Maryland State Of Mind; 503

Funding for Maryland state of mind is provided by the 13 institutions of the university system of Maryland. Coming up next on Maryland state of mind slashed to the jungles of Australia in search of a rare bird whose love life is legendary. Learn how to play ball and see how a former all real all star is sharing his skills with a struggling college. See how an experiment to test the water in Baltimore's Inner Harbor is reverberating in Sweden and Norway over the Internet. And plan your moves carefully as we take on Maryland's National Champion testing. It's all coming up next on Maryland state of mind. Me at. The bank.

Thanks. Thanks. Good evening Mike and welcome to Maryland state of mind. I'm your host Scott Simon. Deep in the jungle of northeast Australia or in the classic Aussie understatement the bush there's an unusual bird the male of the species builds a unique structure. It's sort of a bachelor pad which he decorates and where he performs an elaborate courtship for females. This structure called a bow or gives the bowerbird his name. He's a fascinating example of evolutionary biology. As a professor from the University of Maryland College Park and his students have found for nearly 20 years he's taken students to Australia to study this bird in the bush.

Since time began evolution has coursed through the ectoplasm of all living things and nowhere is it more apparent than in Australia whose creatures exhibit spectacular displays fascinating behaviors and even sex or variations. Indeed some of the most intriguing forms of sexual adaptation occur in some exotic bird species found in Australia Papua New Guinea and parts of Southeast Asia. In fact each summer in the land down on there a team from the University of Maryland College Park slashes their way through the jungles of northeastern Australia. The Bush as the locals call it in search of a creature that has evolved with some particularly unique sexual qualities qualities that humans find intriguing if only because they seem so familiar.

For this is the territory of the satin bowerbird. Just as men are known to create bachelor pads the male bowerbird also constructs a love pad a V-shaped Avenue designed only for the active block not to be confused with the nest it is a love layer constructed with the greatest of care. And somebody has gone to great lengths to decorate this patch of straw and sticks. But to observe these clever creatures during their most intimate moments with quiet some equally common one is they'd like us or hear them not only for my Wallaby Creek in northeastern New South Wales Australia. What we've got is a set up that allows us to monitor the the Bower's pretty much 24 hours a day. But we've got a small eight millimeter camera hooked up to a car battery and there's an infrared small infrared sensor microphone the infrared sensor is set to go off any time the bird enters the platform or the

avenue will trigger the camera to be turned on what the videotapes reveal is a quality builder who pays great attention to detail and he's neat with a place for everything and everything in its place. Each stick is carefully fitted into the overall structure. He checks the walls constantly for symmetry. And no room is complete without a fresh coat of paint. He chews pine needles to make a fragrant paste and then carefully applies it to the walls. Finally it's time for some landscaping with his favorite lawn ornaments on the

display area known as the platform. Like most women lady bowerbirds appreciate flowers especially blue which adds a dash of color to the yellow straw platform a creamy snail shell is one jewel she can't resist. And for a little macho with that a scintillating piece of snakes. But the resistance is a magnificent blue clothes pin from a farmer in your wild to be creek. He knows it will drive her crazy. Dr. Gerald Borge of the University of Maryland College Park is one of the world's leading experts on the species and is directing the Australian work on the satin bowerbird. But why is this little bird of such interest that scientists would travel halfway around the world to study it. We use our birds and other barbarous species as a model system in order to understand mate choice in a certain context and that's in a species where males provide no parental care. We don't know or understand very well how sexual selection works in those kinds of species.

