Six from Tucson High Magnet

Ebaa Al-Obeidi

Margaret Wilch, a science teacher at Tucson High Magnet School, has reason to be especially proud this week.

Six out of nine area students going to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair are hers.

They, along with three others, make up the largest entourage ever from here to go to the fair, the world’s largest precollege science contest. Each year more than 1,500 high school students from more than 50 countries exhibit their independent research and compete for nearly $4 million in scholarships and prizes. Doctoral-level scientists are judges.

“These kids are phenomenal. They really are our future for science and engineering in Pima County,” said Kathleen A. Bethel, director of the Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair. “I think they’re all going to do great.”

Wilch agreed. “It’s amazing when you give a person an opportunity, what they’ll do. They’re incredibly dedicated and spend lots of time on their projects.”

She is accompanying her students to the fair, which started Sunday and runs through Friday in Reno, Nev.

“She’s just incredible,” Bethel said of Wilch. “Year after year she has at least one student going to Intel, and often they win.”

This is the 11th straight year that Wilch has had international competitors. And seven have come home with awards. Wilch’s students and their projects are:

• Angela Schlegel: “The identification of enzymes used in Salvia divinorum to produce salvinorin A”

• Mahwish Khalid: “The effect of male size of cytoplasmic incompatibility in the parasitic wasp Encarsia pergandiella”

• Negin Nematollahi: “Factors affecting bone strength during development in peri-pubertal girls”

• Michael Wallace: “Artificial selection for polystyrene degradation in bacterial communities”

• The team of Emily Derks and Alice Glasser: “A comparison of the effects of added urban stresses on native and non-native soil microbial communities.”

The other competitors are:

• Ebaa Al-Obeidi, from Canyon del Oro High: “Sonoran Solar Solution”

• Martin Lopez and Mario Valdez, from Rio Rico High: “Terminal Ballistics of Household Structures”

Wilch said her earlier education has molded how she prepares her students for success.

She specifically recalls two science teachers: Gary Benesh at George Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and David Lyon, Ph.D. at Cornell (Iowa) College.

In Lyon’s class, Wilch published a scientific paper as an undergraduate, a rarity.

“And I don’t ever remember having a textbook in Mr. Benesh’s class. I remember going out into the field, going to the zoo. He had us reading Scientific America magazine.”

Her students are getting a similar education. She has University of Arizona professionals as mentor to her students, who are actually doing research in UA science labs. And she has a UA graduate student working in her classroom, thanks to a National Science Foundation grant.

In addition to the nine competitors at internationals, four students, who also had first-place wins in either the Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair in Tucson or the first-ever Arizona State Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix earlier this year, will attend as observers.

“For observers, we look for kids who have a long-term commitment and who we think will learn what it takes to get to the next level,” Bethel said. “We’ve had a lot of observers who’ve come back and done well at regionals and internationals.”

CDO’s Al-Obeidi was an observer last year, Bethel said.

This year’s observers and their projects are:

• Ostin Zarse and Joshua Sloane, from Sonoran Science Academy: “Upping the Power: Can reflective materials be cost effective while increasing the output of photovoltaic cells?”

• Stanley Palase, also from Sonoran Science Academy: “Metabolic Comparison of Carbohydrates”

• Anna Guarino, from Salpointe Catholic High: “Microbial Contamination of Pens”

Emily Derks (left) and Alice Glasser compared the effects of added urban stresses on native and non-native soil microbial communities.

Angela Schlegel

Hollywood stretches scientific accuracy in a new action thriller starring Tom Hanks, a University of Arizona researcher said.

“Angels & Demons,” which opens Friday, tells the tale of bad guys who threaten to destroy Vatican City with an explosive device containing a tiny amount of antimatter.

“We’re debunking the premise that you can really create a dangerous device out of antimatter,” said Erich Varnes, associate professor of physics at UA. “I don’t want people to worry that terrorists are going to build an antimatter device and hold it over us.”

Varnes will discuss the science of antimatter and how it applies to the movie at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the UA Harvill Building.

When antimatter collides with matter – for example, a normal electron with a negative charge meets an antimatter electron with a positive charge – they are annihilated and converted into energy, Varnes said.

Since e=mc2, or energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared, it would take a lot of antimatter to create an effective bomb, he said.

“If you had enough antimatter you could release huge amounts of energy,” he said. “The key point is there is really no practical way to generate or store enough antimatter to do any serious damage at all.”

