Off The Beat
Rockhurst profs combine Mr. Rogers, the Orkin man
Kansas City Business Journal - by Brian Kaberline
• A research project at Rockhurst College has given about 40 students a taste of real scientific exploration and billions of insects one more thing to be nervous about.
The project, called the Insect Alternative, involves looking for compounds in plants that can be borrowed for pest control. Don Gibbs, chairman of Rockhurst's Chemistry Department, said the project already has gotten three patents and more could be on the way.
Just as impressive as these early results is the way the research has fit into Rockhurst's teaching mission.
"I began this research six years ago," Gibbs said. "And I specifically wanted a way to involve students in frontier scientific investigation."
So lower-level classes have helped gather plants, interview farmers and others about observations of which plants have tamed which bugs and research literature. Upper-level students have helped isolate compounds thought to be involved in natural pest defenses and synthesize them in the lab.
The project also has taken in students in Rockhurst's biology department, with students working with Professor George O'Connor testing compounds on insects. Gibbs said this cooperation has let little Rockhurst conduct big-time research.
Even so, Gibbs said he's now scouting for business partners to pump in the money and materials necessary for full-scale field trials and, possibly, product development. This has been difficult because Rockhurst's technology doesn't hold to the kill-'em-all strategy of products made by the major chemical companies. Instead, Insect Alternative products might interrupt breeding to reduce the number of insects and repel the survivors, Gibbs said.
He said this kinder, gentler approach to insect control was not born of Rockhurst's Jesuit roots, but could be related.
"It may play into our appreciation for all creation," he said. "Plants are the greatest chemists in creation."
• This ain't your pappy's shootin' iron.
A Wyoming company will offer a special Winchester rifle celebrating the history of Clay County. The guns -- a series of 10 -- will be finished in nickel silver and completely overlaid in gold with the metal and walnut gunstock engraved with scenes from the county's past.
Matt Frentheway, sales coordinator for Legendary Commemorative Investment Arms, said the company was to have the rifles for sale this month, but production delays have pushed back work probably a month.
Frentheway said his company began producing special edition Winchesters for various counties, state centennials and large rodeos about four years ago when the storied rifle maker got out of the commemorative business. He said there have been commemorative rifles made for only one or two Missouri counties and that Clay County had the history to merit its own edition.
"There's never been a Jesse James and Frank James commemorative gun -- not a Winchester of anything. And they'll have their pictures on Clay County's," Frentheway said.
Frentheway said the rifles have an issue price of $2,495. The market: business owners.
"Obviously, they've got to have the money to buy something like this --money and the interest."
• As you contemplate Professional Secretaries Week, forget those hackneyed cliches from bad movies.
In 44 years as a secretary none of Marilyn McCracken's bosses asked her to do their last-minute shopping.
"I dare say, I don't know anyone who would do that."
Maybe it's because she's been so busy. Twenty years ago, said McCracken, 61, she concentrated on one task at a time. Now, with advances in technology that require mastery of spreadsheets and word processing software, a secretary is asked to juggle several tasks at once.
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