And that's how we get why we got into this work initially from a scientific perspective the scientific observation of the bowerbird and Wallaby Creek is a serious operation and requires a great deal of manpower. We get up at the crack of dawn and we're out of the house. This is the house. By a quarter till six. We are about 35 hours a year and the area is about well over three kilometer squared so that's a pretty huge area to hike around steep ravine steep hills plus have to carry car batteries when they die and replenish all that and so it's a lot of hiking a lot of hours a lot of patience and it's amazing group of people. The fact that this is in Australia certainly helps with the recruiting. I think there's a certain romance that Americans have with Australia they see this kind of the new wild frontier and lots of young people want to come and and I think it's an excellent place to see wildlife while the creek is a phenomenal place with kangaroos snakes

lizards and many many beautiful birds and it's certainly worth seeing in and of itself and the fact that barbers are here and you get to work on them is just the icing on the cake. Wait one of the cameras has been bashed and now with 36 a female is in the area and like most males on a first date he is extremely anxious. The bowerbird of his dreams are at least for the next 15 minutes. Her careful inspection revealed she does quality work. She's interested. Now it's time to impress her. Is it getting worn out. Show last week serenade.

If he. Yes. Oh. Sht sht sht. And like many trysts it's all over in a matter of seconds. After the romance the female goes off to build her nest and raise the young along the male bowerbird will likely never see as offspring for him. It's time to straighten up about life and prepare for his next conquest.

As we begin to understand this bass mating product of evolution it helps explain why these scientists are willing to go to such lengths to study it. Yeah here I am. Dealing with. Just snakes in. The rain. Certainly much less than ideal but. It's equally probable experience just going. To sit here and believe that a bird has created this and decorated this. If you'd like to see more of the bowerbirds Australia and even how a student has designed a robot bird that interacts with these clever creatures watch our Maryland state of mind special bower birds and the bees next Thursday June 3rd at 8 p.m.. Once an Oriole all star. Today he's challenging a college team to be great.

Later on Maryland's state of mind. In 1961 a poor Florida grifter named Clarence Earl Gideon was arrested for breaking into a pool hall. He requested a state appointed lawyer but was denied. At his trial Gideon struggled to defend himself as best he could but was found guilty. From prison he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court that he had a constitutional right to an attorney in 1963. The court agreed with him. And the concept of a public defender system was born. To celebrate this legal landmark the University of Maryland School of Law can be. A major conference to celebrate the reverberations still echoing from Gideon's trumpet. On June 1st 961 in a small Florida town an uneducated indigent man named Clarence Earl Gideon was drinking and playing pool in a neighborhood bar

one evening. The next day he was arrested and charged with petty theft for stealing some wine beer and a small amount of change out of a jukebox at the bar. One witness said he saw Gideon leaving the club around the time of the robbery with his pockets bulging but no one actually saw Gideon stealing. Despite his denial of the charges Gideon spent the next month in jail unable to post a fifteen hundred dollar bail at his trial. A penniless Gideon asked the court to provide him with a lawyer. A right he assumed was his. Under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights the honor. Requests this court are eligible to represent me in this trial. But Gideon I'm sorry but I've got a point. I'm going to represent you in the heat and the force to plead his own defense. Gideon was found guilty and sentenced to five years in a Florida state prison. The maximum for his offense. What followed inspired a book called Gideon's trumpet a biography about Gideon and his case later Henry Fonda played Gideon

in a television movie about his life. Right here right. Now if you're with me you got on what rights a man got when he's on trial. Everything you might be in for 200 years. And in the early 60s CBS News produced a report about this remarkable unassuming man's fight for a right that would change the course of American jurisprudence forever. It was really a happy accident that when the Supreme Court considered the question of the right of four criminal defendants to lawyers the case that raised the question was raised by Clarence or of getting him spent by a lawyer on it. Anthony Lewis and other distinguished jurists recently gathered at the University of Maryland School of Law to celebrate the anniversary of the Gideon decision a decision that is still not fully realized in many states including Maryland. Anthony Lewis recalls Gideon the man Gideon was a four time loser.

