University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

Page 29 text:

Few .students have heard of the linear accelerator housed in an unimpressive, long, gray building bet ween the physical plant coal pile and I lie river. The linear accelerator, linae for short, is one of research scientist’s important tools used to expand knowledge of atomic structure. A small particle, like a proton or an alpha-particle, is introduced into a long tube. The tube has electrical coils and shield plates within; a vacuum is maintained so that the particles will not collide with gas molecules, losing energy as well as deviating from the path leading to a target at the end of the tube. The particles are accelerated by electrostatic forces to speeds approaching the speed of light, and this particle beam is directed at the target. Because the high-speed particles are harmful to tissue, the operators must be in a shielded control room when the machine is in operation. The operator, however, can observe and count the particles as they strike, deflect or interact with targets by the use of counters. These counters record the beam intensity at varied angles. BROWN ADJUSTS the highly sensitive machine (hot determines resulting amounts of oxygen. RECORDING the results in his notebook. Brown comes closer to understanding photosynthesis. 25

Page 28 text:

Research has always I men important at the I'niver-sity, though it often plays a part which seems unimportant to the average student. Such is the work of Allan II. Brown, professor of botany, who is best known for Ins studies on photosynthesis in plants. He is studying the way in which plants transform light energy into chemical energy. Although a botanist. Brown uses instruments of the physicists such as the mass spectrometer in his research on plants. The mass spectrometer measures the way in which the living plant uses oxygen and carbon dioxide in its respiration and photosynthesis. .Modern biology uses the tools and tricks of sciences as physics and chemistry to answer some long-standing biological questions. Brown's application of these biophysical methods to common-place botanical problems is but one example of this kind of activity in research laboratories on the Minneapolis campus. 24 ALLAN BROWN, professor of Bolony, studios the photosynthesis, oxygen production of greon plants.

Page 30 text:

 ANCfl KEYS, director of the phytiologi-col hygiene loborotory, heoded on in-ternotionol loom for roicorch in Holy. t. ADAMSON HOEBll hot done exien-tive anthropologicol field work in the legal otpect of American Indian culture. George Bernard Shaw once siiitl. lie who can, does, lit who cannot, teaches.” This famoiis maxim has hcen disproved by the outstanding work of many I’nivcrsity staff members. Aneel Keys, physiologist, has done research to prove the type and amount of fat people consume is a major factor in coronary heart disease. E. Adamson llocbcl, chairman of anthropology. is the leading American authority on law among primitive peoples and its relation to the law of ci ilisted societ ics. (’. Walton l.illehci heads the heart surgery team that developed the revolutionary open heart surgery technique which has spread throughout the world. Richard A. DeW'all, member of the l.illehci team, was selected one of the 10 outstanding young men of America in 1057. John NY. Clark has taught old English. 26