ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS
On the first Monday of every month from 5:30 to 7:00 the club will have social gatherings here. It is a chance to introduce new friends and prospective members to our club! The next one is December 5th!
The “Second Badge Tuesday” for new red badgers will be held on the Dr. second Tuesday of every month. 5:30 to 7:00 PM
Our community grant award day had been postponed. It will be December 12th at 12:00. All are welcome to help us celebrate the many good things being done in our community.
December the 8th is Keith’s annual Christmas party. It is at his house at 4:00. A sign up list will go around in the next few weeks.
Remember next week is Thanksgiving and we are dark!
Veterans memorial hall courtyard renovation project is being sponsored by Santa Cruz rotary club. You can donate a brick by going to www.santacruzrotary.com
Our speaker today was Dr. David L. Bernick with two of his students Marcella Mirabelli and Liana Beld (see above) . His address was on biomolecular engineering and he discussed ways that synthetic biology enables social change. They just came back from Boston where they won a silver medal for their work.
They started this project with issues of global importance such as developing an almond paste for that can be used for fuel. They also worked on vitamin b12 and diabetes issues and contraceptives that women can grow on their windowsill! This year they are taking on world hunger.
He discussed food insufficiency; over 1/10 of the world falls into this category. To combat this, they decided to focus on chickens which are usually tended by women and girls. They focused on chickens because chickens can eat scraps and produce high quality protein.
He also spoke about viruses chicken have. Paramyxoviridae is a chicken virus that is very close to measles. This results in Newcastle Disease which kills 50% of chickens. The vaccine for this disease exists but must be kept cold so a cold chamber must be maintained and that is very expensive. So they are working on a project where the vaccine doesn’t have to be refrigerated.
they are making use of the proteins from another creature that can withstand temperatures and use it to make a jello like substance to encapsulate the viruses and protect the vaccine.