When I visited him in the Florida penitentiary he was only 53 years old but he looked like he was in the 70s or 80s he was a beaten down man but there was a spark in him that really wanted to share and he insisted he was a little obsessive and he just insisted he had to have the right to a lawyer and insisted all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States and he won. Now 35 years after Gideon some in Maryland are still grappling with questions first raised by the 60s Supreme Court questions that remain major impediments to the right to counsel for the poor. When and when he's arrested when he's right when he goes to trial. That's right. About practical consequence. How many prisoners in this country right. This is Baltimore's highly sophisticated central booking and detention center. If you are arrested in Baltimore this is where you go to be processed within 24 hours of an arrest.

Each defendant is required by Maryland law to appear before a judge on closed circuit television for what's called Video bail review. You're seeing video right here you're right here. The process is efficient. But critics of the system say that many poor defendants who face the court without legal representation are destined to sit in jail needlessly providing people with a lawyer at Barrow is an essential piece of the problem that we are confronting. It's not the whole answer but without providing lawyers and you're never going to be able to deal with court congestion jail overcrowding and not giving enough attention to more serious cases. So it's a beginning point but it's an essential beginning point. In January of 1998 a group of University of Maryland law students began representing poor defendants as part of a clinical program called access to justice. The success of that program allowed Professor Colbert to expand the project and secure a

grant from the able foundation. Now the lawyers at Baylor program uses paralegals lawyers and students to represent poor individuals at bail reviews who have committed nonviolent crimes. We have been able to gain the release of five times as many people. That had been previously released before we entered the picture. Most of our clients have actually been arrested on fairly minor charges maybe simple possession. CBS using a forged MTA ticket traffic offenses. Something used to appear in court. Maybe they forgot the court date but they're not the types of cases that threaten the community. Each day the lawyers and bail attorneys go to district court and are faxed information about clients who are incarcerated at central booking. We may never meet them but we have to be their voice and quote We have the best chance they

have for getting out. And so we have a very limited amount of time to get familiar with the facts of their cases. The parent argument and presented at the bail review hearing that he has documentation to support the fact that he was not from the point of view of the judge I think I can speak for the vast majority of judges who will agree with me that. Lawyers involved in the process. Goes a long way toward ensuring that that process is a fair process. That results in outcomes that are fair and reliable. I have observed that the judges respond very differently when individuals are represented by counsel be it private or lawyers at bail. For one thing they take time to hear more. Of the personality of the individual defendant because they only rely on the paper. Without us being there the lawyer makes all the difference in the world and that's why. You know when the Supreme Court decided 35 years ago that people have a constitutional right to

counsel it's because it's the foundation of our equal justice principle. It's a foundation of our of our commitment to fairness. And on the court without any deal with this court. It's your move. But be careful. Your up against the best college chess team in America. Later on Maryland state of mind. That banner contract some great moments of occurred throughout Auriol history and all Blair was the man responsible for some of the best. For more than a decade he gave us exciting baseball. Now he's stepping up to the plate for the cop and the struggling college baseball team looking for leadership. Paul Blair is providing that

leadership and the talent and inspiration that only a champion again for he is. Going to bat one more time. Pirates pitcher Lacker is ready to work against the Orioles center fielder Paul Blair with the Count two balls and two strikes. The lefty Walker whines and do it on an arrest. John let's. Bring. You. Back. With us. So. Far they are single if you can imagine all your life you lived in Major League Baseball player and then all of a sudden you're a major league baseball player and whatever you're trying to do whatever goal you're trying to reach when you reach it. Then that's just the ultimate feeling that you can have players for third thing. It's not whether you win or lose. The old saying goes. It's how you play the game. In the summer of 1964. A man who knew how to play and win. Was called up to the Baltimore Orioles. His eye for the game of baseball impressed the team and Paul Blair learned to

call Maryland his home for the next 13 seasons. With a gold glove on his hand and a position in center field. Blair made the trip for the World Series four times with the Orioles companied by the likes of Jim Palmer Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson. Well I started playing baseball when I was eight years old and I have always as low as I can remember always wanted to be a baseball player. Major League Baseball player so you know when my idols Willie Mays. He was always when I was when I was. Plan and my party in high school I always made a basket case. But when I signed a play pro ball I decided that I would go in with my own style as I didn't want to by the say I was copying the early. After seasons with the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds player put the glove in back down. And retired in 1980 with an impressive list of achievements. Including five Gold Gloves and four World Series rings baseball was

