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By Catherine Foster
Scientists at Argonne and The Field Museum have discovered a surprising new insect breathing mechanism that is similar to lung ventilation in vertebrates.
"The discovery of this fundamental aspect of respiratory biology for insects could revolutionize the field of insect physiology," says lead author Mark Westneat, associate curator of zoology at The Field Museum in Chicago.
Insects — the most numerous and diverse group of animals — don't have lungs. Instead, they have a system of internal tubes called tracheae that are known to exchange oxygen through slow, passive mechanisms, including diffusion. But this study demonstrates that beetles, crickets, ants, butterflies, cockroaches, dragonflies and other insects also use rapid cycles of tracheal compression and expansion in their head and thorax to breathe.
The results of the research, performed at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), have been published in the journal Science.
Tracheal compression was not found for all types of insects studied, but for those where it was found compression patterns varied within individuals and between species. The three species most closely studied (the wood beetle, house cricket and carpenter ant) exchange up to 50 percent of the air in their main tracheal tubes approximately every second. This is similar to the air exchange of a person doing moderate exercise.
Up until now, it has not been possible to see movement inside living insects. This problem has been solved by using the APS, which produces the most brilliant X-rays in the Western Hemisphere, to obtain videos of living, breathing insects.
"This is the first time anyone has applied this technology to study the internal organs of living insects," says co-author Wah-Keat Lee (XFD), a physicist. Scientists using the APS can now precisely analyze structures that once baffled researchers.
Using a phase-enhanced imaging technique, Lee placed an ant in the path of the X-ray beam and was amazed to see incredibly detailed images of the ant's internal organs. He searched the Internet for a biologist who might be interested, and he and Field Museum scientists have been working together ever since.
One aspect of the technique that makes the videos so revealing is edge enhancement, which highlights the edges of some internal organs. This effect is due to the special properties of the X-ray beams at synchrotron facilities such as the Advanced Photon Source. "It's almost as if parts of the anatomy have been outlined in pencil, like a drawing in a coloring book," Lee explains.
This work opens up the possibility of developing a powerful new technique for studying how living animals function, he adds.
Indeed, Westneat, Lee, and their coauthors are already aiming the synchrotron at the jaws of insects to see how they chew. "Most of the 12 moving parts in an insect's jaw mechanism are internal, so our inability to see inside living, moving insects has prevented us from understanding how these parts work together," Westneat said.
Down the road, Westneat envisions using similar videos to study a wide variety of animal functions, biomechanics and movements. New discoveries about animal function can have broad implications. For example, active tracheal breathing in the head and thorax among insects may have played an important role in the evolution of terrestrial locomotion and flight in insects, and may be a prerequisite for oxygen delivery to complex sensory systems and the brain, the authors say.
This would not only help scientists learn more about the animals studied but also provide insights on human health. For example, studying how larval fish move their backbones could shed light on how to treat spinal-cord injuries in humans. Likewise, studying the walls of blood vessels in mice and the tiny hearts in beetles (each beetle has eight to ten hearts) could shed light on how to treat high blood pressure.
"Basic principles of mammal, fish or insect physiology and function could have important implications for health care," Westneat says. "We intend to develop this technique for a range of applications that will greatly improve our knowledge of how tiny animals live and function."
The Field Museum was founded to house the biological and anthropological collections assembled for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Since its founding, The Field Museum has been an international leader in research in evolutionary biology and paleontology, and archaeology and ethnography.
Ian Foster, MCS associate division director and University of Chicago professor of computer science, and his colleague Carl Kesselman of the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, have been chosen as global leaders in the field of grid computing by Technology Review, MIT's magazine of innovation.
The magazine's February 2003 issue, now available, features 10 emerging technologies that will change the world by dramatically affecting the way lives are led and business is conducted.
Technology Review recognized Foster and Kesselman for their work on the Globus ProjectTM, which created open-source Grid software for science, engineering, business, and other collaborative situations. Along with Software Architect Steven Teucke (MCS), they are developing Grid technologies that use high-speed networks to provide computing power on demand, much the way a power grid provides electricity.
The technologies featured in the special issue have little to do with the latest crop of gadgets and gizmos, said Technology Review editor Robert Buderi. "We searched university and corporate labs around the world to find new areas of technology that promise to transform industries such as computing, medicine, manufacturing, transportation and energy."