If U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois ran flat out for 20 years producing antimatter, and if you could store that much antimatter – which you can’t – you would have the equivalent of 10 pounds of conventional explosives, Varnes said.

The movie is accurate in stating that antimatter can be produced in a lab, and if you get enough, it would annihilate with matter and create a lot of energy, he said.

Scientists see public interest in the movie as an opportunity to inform the public.

“The movie uses particle physics as the basis of its entire plot,” he said. “This is a chance for people to learn what is real in the movie, what is exaggerated, and where we are at the cutting edge of particle physics today.”

The movie is based on a novel by Dan Brown, who also wrote the novel on which a 2006 movie, “The Da Vinci Code” was based.

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IF YOU GO

What: Angels & Demons: The Science of Antimatter and the Large Hadron Collider

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Room 150 of the Harvill Building, 1103 E. Second St.

Speaker: Erich Varnes, University of Arizona associate professor of physics

Cost: Free

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WHAT IS ANTIMATTER?

Antimatter is made up of elementary antiparticles, like protons and electrons with an opposite electrical charge. When matter and antimatter come into contact, they release energy while being destroyed.

The Microriver 1GB iSecure Biometric USB Flash Drive is one option for grads. It sells for about $34 online.

Family, friends and loved ones of soon-to-be high school and college graduates want to give them gifts that will aid them in the next chapter of their lives.

For some that chapter will include furthering their education. For others it will entail entering the job market. Regardless of the road ahead for these graduates, there are many affordable tech gifts to make that road a little smoother.

Whether on campus or in the corporate jungle, USB flash drives seem to be commonplace. A particular flavor of USB flash drives that don’t seem to be everywhere are biometric or fingerprint scanning USB flash drives.

These drives have been around for a few years, but haven’t really caught on in mass numbers. But the fact remains that these are among the best USB drives to own. Biometric USB flash drives allow access to the drive only after a user has been authenticated by running a fingerprint over a biometric scanner embedded on the drive.

The benefits of biometric USB drives are numerous, but among the top reasons for considering them as a gift for graduates is their security features. The information stored on them is not only secure, but the fact that the information cannot be accessed acts as a theft deterrent and may even serve to increase the odds of the drive being returned if it where lost. Biometric USB drives are more expensive than regular USB drives of equal storage capacity, but there are plenty of lower capacity biometric drives priced below $50.

If your graduate is heading into the work force, you may want to consider paying for a professional subscription as a gift. Careerstrides.com is one of many Web sites that offer a professional résumé service to people new to the job market. Popular employment Web sites such as Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com offer upgraded résumé posting, a feature that is supposed to give placement preference so employers will view them before the non-upgraded résumés. This, too, could help recent grads looking to test the job market. In the current employment environment, every advantage helps.

For those who are leaving the high school campus for the larger and much greener college campus, the Digimemo may be ideal. The Digimemo is a digital tablet that allows users to write notes, draw or doodle and save it all to the device. Having a device that can save 999 individual pages of notes without the need for special paper that some other devices require will lighten the backpack of any college student. At a cost of $99, it won’t lighten the gift giver’s wallet too much, either.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds @yahoo.com.

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts-off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Monday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Atlantis and a crew of seven thundered away Monday on one last flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, setting off on a daring repair mission that NASA hopes will lift the celebrated observatory to new scientific heights.

Atlantis rose from its seaside pad about 2 p.m. and arced out over the Atlantic, ducking through clouds. The Hubble was directly overhead, 350 miles up.

For the first time ever, another shuttle was on a nearby launch pad, primed for a rescue mission if one is needed because of a debris strike.

After seven months of delay, the astronauts were anxious to get started on the complicated, riskier-than-usual job at Hubble. They were two weeks away from launching last fall when a critical part on the telescope failed and picture-taking ceased. NASA decided it wanted to take up a spare to replace the broken unit, and it took months to get it ready.

“At this point, all I’ve got left to say is, ‘Let’s launch Atlantis,”‘ commander Scott Altman said just before liftoff.

“Enjoy the ride, pal,” replied launch director Mike Leinbach.

Atlantis should reach the orbiting telescope Wednesday.

This is NASA’s fifth and final trip to Hubble, launched 19 years ago. The stakes, as well as the dangers, are higher since astronauts last visited in 2002. Space has become more littered with junk at Hubble’s altitude because of satellite collisions and breakups, and NASA now knows all too well how much damage can be done at liftoff by a piece of fuel-tank foam. Columbia was brought down by such a blow.

