standing in front of the classroom in Greensboro, Wright held a little white piece of fabric that she jokingly calls "Gumby's underwear" _ it looks a little bit like long underwear that might fit the ever-popular bendable children's toy.
It's really an artificial artery designed to deliver blood to both legs at a point just below the navel. Wright then pulled out another long, snakelike tube that might serve as an artery in an arm or leg. Both are made of a knitted polyester developed at NCSU.
Take another fiber, put it through a process known as nonwoven, and the result can be found on the feet of a medical team wearing surgical booties. The booties are disposable textiles that are cheap and easy to produce.
The potential of nonwovens is so large that many in the industry think it could one day produce a significant amount of America's clothing.
The heart of the nonwoven process is a series of machines that can take small petroleum-based pellets, melt them and then turn them into fibers. Depending on what engineers choose to do with the fibers, they can become anything from air filters to coat liners. One well-known older form of nonwoven fiber is disposable diapers.
But engineers say they will soon figure out how to blend fibers in a way that makes it possible to mass-produce clothing. A pair of jeans, for example, might be made partly from fabric and partly from that 2-liter soda bottle you sent back to the recycling center. And it will be done without the need to spin, weave, cut and sew _ a change that makes it far cheaper to produce.
Godfrey suggests that those who doubt this day will ever come need only look at the way carbon fibers are now used. The ability to weave individual carbon fibers has allowed textile engineers to produce a wide range of strong, lightweight products such as racing bicycles, golf clubs and tennis rackets.
The use of carbon composites and fibers is also what helps put the "stealth" in the stealth bomber, because things made of carbon do not show up well on radar screens.
Kyle Blakely remembers hearing this pitch his freshman year at NCSU, when he was still unsure about his career.
"I enrolled in the college about a week later," said Blakely, a junior from Knightdale. "My major is textile management, and there are so many career options that I'll have to pick one. People think I'm going to sell shirts or manage a plant or something, but that's not what I'm doing with my degree."
NASCAR driver flies dog to vet appointment in North Carolina
Jan. 5, 2006
Winston-Salem Journal, News 14 Carolina, WCNC, WVEC.com (VA), WWAY NewsChannel 3, Lexington Dispatch, Myrtle Beach Sun News (SC), Dateline Alabama (AL), Charlotte Observer, WRAL.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- NASCAR driver Greg Biffle drives hundreds of miles a day for a living during the racing season, but when it's time for more routine trips, he'd rather fly.
Biffle, who finished second in NASCAR's Nextel Cup standings last season, summoned his helicopter Wednesday to carry him, his girlfriend, Nicole Lunders, and Biffle's pair of boxers from his home in the Charlotte suburb of Mooresville to Raleigh so 2-year-old Gracie could see a veterinarian at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. A roundtrip would have taken seven hours by car.
Biffle's chopper landed in a cow pasture near the school about 9 a.m., a little late for the routine appointment. Biffle brought his dog to N.C. State at the suggestion of fellow NASCAR driver Ryan Newman after local vets couldn't figure out why Gracie had been sitting strangely and hobbling a bit after chasing Biffle on his four-wheeler.
"She lives with it well," he said. "She runs and plays and goes crazy."
The trip was the first time an animal had been flown to the school for a routine exam, said spokesman Dave Green.
Jan. 5, 2006
News & Observer
By Teri Boggess
© Copyright 2005
A series of grants has put the North Carolina Birding Trail is more than $100,000 closer to reality, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said in a news release.
The N.C. Birding Trail is a proposed network of bird-watching sites across North Carolina, linked by highways and marketed as a single entity, the release said. Birding trails have proven to be successful in more than 30 states, generating millions of ecotourism dollars and providing financial incentives to protect vanishing bird habitat, the release said.
Leading the initiative in North Carolina is a newly formed partnership consisting of the commission and other wildlife and environmental organizations -- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, N.C. Sea Grant, Audubon North Carolina and N.C. State Parks. Since September, the group has put together funding of $110,000 from public and private grants:* $94,000 from the GoldenLEAF Foundation;
* $10,000 from the Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation;
* $3,000 from The Wildlife Society;
* and $3,000 from the N.C. Department of Commerce.
The funds will go toward promotional materials as well as development of the trail, said Salinda Daley, trail coordinator.
"These monies move us closer toward implementation of a statewide birding trail that will bring economic, ecological and educational benefits to the citizens of North Carolina," said Daley, who also is a commission biologist.
Providing assistance to secure the grants were the N.C.-based Cardinal Foundation and the N.C. Forestry Foundation.
For more information, log onto www.ncbirdingtrail.org .
Amateurs vying for title, Classic spots
A North Carolina basser will be among the 55 anglers contending for the biggest title in amateur tournament bass fishing.
