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News in Brief
Oceanographer published in Science
According to Dr. Richard Rivkin, Ocean Sciences Centre, tiny organisms floating in the upper ocean can help us understand how oceans respond to global climate changes. He has been studying the importance of food-web processes as they control oceanic biogenic carbon cycles and ocean-atmosphere carbon dioxide exchanges, and Science, a highly prestigious U.S.-based science journal, featured his research in its March 23 edition. The article, entitled Biogenic Carbon Cycling in the Upper Ocean: Effects of Microbial Respiration, is co-authored with Louis Legendre, Laboratoire d'Oceanigraphie de Villefranche. The two researchers found that the biological controls on the cycling of carbon, and the production of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, is much more strongly controlled by temperature than had been previously thought.
Genesis graduation
Biomedical Implant Technology Inc., an early-stage medical device company that develops and manufactures dental implants for the restoration of teeth, has become the fifth graduate of the Genesis Centre. Dr. Norman Kwan, a practicing general dentist, founded the company in 1993. The company has since developed a novel dental implant system, known as the BioHex One Piece-One Stage Implant System.
A dental implant, a titanium fixture or root form, is placed into the jaw and binds with living bone. Once healed, the root form supports the attachment of porcelain or acrylic teeth. The implant can be performed by a dentist as opposed to an oral surgeon and may be used in place of crowns and bridges.
Mystery solved
Locals were baffled by an unidentified creature that washed ashore at St. Bernard's, Fortune Bay, until DNA testing revealed that the "sea monster" was a remnant of a sperm whale. Scientists at the Genetics, Evolution and Molecular Systematics Laboratory in the Department of Biology, including Dr. Steve Carr, Dr. Dawn Marshall, Kim Johnstone and Lori Pynn, and Dr. Garry Stenson of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John's, performed a forensic DNA test to determine species origin. The analysis compared the DNA sequence of the creature's NADH2 gene with that of homologous DNA from a variety of large marine species, including sharks and whales. Comparison with this database gave an almost perfect match with a sperm whale.
Grant awarded for architecture study
The Centre for Material Culture Studies received a grant from the Vernacular Architecture Forum in the United States to assist its project research in St-Pierre et Miquelon. The grant enabled two leading vernacular architecture scholars from the United States to travel to St-Pierre to draw and measure local buildings. Along with director, Dr. Gerald L. Pocius, Dr. Gary Stanton of Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Dr. Bernard Herman, University of Delaware, documented approximately 50 buildings during their visit in July 2001. The research was a joint project with L'Arche Museum and Archives in St-Pierre, and will result in a major exhibition on St-Pierre buildings, as well as several days of architectural tours.
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