During the first few minutes of flight, Mission Control repeatedly advised Altman and his co-pilot to disregard a bad engine sensor and assured them that everything was fine. Indeed, Atlantis ended up where it needed to be in orbit.

About 30,000 people jammed Kennedy Space Center, all of them gazing up as Atlantis headed into the sky. Scientists hugged one another and posed for pictures.

“We have 60 years of Hubble between us,” said Ed Weiler, NASA’s science mission chief, his arm around senior project scientist David Leckrone. “It’s bittersweet … I know this one is the last one. On the other hand, I know that Hubble is going to be better than ever once the astronauts do their thing.”

Leckrone was also wistful: “It’s the end of the era of Hubble servicing.”

Hubble is way overdue for a tuneup.

Two spacewalking teams will replace the 19-year-old Hubble’s batteries and gyroscopes, install two new cameras and take a crack at fixing two broken science instruments, something never before attempted. Those instruments, loaded with bolts and fasteners, were not designed to be tinkered with in space.

The astronauts also will remove the science data-handling unit that failed in September and had to be revived, and put in an old spare that was hustled into operation. Fresh insulating covers will be added to the outside of the telescope, and a new fine guidance sensor for pointing will be hooked up.

Five spacewalks will be needed to accomplish everything. The work is so tricky and intricate that two of the repairmen are Hubble veterans, John Grunsfeld and Michael Massimino. Grunsfeld, the chief repairman, is making an unprecedented third trip to the telescope. Altman, the commander, also has previously flown to Hubble.

“We’ll give it our best,” Altman said at liftoff.

All told, it’s a $1 billion mission. The space telescope, over the decades, represents a $10 billion investment. It was launched amid considerable hoopla in 1990, but quickly found to be nearsighted, producing blurred images, because of a flawed mirror.

Corrective lenses were installed in 1993 during what NASA’s science mission chief, Ed Weiler, calls “the miracle in space mission.” The results were stunning and included the acclaimed “pillars of creation” image of Eagle Nebula, a star-forming region 6,500 light years away.

With all the newest pieces, NASA hopes to keep Hubble churning out breathtaking views of the universe for another five to 10 years. The new cameras should enable the observatory to peer deeper into the cosmos and collect an unprecedented amount of data.

“I personally believe the stakes for science are very high,” Leckrone said.

Atlantis will be flying in an unusually high orbit for a space shuttle. Space is more strewn with satellite and rocket parts there, and the odds of a catastrophic strike are greater. In addition, there’s always the chance the shuttle could be damaged during liftoff by a piece of fuel-tank insulating foam or other debris, which doomed Columbia in 2003.

NASA canceled this last Hubble mission in 2004, saying it was too dangerous. Atlantis would not be able to get to the international space station, which is in another orbit, and would have only 25 days of air.

The mission was reinstated two years later by the space agency’s new boss, but only after shuttle flights had resumed and repair techniques had been developed. As an added precaution, another shuttle was ordered to be on standby, in case Atlantis suffered irreparable damage.

Endeavour, the rescue ship, is ready to lift off within a week to save the six men and one woman aboard Atlantis. It will remain on standby, as little as three days from launching, until Atlantis heads back home May 22.

This is the last time a shuttle flies somewhere other than the space station, and NASA doesn’t expect to have shuttles on both pads again.

Photographers record the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.

Q: I missed the Eta Aquarid meteors earlier this month. Will there be another good meteor shower that I can see soon?

A: Not until this summer. Usually the best and most predictable shooting star show is the Perseid meteor shower in August, but that is being supplanted by the Geminids around Dec. 13-14. This year the Perseids peak on the nights of Aug. 11-12 and 12-13, but the moon will interfere after 10:30 p.m. on the peak night of Aug. 12-13. If it’s cloudy on those nights, you can still see some Perseid meteors on the nights of Aug. 10-11 and 13-14, even through moonlight.

Austin Calderon examines mobile phone accessories in Los Angeles in this 2008 file photo. For the first time, the number of U.S. households opting for only cell phones outnumber those that just have traditional landlines in a high-tech shift accelerated by the recession.

WASHINGTON – In a high-tech shift accelerated by the recession, the number of U.S. households opting for only cell phones has for the first time surpassed those that just have traditional landlines.

It is the freshest evidence of the growing appeal of wireless phones.