never far from his mind however. And a chance conversation in a bowling alley brought a whole Blair back to Baltimore and she was a bowling coach at Coppin State. One day in conversation she asked me if I would speak at their awards banquet and so I said sure I would be glad to do that for her because she did us a favor by filling in on the bowling team and then I asked the question did cough and the baseball team cause I mean you know if they had a baseball team and she said yes they did it right. Three decades of polishing himself. It's been more of a challenge for coach players than anyone would care to with MIT. Confident baseball program does not strike fear into their opponent's heart strike

plan. But a new coach with a love of the game hopes to change all that. Guys. It's time for us to start playing. Better than replacing. Most of the things that we do wrong is because we don't prepare ourselves to make the right play. The biggest play in good baseball. The program when I took over what they left me was 10 players 10 plays that it never played on before. We got three walk on and we were fortunate enough to finish the season with no baseball diamond to call their own. Koppen plays in the college's open fields where local parks. During the cold February weather they retreat to practice in the compensator home to their successful basketball program. The ball may jump quickly on the wooden floors but coach player is working as much on fundamentals as in his speed

ball skills. Made up of mostly underclassman. Many of the players were born as Blair was completing his career but the professional touch is still appreciate. He's given me the outlook from the profession as that has come out of high school and they have been spoon fed everything and he gives us the teachers more like men. What I've heard about him and bits and pieces that you see on TV has really impressed me with the way he played and just picking up things that he knows and. Listening to the things he says. I really start to sink in. Especially come from somebody who's been to the show. Thank goodness for this going. On. That's a good point. The reason you cope with your body. And your trust in the hater. Anytime you come out here fast with the body

you're going to miss the ball and your hands are going to be slow and that's what you'll get. Constant practice earning a college degree and playing baseball from North Carolina to New York can prove to be a challenge for the company golds a 40 game schedule provides little room for rest. Play right. Play Maryland we play Georgetown George Washington. I want to play good schools I want to play better schools because that's all we were going to learn to play the game. It's GAMEDAY stadium on the outskirts of Baltimore. State College is hosting New York's Hofstra University freshman teachers takes them on. Adair performs admirably and while hits are made in vulgar cars and

watches another victory slipped from her breast. The coach does not lose hope. However. For the heroes managers and years of playing that sculpted Paul Blair into a winner created a teacher as well and to a teacher losing hope is worse than losing a game. If you come to confident you will learn to play this game of baseball. I do believe I can teach I've been there and I know what it takes to become a major league baseball player if you have that talent. I can develop it. I like confident to be at the top of the baseball world because I want them. Any athlete that considers coming to cough and they will know one thing for sure. One very good sound fundamental team you will graduate from Compton and you will be competitive.

That's my goal. From the melodies of musicals to the joy of jazz. Meet a man who inspires both. Later in our show. Checkmate chess is a game of strategy and intimidation demanding the best of its competitors. At the University of Maryland Baltimore County chess is the sport and the team's coach. Professor Sherman recruits chess players like other schools court basketball players. He must be succeeding for you NBC has now won the Pan-American intercollegiate Chess Championship two of the last three years. These young minds are a dynasty in the making. One we like to call the chess set. He came out of the public libraries and outdoor parks and chess clubs of Brooklyn when he was only 14. He won the U.S. National Chess Championship.

And then Bobby Fischer of Brooklyn beat Boris Spassky of Russia and became the only American ever to be champion of the world. The year was 1972. But some chess dreams never die. Perhaps one day a new champion out of Brooklyn or Baltimore or some other American city. On a Bobby Fischer match came as it was it was like a sonic boom United States he wouldn't play chess everybody's by have chess set. That I dreamed about you know. I couldn't wait to play my next game of jazz while I was in school I had my checkbook under Yes. Turning a page as a teacher was. Teachers like Syria looking about official Spassky. Yeah. He came out of Brooklyn also studying in the libraries hustling games in the parks. But William Morris and made a new name for himself in Baltimore.

