Spring 2006
sample sediments that were flooded
by waters from the levy breaches. In
addition, Dr. Michele Harmon is
using sediment returned from our
trips to perform toxicity studies and
has plans for additional testing.
Doug Wyatt sampling a soil vapor trap for air containing possible volatile
organic compounds Inset: Ben Morris and Kurtis Drake driving the soil
sampler into the ground.
Environmental Research in the
Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
by Dr. Doug Wyatt
E
veryone understands hurricane
effects from wind and rain,
but most do not consider the
secondary effects from flooding in
industrial areas adjacent to local
neighborhoods. As a part of the USC
Coastal
Resiliency
sponsored
Information Systems Initiative for
the Southeast (CRISIS) research program our department received a
$25,000 grant to study the
“Evaluation of the Natural Recovery
and Attenuation Potential of Near
Surface Soils Contaminated by
Volatile Organics and Heavy Metals
During Flooding and Prolonged
Inundation
Using
Soil
Air
Methodology”. Two students, Kurtis
Drake, a senior, and Benjamin
Morris, a sophomore, joined
Research Professor Dr. Doug Wyatt
on three trips to New Orleans to
Our trips to New Orleans, on
October 20th, November 18th, and
December 28th were designed to
acquire samples, about 30 days apart,
to allow for any possible natural
attenuation of potential contaminants to occur, and be measurable.
Our first sets of samples on October
20th were acquired approximately 30
days after floodwaters were removed
and two weeks after first outside
accessibility to the area. Our team
established seven sample sites located
in a field near an elementary school,
play field, apartments and homes.
Sediments from each of these sites
were sampled to a depth of two
meters, on each of the three different
visits. Each soil sample was analyzed
continued on page 6
IN THIS ISSUE:
Chair’s Message
Faculty Focus
Graduates
New Assistant
Professor
New Scholarship
Faculty News
Alumni Update
Independant Study
Alumni Focus
-2
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-3
.
-4
-5
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-7
-8
From The Chair:
I
by Dr. William Jackson
would like to deviate
from my usual fare to
discuss a topic that on
the surface
seems
a
rather trivial matter the use of
words that
have scientific meanings, particularly
“hypothesis” and “theory”. Although
many rarely use hypothesis in common
speech, theory is increasingly used in
subtle ways that weaken the scientific
ideas to which the term is ascribed. We
have all heard newscasters report on the
latest scientific theory, or been privy to
conversations that end with, “well, it's just
a theory”. In these contexts the meaning of theory is
somewhere between a pretty good guess and a bonafide
hypothesis, although neither is correct in terms of
science.
In this regard what we would recognize as science has
only been around a relatively short time and developed
along with a process for conducting scientific investigations. This process, the Scientific
Method, is one of the first topics
covered in our introductory biology
courses and almost everyone can
describe the steps from rote. Every
year I ask my Biology 101 students
to define hypothesis and every year I
get the same answer: “an educated
guess”. YUK! Not only have students been drilled from an early age
to parrot such a terrible answer, it is
all too often compounded by a complete lack of understanding. In fact,
hypotheses are much more than
guesses, they are predictive statements
that take into account not only what scientists observe
about the natural world, but the factual knowledge
that they bring to bear on the problem at hand.
“Although many
rarely use ‘hypothesis’ in
common speech, ‘theory’
is increasingly used in subtle ways that weaken the
scientific ideas to which
the term is ascribed. ”
continued on page 4
Sabbatical Report:
Allen Dennis
D
uring 2005 Allen Dennis
was on sabbatical and spent
the year catching up on his
research and what had gone on in the
world of geology while he had been
chair of the department. In January,
he joined a graduate geological mapping class from U Kansas to learn
GIS mapping in the field using
ruggedized laptop computers. This
led to his participation with Andy
Dyer and Michele Harmon on an
NSF-UMEB proposal to use the
same equipment in undergraduate
research in environmental toxicology
and invasive species research. In
March, he presented his ongoing
research on the provenance of the
Devonian-Mississippian
Spechty
Kopf Formation in the Pennsylvania
valley and ridge and the relationship
2 Evolutions
of this deposit to peak metamorphic
conditions in the Inner Piedmont of the
Carolinas to meetings of the Geological
Society of America in Saratoga Springs,
NY and Biloxi, MS, organizing the
Biloxi theme session. He met with staff
of UNAVCO in Boulder, CO to pursue
a continuous GPS network in the
southeast as a
method of determining
seismic
risk. He joined the
Grant
Research
Committee of the
GSA in Boulder,
and reviewed 80
proposals submitted to that committee;
ultimately
>350
proposals
were awarded a
total of 500,000$.