Michael Williams of Leland is entered in the BASS Federation National Championship, which will be held Jan. 11-13 on Florida's Harris Chain, BASS said in a news release.
Contenders endured a year-long elimination process to reach the pivotal event. They include representatives from Federation chapters in 47 states, Japan, South Africa, Italy, Zimbabwe, Canada and Mexico. The championship field is rounded out by Doug Moore of Van Buren, Ark., winner of the Paralyzed Veterans of America Grand National Championship, along with defending champion Ed Cowan of Greeley, Pa.
At stake are a $50,000 pot and six invitations to the Bassmaster Classic to be held Feb. 24-26 on Lake Tohopekaliga in Kissimmee, Fla. Cowan, who battled in last year's Classic in Pittsburgh, finished 40th; Jooste was 42nd.
Bobby Lane, 31, the event's Florida entrant, says conditions could ripen for great fishing.
"It could definitely happen," Lane said. "The full moon will be occurring when we're there. They couldn't have put the tournament at a better time for the Harris Chain. As long as the sun comes out and it's warm, the fishing will be great. If the weather is right, the fish will be spawning and we'll see some giant bass come in.
"But if we get a miserable cold front and the wind starts blowing, big stringers will be pretty much out of the question."
The winner and the top anglers from each of the remaining five geographical divisions will earn Classic tickets. ESPN2 will show the event at 10 a.m. Jan. 21.
Learn more online at www.bassmaster.com .
Junior Bassmasters compete on Feb. 19
The 2006 Junior Bassmaster World Championship and the Bassmaster Family Fest will be held on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Leesburg, Fla., on Feb.19.
The launch and weigh-in will be held at The Venetian Gardens Lakefront Park in Leesburg, Fla., BASS said in a news release.
The events are part of the CITGO Bassmaster Classic week.
"At previous events, I have seen firsthand how the city of Leesburg embraces BASS," said Stacy Twiggs, BASS National Federation senior youth manager. "They have played host to the best adult BASS anglers in the world and now will get a taste of what the best junior Bassmasters can do."
BASS is pairing the Junior Bassmaster World Championship with the Bassmaster Family Fest, which includes a fishing derby for children ages 7-14 and an autograph session with the Bassmaster Classic anglers.
Anglers qualify for the junior championship in age categories 11-14 or 15-18. Competitors must advance through qualifying rounds on local and state levels.
Anglers from the two age groups are randomly paired, then each pair is matched with a Classic angler who serves as a mentor and boat driver. Event winners receive about $27,000 in scholarships.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
Jan. 5, 2006
News & Observer, Greensboro News Record
By Lorenzo Perez
© Copyright 2005
N.C. State football special-teams coordinator and safeties coach Manny Diaz, a sixth-year coach with the Wolfpack program, is expected to be named Middle Tennessee State University's new defensive coordinator.
Contacted by telephone Wednesday, Diaz said his hiring is not official yet, but "it looks like it's going to happen." A formal announcement may not come until at least next week.
Mark Owens, Middle Tennessee's assistant athletics director for media relations, said the university could not comment on any football hirings until after the Tennessee Board of Regents meets to formally approve the hiring of assistants for new Blue Raiders coach Rick Stockstill.
Stockstill's predecessor at Middle Tennessee, coach Andy McCollum, was fired a day after the Blue Raiders' Nov. 19 loss at N.C. State.A 1995 graduate of Florida State, Diaz traveled an unconventional route into coaching. He detoured into television work as an ESPN production assistant before returning to his alma mater in 1998 to serve as defensive cinematographer for the Seminoles football program. In 2000, Diaz joined N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato's staff as a graduate assistant, eventually spending two seasons coaching State's linebackers before taking on his current title in 2004.
Diaz said he learned a lot observing how State has built its program under Amato, who could not be reached for comment.
"Moving to a new program, with a new [head] coach coming in and energizing the program like Chuck did at N.C. State, that excites me," Diaz said. "This is a chance for me to put into practice the things I've learned at N.C. State."
Staff writer Lorenzo Perez can be reached at 829-4643 or lperez@newsobserver.com
Hankering for some juicy fruit?
Jan. 5, 2006
Charlotte Observer
ByDAVID GOFORTH
© Copyright 2005
Cabarrus County residents can grow numerous edible fruits in their landscape. Often the difference in success or failure is the choice of cultivars.
Since I last wrote about fruit varieties in 1998, there have been several new cultivar introductions. Plus I have learned some things along the way.
For example, last year was the first time I have ever eaten a Pink Lady apple. I was very impressed with it. I still like the Royal Gala and Jon-A-Gold.
