Science 'Heroes' Honored in Exhibit

Young visitors to the Louisville Science Center are getting the opportunity to meet several U of L "celebrities" in the center's new 10,500-sq.-ft. exhibit "The World Within Us."

The exhibit, which opened March 31 at the center on West Main Street in downtown Louisville, employs modern technology and user-friendly, hands-on displays to examine the human body and how it functions.

Suzanne Ildstad from the Institute for Cellular Therapeutics, cardiologists Laman Gray and Robert Dowling, and Kay Phillips and the Louisville Twin Study are part of a team of "science heroes" who are being honored in "BioLab Breakthrough," a gallery that showcases careers in the health sciences and pays tribute to nine regional scientists. The displays will be ongoing for a five-year period, with the first three devoted to the U of L scientists and their teams.

The heroes gallery is funded by a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes for Health's Science Education Partnership Award.

May I have the keys, please?

They're cute--one looks like a cross between a golf cart and a VW beetle--and environmentally friendly, while cost-effective, too.

U of L recently purchased five low-speed electric "neighborhood" cars made by Global Electric Motor Cars of Fargo, N.D., to determine the environmental and economic benefits of alternative fuel vehicles. Two are being used to cart passengers around Belknap Campus and the rest as utility vehicles.

Mitchell Payne, associate vice president for administration, says the cars are being monitored for their energy consumption, cost savings, environmental impact and maintenance demands to see what their future holds here on campus.

While you likely won't get any speeding tickets driving one--the fastest they can do is 35 mph--the cars are legal to run on city streets and require all the licensing and safety features of their "grown-up" counterparts.

Four of the cars were purchased with a $40,000 grant from the state"s Division of Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet. Leftover funds from the grant were combined with money from U of L's departments of public safety, physical plant and postal services to buy the fifth.