While in Boulder
he had dinner with Nathalie Smith
Sharp (Dr. Smith's daughter), her husband Dave, and their infant son
Charlie.
In May Allen submitted a proposal to
continue his central Appalachian field
work, and he and Dwight Jones spent
Congratulations
Graduates
December
Dr. Dennis used the Stanford-USGS SHRIMP (Sensitive High Resolution
Ion MicroProbe) RG, one of only three of these instruments in the world, to
acquire high-precision U-Pb ages on Inner Piedmont monazites.
two weeks in the field in PA, collecting
Spechty Kopf diamictites. Allen joined
the
International
Geological
Correlation Program Project 497 on the
Rheic Ocean, and presented his work
on the central and southern
Appalachians at Portsmouth, England
in June, and visited the Mississippian
fold-and-thrust belt in Cornwall ending
at the Lizard ophiolite. As the only US
scientist participating in the program,
Allen got a new perspective on events in
the Appalachian-Caledonide chain during the middle Paleozoic. This trip
resulted in a revised understanding of
the accretion of the Carolina terrane to
Laurentia and that portions of the Inner
Piedmont of the Carolinas and Georgia
record the rifting of Carolina away from
Laurentia in the late Silurian. This was
outlined in a paper submitted to the
GSA in September. In October, Allen
presented this work at the Annual
Meeting of the GSA in Salt Lake City,
and rejoined his friend and collaborator John Shervais on a trip through
the western Snake River Plain in
Idaho. In November, Allen and his
former student Mike Meredith (M.S.,
Wyoming, 2005) traveled to Stanford
U to use the Stanford-USGS SHRIMP
(Sensitive High Resolution Ion
MicroProbe) RG, one of only three of
these instruments in the world, to
acquire high-precision U-Pb ages on
Inner Piedmont monazites. This
work was supported by Harris
Pastides, Vice-President for
Research and Health Sciences. As a
result of the sabbatical, Allen has
returned refreshed to the classroom,
and with a renewed and reinvigorated
research program.
Jessica Alejo
Jessica Bodendorf
Jessica Bowen
Jeremy Brumfield
Jacqueline Gregory
Rebecca Harlow
Michelle Hightower
Adam Hoffman
Erin Tammy (E.T.) Jones
Amanda Matthews magna cum laude
Brian Nevius
Maya Allen Watson
Matthew Smalley
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Evolutions 3
New Assistant Professor
by Connie Arthur - Senior Biology Major
I
n the Fall of 2003, USCA alumnae Dr. Michele Harmon joined
the faculty of the Department of
Biology and Geology as a part-time
instructor teaching lab sections for
ABIO 101 and 102. In Spring 2005,
a search committee for the Biology
and Geology department selected Dr.
Harmon to fill the open physiology
position in the department, and this
past fall she began her first semester
as a full-time tenure track assistant
professor at USCA. Dr. Harmon is
currently in her second semester in
this position and she continues to
teach lecture/lab sections of ABIO
101, as well as an animal physiology
course, ABIO 360, for Biology
majors and a human physiology
course ABIO 242, for nursing and
pre-pharmacy students. She also
From The Chair continued from
page 2
Hypotheses that make accurate predictions about natural phenomena
and extend our understanding of the
natural world may ultimately become
scientific theories. The strength of
scientific theories can be demonstrated by considering some examples:
Einstein's Theory of Relativity,
Schleiden and Schwann's Cell
Theory, and Darwin's Theory of
Organic Evolution.
Einstein's
description of gravitation so altered
the view of time and space that it
helped to usher in modern physics.
The Cell Theory had a much simpler,
but a no less powerful beginning: the
observations that all organisms are
composed of cells; that cells are the
basic unit of life: and that all cells
arise from preexisting cells. This
work helped put an end to the idea of
4 Evolutions
School of Public Health in Columbia,
where she earned her Ph.D. in 2003.
(For more information about Dr.
Harmon's background, see the Fall
2003 newsletter.)
