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Summer SPECTRASPECTRA 2001 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION Extending the Frontiers of Science INSIDE: Trustees’ May Meeting . .2 Carnegie Evening 2001 . .3 “Cafeteria Math” Wins CASE Alumni GIFT Award . .4 Centennial Activities Shape Up . .4 Free Floaters: Are They Planets or What? . .5 La Niña Boosts Productivity of the World’s Oceans . .5 Genetics of Fat and Cholesterol Processing . .7 Carnegie Welcomes Four New Staff Researchers . .8 New Form of Nitrogen: Pressurized Gas Becomes a Solid Semiconductor . .8 Astrobiologists Congregate The seasonal shift in the amount of plant growth world- at Carnegie . .10 wide is shown in these SeaWiFS satellite images. See Trustee and Former Carnegie President page 5 for the story. (Image reprinted with permission James D. Ebert and Wife, from Science 291, p. 2596. Copyright 2001 American Alma, Die . .16 Association for the Advancement of Science.) Department of Department of Department of The Geophysical CASE/ Plant Biology Terrestrial Magnetism Embryology Observatories Laboratory First Light W HAT’ S I N A CENTURY? Every civiliza- dred years. Astrobiology at the Geophys- into the genetics of human disease and tion catalogues the ical Lab (GL) and the Department of may eventually help solve many other passage of time. Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM) is a case in problems of a growing population. The ancient Egyp- point. George Cody, Nabil Boctor, Bob When Hubble discovered that the tians, Greeks, and Hazen, Alan Boss, Paul Butler, and their universe is expanding and that our Chinese kept track colleagues are all making significant con- galaxy is but a small piece of it, it shat- Tom Urban of planetary tributions to answering some of the most tered what we thought we knew about motions, seasonal intriguing questions humans have ever our place in the cosmos. With the Magel- changes, and the celebration of anniversaries asked: How did life originate on Earth, lan telescopes up and running, the using a system based on the number 10. and are there worlds elsewhere similar to Observatories staff will build on this In our own base-10 culture, one hun- our own? In just a few short years, these knowledge and no doubt surprise us all dred years has always been a particularly scientists have made huge strides in this with what they will learn. significant milestone—just longer than a emerging field. (See page 10.) Andrew Carnegie launched our insti- normal human lifetime, but not beyond The high-pressure work led by Rus tution with these words, “Your work now our ability to imagine. Carnegie is about Hemley and Dave Mao at GL is another begins, your aims are high, you seek to to celebrate such a landmark anniver- area that will continue to reveal astonish- expand known forces, [and] to discover sary, and it is an especially important ing and relevant results. By pushing the and utilize unknown forces for the bene- one to us because the 10 decades of our limits of technology, these scientists and fit of man.” Our achievements of the last existence have coincided with unprece- their collaborators have created new century—and our work now—are the dented changes in every aspect of semiconducting materials that have the result of aiming high. As we embark on human society. What’s more, many of potential for unimaginable applications the next century of Carnegie science we society’s accomplishments stand on the as the 21st century unfolds. should keep this aim squarely in sight. shoulders of the scientific advancements The current work at Embryology and that came from our research. Plant Biology is no less amazing. Both As inspiring as our past has been, we departments are studying the function of should also celebrate the work we do genes and how animals and plants now that will affect the next one hun- develop. This work is yielding insights Tom Urban, Chairman CARNEGIE TRUSTEES’ MAY MEETING INSTITUTION OF W ASHINGTON The spring 2001 meeting of the board of trustees was held at the Depart- ment of Plant Biology in Palo Alto, California, on May 3 and 4. The Finance 1530 P Street, N.W. Committee began the session with a report on the general good health of the Washington, D.C. 20005-1910 Carnegie endowment. The board also discussed a variety of initiatives (202) 387-6400 planned for Carnegie’s centennial year and they voted to establish a new depart- Web site: www.CarnegieInstitution.org In light of recent declines of major stock ment dedicated to the study of global market indexes, such as the S&P 500 Maxine F. Singer, President ecology; it will be officially launched in and NASDAQ, some have wondered Augustus Oemler, Jr., Director, July 2002. how Carnegie’s endowment has fared. Thus far it has weathered the downturn The Observatories William Coleman, Jr., has become a admirably. The endowment is broadly Wesley T. Huntress, Jr., Director, senior trustee. At the meeting, the board diversified among stocks, bonds, and Geophysical Laboratory voted to add a new