For each technology the magazine profiled one researcher or research team whose work exemplifies the field's possibilities.
The Technology Review honor is only the latest in a string for Foster and Kesselman. In May, in a London ceremony, the British Computer Society will present them with a 2002 Lovelace Medal.
In winter, 2002, R&D Magazine named the Globus Toolkit the "Most Promising New Technology" developed this year, in addition to including it among its "R&D 100" best inventions of the year.
A mini-symposium on the results of Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) projects will be held from 2-3:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 3, in ARgonne-East's Building 402, Conference Room E1100. Topics will include:
"Development of a Phantom Head
Experimental Model for Study of Brain Cooling, Medicated Magnetic Particle Transport and Brain
Swelling" by Ken Kasza (ET)
"System for Detection and Destruction
of Chemical Threats in Human Occupied Spaces" by Daniel Applegate (CMT)
"Test of Critical Issues of the
Injector System and Engineering Design and Construction of Cold Model of 57.5 MHz Driver RFQ" by
Peter Ostroumov (PHY)
"Complex Granular Materials" by Igor
Aronson (MSD)
"Advanced Metal Matrix Dispersion Fuel
Systems" by Randall Fielding (NT-AW)
"Tensions between Science and Diplomacy — The Example of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation" will be the topic of a Director's Special Colloquium Thursday, Feb. 6, at 3 p.m. in the Advanced Photon Source Conference Center at Argonne-East.
Speaker Allen Sessoms has had a varied career in physics, diplomatic service and higher education administration. Currently, he is a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University. He is currently establishing and directing a senior-level dialogue and policy-development process between the United States and Mexico.
Sessoms is a fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and is a member of the Energy Department's Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Board.
With tax season and merit increases approaching, Human Resources is planning a wealth management and retirement plan awareness campaign to help Argonne-East employees reduce their tax liability.
Increasing Argonne retirement plan contributions reduces current taxable income and taxes while allowing employees to accumulate greater wealth. Many employees have found they can increase their retirement contribution at merit-increase time without feeling the the full impact on their take-home pay.
Employees who are not participating may find that now is the right time to take advantage of a pre-tax retirement plan contribution. Employees currently participating will have their retirement plan contribution automatically increase at merit increase time.
To find out your current retirement contribution or to increase your retirement contribution, contact HR retirement specialists Marge Vaught (last names beginning with A-L) at ext. 2-2985, or Julie Losinski (M-Z) at ext. 2-2992.
Watch for future articles in the Argonne News, guest speaker presentations and other mailings.
Martin J. Steindler and Paul A. Nelson (both CMT) have been awarded the third annual Lawroski Award in recognition for their exceptional contributions to Argonne's Chemical Technology Division, helping to make it known as a leader in spent fuel processing and advanced battery and fuel cell research.
"Over its 50-year history, CMT has had a number of people who'wrote the book' in their fields of expertise," said CMT Director David Lewis. "This award recognizes those individuals and their contributions to the division and the laboratory."
The award is named after Stephen Lawroski, the first director of the Chemical Engineering (since renamed Chemical Technology) Division. Lawroski established the technology that purified plutonium for use in the atomic bomb and later in nuclear power plants. Lawroski came to Argonne's Chemical Engineering Division in 1947. He retired from Argonne in 1980.
The last day to submit initial nominations for the 2003 University of Chicago Awards for Distinguished Performance at Argonne is Monday, Feb. 3.
Statements of 250 words or less citing the nominee's achievement or record should be submitted to the Office of the Laboratory Director.
Stephen Milton (XFD) will lead Argonne's research and development for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) project, a new U.S. Department of Energy program to construct an X-ray free-electron laser at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
As project director, Milton will manage a group of staff members from various areas of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) organization. This team will design and build more than 100 meters of undulator and associated systems in which self-amplified spontaneous emission lasing will occur. X-ray free-electron lasers promise exceptional brilliance and very short pulses. Potential uses include the study of dynamics of materials and the structure of individual biological molecules.
Milton will retain his personal research interest in accelerator physics and his role as manager of the Low-Energy Undulator Test Line and will report directly to Murray Gibson, associate laboratory director for the APS.
