UMass mandates new pesticide protocol

By: Emily Reynolds

A lot of research going on at UMass falls under the headings of science, engineering and health. Some of them are breakthrough research topics. Rest assured, Sports Management and Landscape Architecture can now claim some research as their own.

The UMass Extension Turf Program is releasing the Integrated Pest Management Protocols for Turf on School Properties and Sports Fields.

The manual is based off of scientific research and lots of fieldwork. It’s basically a pest control system that is more efficient and less dependent on pesticides, which means that it protects the environment, the people and their wallets.

Part of the reason the manual was put together with less reliance on pesticides was to comply with the Massachusetts Children and Families Protection Act, put in place in 2000 as a way to reduce children’s exposure to harmful chemicals that are found in pesticides.

Since UMass is a public school, it has to comply with the act, including the Integrated Pest Management portion, which looks for alternatives for pesticides.

Although the Protection Act was put out before the big push to save the environment, it still had a few environmental provisions in there, which keeps it relevant for today.

The manual was put together by the Extension Turf Program and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources.

Emily Reynolds can be reached at ereynold@student.umass.edu.

 

 

STAR Fellowship makes UMass’ water safer

By: Emily Reynolds                     

 

Remember last spring when there were a whole lot of stories about how the water we’re all drinking is contaminated with different pharmaceutical drugs? There are antibiotics, anti-depressants, pain medications and a whole myriad of other drugs that make their way from human bodies to the water supply.

It turns out that there are enough drugs in the water to actually concern scientists about what kind of effect it will have on the ecosystem, including humans, plants and animals.

Luckily, there are lots of people working on this problem, and one of them happens to be University of Massachusetts graduate student Kirsten Studer. Studer is getting $37,000 a year from the Environmental Protection Agency’s STAR fellowship to study estrogen in the water supply.

Studer is part of a larger group from the civil and environmental engineering department, which is studying drugs in the water.

While each individual drug in the water may not be harmful, the interaction between drugs can cause a lot of problems. Estrogen can screw up all of the hormones and glands that go along with puberty, and can cause cancer.            

That is why Studer is not just studying what the estrogen does, but also how to get it out of the water supply without doing any more damage.

So, next time there’s a glass of water sitting on the counter, think of all the drugs that could be going into the body by mistake, even if it is filtered by Brita.

Emily Reynolds can be reached at ereynold@student.umass.edu. 

Psych department looking for subjects

By: Emily Reynolds

 

Have you ever noticed the colorful papers that litter every table in the dining commons? They’re advertisements requesting students to e-mail or call the psychology department to provide them with subjects to collect data from. On the bulletin boards in each building, there are ads for eye-tracking testing to study how people read material.  Online, the kinesiology department has posted bulletins to look for people to participate in a diabetes experiment. Even in the advertisements of newspapers like The Daily Collegian, there are requests for students to participate in studies and experiments.

 

College professors all over the country are doing research on their own campuses. They’re hoping to make better medicine, figure out how the body works, how languages develop and much more. Students do a lot of research as well, especially graduate students or seniors working on their theses.

 

Both professors and students alike are performing experiments that require people, and they advertise to you. A lot of them even include a monetary compensation.

 

Some that don’t include compensation or a small amount are non-invasive and take very little time, like eye-tracking experiments in Tobin. These usually take about 30 minutes and simply require the subject to read and answer questions. Other experiments include larger compensation, but those can include taking blood or biopsies, and they’re usually done over an extended period of time. 

 

However, the studies aren’t just for college students. Many have larger age ranges from 18-65 years old, and college students happen to fall into the age range.

 

So, the next time you’re sitting at the dining commons or waiting for a friend next to a bulletin board, take a look. There might be some ads for help needed in a study, and it might be something really interesting.

 

Emily Reynolds can be reached at ereynold@student.umass.edu.