This was the first year I have ever gotten color on a Fuji. Fuji is a very good-tasting apple but generally has no color when grown in Cabarrus County.
There are lots of other apple choices out there. The major way to go wrong is to buy a low-chill apple variety, such as Adina. It will not grow properly in Cabarrus County.
Stayman winesap is another cultivar to avoid here. These are likely to crack in our climate, although numerous other winesaps do just fine.
Blueberry recommendations
I have also learned some more about blueberries since 1998. This past year was the first time I tasted Ira, O'Neal or Legacy. I still recommend rabbiteye blueberries for the average gardeners.In fact, most people will wind up with the same Tifblue and Premier cultivars I recommended last time. You need two blueberry cultivars for cross-pollination. Columbus is a newer variety that you might try if you can find it.
With proper management on our better soils you should be able to get production from O'Neal or Legacy, which are southern hybrid blueberries. Their main advantage is an earlier harvest season. There are several drawbacks, however. Besides being harder to grow, their yields are lower. I figure most gardeners will be better off choosing a rabbiteye type.
Blackberries to give a try
There are several new blackberry cultivars. Quachita has recently been released and is definitely worth a try. Navajo is one I know will work.
I have also tasted Triple Crown blackberry. It is a very good berry, but it has to be trellised. That makes it a little more work.
Since 1998, I have had poor results with Arapaho some years and no longer recommend it. The highly touted Prime Jim and Prime Jan probably won't work in our climate.
The main characteristic you need is double blossom resistance. This fungal disease devastates many blackberry cultivars.
Searching for best peach
Numerous peach cultivars have been introduced recently, but homeowners will not have an easy time finding the best ones. I like Challenger, Contender, Biscoe and Intrepid for yellow-flesh peaches.Carolina Belle is a good choice for white peaches, and Galactica is the best peeno (doughnut-shaped) peach I know about.
We have another yellow peach called Carolina Gold in a demonstration. I've heard good reports about that one, so I am looking forward to seeing how it works.
Speaking of peach cultivars, I still occasionally hear somebody mention the Elberta. This past summer I overheard a customer at a farm stand ask for Elbertas. The farmer let her taste some of the newer cultivars, then took her around to an old Elberta tree and let her taste an Elberta. He then told her he would give her 3 bushels of Elbertas at no cost.
She hated to admit the Elbertas weren't that good after asking for them, but when she left she had paid $1 a pound for the other cultivar instead.
Other fruits to try
Some other fruits you may want to try:
• Breeding work is taking place in raspberries. Most cultivars would be happier a little farther north, but some will tolerate our warm climate.
Autumn Bliss is still recommended. I would love to see somebody try Caroline. It was named after a girl, not after our state, but this raspberry was selected closer to the Carolinas than most cultivars.
• Figs can be grown in Cabarrus County. I continue to have good success with Celeste. Brown Turkey is another option. Both are winter-hardy, while many fig cultivars will die back during late winter.
• The recommended cultivars for muscadine grapes are Carlos, Noble, Sterling and Nesbitt. Fry is a good selection but requires a pollinator. If you try something else, make sure you get winter hardiness.
• Bunch grapes of choice are Niagria or Catawba. We are toward the southern end of where most bunch grapes are happy.
Varieties like Concord don't pollinate very well in Cabarrus County's climate and often leave many hard green grapes in the bunch.
Having seen bunch grapes in the wilds of Texas, I feel certain there should be some improvement in heat-tolerant bunch grapes someday.
• I still have a lot to learn about Oriental persimmons. I have grown an unknown variety for several years but lost it to the low temperatures last winter. On the other hand, I have seen several trees that didn't have a problem last year.
One gardener I know mentions Eureka as his favorite. Another person claims they grow Tanenashi, but the fruit looks more like the description of Fuyu. In Japanese, "tanenashi" means "seedless," while "fuyu" means "winter."
• Sweet cherries will grow only on the better soils in Cabarrus County. On average soils they tend to die from poor drainage. Even on the best soils, it helps to have cherry trees on a raised area to improve drainage.
I steer people toward Stella. This is a compromise; Bing or Black Tariatan tastes better, but Stella will produce without cross-pollination, and in our climate, you never know when your pollinator is going to die.
• Montmorency is the best sour cherry.
• Recommended pecan cultivars have remained the same for 20 years. Plant Stuart and Cape Fear. You need cross-pollination. Avoid the papershell pecans due to the scab fungus. Winter hardiness is also important.
• The strawberry cultivar I like best is Earliglow.
• I hesitate to tell you my pear choice. In 1998 I mentioned Harrow Delight, and it promptly died from fire blight the following year. My best guess for fire blight-resistant pears would be Moonglow and Starkling Delicious. In a way, that is hypocritical, because my Starkling Delicious has already died from fire blight.
