UT RESEARCH, a 9/11 STORY, AND THE LITTLE TRAIN THAT COULD

  (The Alcalde is a publication of Texas Exes org, named after Gov. Roberts, who signed the university into existence in 1913. "Alcalde" is the Spanish name for a town's chief magistrate)


 

There are three stories of note in the September/October issue of The Alcalde.  The front cover contains the phrasing “The Sports Issue,” yet, the first article that caught my attention with great interest was about research conducted at UT by chemistry graduate student Abby Gatmaitan.  Approximately 8% of global seafood products are mislabeled, but the number is closer to 87% for some species, like snapper.  Fish fraud has significant consequences on health (mercury and other contaminants), the environment (overfishing), and the economy (higher prices for mislabeled fish).  The government inspects less than 1% of imported seafood.  Ms. Gatmaitan discovered that by using the MasSpec Pen, a Sharpie-sized device developed by a UT chemistry team in 2017 to detect the presence of cancer by simply touching tissue, she could use the same instrument to catch fraudulent fish.  Government agencies have shown interest in using the pen to detect fish fraud. The regulatory process will likely be much quicker than it’s taking to approve the MasSpec Pen for use on humans to detect cancer. However, one wonders why a non-invasive instrument to detect cancer would take a long time for approval considering the benefits.

 

The second story was about UT Ex, Kevin Tuerff, flying from France to NYC on September 11, 2001.  When the pilot was re-routed to the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland, the plane’s passengers were joined on the ground by 38 other commercial airplanes and over 6000 other passengers for four days.  Tuerff wrote Channel of Peace, a book about his experiences in a small town of 9000 residents and how the townspeople opened their arms to the displaced, cooked for them, and gave them rooms in their houses.  In 2002, Tuerff started a pay-it-forward program in his media company based on the kindness of Gander’s residents on that fateful day.  He closed the office and gave each employee $100 to perform random acts of kindness for strangers in honor of the lives lost on 9/11 and to spread the good news about Tuerff’s experience in Gander.  Pay It Forward 9/11 is now a non-profit organization with a goal of 20,000 good deeds for its 20th anniversary.

 

The third story that captured my attention featured the little train in Zilker Park, out of operation since some train tracks slid off the edge of a cliff in 2019 following torrential rainfall.  The vendor contracted with the city to operate the train, took their train and tracks to parts unknown, and left the park.  Austin Parks Foundation, composed of many Texas Exes, is determined to get the Zephyr, now named the Zilker Eagle, operational again.  A company in Arizona is building the retro, 1940’s style train.  Kendra Scott (another Texas alum) is sponsoring the underground tunnel signaling the end of the ride.  CapMetro, which operates the city buses, is developing the ticket depot for the train. Finally, our children (and my grandchildren), along with all of us, will be able to ride the beloved train this fall.

 

I didn’t mean to slight the other stories in this issue, namely, the one about all our sports teams being winners, even though we tend to focus on football.  Speaking of football, there was a long article about Sarkisian.  We can only hope he follows through on his promise of a winning season…whenever that might be.  


Hook ‘em.



 

 

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