BEHREND BEACON
April 30, 2010 S
cience
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
BEHREND BEACON YEAR IN REVIEW
RL. •
A look back at the stories that define the 2009-2010 academic year at Penn State Behrend
(ALL STORIES PRINTED WITH AUTHOR, THEIR STAFF TITLE AT THE TIME AT WHICH THE ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED, AND DATE THE ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE BERREmi BEACOM)
School Director
Dr. Roger Knacke, the head of the
School of Science at Penn State
Behrend, is set to
retire from the di
rector post at the
end of the school
year, a position he
has held for 18
Knacke
came to Behrend
after teaching at
Penn State Behrend the State Univer-
School of sity of New York
Science Director (SUNY) in Stony
Roger Knacke. Brook where he
also headed the
science depart-
Chemistry
National Chemistry Week is upon us
again! This years' events and activi
ties, scheduled from Oct 18-24, are
based upon the theme "Chemistry- It's
Elemental." The activities will high
light the elements as we use them in
our daily lives as well as celebrate the
140th anniversary of the creation of
the periodic table of the elements by
Dmitri Mendeleev.
The elements, as many have learned
in their general chemistry classes, not
only make up all of the chemical com
ponents that we come in contact with
but make up ourselves. We also come
in contact with individual elements in
our daily lives. They can be seen
everywhere: from the graphite made
of carbon sheets that you use to take
all of your wonderful chemistry notes,
to the millions of pennies made of
copper that you pay for your lovely
chemistry class each semester, to the
aluminum cans full of energy drink
that help you get through it all.
These National Chemistry Week
events are sponsored by the American
ment for six years.
Knacke is a graduate of The Univer
sity of California Berkeley where he
received a bachelor's and Ph.D. in
physics.
RYAN GULA
%,( ion( e edthn
April 9, 2010
He became interested in astro
physics when he was in graduate
school and decided to teach and per
form research in that field. In an inter
view, he joked, "I'll retire from
administration, not teaching."
After retirement he will be moving
to California, where he hopes to re
turn to the classroom as a professor,
an aspect of education that he has
missed.
Looking back at his experience at
Behrend, he remembers working with
outstanding students and faculty, and
enjoyed following the paths that stu
dents chose once they left Behrend.
Some went onto larger universities for
Week brings events to Behrend
MARIE EBNER
Chemical Society and are organized
and designed by the Committee on
Community Activities. The program
chair for National Chemistry Week at
the national as well as local level is
Tracy A. Halmi, a senior lecturer here
at Penn State Behrend. Halmi has
been the national program chair for a
total of three years, and the local chair
for a total of ten years.
The committee not only organizes
the events but creates annual themes
for national chemistry week such as
the "Chemistry-It's Elemental" theme
this year and previous themes such as
"Having a Ball with Chemistry" and
"The Joys of Toys."
The local chapter of the American
Chemical Society will be sponsoring
three events within our community.
These events are made possible by the
local section of ACS as well as volun
teering students and faculty from not
only Penn State Behrend, but also Al
legheny College, Edinboro University,
Gannon University, Mercyhurst Col
lege, and University of Pittsburgh at
Titusville.
All of the activities will be "kid
friendly" element based activities such
as showing that by touching a penny,
you are actually touching an element,
and there will be free museum admis
sion during the event hours courtesy
of the John Nesbit Rees and Sarah
Henne Rees Charitable Foundation.
Available at each of the events is a free
hands on activity newspaper which re
volves around the theme of the year,
elements. It includes puzzles for kids,
at home experiments, and an article
on the Elementeo Chemistry Card
Game for kids.
( he mistn tvnter
October 16, 2009
The really dangerous, fire-ball mak
ing, you-should-not-try-this-at-home
experiments will be shown during the
Behrend-Exclusive Demo Show put
on by the Chemistry Club on Wednes
day, October 21 in 101 OBS at 7 p.m.
Chemistry Club will also be sponsor
Knacke to retire
graduate studies while others entered
the industry to lead major companies.
During his tenure at Behrend, he
was pleased to be a part of the admin
istration that brought more research
to the college, effectively creating
what he considers to be "an ideal uni
versity," where there is an equal em
phasis on both teaching and new
knowledge.
He was careful not to take complete
responsibility for accomplishing this,
being quick to point out that there
were many who helped achieve this
goal and that there is still more to be
done.
He hopes that this atmosphere of
students "doing and learning" science
will continue for many years to come.
He says that he will miss the people
at Behrend the most when he leaves.
He recalled some of his favorite mem-
contributed photo
Tracy Halmi, a senior lecturer in chemistry at Penn State Behrend, put on a
presentation at the Blasco Library during National Chemistry Week in 2008.
ing the painting of the glass windows
of Otto Behrend Science (OBS) Build
ing for National Chemistry Week with
the names of the elements, as they do
every year. Given this year's theme,
though, the event carries its own spe-
ories each year, watching as new stu
dents arrived each fall after high
school and how quickly the assumed
the roles of young adults and became
more competent individuals.
He will speak about 'Dark Energy in
the Universe' on April 15 in one of the
college's last Open House Nights in
Astronomy this year.
Knacke started this Behrend tradi
tion in the fall of 1993, a program that
has allowed both students and com
munity members to learn more about
their surrounding world and given
thousands their first glimpse of the
sky through a telescope.
As Knacke and the school prepares
for his departure, they continue their
search for a new director of science. If
a director is not found, an interim di
rector will be named for next year, and
another search will be performed.
cial significance.
Elements impact our daily lives by
making it possible; make sure to stop
by one of the National Chemistry
Week events to learn just how impor
tant they are to you.
Halloween
Chemistry
Cue the maniacal laughter and were
wolf howling, Halloween is readily ap
proaching, and it's time to bust a few
ways chemistry can help make your
Halloween the creepiest yet!
Now, everyone has heard of fog ma
chines, but do you know how they
work? Typically the kinds you can buy
in a store contain a bottle filled with a
mixture of glycerin or glycol and water
which is then pumped through an ex
changer heated up to 400°C. When
this water mixture hits the exchanger
it turns to steam, and then is forced out
of the machine into a much cooler en
vironment. This causes the steam to
condense and you get a fog which rises
in the air.
Another interesting eerie effect can
only be seen with the help of a black
light. Several chemical compounds
glow when put under a black light,
such as zinc sulfide and strontium alu
minate, however those would be hard
to get your hands on for a Halloween
party. Some more common and less il
legal household chemicals contain
phosphorescents, which glow under a
black light, such as bleach and tooth
whitener. Both contain these phos
phorescents to uphold their advertise
ment of trying to make things whiter
than white. Craft stores also sell paints
containing phosphorescents which will
either glow in the dark or glow with
the help of a black light.
Carving a pumpkin and then paint
ipg it with tow if the dar}c pint n
be a creepy alternative to the tradi
tional candle. Mb, any dye from a
highlighter will be fluorescent under a
black light as well as most bodily flu
ids. On that note, please refrain from
having a black light in the bathroom!
Now go buy some dry ice, paint a
pumpkin with glow in the dark paint,
put on a chilling rendition Franken
stein for that party of yours and see
just how creepy chemistry can be.
MARIE EBNER
chemistry writer
October 30, 2009