The good thing about. It Again. We. Own it as Sammy is only Billy then one set per year dominating chess player which chess players fear. And they call him the exterminator. With us he won the chess championships of Maryland and Virginia and Washington D.C. The way you won you know. You did not say what you mean not to me. OK you know. And he became one of the first Americans ever offered a college scholarship scholarship to play chess. The protocols. Of the man who gave him the scholarship was Alan Sherman and he came here to teach computer science but he quickly began a quiet crusade to make chess a major sport at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Well chess is a sport. It's a contest that requires skill and preparation. People. Follow chess as they do the other sports.

It's an exciting. Thrilling. And demanding spectator sport. If chess is a sport then why not do what other sports teams do. Recruit great athletes. LAURA Hi this is Alex. And recruit them from all around the world. LAURA. Thank you. You came in said one of the first athletes he went after was a local legend. Yeah I was recruited. We'll be making our scholarship decisions this week and Allen Sherman said we could go places with this. And as a result of just talking with him I got excited I said OK because I like the idea of people emphasizing sports that focus on the life of the mind and the interest in football and a contact sport stems from. The caveman days when when physical prowess was important for food gathering and survival.

Let me have a really really good game day for the football team. And game day for the chess team. This is the pregame locker room. No chalk talks no pep talks no prayers. Just a boxed lunch and a chance for these Maryland players to eyeball their opposition. Six players from Princeton University. They're here yes we're OK we're going to choose for colors now whatever hand you pick will be the color that Princeton has on board. And this is the kickoff. No coin toss no whistles no marching bands. It looks like a civilized sport. Thank you. But like all good caveman sports it's still a war game. The Army is taking territory.

Warriors attacking warriors. The battle is still to the strong and the strong and quick of mind and nerves. It's not only a battle over the positional board it's a battle of wills between two people sitting there. And that array of nurse. I'm a very attacking player and go get a type of style you know drag them out type of thing you know. Where in the house down player by player board by board. Alan Sherman built his dream team reaching out well beyond Baltimore and bringing in intellectual warriors from all over the world from Russia and Massachusetts Eugene Perel Steen. From Rumania and Illinois florin Fela can now the highest rated player under 21 in America. And from Tucson Arizona on board one of the reigning junior world champion.

Head an international grandmaster. Today Sherman's army is burning down Princeton 6 games tonight. Over the last three years Sherman's soldiers marched through the Pan-Am Games twice winning the World Championship of intercollegiate chess. Very strong. I think the strongest in history. I think they're forming what you call a dynasty. Other schools are looking back in their heads. And saying what is this guy doing you know and it just catching on that we're recruiting just like a first rate basketball team recruit. It's going to take them some time to even catch up. Beating Princeton beating almost any college team is for these world champions a slam dunk. I. Often hear about a university that

gives scholarships to chess players and we do that. But it's wonderful to see young people coming in and feeling good about being chess players it means they're feeling good about being smart. We're number one in the world and we intend to help me as long as possible. It's a biology experiment of barnacles and data bits connecting the Inner Harbor to Scandinavia at web speed later on Maryland state of mind. Music is a great tradition at Bowie State University from its choirs to jazz

ensembles. There's always a rhythmic energy on the part of the force behind all this energy. There's a tireless music teacher jazz director and dean of Fine Arts. He's determined to take a musical tradition already steeped in greatness to new heights. So you'll understand why this man is always hitting a high note. You can hear why she played Les first in the cotton mill at Buoy State University. One dynamic music director is finding a way to merge music with media. Can we use that as. Dr. Clarence Knight is director of buoys Department of Fine Arts. He brings both a love for performance and a respect for technological changes to the classroom. He's bringing music education in tune with the times they call the record ever for the long haul. Yeah.

