Volume 127, Number 22 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, May 1, 2007 Dormcon Selects Incoming Officers by Valery K
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The Weather Today: Partly cloudy, increasing cloudiness, MIT’s 65°F (18°C) Tonight: Mostly cloudy, chance of precip., Oldest and Largest 43°F (6°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Mostly cloudy in morning, chance of rain and fog, 54°F (12°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 127, Number 22 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, May 1, 2007 DormCon Selects Incoming Officers By Valery K. Brobbey ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR A small crowd of about 25 stu- dents attended the Dormitory Council elections meeting that selected Sarah C. Hopp ’08 and James T. Albrecht ’08 as president and executive vice president, respectively. The meeting was held last night at the East Campus Talbot lounge. Six other DormCon positions were also selected during the meeting (see the table on page 14 for final results). Bexley Hall and Next House were not represented at the elections. “I have every confidence [the new officers] will carry DormCon through the next year with energy and enthu- siasm,” outgoing DormCon President David A. Nedzel ’07 wrote in an e- mail yesterday. “I’d like to continue to promote a good relationship between admin- istrators and [dormitory] residents,” said Hopp. Hopp plans to oversee Brian Hemond—THE TECH conversation between dormitory resi- The Ying Yang Twins, Eric “Kaine” Jackson and D’Angelo “D-Roc” Holmes, perform during the Spring Weekend concert in Johnson dents and the Housing office, as well Athletic Center on Friday, April 27. See page 9 for more photos. as to make sure “the new dorm [the current Ashdown House] gets off to a good start.” Hopp also plans to keep DormCon involved in discussing al- cohol-related issues concerning Ori- Soil From Mars May Be Tested For Signs of Life entation and Residence Exploration. By Gareth Cook Of course, it’s impossible to study nomes,” will be a part of a Mars as it is on earth. The current Ashdown House is sched- THE BOSTON GLOBE the genetics of something that hasn’t lander mission in the next decade. Instead, inspired by evidence that uled to be converted to an undergradu- Since the completion of the hu- been found. But then that, Ruvkun The project represents a sharp microbes can shuttle between plan- ate dormitory after the new Ashdown man genome project, biologists have says, is the whole idea. break from the reigning philosophy ets aboard meteors, Ruvkun argues house is completed in summer 2008. been fanning out to study the genet- With preliminary funding from of life detection: avoiding an earth- it is most likely that any life on Mars No student group liaison was se- ics of virtually every imaginable life NASA, Ruvkun is working on a sen- centric view of what life might look would be related to life on Earth and lected this year, said Hopp, “to allow form: armadillo, potato, slime mold, sor designed to test the soil of Mars like. In the 1970s, for example, the thus have roughly similar DNA. The the [incoming DormCon] president to various fungi, and many, many oth- for DNA. Ruvkun hopes that the Viking lander conducted tests for project is an example of jackpot sci- decide whether they would personally ers. To this list, Harvard biologist sensor his team is working on, the signs of chemical changes that might ence — long odds, huge potential want to attend [UA] Senate, or assign a Gary Ruvkun would like to add ex- first part of a project he has dubbed be associated with life, without as- traterrestrial life. the “Search for Extraterrestrial Ge- suming life there would be exactly Mars, Page 10 Dormcon, Page 14 Biotech Outfits Scramble To Reduce Ethanol Costs By Stephen Heuser were located near the energy supply. THE BOSTON GLOBE You had oil companies in Houston, If the car of the future runs on old coal companies where they get the cornstalks and scraps of sugarcane, coal. I think what we’re going to see you might be able to thank a group of now is almost a new type of com- executives sitting eight stories above pany emerge – an energy innovation the Charles River. company,” says Jeff Andrews, a ven- That’s where energy-industry vet- ture capitalist with Atlas Venture of eran Carlos A. Riva ’75 presides over Waltham, which invests in several Celunol Corp., one of a host of new “cleantech” firms. companies racing to turn farm waste Recently, privately held Celunol into potent, clean-burning ethanol. said it would merge with Diversa It might seem unlikely that the fuel Corp., a public California firm, creat- industry and big agriculture, two go- ing a 240-person national company. liaths of the red-state American econ- Diversa will buy Celunol for $115 omy, would intersect at a conference million in stock, but the resulting table overlooking CambridgeSide Gal- company will be run by Celunol’s ex- leria. But increasingly, energy analysts ecutives in Cambridge. say, the next major shift in American Several competitors, including energy is likely