Dr. Michele Harmon
teaches the lab section for ABIO 350,
Principles of Genetics, a core requirement for Biology majors. Along with
her teaching responsibilities in our
department, Dr. Harmon teaches a
graduate level Environmental Health
Science course in the summer at the
spontaneous generation and opened
the door to modern cell biology.
Finally, Darwin's prediction that
organisms change over time in
response to environmental pressures
led him to describe the process of
natural selection. Today, evolution
by natural selection is so strongly
supported by experimental evidence
that it is the foundation of modern
biology.
To further illustrate the strength of
theories, suppose a new, non-cellbased life form from outer space was
The
(remember
discovered
Andromeda Strain?). Would the scientific community respond by completely dismantling the Cell Theory?
Would we decide that everything we
have learned about cell-based life is
Would we say that
hogwash?
Schleiden and Schwann were completely wrong? The answer to these
In addition to her teaching duties, Dr.
Harmon has wasted no time in establishing her own research at USCA. As
the resident toxicologist, she offers a
whole new variety of research opportunities for students, and her lab includes
several students who are assigned to
individual research projects in one of
her various ongoing research interests.
One of her current projects focuses on
the toxicity of trichloroethylene (TCE)
to soil organisms. Another studies the
effects of stormwater runoff on aquatic
organisms in the Savannah River.
questions, of course, is no. The new
life form would in no way change the
fact that every other organism IS made
of cells. Our studies of the new life
form would yield further insights into
how life can exist and would likely help
to strengthen the original theory. This is
how science works and illustrates the
strength of those things scientists call
theories.
In the non-scientific world, theory is
used to describe what would be in the
best case a hypothesis and in the worst
case a pure guess - a perfectly acceptable
use. However, when this meaning is
ascribed to the scientific use of the
word, it both diminishes and invites
questions as to the validity of the
Theory. Would you say that the Theory
of Relativity is “just a theory”? How
about the Cell Theory? Natural
Selection?
New Scholarship
Recent Faculty Activities
C
Dr. Andy Dyer helped organize
a session on the "Ecology of
Extreme Events" at the British
Ecological Society annual meeting Sept 6 at the University of
Herefordshire. He was one of
two international speakers along
with three British members. His
presentation was entitled,
Extreme events influence community structure and composition in seasonal wetlands.
hristina Wilson, a senior biology
major working in the lab of Dr.
Garriet Smith, was chosen by the
faculty in Fall 2005 to be the first recipient of the Heath Holley/Schering Plough
Corporation Scholarship. This scholarship was endowed by USCA alumni
Heath A. T. Holley (BS '98-see Spring
'05 newsletter for more info on Heath)
with a matching grant from his employer,
Schering Plough Corporation. The
scholarship requires that a student in the Biology & Geology Department have
a minimum gpa of 3.5 and be working in a research lab. This is Christina's
second year in Dr. Smith's lab. She is involved in many of the projects concerning coral reef diseases. The work for her senior research project is in characterizing aerosolized bacteria from African dust. The past two summers, Christina
has been awarded summer internships at the Savannah River National Lab. She
has a paper in press (C Wilson, R Brigmon, A Knox, J Seaman, G Smith) from
that work in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology,
"Effects of Microbial and Phosphate Amendments on the Bioavailability of Lead
continued on page 6
Alumni Update Online
Did you know?
You can update your address and let us
know what you’ve been doing since
graduation online! Just go to
www.usca.edu/biogeo/alumni.asp.
We’d love to share your news!
Leonard Ray McNeely, BS Biology
and Nursing, 2005, has been selected
to serve in the USAF Nurse Corps. He
is scheduled to arrive at Maxwell AFB
March 6th for Commissioned Officer's
training (COT).
Vanessa Guy Etheridge, 2004, is
teaching at Timmonsville High School,
physical science, physics, biology, and
chemistry. She was married in June
2005 to John Etheridge.
Marlon Smith, 2004, is employed by
nuclear contractor RWE Nukem in
Columbia, SC. Marlon works in
RadWaste, cleaning the tanks through
the use of robotics and water pressure
systems.
Nicole Hawkins Cain, 2004, is
enrolled in the Medical Technology
program at MCG.
April Mixon, 2001, completed her
training as a Physician's Assistant at the
Medical University of South Carolina
in August 2005 and is working at the
Columbia Skin Clinic in Dermatology.
Shaun Opperman, 2001, has been
accepted into medical school at the
University of New England for Fall
2006. Shaun has been working in
research since graduating from USCA
at Vanderbilt and most recently at the
Maine Medical Center Research
Institute.
