Scientists

What I'm Thankful for Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for what you have. Everybody has many things they are thankful for. The three things I'm thankful for are family, sports and friends. I'm most thankful for my family. My family keeps me company when I don't have a friend over. They are very fun to be around. My mom and dad take me to all my after school activities like baseball, basketball and friend's houses. For my birthday and Christmas they give me great gifts.

Every parent knows how special the one-year birthday is of their progeny. They remember the sleepless nights worrying about the health of their babies and if they are safe, and the constant amazement of the knowledge one year can bring. JPL scientist are like all parents as they celebrate the one Martian year birthday of their rovers Spirit and Opportunity. "Spirit was a year old on November 20. Opportunity will be a year old on December 12," said John Callas, deputy project manager of Mars Exploration Rover Project.

Researchers at UC Irvine want to make technology greener by using a $1.5-million grant to produce a prototype electronic device using environmentally friendly materials. Scientists have five years to use the grant. Professor Oladele Ogunseitan, slated to lead the research team, said it is hoped that the result of the research will be a device -- possibly a cell phone -- that works as well as current technology but uses safer components. Cell phones and other electronics, Ogunseitan said, contain metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium.

The scientific community lost a respected member when former Costa Mesa resident Ronald Linsky died Sunday. Linsky was the first and only executive director of the National Water Research Institute. "It's a loss to this county, and it's a loss to the professional water people in this nation," Orange Coastkeeper Executive Director Garry Brown said. Brown said he worked with Linsky on matters relating to sewage treatment and water recycling. The National Water Research Institute, based in Fountain Valley, started operations in 1991.

o7President Bush last week told reporters that "intelligent design" -- that life is so complex that a higher power must have created it -- should be discussed alongside evolution when teaching about the origins of life. Do you agree? f7 Right off the top we agree that education is one of the sources of creating equality among the citizens of the world and the teaching of "intelligent design" in the schools is a step in the right direction. The Baha'i Faith teaches that God created the universe, that mankind having evolved over eons is and always was separate from the animal.

Seven high school students from around the Los Angeles area have been invited to present their research to an international audience of scientists at two different scientific conferences to be held later this year. The students, ages 16, 17 and 18, have completed sophisticated research projects and generated new scientific results because of work they've been doing for about a year at the Jisan Research Institute in Pasadena. Local youths include Crescenta Valley High School students Ryan Chang and Justin Huang.

Robert Chacon Rosaly Lopes, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was awarded the 2005 Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communications, acknowledging her outreach efforts. Lopes, a principal investigation scientist for the Titan radar mapper on the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moon, Titan, has been active in reaching out to the global community since joining the Galileo mission team in 1991, spokeswoman Annie Carone said.

Rima Shah and Josh Kleinbaum Immigration, taxes and terror were some of the main concerns and issues addressed by Rep. Adam Schiff Wednesday in a meeting with constituents. Schiff was a speaker at the Glendale and Burbank chambers of commerce's Government Review Committee. The United States needs to remain competitive in a world increasingly affected by globalization and outsourcing, Schiff said. In order to do that, we need to concentrate on educational funding at home, which helps U.S. students and also helps attract scientists and researchers from abroad, he said.

While 2004 saw no dearth of memorable events - the presidential election, a devastating tsunami and, to a lesser extent, Janet Jackson's Super Bowl halftime "display" - the year can also be noted for the unusual weather the Southland experienced. On paper, 2004's weather looks almost like any other year: The temperature remained near average, the Santa Ana winds arrived and the storm currently moving over Southern California put annual rainfall above average. "When you look at the big picture, it all looks pretty normal.