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stentorfan
voLXXII
north Carolina school of science and mathematics
1219 broad street, durham nc 27705
Maius Opus Moveo, y’aU
Jon Dougherty and
Kitty Fromson
C lass of 2002, welcome
back. Class of 2003,
take a good look at your
home for the next two years.
The Stentorian staff hopes that
everyone will have a marvelous
year and will take full advan
tage of all that this school of
fers.
Juniors are probably
excited about starting a new
school and living away from
home. They might be a little
nervous, however, about leav
ing the familiarity of their
friends and family. The Stento
rian staff and the entire NCSSM
community are here to help
make the transition as easy as
possible. Remember, the se
niors were in the exact same
position a year ago, and the fac
ulty and staff are used to help
ing students through the
confusion of orientation. To
get your year off to a great start,
tead_on..tQ.discovjer all the.,
things you can do at Science
and Math.
First of all, the staff has
planned lots of fun orientation
activities for the first few days.
Tonight there is a community
picnic followed by an ice-cream
social and dance. These pro
vide lots of opportunities to
make new friends, so be sure to
talk to everyone you see. Sun
day night, after the seniors have
moved in, there is a drama pre
sentation in the Assembly Hall
that is well worth going to.
There is a movie night sched
uled for Monday and we’ve
heard that the movie is a very
popular one. Finally, on Tues
day night there is a Tee-Shirt
Signing Dance that the whole
school is invited to. This is one
of NCSSM’s wonderful tradi
tions and
provides
good prac
tice? for sign-
i n g
yearbooks at
the end of
the year. It’s
also a great
way to leam
people’s
names.
Don’t be
afraid to sign
and get
signed by
people that
you just
met—that’s
the whole
day, and suddenly you’ll feel
like summer camp is over...but
don’t worry. There are always
lots of actitivies to go to, even
when Orientation is over.
One of the year-round
activities on campus is I-vis,
short for intervisitation. Each
hall can have I-vis twice a
month and open their hall to
any visitors for a few hours on
the weekend. I-vis is the time
to hang out with your friends
of the opposite gender in their
rooms and is a chance to meet
people you do not have classed
with.
During your first few
days here, there will be a Club
Fair where you can sign up for
any and all clubs that you’re
interested in participating in,
like ACC, Mafia, SGA, Ultimate
Math.
Fall sports are yet an
other way to meet others and
get involved. Despite not hav
ing a football team, NCSSM
does well in other autumn
sports like*women’s tennis,
women’s volleyball, men’s soc
cer, and men’s
and women’s
cross-coun
try. For try-
o u t
schedules,
see Eileen
Witt, Brian
Gonyeau, or
any of the
coaches.
Talk to se
niors to get a
realistic esti
mate of the
time commit
ment that
each of these
15 teams re-
„ . , ^ ’ quires. If
Ensb^. Out^rfr Glubr-Kay—y75n*nrjnsrlmerestetf In cheer-
Club, Spamsh Club, SEA, and i„g from the sideUnes, there’s a
of course, the Stentorian. Rep
resentatives from every club on
campus (and there are a lot) will
set up booths, answer ques
tions, and get your name on
their mailing list. Some people
are active in about ten different
organizations; some concen
trate on just a few. Either way,
you will find groups of people
who are interested in the same
things you are and these people
will be your friends for your
entire career at Science and
place for you, too. Getting wild
at games is a time-honored
NCSSM tradition.
We have another sug
gestion for you, too. It’s a good
idea to remember what the first
S in NCSSM is for: school. Sci
ence and Math is a lot of fun,
but forgetting that you’re here
for education is not a good
idea. Most people’s first quar
ter grades are a bit lower than
they’re used to, but this isn’t the
end of the world. Teachers (and
your parents) understand that
the transition between your
home school and and here can
be difficult at first. Eventually,
you will figure out how to get
everything done and still have
time for your non-academic ac
tivities and friends. You are
forced to manage your time, and
sooner or later everyone devises
a system that works for him or
her. One of the best things you
can do to help your grades and
your understanding of your
courses is going to tutorials.
