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THURSDAY APRIL 2, 2015 H
B O C AG E • C O U N T RY C LU B • H I G H L A N D • J E F F E R S O N T E R R AC E • K E N I LW O R T H • P E R K I N S • U N I V E R S I T Y C LU B THEADVOCATE.COM
Grad students present nanotechnology
Darlene Denstorff
BY C.J. FUTCH
cfutch@theadvocate.com
ON THE SOUTHSIDE
DDENSTORFF@ THEADVOCATE.COM
BR YMCAs holding spring camps Baton Rouge area YMCAs are holding holiday camps April 6-10. Arts and crafts, sports, games, swimming, field trips and other activities are included at the YMCA holiday camps. Holiday camp is open to children ages 4 to 13. Camp is from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. Visit ymcabr.org/camp for information.
Ye Fang, a graduate student in computer engineering at LSU, held a magnet to a dollar bill clipped to a stand Saturday at the Highland Road Park Observatory. Slowly, the dollar bill moved toward the magnet, eventually touching it. The ink used to print U.S. currency contains a metallic liquid called ferrofluid, Fang said, to prevent counterfeiting, and he had tubes of the black liquid in sealed test tubes to show families at the sixth annual NanoDays. It was one of several exam-
ples graduate students from multiple disciplines at LSU used to demonstrate the advances made possible by nanotechnologies. John Mathaga, who is studying chemistry, demonstrated how an electric current can be used to remove the copper plating from a penny and transfer it to a nickel, which 9-year-old Sterlin Tate, at NanoDays with his dad, David, watched, smiling, before they lined up for the only non-nano event of the day — the solar viewing. NanoDays is a nationwide festival of programs meant to demonstrate the power of tiny things, said Juana Moreno, as-
David Tate, left, and his son Sterlin, 9, look at gold particles at NanoDays 2015 on Saturday at the Highland Road Park Observatory.
sociate professor of both the Center for Computation and Technology and the Physics and Astronomy Department at LSU. Moreno said attendance is pretty good every year, and this year, about 100 people came through the exhibits. In addition to the ferrofluid demonstration, children and their parents explored the nano world with a scanning probe microscope, learned how stain-free clothes are made and heard about the work of Michal Brylinski, a nanoscientist and professor in the LSU Department of Biolog-
Advocate photo by C.J. FUTCH
äSee NANO, page 2G
Spotting signs at Fest for Life
Easter celebrations
JaKobe Cooper, a 5-yearold, fourth-generation preacher, will deliver a sermon at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 2, at Greater Sixty Aid Baptist Church, 655 Gardere Lane. A Good Friday service is set for noon at the church. The church will hold a Resurrection Celebration and Children’s Easter Parade starting at 8 a.m. Sunday.
BY C.J. FUTCH
cfutch@theadvocate.com
makes the world a smaller place. Chike, for example, bought the kola and bitter nut mix on display in her booth at a store in Baton Rouge. “I think they were a dollar a pound,� she said, though she doesn’t like the taste, herself. “My dad loves them, though.� Her headpiece, however, was handmade in Texas, she said. “It’s considered party attire. It’s just fashion there,� she said. She has more than a passing interest in Nigeria, as her parents were both born there, she said. Chike is part of a vibrant and active community of people in Baton Rouge who have close ties with the country. She’s part of a dance team that practices and performs traditional Nigerian dances at events and celebrations
Chiquita McKinley has a history of breast cancer on both sides of her family, she said, so she was always careful about self breast exams. When she found a lump in 2012, she “was very emotional at first.â€? “I sat down, and I let myself have one good cry, and then I embraced everything (about the treatment process).â€? She researched her options and asked so many questions that everyone in the hospital, from the nurses and doctors to the billing clerks in the business office, knew her by her first name. After rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery to remove the lump, she’s been cancer-free for almost three years now, she said, and she made one final decision as part of her personal healing journey. “I’m going to talk about it,â€? she said. With her friends, with her cousins, with her sisters, with anyone who will listen. She’ll talk about cancer to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 11 at Fest for Life, an outdoor festival at the Bon CarrĂŠ Business Center that just happens to include free screenings for several types of cancer, along with heart disease and stroke risk assessments, said Johnnay Benjamin, director of early detection and education at Mary Bird Perkins-Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center. There’s a disparity in both detection and treatment outcomes for many minority
äSee GEOJOURNEY, page 4G
äSee FEST, page 3G
Pop-up market
Former Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival King Gary Cummings, of Cummings Farm, brings his fresh strawberries, jellies and jams to Alexander’s Highland Market’s front porch on Sunday, April 12 for a pop-up market. In addition, the event, which is set from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., features Rome Family Farm’s fresh tomatoes, and Pennington Biomedical Research Center is dispensing nutritional information while sampling healthy seasonal recipes such as Louisiana Spring Salsa and Pina Colada Power Smoothies from its test kitchen. And because April 12 is National Drop Everything and Read Day, the market will feature local authors and books, such as Linda Taylor, author of LSU and New Orleans Saints alphabet books, and Junior League of Baton Rouge with its award-winning River Road Recipes cookbooks. The market will also feature face painting for kids and outdoor grilling. Other participating businesses include Eden Natural Soaps, Louisiana Gold honey, River Road Coffee, Most Delightful Foods, Ruth’s Hummus, Hanley’s Foods, äSee SOUTHSIDE, page 2G
Advocate photo by C.J. FUTCH
Chisom Osiagwu, a junior at Baton Rouge Magnet High School and a native of Nigeria, sits at the Nigeria booth at GeoJourney 2015 while Amara Chike paints a Nigerian flag on his cheek.
Taking a journey Project immerses students in another country’s culture
And she’s not alone. Every freshman in Kim Denson’s freshman geography classes must spend the semester doing an in-depth analysis of one country, either of their choosing or assigned to them. In addition to a series of research papers on different aspects of their country’s society, landscape, culture BY C.J. FUTCH and economy, students are required to cfutch@theadvocate.com participate in the GeoJourney Festival, Amara Chike stood over classmate af- in which students create a display and ter classmate March 25 at Baton Rouge present information about their country Magnet High School, painting the Nigeri- to the students, faculty and parents who an flag on their faces while she explained stop in. “They need to be able to answer questhe role of kola nuts in Nigerian society. Chike wore a delicate, all-white woven tions about the country,� Denson said, dress with a dramatic white headpiece — adding that each student leaves the projtraditional formal dress in Nigeria, the ect with a much greater understanding country she’s been researching all year of the world around them, and that’s increasingly important as technology as part of GeoJourney 2015.
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