A University of Champions

Great Speed on the Ground

How about 241 mph?
The Buckeye Bullet - Ohio State's electric car - blasted past the competition at last fall's World Speed Finals at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Designed and built by Ohio State engineering students, the battery-powered car hit 241 mph, by far the best speed by a student team, and just shy of the world record for an electric car: 246 mph. This was the team's first trip to the legendary track - look for them to be fired-up at Bonneville again this fall.

For more, visit: www.eng.ohio-state.edu.

Play to Your Strength

Getting Back in the Game After an Injury
In the first study of it's kind, Ohio State researchers believe they have found an important factor in recurring back injury: our natural tendency to avoid using hurt muscles.

William Marras, professor of industrial, welding, and systems engineering, and his colleagues discovered that people tend to compensate for back injuries by using many inappropriate muscles in place of the muscles that hurt.

"People with back pain guard the injured area by using more muscles than they need to," Marras says. "The more muscles they use, the greater the load there is on the spine."

"After a back injury, people need to re-learn how to use their muscles naturally," Marras says. "Bottom line - you can send people back to work after a back injury, but you have to be very careful about what you have them do."

For more, visit: www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/backemg.htm.

Focused Leadership

Research Team Discovers the 22nd Amino Acid
Two teams of researchers from Ohio State have identified the 22nd genetically-encoded amino acid, a discovery that is the biological equivalent of physicists finding a new fundamental particle or chemists discovering a new element.

Finding a 22nd suggests that even more of these basic biological building blocks may be found using modern genome sequencing techniques.

The research was led by Joseph A. Krzycki, associate professor of microbiology, and Michael Chan, associate professor of biochemistry and chemistry.

"I think this work will cause researchers to start looking at genetic sequences that they might have thought at first were simply aberrations," Chan says. "Instead, they might signal discoveries like ours."

For more, visit: www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/aminoacd.htm.

A Potent Offense

Researchers Uncover Protective Properties of Black Raspberries
What gives black raspberries the edge against colon cancer? They are powerfully rich in antioxidants - substances thought to have cancer-preventing properties.

"We were surprised by how much difference there was between the antioxidant activity of the raspberries vs. the other fruits." says study co-author Gary Stoner, professor of public health at Ohio State and a researcher at the university's Comprehensive Cancer Denter.

The National Cancer Institute recommends four to six helpings of fruits and vegetables each day.

"We're just suggesting that people make one of those helping berries," he says.

For more, visit: www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/brberry.htm.

DO SOMETHING GREAT

For more stories of Ohio State champions, visit: www.osu.edu/dosomethinggreat