Twenty percent of households had only cells during the last half of 2008, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Wednesday. That was an increase of nearly 3 percentage points over the first half of the year, the largest six-month increase since the government started gathering such data in 2003.

The 20 percent of homes with only cell phones compared with 17 percent with landlines but no cells.

That ratio has changed starkly in recent years: In the first six months of 2003, just 3 percent of households were wireless only, while 43 percent stuck with only landlines.

Stephen Blumberg, senior scientist at the CDC and an author of the report, attributed the growing number of cell-only households in part to a recession that has forced many families to scour their budgets for savings. People who live in homes that have only wireless service tend to be disproportionately low-income, young, renters and Hispanics.

“We do expect that with the recession, we’d see an increase in the prevalence of wireless only households, above what we might have expected had there been no recession,” Blumberg said.

Six in 10 households have both landlines and cell phones. Even so, industry analysts emphasized the public’s growing love affair with the versatility of cell phones, which can perform functions like receiving text messages and are also mobile.

“The end game is consumers are paying two bills for the same service,” said John Fletcher, an analyst for the market research firm SNL Kagan, referring to cell and landline phones. “Which are they going to choose? They’ll choose the one they can take with them in their car.”

In one illustration of the impact these changes are having, Verizon Communications Inc. had 39 million landline telephone customers in March 2008 but 35 million a year later. Over the same period, its wireless customers grew from 67 million to 87 million, though 13 million of the added lines came from the firm’s acquisition of Alltell Corp., according to figures provided by Verizon spokesman Bill Kula.

Another Verizon spokesman, Eric Rabe, said he wasn’t sure the overall drop in landlines was directly related to the stalled economy, although he said the company has lost some landline business customers because companies are closing some of their locations.

“For somebody who’s mobile and not planning to be in the same apartment for more than a year, it’s very appealing to go with a cell,” Rabe said.

Further underscoring the public’s diminishing reliance on landline phones, the federal survey found that 15 percent of households have both landlines and cells but take few or no calls on their landlines, often because they are wired into computers. Combined with wireless only homes, that means that 35 percent of households — more than one in three — are basically reachable only on cells.

The changes are important for pollsters, who for years relied on reaching people on their landline telephones. Growing numbers of surveys now include calls to people on their cells, which is more expensive partly because federal laws prohibit pollsters from using computers to place calls to wireless phones.

About a third of people age 18 to 24 live in households with only cell phones, the federal figures showed, making them far likelier than older people to rely exclusively on cells. The same is true of four in 10 people age 25 to 29.

About three in 10 living in poverty are from wireless-only households, nearly double the proportion of those who are not poor. Also living in homes with only cell phones are one in four Hispanics, four in 10 renters and six in 10 people living with unrelated adults such as roommates or unmarried couples.

One in 50 households has no phones at all.

The data is compiled by the National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the CDC. The latest survey involved in-person interviews with members of 12,597 households conducted from last July through December.

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ON THE WEB

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov

FLAGSTAFF – The northern Arizona observatory where Pluto was discovered has a new director.

Eileen Friel will become the 10th director of the Lowell Observatory when Bob Millis steps down on June 15.

Friel currently is the executive officer for the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the National Science Foundation. She says she’s looking forward to her new job at what she calls a first-rate research center.

She says Lowell Observatory produces fascinating science and has done a superb job explaining that work to the residents of northern Arizona.

The private, nonprofit observatory was founded in 1894. Pluto was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 while he was working at the observatory.

Peter Smith

The Phoenix Mars Lander mission has been a successful steppingstone to greater discoveries on our neighboring planet, Peter Smith said Tuesday night.

Smith, the principal investigator for the University of Arizona-led mission, told about 125 people attending a Flandrau Science Center science cafe event that mankind is likely to set foot on Mars.

“Eventually I think the human race will get to Mars,” he said.

“There are no technology hurdles that would stop you from sending people to Mars. But you really want to be sure you are bringing back live astronauts.”

He said the seven-month journey each way and planet positioning means that the mission would likely last three years.

Current plans call for such a mission to take place between 2030 and 2035, he said. But if there are problems with efforts sooner to send people to the moon again, there will be a delay going to Mars.

The Phoenix Lander tasted frozen water in material scooped from the planet’s northern arctic region, but found no conclusive evidence that life exists or existed on the planet.

That will likely change.