That's right. I think most of the thing about being a teacher of the other students in that they're what we teach for you know to actually come into a situation where some people could actually utilize some of these spears that I have to sort of better them in terms of the things that they do. Dr. Knight knows that art education programs need to jump on the technological bandwagon to keep up with the times. But his love for live performance is being passed down as his legacy. We actually have a generation of young people male that probably if we're not careful will not understand a diff between a live instrument. And a technological instrument or one that has been set aside that is artificial for the large part unless you for example hook into some balls were like technology. They have a tendency for example not think that you import a lot of people who sample may say that they really understand appreciate or are so set aside that

they don't want to pay for it is one of those kind of things and this is one of the things that we enjoy but it's one of those kinds of things that we would all want to put the money out for we have to be real careful about in this whole technology craze. The bottom line is that it does have a price and I think it plays a very important role in terms of being able to support and enhance what we do. I definitely don't think that we should get to the place that we let it replace what we do. His earlier career was playing saxophone for some of Motown's greatest legends Gladys Knight The Temptations even Duke Ellington. Now he's sharing his love for live performance with students of this media generation what we manage to do here while we have these keyboards. The piano is one example that electronically use. They have to learn how to use out his keyboard with this keyboard in most cases are computers. So they have to understand the inner workings of this and always had it actually work.

What's the function of it. David Lindsay is one student who's learning how new machines assist the creative process. This keyboard has four programs for voice programs and in each program it has a hundred and twenty eight voices so you can use say France if you want to piano on programs. It has 16 tracks. It also has many functions on there. So right now I can give you a little demonstration of what I've been working on. Sometimes music really does benefit from a little 20th century of the programs as it's messed up.

One thing I like about this program has. This is about the date technology but technology is updated every day. And in this case the equipment is just like the basics. Whatever comes out even though is and has. I have the basics down. Laugh performance air producing. Goes hand in hand and create creative ability. But I like the performers better because that's on the spot. All lessons learned in this music department will be on display at the presidential scholarship gala. Final touches are being polished during rehearsal when we do these rehearsals we prepare to perform. This is one of the reasons that we were here. And this is this sort of like a

test you know hey we out here in there we want to play with the best we can and we're going to go to perform the presidential Gallagher's you're going to be at the Grand Hyatt and after dissipation of course will be with a choir as well as a jazz ensemble. The night of the gala has arrived. It's the student's chance to bring these lessons into the spotlight. As dinner guests enjoy the comments of a parade of dignitaries. The scene backstage is electric. As students eaten prepared to perform. They can help getting some excitement out of their systems. Even clowning around doesn't diminish the true talents within this bunch. The night's entertainment is provided by both boys jazz ensemble and its choir.

These students understand they're entering a new era in the music industry experiences that booie have prepared them for music after the millennium and all the changes new technology will bring. Though high tech lessons may be the key to the future. Dr. Knight students have grasped the unparalleled will of live performance. No matter what changes the future holds for music and the vocal arts bluing has given these performers a great respect for the basics of yesterday as well as Whatever tomorrow brings. This is a night they'll never forget. It's a tiny bacterium found on every plant that holds great prospects for the field of agriculture. Coming up on Maryland state of mind.

The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute labs it majestically in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Their legendary marine research is now involving high school kids in an experiment to determine what organisms live in the heart. The experiment code named Virtu uses. Devices like these to collect the specimens. But the best part is that they're sharing their data over the Internet with students in Sweden and Norway who are also testing their harbors. It's a wonderful exchange of data and cooperation and true to the old adage virtue is its own reward. What do big ships and barnacles have to do with bacteria and racks of Plexiglas disks. They are all part of virtue. An innovative project that uses the World Wide Web to further the study of marine biology funded by a major grant from Sweden's Wallenberg foundation virtue joins together good to burn University