David Somers, 2001, received a
D.P.M. degree from the Ohio College
of Podiatric Medicine in May, 2005.
Dr. Garriet Smith's recent travels include the following presentations: Studies on white-band
disease in Puerto Rico. 18th
Biennial Conf. of the Estuarine
Research Federation. Norfolk,
VA, Oct. 2005; The formation
and maintenance of normal
microbiota in corals in the
Microbes in Health and Disease
section of the meeting of
Microbial Interactions in Tel
Aviv, Israel, Nov. 2005; The role
of Vibrio in White band and
Yellow band diseases in the
Caribbean, Bacterial communities and interactions in gorgonians, and co-author with Laurie
Raymundo on A causative agent
for Porites Ulcerative White
Spot disease at the Global
Environment Fund's Disease
Working Group Workshop on
Heron Island, Australia, Jan.
2006.
Dr. Michele Harmon traveled
to Washington, D.C. in Nov.
2005 to participate on an NSF
panel which reviewed proposals
to determine recipients of the
2006 CAREER Award for New
Faculty.
Evolutions 5
Katrina Aftermath continued
from page 1
Ward in New Orleans and was also
flooded by waters from the Industrial
Canal levee breach. As often disfor RCRA Metals and EPA Method
cussed in the news, the Lower Ninth
8260 volatile organics. Several water
Ward and St. Bernard Parish were the
samples, from a local drainage ditch,
most devastated from the flooding.
were also tested for VOC's.
We experienced the devastation perAdditionally, on our first two visits,
sonally and witnessed its affects on
we utilized
local homesurface soil
owners who
vapor traps to
stopped to talk
attempt
to
with
us.
capture any
Driving the
volatile
local streets in
organic gases
Chalmette was
escaping from
like driving in
the
sedian apocalyptic
ments. We
movie the day
lost several of
after the world
our
sites
was destroyed.
because
of
The only presFEMA trailer
ence besides us
construction,
was the milibut collected
tary and police
a total of 140
and
the
samples that Ben Morris and Kurtis Drake in the field
incredible
vary in time study area.
odor
of
and depth reladestruction.
tive to the flooding and the sediTens of thousands of homes will have
ments. We are still waiting on samto be destroyed. While the coast of
ple results from our last trip, but so
South Carolina has no man made
far, unanticipatlevees, the
ed levels of acepotential for
tone, mercury,
hurricane
and lead have
induced
been
found,
flooding near
plus occasional
neighborother contamihoods and
nants.
There
industrial
appears to be
sites is always
both a vertical
possible. We
and lateral varihope
our
ation between
research
sample
sites,
helps both
plus a varying
the people
time compoaffected by
nent as well.
Katrina and
our neighWe sampled in Ben Morris and Kurtis Drake laying out
bors
in
Chalmette,
a the core and sample containers
coastal South
suburb of New
Carolina.
Orleans located in St. Bernard Parish.
Chalmette is the community immediately adjacent to the Lower Ninth
6 Evolutions
New Scholarship continued
from page 5
(Pb) in Shooting Range Soil". Dr.
Smith says of Christina, "She is very
efficient and very helpful. She manages the lab and teaches microbiological techniques to new students.
She has a very bright future as a
researcher--I expect big things from
her."
Fun Facts
Currently enrolled biology
majors - 189
71% female - 29% male
From a survey of 2000-2002
alumni (conducted in 2005):
22 biology majors responded
64% female - 36% male
2 had earned a Master's degree
Another 6 planned to earn a
Master's
1 had earned a Doctorate
7 more planned to earn a
Doctorate
3 planned to earn a professional degree
82% said they would choose
USCA again
95% were satisfied with their
Biology major program of
study
Fall 2005 Independant Research Projects
R
esearch continues to be an integral part of our department’s program. Students
pursue independent study projects under the tutelage of faculty members, and
those pursuing a B.S. degree are required to complete a senior research project.
Listed below are projects for Fall 2005.