“I’m predicting that in 10 years we will have found strong signatures of life on Mars or the other planets we’ve discovered,” Smith said. “We’re not trying to make Mars into something it isn’t – it may not have life. If that’s the case it’s still a great planet that has no life.”

Smith fielded many questions from the capacity crowd at Cushing Street Bar & Restaurant, which featured a special $4 Martian margarita to mark the occasion.

When asked if Mars is the new high ground for U.S. military imperialism, Smith said no, adding tongue in cheek that the moon would be a much better choice for a military outpost.

“I don’t think there is any military use of Mars – not in a decade, a century or a millennium,” he said.

He said there was no question about basing the mission in Tucson.

“I didn’t want to participate if we didn’t do it my hometown. I grew up here,” Smith said to applause from the crowd.

Steve Walkosak, 69, a Tucson Realtor and investor, said the presentation was great.

“We got to see what they had to go through to put it together and see what they found out,” Walkosak said.

Sean Miller (left) asks Alejandro Leyva about his project, the Full Spectrum Imaging System, on Tuesday at the University of Arizona Student Union. Leyva's senior engineering project was one of about 70 on display.

University of Arizona engineering senior Javier Heyer cooked his Cinco de Mayo quesadillas with the power of the sun.

Heyer and his team were among 70 groups participating in Engineering Design Day at the UA Student Union Memorial Center.

Four- and five-person student teams demonstrated projects that covered a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines, said Jeff Goldberg, dean of the College of Engineering.

Student projects displayed included a missile blast deflector for an Apache helicopter, a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles, a full-spectrum imaging system, a leave-behind remote sensor, solar cars, an ultraviolet pasteurizer for milk, a photovoltaic energy system for remote power applications and a pepper spray mount for an M-16 rifle.

Senior student teams worked for two semesters to solve problems presented by industry partners, Goldberg said.

“The primary goal is to give students design experience with a real client in a practice mode,” he said. “We want to give them a rehearsal.”

Student teams also competed for more than $10,000 in cash prizes donated by event sponsors, Goldberg said.

Heyer’s team built a solar cooker that uses a Fresnel lens to focus the sun’s energy to heat mineral oil.

The oil is circulated to warm stovetop heating elements, he said.

The oil can be circulated to heat cooking elements inside the home or restaurant, as well as outside where the solar collector is located, he said.

Despite Tuesday’s overcast skies the solar cooker reached 330 degrees while grilling cheese quesadillas, he said.

One team developed a portable device to detect gluten, a substance found in cereal grains to which many people have allergic reactions.

Food can be tested to see if it contains gluten and is safe to eat by people with a gluten intolerance, said team member James Nimlos.

The device’s portability means it can be used to test restaurant food for gluten, Nimlos said.

At the other end of the digestive spectrum, a team developed a device to remove loops that develop in a flexible colonoscope instrument that is being pushed through a person’s bowels during a colonoscopy exam.

Looping of the colonoscope inside a person means the examining doctor must spend time straightening out the instrument, said Blake Randolph, team member.

The improved way of straightening out an inserted colonoscope could cut 30 minutes off an exam, Randolph said.

A UA senior engineering team developed a device to warn drivers who doze off behind the wheel.

Their brain wave activity alarm, a lightweight wireless device that detects when eyes get droopy and close, could improve driving safety, said team member Joseph Bitz.

The devices, which can be manufactured in large quantities for $6.52 each, could have other uses including medical monitoring of brain activity, team member Henry Barrow said.

The device could hit the market within the next year or so, Bitz said.

UA engineering sophomore Kevin Ferguson viewed the senior project demos and said Engineering Design Day showed him what his professional future holds.

“It gives you a very real idea of what you are getting into and what you can do with an engineering degree,” Ferguson said.

The event contributed to the seniors’ grades, as well as showcasing their engineering skills, said Martha Ostheimer, director of the UA interdisciplinary engineering design program. She said 65 judges from 40 companies spent hours judging the teams for prizes and grades.

Javier Heyer cooks a quesadilla on his senior engineering project, the Concentrated Solar Cooking and Heating System.

On Arizona Skin Cancer Institute’s Web site

A new tool to detect skin cancer has been made public by the Arizona Cancer Center’s Skin Cancer Institute.

“Skin Cancer: Learn to Spot it Early” is a 12-minute video that shows how to do skin self-exams to find growths that could be or lead to cancers, said Lois Loescher, the institute’s director of education and behavior research.

The video may be found at www.azskincancerinstitute.org/SCVideos.aspx.