Almost every department offers
evening tutorials with both
teachers and students available
to answer your questions and
help with your homework.
Going to tutorials will help you
immensely, and your teachers
will be impressed with your
dedication. If you concentrate
on your schoolwork and leam
how to balance your activities
you will quickly acclimate to
NCSSM.
This is just an intro
duction to your new life, but
you will leam much more from
your hallmates, friends, class
mates, teachers, SLIs, and coun
selors. We seniors can be
overbearing, but most of us have
your best interests in mind and
are simply trying to be helpful,
so listen to us. One last piece
of wisdom: There are three as
pects to life at Science and
Math, and they are school,
sleep, and social life. You can
choose two. As with all else, the
choice is yours.
Stem Cell Controversy Pits Science Against Politics
_Alec Gibson
P erhaps no policy issue
has been more talked
about among Washing
ton politicians this summer
than embryonic stem cell re
search. Scientists have lauded
the potential medical benefits
of such experimentation since
its advent in November 1998,
when researchers announced
that they had successfully cul
tured embryonic stem cells. It
was not until this summer, how
ever, that the controversy sur
rounding embryonic stem cell
research, which involves the
destruction of days-old em
bryos in order to collect the
cells, has exploded onto Capi
tol Hill and the news media.
Now, politicians are grappling
with a debate that delves into
previously unexplored ethical
questions.
As far as scientists are
concerned, it all began in No
vember 1998 when a team of
researchers from the University
of Wisconsin led by James Th
ompson and another team of
researchers led by John
Gearhart of Johns Hopkins in
dependently announced that
they had successfully cultured
human embryonic stem cells.
Pluripotent stem cells, such as
those found in embryos, are
named for their potential to dif
ferentiate into any of the body’s
220 cell types. Not only had
the scientists cultured the cells,
but they had stopped them from
differentiating. These cultured
stem cells could then be readily
inserted into a variety of tissue
types, where they receive devel
opmental cues from their sur
roundings and develop into the
appropriate tissue type. Cur
rently, the Geron Corporation,
a biopharmaceutical company
that helps fund Gearhart’s work,
has generated roughly half of
the body’s cell types using em
bryonic
stem cells.
I n
mice, the
tissue re
generation
made pos
sible by
embryonic
source of the cells are left over
embryos from in vitro fertiliza
tion clinics. These embryos
Inner Cell Moss
In Vitro Pluripotent * .
Fertilization Cells Blastocyst
Stem cells in the context of human development
Stem cells has repaired brains would be discarded were it not
that have suffered from strokes,
and the rodent equivalents of
Parkinson’s disease,
Alzheimer’s disease, and ALS
(Lou Gehrig’s disease). Scien
tists hope that this kind of tis
sue regeneration will one day
offer cures for the human ver
sions of these diseases, as well
as repair cardiac tissue damaged
after heart attacks and replace
cells that are damaged or miss
ing in diabetes patients. The
for the research.
Stem cells can also be
found in adult tissue, though
in much smaller concentrations
(one in a few thousand cells).
They too can be isolated by
positively identifying the mol
ecules specific to their surface.
The normal function of adult
stem cells is to regenerate ex
isting cells within the body, but
scientists are attempting to
adapt adult stem cells for the
same purposes as embryonic
ones.
Because the process of
procuring
stem cells from
four-day-old
embryos ends
that embryo’s
potential for
developing
into a human
being, the re
search raises serious ethical
questions, forcing lawmakers to
draw the line as to exactly when
life begins. Some, opponents
consider the destruction of hu
man embryos equivalent to the
destruction of human life.
Many opponents of embryonic
stem cell research advocate the
use of stem cells found in adults.
They insist that researchers who
use embryonic stem cells should
simply use adult stem cells and
See “Stem Cells” Page 2