Independent Study Projects
• Connie Arthur: Retrovirus-mediated delivery of anti-HIV ribozymes. Advisor: Dr. William Jackson
• Erin Brown Hoskins: Geologic mapping and Lysimeter installation. Advisor: Dr. William Pirkle
• William Condon: Herpetofaunal Distribution in Restored Carolina Bay Buffers. Advisor: Dr. Hugh
Hanlin
• Kurtis Drake: Initiate and maintain cultures of Eisenia foetida and Daphnia pulex. Advisor: Dr. Michele
Harmon
• Lesley Duffie: Design and cloning of an anti-HIV-1 hammerhead ribozyme. Advisor: Dr. William
Jackson
• Elizabeth Harrison: Ribozyme cloning into a eukaryotic expression vector. Advisor: Dr. William Jackson
• Lauren Hollingsworth: Cloning of an anti-HIV ribozyme into a eukaryotic plasmid. Advisor:
Dr. William Jackson
• Melinda McDonald: Design and cloning of an anti-HIV-1 LTR ribozyme. Advisor: Dr. William Jackson
• Christina Wilson: Characterization of Environmental Isolates. Advisor: Dr. Garriet Smith
• Zachary Wilson: Characterization of a novel retroviral vector, pLNPOI1X. Advisor: Dr. William Jackson
Senior Research Projects
• Fernando Blanco: The Aeromycology of African Dust. Advisor: Dr. Garriet Smith
• Erin Brown Hoskins: Plant succession and soil modification in detention ponds. Advisor:
Dr. Harry E. Shealy, Jr.
• Jeremy Brumfield: Bacterial and fungi isolated from Caribbean sponges. Advisor: Dr. Garriet Smith
• Bob Hatcher: The germination requirements of Phyllanthus urinaria. Advisor: Dr. Andy Dyer
• Michelle Hightower: Determining sensitivity of laboratory cultured Caenorhabditis elegans to copper
sulfate. Advisor: Dr. Michele Harmon
• Adam Hoffman: Vascular Anomalies in the domestic cat. Advisor: Dr. Hugh Hanlin
• Erin Jones: Sequence analysis of the left end of the bph cluster. Advisor: Dr. James Yates
• Amanda Matthews: The reproductive biology of cyperus esculentus. Advisor: Dr. Andy Dyer
• Brian Nevius: Survival of bacteria from African dust. Advisor: Dr. Garriet Smith
• Rebecca Ruth: Determining the presence of the coyote (Canis latrans) in Hitchcock Woods by means of scat analysis.
Advisor: Dr. Jeff Priest
• Leslie Simpkins: Microorganisms associated with Bahamian sponges. Advisor: Dr. Garriet Smith
• Matthew Smalley: Promoter sequence in LB400 between orf0 and bphA site. Advisor: Dr. James Yates
• Frank Spradley: Prokaryotic gene expression in LB400. Advisor: Dr. James Yates
• Schuron Washington: The effect of age on chemical inhibition of germination of barbed goatgrass. Advisor: Dr. Andy
Dyer
Evolutions 7
Alumni Focus
F
Iraq. In a recent email, she describes,
"Well, things are interesting here in
Iraq. I am the Task Force Commander
for Task Force Road Runner. My
detachment provides Direct Combat
The University Of South Carolina Aiken
Department of Biology and Geology
471 University Parkway • Aiken, SC 29801
Address Service Requested
aith Zimmerman Frederick
(Dec. 2001) and her husband
Lee paid a visit to the department this past summer. Faith is a 1st
lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps
and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan
for the past two years. Her distinguished service has been recognized
with the Navy Marine Corps
Achievement Medal for her work as
an NBC (nuclear, biological, and
chemical) officer during the exercise
Cobra Gold in the Kingdom of
Thailand and the Navy Marine
Corps Commendation Medal as
logistics training officer for Marine
Wing Support Group 17 in
Okinawa. She helped with typhoon
relief in the Philippines and tsunami
relief in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and
Indonesia. Faith and Lee were married in July 2003. Faith is currently
on a seven-month tour of duty in
Service Support to 3rd battalion 7th
Marines, 2nd Marine Division and
General Support to all of 2nd Marine
Division in the Ar Ramadi area (along
with the Army units too). I run a lot of
convoys to various bases within the
Area of Operation and have been very
fortunate not to have anything really
bad happen on any of them. This is a
great job for me as it allows me to do
everything encompassed in my MOS
and it gives me command time (I am
currently holding a Captain's billet as a
1st Lt so that is good too). Attached is
a picture from over here. It is just me in
a security post. I have a great group of
Marines and could not be more blessed
then I am." We commend her for her
service to our country and await her
safe return.
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AIKEN, SC