“The whole purpose of doing the video is getting people to do skin self-exams,” she said. “Everyone should know how to examine his or her skin regardless of risk factor.

“Early detection really plays a role in survival from skin cancer,” Loescher said. “It’s very important to protect yourself from the sun, but if you don’t catch it early, you increase your chances of having the disease be much more serious.”

A study proved the video’s effectiveness, she said.

“We found a highly significant change – more people were doing skin self-exams after viewing the video,” Loescher said. “We also found a very significant change in knowledge; they had more knowledge about melanoma.”

The video stresses the importance of early detection of skin cancers. Melanoma survival rates are 98 percent if detected early, she said.

The video recommends that people carefully examine their skin each month for changes in moles and spots.

Hand-held and full-length mirrors are needed for an effective self-exam.

Things to look for in moles and spots include asymmetry, border irregularities, color variation, diameter larger than a pencil eraser and changing appearance and feel.

People finding anything suspicious should contact their primary care physician or dermatologist.

Producing the video and testing its effectiveness were funded with a $25,000 Laurence B. Emmons Endowment, said Loescher, principal investigator of the project.

The video was released on the institute’s Web site Friday and shown at a Living in Harmony with the Sun event Saturday and Sunday at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The event was to promote sun safety, awareness and skin cancer prevention.

A follow-up video on skin cancer prevention tactics is planned, Loescher said.

The video won the American Academy of Dermatology’s Gold Triangle Award, said Jennifer L. Allyn, spokeswomen for the Schaumburg, Ill., organization.

The award recognizes efforts that further understanding of dermatologic issues and encourage healthy behaviors in the care of skin, hair and nails, Allyn said.

———

RELATED

Arizona Cancer Center Skin Cancer Institutes video site: www.azskincancerinstitute.org/SCVideos.aspx

ASU among schools that might go to e-texts

NEW YORK – Amazon.com Inc. hopes a bigger version of its Kindle electronic reading device can be a hit, even if it’s more expensive, and the company is aiming it in part at college students who are eager to save money on their textbooks.

Since the Kindle debuted in 2007, it has jazzed many users and technophiles, but electronic readers from Amazon and rivals such as Sony Corp. are still in an early stage. Amazon has not disclosed Kindle sales figures, and the publishing industry has said e-books account for less than 1 percent of book sales.

Now, by offering the larger, $489 version of the Kindle and the smaller $359 Kindle 2, Amazon will try to open more avenues for digital versions of books — and other kinds of content. The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post plan pilot programs in which they will offer the new Kindle at a discount to some readers who sign up for subscriptions to read the news on the device.

In an interview, Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said that because the newest Kindle has a 9.7-inch screen, it will be better suited than the 6-inch regular Kindle at showing “complex layouts” in everything from cookbooks to travel guides.

“Things like those that have a lot of layout, structure, look really good on a big screen,” he said on the sidelines of a press event Wednesday at Pace University in New York.

The Kindle already had features that could aid textbook reading, like the ability to highlight and bookmark passages. Users could tap the Kindle’s typewriter-layout keyboard to look up words and annotate text. But in addition to a larger screen, the new version also offers more data storage — room for 3,500 books instead of 1,500 on the Kindle 2.

Three textbook publishers — Pearson PLC, Cengage Learning and John Wiley & Sons Inc. — have agreed to sell books on the device. Collectively, they publish 60 percent of all higher-education textbooks, Bezos said.

At least six universities have agreed to run Kindle pilots in the fall — Pace, Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. The schools will work with publishers to make sure books assigned for courses are available in the Kindle format, and some colleges might subsidize the devices for their students.

Case Western President Barbara Snyder said her school will be looking to see whether the device changes how students take notes, study and communicate with each other and their professors. Using the Kindle DX “opens a new world of educational opportunity,” she said.

For students, the biggest advantage could be the lower cost of electronic textbooks. Reading material on the Kindle is consistently less expensive than printed versions, with new releases of mass-market books typically costing $10, for example.

A 2005 Government Accountability Office report said the average cost is $900 per year for students at four-year public colleges, though the textbook industry argues the figure is closer to $625. Typically the prices are high because publishers are trying to capture as many sales as possible in the first year of release, before students can buy used versions.

Though Amazon currently sells physical textbooks, Bezos believes electronic versions will eventually dominate. “It just makes so much sense,” he said.