I can't cover every fruit in one news column.
Don't hesitate to contact me for information on any of these or on anything I haven't mentioned.
Until next time, plan and plant for a better world.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Extension's Successful Gardener is a semi-monthly feature of Cabarrus Neighbors, contributed by the extension service. For more information call (704) 920-3310 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays; or send e-mail to Goforth at David_Goforth@ncsu.edu. News articles, problem-solving tools and links are available at http://cabarrus.ces.state.nc.us/staff/stafflist/dgoforth.html.
Nasa Funds New Space Concepts: Robots Powered by Fuel Cells
Jan. 5, 2006
Fuel Cell Today (UK), CRI (China), People's Daily Online (China), Checkbiotech.org (Switzerland)
By staff report
© Copyright 2005
Bouncing robots capable of exploring planets, a giant pinhole camera in space, and genetically engineered crops that could grow on other worlds are just three of the ideas proposed by scientists funded by NASA's forward-thinking Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC).
Now, NIAC, the organisation that first backed research into space elevators (think of a satellite tethered to Earth by a giant cable, dispensing with a rocket launch to attain orbit) has again made its annual call for revolutionary ideas lurking in the laboratories, or even just in the imagination, of US space scientists.
"NIAC was created to identify new and revolutionary concepts for Nasa that go well beyond what Nasa is currently doing," said Robert Cassanova, director of NIAC, set up in 1998 as an independent, and, in effect, brainstorming institute.
The dozen or so projects chosen each year for funding tend to be long-term, perhaps coming to fruition within 10 to 40 years, according to Sharon Garrison, NIAC's co-ordinator at NASA.
Cassanova added: "NIAC is looking for grand ideas and grand visions big ideas that might inspire new enabling technologies. We state explicitly that the concept or architectural system does not have to have the enabling technology available to make it work. And the science does not have to be totally understood."
The deadline for out-of-this-world proposals this year is midnight, February 13.
At a recent meeting in Colorado, scientists heard about the projects funded after last year's NIAC call. One microbiologist, Amy Grunden, at North Carolina State University, reported that she had been working on a way to grow food in harsh conditions on other planets. Her inspiration came from extremophiles, microscopic organisms that live in the most extreme environments on Earth.
"We can actually pinpoint particular genes that are responsible for providing adaptations for these organisms that are living in extreme environments," said Professor Grunden. "Given our current biochemical and physiological knowledge of some of these adaptive pathways, can we put them in other plant systems to help them deal with extremes?"
Her idea is to put "extreme survival" genes into crops such as rye; astronauts on long missions would take the seeds with them, saving on the cost of taking food supplies into space.
Penelope Boston, of New Mexico Tech, and Steven Dubowsky, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's space robotics laboratory, looked at space exploration. Their idea was to beef up the capabilities of probes orbiting planets, and of robotic rovers such as Spirit and Opportunity, which have been trundling across Mars for two years with thousands of 10-centimetre-wide ball shaped robots scattered on the planet's surface.
"The microbots employ hopping, bouncing, and rolling as a locomotion mode to reach scientifically interesting features in very rugged terrain," said the scientists. Powered by fuel cells, the microbots would explore, sharing information so as to build up a map of the planetary surface. Each robot could be customised, equipped, Professor Dubowsky said, with "a suite of miniaturised instruments for each specific mission [with] imagers, spectrometers or chemical detection sensors."
Jan. 5, 2006
News & Observer
KATHERINE LOIS
TEW, 27, of Raleigh died Monday, January 1, 2006 at her home.
KT was born in Downers Grove, IL September 23, 1978. She was the daughter of
Ellen Tew of Thomaston, GA and Richard Tew of Alpharetta, GA, who survives
her. KT lived in Charleston, SC for most of her adult life and moved to Raleigh
in 2002. She was a junior at NCSU majoring in Environmental Technology with
a minor in Toxicology. She liked to play pool, and dance and loved photography.
KT was a loving daughter and friend to many, she was a beautiful person with
a wonderful smile who will be greatly missed.
In addition to her parents, she is survived by her best friend, Shanna Stoddard
of Raleigh; her three stepsisters, Margaret Sansone of Machesney Park, IL,
Linda Callahan of Vernon, CT, Jacqueline Tew of Glastonbury, CT; and her stepmother,
Michelle Tew of Alpharetta, GA.
A private memorial service was held 4 p.m. Wednesday at Brown- Wynne Funeral
Home chapel, Saint Mary's St., Raleigh.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the SPCA of Wake
County, Curtis Dail Pet Adoption Center 200 Petfinder Lane, Raleigh 27603.
Condolences may be made through www.brownwynne.com