News...

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• Whistler Prize
• All in a Day's Work
• W(h)ither fullerenes?
• Bioenergetics
• New School in Ghana

Whistler Prize

The Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) has awarded this year's Whistler Prize to Diana Mortimore for her essay on 'Research Design for a Field Survey of a Rural Parish, based on Firle in East Sussex.' The award certificate will be presented to Diana by the VC at the Special Award Ceremony in January.

Diana is a CCE student currently studying for the Certificate in Practical Archaeology. She has also attended many CCE day schools in the subject of archaeology.

All in a Day's Work

Janet Claydon, organiser of the University Rescue Team, lets us into the world of the brave die-hards of campus who are responsible for our well-being in the event of a fire, a chemical disaster...or a smelly fridge!

We have to do a lot of routine things as part of the rescue team, including servicing the breathing apparatus which we use in any emergency involving fire or chemical spillages, and maintaining the vehicle we have, which we use to get across campus in an emergency. The emergency vehicle is equipped with specialist equipment, and this also has to be serviced. The Team meet once a week in order to do this.

The other things can't be predicted at all, so it's hard to say what might happen in a single day. Last year we had about 80 calls because the fire alarm systems were so sensitive in the campus residences. Every time the Fire Brigade are called to campus we go to the source of the alarm and arrive before them. The team is trained to the same standard as the Fire Brigade in search and rescue techniques, so we can search the area and deal with immediate hazards within a very short time. We only get called in real emergencies now, because the alarm system has been amended

The most dramatic call I can remember was an explosion in the chemistry lab, probably about five years ago, where the rescue team rescued researchers, made the area safe, dealt with a fire and carried out first aid. It was a very nasty situation. It was on the third floor and the window got blown out, which endangered people underneath as well. It was quite a challenge.

The Team is trained to a very high standard so they they can use specialist first aid equipment We have a defibrillator which we use in cardiac emergencies. We use the emergency vehicle to make sure that we get to victims in time.

The most bizarre call we ever had was from the mosque, when there was a fridge which needed to be removed. We had to wear breathing apparatus to remove the fridge, because it used ammonia as the coolant. It was a very elderly fridge!

The team has been in operation for over thirty years, and in that time we have been to many calls. It is estimated that property worth hundreds of thousands of pounds has been saved by the prompt actions of the team. People working on campus have been saved from certain death and serious injury many times over, so the saving we have made in human terms is immeasurable.

I've been working on the team since 1990, but a few people have been on the team for longer than that. Peter Ballance has been on the team since 1977, and he deserves a special mention - especially because he is retiring this year. The Rescue Team will miss him a great deal."

W(h)ither fullerenes?

The prospects for fullerene applications will need to be reconsidered following the discovery by Dr Roger Taylor (CPES) that bulk C₆₀ degrades on storage to give C₁₂₀O resulting from oxidative combination of two C₆₀ cages. This has just been reported in Chemical Communications (1998, p.2497) and has been taken up as a special news item by Chemical and Engineering News (30 November), published by the American and Chemical Society. Fullerene-containing materials will therefore need to be coated to protect against oxygen. The result conflicts with a report published in Science 1994, that fullerene traces are found in the 65 million year old KT boundary layer that resulted from the catastrophic meteor collision at Xhixlub off the Mexico coast, since they should have oxidised long ago. Roger Taylor is therefore collaborating with a team of geochemists to re-examine samples of the KT boundary layer which outcrops at various sites in New Zealand.

Bioenergetics

There was considerable excitement in BIOLS recently when Nobel laureate Dr John Walker, from Cambridge, came to present the weekly Biochemistry, Genetics and Development seminar. John Walker, who works at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, won the 1997 Nobel Prize for Chemistry jointly with Paul Boyer and Jens Skou for their work on the structure and mechanism of action of the enzyme, ATP synthase. This is found in all plant, animal and bacterial cells and is responsible for the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) the source of energy for most biological processes.

John Walker gave a comprehensive and readily understandable lecture on the interrelation of the structure and function of this enzyme, to an audience of 160 members of the School. He inspired not only fellow researchers, but also a large number of undergraduates in the audience, who have commented that events like this help enormously to increase their understanding of the course material.

New School in Ghana

David Dogbe, a research student in USIE, has opened a secretarial and accounting services school from his own home in Ghana for training rural children. The school, mainly for girls, has enrolled nine youngsters to give them a skill and hopefully help them to find a job. The school started in a small way after Margaret Ralph, a secretary in USIE, gave him her own electric typewriter two years ago. He has many girls wanting to enrol and is desperately in need of electric typewriters (in reasonable working order), typing ribbons, the old style typing chairs and any other office equipment which may now be out of date.

If any department or individual has any machines etc. to give away, could they please phone Margaret Ralph on 678260. David and his students will be most appreciative of your generosity.

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