in Sweden and the University of Bergen in Norway and the University of Maryland's Biotechnology Institute a major focus of the research done at this virtual university is the study of biofilms biofilms are everywhere. Bio films are bacterial layers that form on your teeth and in your gut and on the holds of ships when barnacles attached to the hull of the ship. They're really attaching to the biofilm layer to the bacteria with the bacteria that Rashida is isolated. We will actually culture our own biofilms with single species of bacteria and find out if different bacteria will have different effects on what organisms will attach. We've got a very simple system for getting a great deal of information about the health of the ecosystem by taking Plexiglas disks so that we can put them on a rod and deploy them anywhere in any aquatic environment.

Leave them over a period of time and then retrieve them. This rack has been in the water pretty much undisturbed since June of last year. And this is an identical. Plexiglas desk that was nice and clean just like some of the other ones without it we just lowered into the water and stuff just accumulated anger grew on it. Most research indicates that the organisms that attach to a substrate like the barnacles the muscles the bigger things are actually attaching to a biofilm layer first and not just to the disk itself. One of the big areas of research is how to prevent these films from forming and ship falls. And once they form a ship hall. That has to be scraped off. Resurface retain it as a very expensive process. So in the past we've used Marine coatings has very toxic chemicals in them. And that prevents the biofilm of filming organisms from attaching. But at the same time you're

also putting toxic materials into the environment when that paint falls off the ship. So if you can find some other natural coating. That would prevent the formation then you reduce the amount of toxins into the environment with the Marine coatings interactive video conferencing enables scientific research collaboration graduate level classes and laboratory learning and analysis. That's called a ghost an enemy or a white an enemy it's real calm in the bank. An important part of virtue is to help further science education in public schools. Couple pods stuff like that aspect. Recently at the Columbus Center a group of Maryland teachers met with their Swedish counterparts to lay plans for an international web based research project aimed at middle and high school students. We've taken one project in particular which is on biofilms and bio diversity

and expanded it into a web based program which the virtual project which involves teachers in Sweden and in Norway and in Maryland are now going to implement Hopefully this fall all together at the same time. There's a section here called You're the expert. And if we go to the you're the expert section. It takes you through the process of choosing. Properly a site to study in your local environment and then also how to design your own rack to put out. In the environment by using So. Schematic drawings like this but then also some step by step instructions. And. Putting together a rack. And there are a couple of other designs that we're experimenting with there we're going to put up on the web also. So if you were doing this out in the stream you could use one design if you were doing it over a dock you could use another design and you have a couple of choices available to. A Swedish high school has already included a link to the virtue project

on their web page and posted pictures of Swedish students setting out their biofilm ranks. Students everywhere can take part in the virtual project by taking advantage of the virtual samples. If you're far away from water and denied access to try this project yourself we decided to put a couple samples on here for you to test your your skills that you've learned in the web page by clicking on one of these two. We now get a close up of the picture. And this is a community shot from under the microscope. And what we want to do now is we want to try to count the organisms that are here and put them into this table. And once we get all of that finished. Our values may be computed down here and once all this information is still then you can start to understand how scientists use. Math. And

apply it to biology which is something that we're trying to make a connection to. Which is a big disconnect and a lot of schools virtually unique innovative and cutting edge using today's technology to push international science education into the future. For more information about the stories see state of mind this is a website. Call 1 800 4 7 7 8 4 3. Throughout nature there are unexpected but mutually beneficial relationships between organisms that are called symbiotic. These relationships exist even in the plant world. And a professor and his students had solved Bri State University are researching a particularly promising one. They discovered that a pink bacterium found on

all plants appears to have more impact on plant growth than ever realize. If this knowledge can be applied to agriculture there is the prospect of greater harvest and hopefully less hunger. It's a story we like to call in the pink. In water environments tiny cleaning fish nibble algae from a sea turtle. In the animal kingdom small birds remove tasty pests from the rhinoceros. This intimate association of two organisms often provides mutual benefits. It's called a symbiotic relationship. In the plant world. These relationships also exist with new research pointing to a critical link between plants and their bacteria. What you got. There's a pink one. There's a penguin for as I would like for the past few years.