to come from high- East Cambridge neighbor Mascoma tech science being developed in places Corp., are jostling with Celunol to be CHRISTINA S. kang—THE TECH like Cambridge. Oliver C. Venn ’07 explains his project to a judge at the IDEAS Competition Judging and Project “Historically, energy companies Ethanol, Page 12 Displays in the Bush Room yesterday. The awards ceremony is on May 2 at 7:30 p.m. in room 32- 123 and is open to the general public. In Short ¶ Pre-registration for Fall 2007 be- ¶ The MIT Sloan Sales Confer- gins today. Register online through ence, including panel discussions on SPRING WEEKEND NEWS World & Nation ����������� 2 WebSIS at http://student.mit.edu. sales and leadership, will be held Fri- Ying Yang Twins, DJ Undergraduate Associa- Opinion ������������� 4 day, May 4 at the Hyatt Regency Ho- ¶ Wellness Week events, focusing tel in Cambridge. Visit http://www. Scientist, and Ozomatli tion elections results as Comics / Fun Pages ����� 5 on mental health, fitness, and nu- sloansalesconference.com for a full twerk up Spring of press time Campus Life ����������������� 6 trition, will be held daily through agenda and registration information. Saturday, May 5. Visit http://ua.mit. Weekend. Police Log ���������� 11 edu/wellness for more information. Send news information and tips to Page 9 Page 14 Sports ������������������������� 16 [email protected]. Page THE TECH May 1, 007 WORLD & NATION Virginia Closes Loophole That Five Muslims Convicted For Armed College Gunman By Ian Urbina THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON Planning 2005 Bomb Attack Gov. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia closed a loophole Monday in the state’s gun laws that allowed a mentally disturbed Virginia Tech By Jane Perlez the opposition Conservative Party Pakistan and the threat theyposed to student to buy the guns used in a shooting rampage this month that left and Elaine Sciolino and survivors and relatives of the Britain. But he made no mention of 33 dead at the university. THE NEW YORK TIMES victims of the transit attack de- the court record showing links be- The governor issued an executive order intended to prohibit the sale LONDON manded an investigation into why tween the two groups. of guns to anyone found to be dangerous and forced to undergo invol- A jury found five British Mus- the authorities did not act on their For its part, MI5, the domestic untary mental health treatment. Under the order, their names would be lim men guilty on Monday of plan- surveillance. intelligence agency, a famously se- included a database of people banned from buying guns. ning fertilizer-bomb attacks around “Whether deliberately or not, the cretive organization, went public to In December 005, a Virginia judge directed Seung-Hui Cho, the London, ending a yearlong trial that government have not told the Brit- defend itself, saying on its Web site gunman in the April 16 massacre, to undergo outpatient treatment. But linked the plotters with two of the ish public the whole truth about the on Monday that it had never been because Cho was treated as an outpatient and was not committed to a four men who blew themselves up circumstances and mistakes leading “complacent” in investigating the mental health hospital, Virginia did not send his name to the National on London’s transit system in July up to the July 7 attacks,” said Da- 005 transit attacks. Instant Criminal Background Check System. 005. vid Davis, the spokesman for the Last week, the head of MI5, Only states submit any mental health records to the federal da- According to the evidence, re- Conservative Party on counterter- Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, tabase. Federal gun laws depend on the states for enforcement, and the vealed during the trial but made rorism. retired and was replaced by Jona- failure of Virginia to flag Cho has raised growing questions about the public for the first time, authorities The connection between the two than Evans, a Qaida specialist. The adequacy of background checks to scrutinize potential gun buyers. had closely monitored meetings in groups, both in Britain and in Paki- agency said the change was unre- 004 between members of the two stan, pointed to a level of organiza- lated to the revelations from the plots but never fully investigated tion among terrorist cells here that investigation, which the authorities Bush Steps up Effort to Persuade the men who pulled off the transit initially had been seen as “home- named Operation Crevice. attacks, which killed 56 people 18 grown” and independent. That law enforcement authorities Putin on Missile Defense Plan months later. To ensure a fair trial, The two 005 suicide bombers, knew of a connection between the By Sheryl Gay Stolberg the judge had ordered the news like four of the five men convicted two groups is especially embarrass- THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON media not to make the information on Monday, were British citizens of ing because three days after the July President Bush, under pressure from allies in Europe to be more public until after the verdict.