CAFNR
March 21, 2013
Copper and Menkes
A team of Biochemistry researchers at the University of Missouri has published the first scientific evidence that the gene ATP7A is essential for the dietary absorption of the critical nutrient copper. This research explains why children with Menkes disease, who are born lacking this gene, develop a severe copper deficiency.
March 11, 2013
Change Agent
Into a maelstrom came CAFNR's third Dean.
March 11, 2013
Easier Cancer Detection?
A more accurate and less invasive breast cancer detection tool is being developed by Susan Deutscher and Thomas Quinn, both professors of Biochemistry.
March 11, 2013
History in Wood and Oil
William Henry Hatch was born near Georgetown, Ky. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 and practiced as a circuit attorney until 1860. During the Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Army as a captain and then as assistant adjutant general. In March 1863, Hatch was assigned to duty as assistant commissioner of exchange of prisoners. Hatch was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth through Fifty-third Congresses (1879 – 1895), during which time he served as chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1894. After his congressional career, he…
Feb. 8, 2013
Academic Co-Stars
The Rev. Dr. Samuel Spahr Laws (1824-1921) was President of the University of Missouri from 1876 to 1889. His interest in science led to the establishment of the School of Engineering and the building of Laws Observatory. Laws financed the observatory with his personal funds. Laws made his fortune from the invention of the ticker tape machine, used at stock exchanges for decades. (Laws hired a penniless would-be inventor named Thomas Edison to install them. Edison later, under direction of Laws, installed an electric dynamo to bring electricity to Academic Hall — an early light bulb probably caused the…
Dec. 14, 2012
How Mizzou Got Ag
It’s taken for granted today that the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources should be part of the University of Missouri. In the days when Missouri was struggling to recover from the Civil War and had no ag college, this was no cut-and-dried proposition.
Nov. 27, 2012
This Bug’s for Mizzou
Aphis mizzou, a new member of the aphid family, has been officially described in October in Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed scientific journal that describes newly identified organisms.
Nov. 9, 2012
Border Ruffian Savant
If George Clinton Swallow harvested anything, it was controversy.
Nov. 9, 2012
New Experiential Lab
Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), one of the world’s leading agricultural processors, has given the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) a gift of $1 million to support a dedicated laboratory space designed specifically for student experiential learning. The ADM Center for Agricultural Development, to be located in the Agricultural Engineering building on MU’s east campus, will provide space for valuable student-faculty interactions, enhanced student team learning, and capstone design projects. “We’re proud of our partnership with ADM and the investment they are making in CAFNR and our students,” said Thomas Payne, vice chancellor and…
Oct. 15, 2012
Solving the SCN Mystery
For 50 years, the world’s soybean crop has depended on the use of cyst nematode resistant varieties of beans, but no one knew how these plants fought off the nematode pests. Now, the secrets of resistant soybean plants are finally coming to light.