trustee, Deborah Rose. alternative assets. The equity portion Sean C. Solomon, Director, Rose received her Ph.D. from Yale’s has a value-oriented emphasis. These Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Department of Epidemiology and Public factors contributed to its total return of Christopher Somerville, Director, Health. She works for the National Center 12.7% for the year ending March 31, 2001. During the same period the S&P Department of Plant Biology for Health Statistics of the Centers for Dis- 500 returned -21.6 percent. Allan C. Spradling, Director, ease Control. Among her many affilia- Department of Embryology tions, she is a member of Harvard’s School John J. Lively, Director, of Public Health Alumni Council, the American Public Health Association, Administration and Finance and the Society for Epidemiologic Research. Over the years, Rose has been Susanne Garvey, Director, External active in a variety of public service projects. Affairs Four new staff appointments were also announced at the meeting. The Tina McDowell, Editor Department of Terrestrial Magnetism welcomes two new researchers, and the Ellen Carpenter, Assitant Editor and Geophysical Lab and Plant Biology each gain one new investigator. (See page Designer 8 for details.) 2 ❖ SUMMER 2001 ❖ SPECTRA: THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION ❖ TRUSTEES LEARN ABOUT PLANT BIOLOGY AND MORE Between the business sessions global change factors: carbon of the meeting, several Carnegie dioxide, warming, water, and scientists talked to the trustees nitrogen. That evening board about their research. Board members, their guests, and members and their guests were members of the Carnegie staff also given tours of Plant Biology enjoyed a dinner at the Univer- laboratories and the Jasper sity Club arranged by Plant Ridge Biological Reserve. Biology’s business manager, On Thursday, May 3, Dave Mary Smith. Ehrhardt gave a presentation Two Observatories Staff about the work his lab is doing Members gave presentations to visualizing live plant cells using the trustees on Friday. Luis Ho a fluorescent molecular tag. Also talked about his work on black that day, Chris Field hosted a holes and quasars, and Michael Staff Member Chris Field (left) describes his global-change project at Jasper Ridge near the trip to Jasper Ridge and Rauch discussed his research on Plant Biology Department. David Greenewalt, described the nuts and bolts of the intergalactic medium and secretary to the board, senior trustee Sidney his long-term global-change the distribution of matter in the Weinberg, and trustee John Crawford (left to right) listen as Field describes how the equip- project. The research looks at universe. ment operates. the interactive effects of four CARNEGIE EVENING 2001 inslow Briggs, director emeritus tors—proteins that absorb light. Briggs described some of the experiments he Wof the Department of Plant Biol- has spent most of his career studying and his colleagues have conducted ogy, was this year’s Carnegie Evening the photoreceptors responsible for that led to the discovery of a protein speaker. The lecture and reception how plants respond to light direction— responsible for phototropism, and took place on May 17 at the adminis- a mechanism called phototropism. A described two domains of the protein tration building. Briggs began his talk, plant hormone called auxin activates they identified that are involved in the “Phototropism: How Plants Seek the the growth of plant cells, allowing the job of light absorption. These domains Light,” with an introduction about the plant to bend toward the light source. are designated LOV1 and LOV2 four properties of light that plants Briggs’s lab investigates the proteins because they are thought to react to sense and respond to: quality or color, responsible for this phenomenon. He Light, Oxygen, and Voltage. He con- duration, quantity, and direction. cluded his talk with remarks on what Briggs showed a variety of slides that the researchers are finding out about illustrated each of these points as he the differences between LOV1 and introduced the concept of photorecep- LOV2. Below: Dave Mao (left) of the Geophysi- cal Lab talks with Yang Song (right) from Iowa State University during the recep- tion. Song will be joining the high-pres- sure group later this summer. Above: Carnegie Evening speaker, Winslow Briggs, and his wife, Anne, enjoy a moment after the lecture. Right: The Department of Terrestrial Mag- netism’s electronics engineer, Ben Pandit (left), brought his son, Ranjan Kumar Pandit, to this year’s Carnegie Evening. SUMMER 2001 ❖ SPECTRA: THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION ❖ 3 “Cafeteria Math” Wins CASE Alumni GIFT Award an Feinberg and Sam Washington, D.C. The idea for menu and submit it to the Dis- DReheard, both Carnegie sci- the team’s proposal grew out of trict of Columbia Public Schools ence education graduates, an original lesson, “Hamburger director in charge of meals.

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