Whether portable, electronic versions of newspapers make sense will remain to be seen. But publishers that have struggled to get people to pay for digital versions of news stories in Web browsers are exploring the Kindle and similar devices.

“Ultimately, this is about providing our readers with what they want and need,” said New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who joined Bezos on stage for the event.

When the Kindle 2 was unveiled, NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin predicted that for e-book readers to reach broader audiences, the price would have to come down — something he didn’t expect to happen until must-haves like textbooks became available for the devices. Since the Kindle DX actually costs quite a bit more than the Kindle 2, “it makes sense to explore … other forms of distribution, such as subsidization by newspapers,” Rubin said.

Bezos said another potential improvement in the Kindle — a color screen — is being explored but is “many years away from commercial readiness.”

“The electronic paper display we’re using now, that was in the lab for 13 years,” he said.

Amazon shares dropped 92 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $80.98 in afternoon trading.

WAYNE, Mich. – Ford Motor Co. will invest $550 million to convert its old Michigan Truck Plant into a facility that will build small compact modern cars, the car maker said Wednesday.

The retooled facility, which once built sport utility vehicles like the Lincoln Navigator, will now build Ford’s next-generation Focus, expected to roll off the line next year.

The plant will also build a new battery-electric version of the Focus for the North American market. That vehicle is expected to debut in 2011.

The struggling automaker says roughly 3,200 jobs will be created in Michigan because of the plant conversion.

The majority of Ford’s investment will be spent on manufacturing at the site and the remainder on engineering and launch costs.

Ford says it will also consolidate operations at its Wayne Assembly plant and transform two other truck and SUV plants — the Cuautitlan Assembly in Mexico and the Louisville Assembly in Kentucky — as part of the retooling.

“We’re changing from a company focused mainly on trucks and SUVs to a company with a balanced product lineup that includes even more high-quality, fuel-efficient small cars, hybrids and all-electric vehicles,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas, in a statement.

The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker will also build the same Focus it is offering its North American customers in Europe and Asia.

In addition to Ford’s zero-emission Focus battery-electric car, the company is working on several other product plans. The company is working with Smith Electric to sell a battery electric commercial vehicle for North America in 2010. It also plans to introduce in 2012 a next-generation hybrid vehicle and a plug-in hybrid vehicle.

Michigan, Wayne county, and the city of Wayne have contributed more than $160 million in tax credits and grants to support Ford’s expansion.

Scientists at the University of Warwick show a formula 3 racing car - the WorldFirst Formula 3 racing car - which is powered by chocolate, has a steering wheel made out of plant-based fibres derived from carrots, has bodywork made from potatoes, and can still do 125mph. The race car was designed and made from sustainable and renewable materials. The car meets all the Formula 3 racing standards except for its biodiesel engine which is configured to run on fuel derived from waste chocolate and vegetable oil. Pictured with the car are it's creators Kerry Kirwan (left), Steve Maggs and James Meredith.

LONDON – Scientists unveiled on Tuesday what they hope will be one of the world’s fastest biofuel vehicles, powered by waste from chocolate factories and made partly from plant fibers.

Its makers hope the racer will go 145 mph and give manufacturers ideas about how to build more ecologically friendly vehicles.

The car runs on vegetable oils and chocolate waste that has been turned into biofuel. The steering wheel is made out of plant-based fibers derived from carrots and other root vegetables, and the seat is built of flax fibre and soybean oil foam. The body is also made of plant fibers.

Scientists at the University of Warwick say their car is the fastest to run on biofuels and also be made from biodegradable materials. It has been built to Formula 3 specifications about the car’s size, weight, and performance.

Their claims cannot be independently verified.

They hope it can reach speeds of over 145 mph when it is tested on a racetrack in a few weeks time. They have driven it at around 60 mph and are now making final adjustments to the engine before driving it at top speed.

Warwick’s project manager James Meredith said their model shows that it is possible to build a fast, efficient, environmentally friendly car.

The car, named the “WorldFirst Formula 3 racing car,” will go on display at several races including the European Grand Prix and Britain’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Nine Inch Nails vocalist Trent Reznor performs during a concert at Key Arena in Seattle last July. Reznor won a Webby award for releasing his 2008 album as a free download.

NEW YORK – Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show hasn’t been on the air three months, but he’s already got an award. The comedian was chosen as person of the year by the annual Webby awards for being “one of the most ardent online evangelists.”

The 13th annual Webbys were announced Tuesday. A special achievement award was also given to Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who released his 2008 album, “The Slip,” as a free download.