Milton takes over LCLS responsibilities from Efim Gluskin, director of the Experimental Facilities Division. Katherine Harkay (ASD) has assumed Milton's role as leader of the Accelerator Physics Group.
The Globus Project ™ has issued its alpha release of the Globus Toolkit 3.0 (GT3), a set of open-source software and services and the first implementation of emerging standards known as the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA).
The Globus Project is led by Ian Foster, MCS associate division director and professor of computer science at the University of Chicago; Steve Tuecke, lead architect of Argonne's Distributed Systems Laboratory; and Carl Kesselman, professor of computer science at the University of Southern California and director of the USC Information Sciences Institute's Center for Grid Technologies.
GT3's release is the result of the past year's effort toward defining specifications for Grid services that extend standard Web services. The alpha version builds on prior releases of the Globus Toolkit, central to hundreds of science and engineering projects on the Grid. The Grid is a technology that uses the Internet as basic wiring to let people share computing, storage, data, programs and other resources, just like the electric power grid allows people and energy companies to share generators of all kinds.
Other leading Grid participants, in industry and research organizations, are committing to use of GT3 and OGSA.
The GT3 beta will be released in spring 2003, with official release in summer 2003, Tuecke said.
Development of GT3 is sponsored primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy through its Office of Science's Mathematical, Information and Computational Sciences Division, as well as by industry partners IBM and Microsoft Research.
The Globus Project conducts research and development to create the fundamental technologies behind the Grid.
Argonne's retirement vendors will send representatives to Argonne-East to meet individually with employees to answer their questions about retirement plans and assets.
Appointments last a half-hour. To schedule an appointment, call the number listed.
TIAA-CREF — Thursday, Feb. 20,
and Friday, Feb. 2. Call (800) 842-2005.
Fidelity — Tuesday, Feb. 11, and
Tuesday, Feb. 18. Call (800) 642-7131.
Prudential — Wednesday, Feb. 5,
and Wednesday, Feb. 19. Call (847) 619-3519.
The February First Friday Forum meeting will be held Friday, Feb. 7, at 12:15 p.m., in Argonne-East's Building 221, Room A216.
Denise Casalino, first deputy director of the Department of Construction and Permits of the City of Chicago, will present "Managing a $200 Million Project on Budget and on Time." Casalino will talk about her experiences, problems and successes during the Wacker Drive viaduct reconstruction project.
If you would like to receive notices about upcoming First Friday Forum seminars, send an e-mail to majordomo@anl.gov with "subscribe wisttalk" (without the quote marks) in the body of the message.
The IEEE Electronic Library is once again available on Argonne desktop computers via the Argonne Information Management (AIM) System.
The Argonne-East libraries now have a 2003 subscription to this full-text archive of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) from 1988 to the present. More than 750,000 documents from more than 12,000 publications including IEEE and IEE journals, IEEE conference proceedings, and IEEE Standards are included in the collection.
IEEE is in the process of adding legacy content from 12 of its journals back to the 1950s. This, too, will be available under the Argonne-East library purchase.
Employees at Argonne-East and Argonne-West with access to the Argonne Intranet can access the IEEE Electronic Library via the AIM System; click on the "new subscription" message. Employees may also select "IEEE Electronic Library.".
Individual IEEE and IEE journals can also still be found in the Argonne-East library catalog or the Argonne-East library list of journals.
Employees can win a St. Valentine's Day lunch for six in a private dining room in the Building 213 Cafeteria by entering a luncheon raffle through Friday, Feb. 7.
Employees who spend $5 or more in the Argonne-East cafeteria will receive an entry form. Completed forms can be dropped off at the condiment stand.
The raffle is sponsored by Sodexho.The winner of the Super Bowl Food Raffle was Derek Seweryniak (PHY).
A representative of the Social Security Administration's Joliet office will visit Argonne-East Wednesday, Feb. 19, from 8 a.m. to noon. The representative can:
Enroll employees in Social Security.
Take applications for new Social
Security cards, including original cards for newborns, corrected cards due to marriage or
replacement cards.
Help with earnings posting problems.
Answer general questions about the
Social Security program.
To schedule a meeting, call Fran Perri (HR) at ext. 2-2989.