Honeybee hiatus
A USA Today article about a disease ravishing the nation’s honeybee population quoted Keith Delaplane, an entomology professor and world-renown bee expert. “This adds yet more argument for the urgency of beekeepers to adopt genetically resistant stock,” Delaplane said, referring to a stock of Israeli bees that are genetically resistant to the disease.

Gene catalog
Science Daily quoted Jeffrey Dean, professor of forest biotechnology, in an article about a project he is spearheading at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute. Once complete, the project will greatly expand the gene catalog for pines and initiate the first gene discovery efforts in five other conifer families.

“The wood from conifers will almost certainly be an important component of this nation’s biomass energy strategy,” Dean said, “but despite extensive commercial plantations they remain essentially an undomesticated species. Information from this project will greatly enhance the ability of our tree improvement programs to develop pines tailored to suit the needs of the future bioenergy industry.”

Early recruitment
A University Business article about recruiting and helping children get into college quoted Mimi Sodhi, assistant provost for institutional diversity, about her role in partnering the university with the Greensboro Georgia Dreamers, a program that exposes disadvantaged children to tutoring and special projects as a means to spike their interest in attending college.

“We’d love to see everyone come to UGA,” Sodhi said. “But really we want them to look around at their options.”

Cancer killer
A United Press International story about UGA researchers discovering that pectin, which is found in fruits and vegetables and used in making jams and other foods, kills prostate cancer cells quoted Debra Mohnen, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.“What this paper shows is that if you take human prostate cancer cells and add pectin, you can induce programmed cell death,” Mohnen said. “If you do the same with non-cancerous cells, cell death doesn’t occur.”

Redneck origins
A Texas Observer article about an annual event in Athens, Texas, known as the Redneck Games turned to James C. Cobb, B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor of history, for a history of the word redneck.

“It used to be America’s most respectable ethnic slur. You could say anything about Southern whites, and it was resented only by Southern whites. It’s gone through this metamorphosis to where it’s become more acceptable for Southern whites to call themselves rednecks. It’s an aspect of the growing assimilation of the South into the rest of the country and the greater confidence of the Southern white male,” Cobb said.

“In a way, the rednecks are the hippies of the 1990s and early 21st century, sort of the dropouts from conventional society without a lot of the ideological trappings,” he also said.

Laugh lines
A Houston Chronicle article about Mr. Woodcock, a new comedy about a high school physical education coach, quoted Bryan McCullick, associate professor of kinesiology. “The movie looks hilarious,” McCullick said. “Billy Bob Thornton plays the stereotype of a P.E. teacher—at least in the trailer.”