Seth MacFarlane, the “Family Guy” creator, was honored as film and video person of the year for his Web franchise “Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.”

Nation Public Radio led winners with seven awards, including wins for its music division, mobile news and podcasts. The New York Times’ online unit — last year’s Webby leader — earned six awards, the same total that NBC.com also received.

Twitter, the fast-growing microblogging site, won the Webby for breakout of the year.

Two well-known comedians were also singled out.

Sarah Silverman was honored as best actress for her performance in the viral video “I’m … Matt Damon” and for her contribution to a voting initiative video. Lisa Kudrow won for outstanding comedic performance as the star of the series “Web Therapy” on lstudio.com.

The awards will be presented in New York on June 8, hosted by Seth Meyers (“Saturday Night Live”). The Webbys are known for their brief acceptance speeches, where winners are limited to five words. (Stephen Colbert, a special achievement winner last year, said: “Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.”)

Since “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” began in early March, the comedian has augmented his NBC broadcast with Web videos, blogging and tweeting on Twitter.

Reznor’s online fervor was evident Sunday, when he posted in a Nine Inch Nails forum that he was frustrated with what he called Apple’s inconsistent standards. He criticized the company for not making the band’s album “The Downward Spiral” available on its iPhone app even though it’s for sale on iTunes.

The Onion won for best humor Web site and its television news parody, Onion News Network, won for best writing. The Huffington Post won for best political Web site.

Best individual comedy short went to “Prop 8: The Musical,” a video from the Will Ferrell co-founded site FunnyOrDie.com. The star-studded video (Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris) suggested that gay marriage (which was then being voted on in California as Proposition 8) would save the economy.

Best comedy series went to “Childrens’ Hospital,” the medical drama parody for TheWeb.com by Rob Corddry (“The Daily Show”).

PBS won four Webbys, including best news and politics series for its “Frontline/World iWitness.” Others with multiple awards included the BBC, Sundance Channel, YouTube Live, Next New Networks and Wired.com.

The Webbys are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member group of Web experts. Every category has two winners: one picked by the Webbys and the other chosen by online voting.

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ON THE WEB

http://www.webbyawards.com

The search for life on Mars continues.

The Phoenix Mars Lander mission led by the University of Arizona tasted frozen water in material scooped from the planet’s northern arctic region.

And other discoveries since the Lander’s surface operations ended six months ago have expanded researchers’ understanding of our neighboring planet, said Peter Smith, who led the Phoenix mission.

On Tuesday Smith will discuss efforts to find evidence of life on Mars at a UA Flandrau Science Center science cafe event.

Science cafes are casual forums where people can discuss a topic with UA researchers in a relaxed atmosphere.

“It’s not just about the Phoenix mission; it’s all about the search for life on Mars,” Smith said. “I will try and broaden it out a bit.”

Smith’s presentation begins at 6 p.m. at Cushing Street Bar & Restaurant and will be followed by an informal public discussion on Martian exploration.

“There are a lot of other people studying Mars,” Smith said. “There have been some very interesting developments in the past six months, even since Phoenix.”

UA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera circling the planet aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite found evidence of sub-surface ice at 43 degrees north latitude – south and closer to the Martian equator than where Phoenix landed, Smith said.

The HiRISE camera photographed white material in five craters caused by meteorite impacts. The white material, believed to be frozen water, disappeared over time as seen in subsequent HiRISE images. Researchers believe the frozen water sublimated, or turned into gas, and disappeared into the atmosphere.

The thick ice layer appears to begin a half meter to a meter below the surface, Smith said.

Earth-based telescopes have discovered high concentrations of methane gas jetting out of regions on the Martian surface, Smith said.

Methane, which is closely linked to biological activity on Earth, could point toward evidence of living material beneath the Martian surface, Smith said.

Smith said researchers are closing in on discovering some form of life on another planet, possibly Mars.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be or where it’s going to be,” he said. “All I’m trying to say is we are hot on the trail of finding life.

“With the intensity of study on this problem I think there will be results within the next decade. It’s a prediction,” Smith said. “We are getting close.”

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IF YOU GO

What: Flandrau Science Center science cafe

Topic: “Journey of the Phoenix”

Presenter: Peter Smith, principal investigator, Phoenix Mars Lander mission

When: 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Cushing Street Bar & Restaurant, 198 W. Cushing St.

Cost: Free, with food and beverages available for purchase