Dr. Mark Holland has transformed his small lab at Salisbury State University into a mini research facility. The focus of his work a microscopic bacteria found on all plants both on land and under water. Its name is PPF am short for Pink Pig minuted facultative methyl a tropes. Howland and his students are on a mission to uncover the symbiotic relationship between Pink bacteria and the plant say live on. These bacteria are incredibly interesting organisms. It amazes me that they can have been. Living on and with. Plants. For so long and we've never realized the extent to which. They play a role in the lives of plants. What we're realizing in the lab working with these PPF and bacteria is that plants have a bacterial partner that helps them

digest waste products helps them with some of their food provides them with vitamins. Provides them with growth regulators. OK. Let's take a look at these bacteria. The pink bacteria was first detected on plants 40 years ago but it significance to plants was not known. Howland was intrigued by this bacteria and began conducting experiments in his lab. Right. Right. And. We became aware of these bacteria when we realized we had been fooled by them. We thought that we were measuring biochemical activities in a bio chemistry lab that came from the plant. They were produced by the plant that were regulated by the plant that the plant normally does. And in fact we found out that the plant was not responsible for these results we got in the lab it was the bacteria that were living on the plant they were fooling us

they were masquerading as plant activities. When we realized that. We decided to try to exploit the. Activities of these bacteria. Dr. Holland applied for and received two patents on methods exploring various uses of the pink bacteria. But in developing the theory that this bacteria provides benefits to plants. Holland encountered skepticism from colleagues. I think there are people who would admit that these bacteria are normally associated with plants but who doubt whether their contribution to the plant is a significant one. We're collecting data that says in fact. They are significant in the life of a plant. Look at these peppers these hot peppers. These are jalapeno the size of those you look at here you were a mess. While experimenting with the bacteria how men made an important discovery.

Plant growth can be jumpstarted with additional concentrations of pink bacteria. In investigating why that occurs. One reason is that these bacteria produce a growth regulator a compound that's normally kind of acting like a hormone in plants that stimulates the growth of the plant. The more I think about this the more I think that the plants are really being farmed by the bacteria. These bacteria work the land. They live on the leaf surface they fertilize. They add these growth regulators. They pick up waste products and feed back simple compounds that the plant can use. It's a fertilizer in a way they're they're just little farmers. And these little farmers could mean big business for Maryland's farmers increasing qua peals with less reliance on artificial fertilisers. Let's take a look at those seeds.

Field trials recently conducted with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore support Dr. Holland's theory. Spraying soybean seeds with pink bacteria increases plant productivity graduate student Elliot Mann Sanjay use these results to shape his graduate thesis. Where we did not apply bacteria. Is much much less than well we will have some level of soup. This will involve some extra food that is coming from up there some of the bacteria. While Mark Holland is the captain of the research mission his students are the foot soldiers the student projects are what this research is all about. I think we have a large project with lots of different parts.

And each of the students in turn has taken a little part and run with it. They're the hands I depend on their input. And their work and their help. That's how the work gets done. In the next few months. Holland plans to continue field trials spraying the bacteria on different types of plants. Ultimately he thinks a bacteria may do more than alter the metabolism of plants on earth. It's not too crazy to wonder what would happen to these bacteria or how they might be used to contribute to artificial life support. In a space scenario. From a petri dish on the eastern shore to sustaining life in space. This tiny bacteria promises to alter food production for humankind. We hope you enjoyed the short excursion of the frontiers of knowledge with me is your trusty

guide in the university system of Maryland as our intrepid Navigator will be back in the fall with more stories from one of the country's leading research universities and we hope you'll join us for Maryland state of mind. I'm Scott Simon. Tonight. Funding for Maryland state of mind is provided by the 13 institutions of the

university system of Maryland.