Daily Archives: February 26, 2017

More lessons from Dolly the sheep: Is a clone really born at age zero … – Salon

Posted: February 26, 2017 at 11:20 pm

In 1997Dolly the sheep was introducedto the world by biologists Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues. Not just any lamb, Dolly was a clone. Rather than being made from a sperm and an egg, she originated from a mammary gland cell of another, no-longer-living, six-year-old Fynn Dorset ewe.

With her birth, a scientific and societal revolution was also born.

Some prominent scientistsraised doubts; it was too good to be true. But more animals were cloned: first thelaboratory mouse, thencows,goats,pigs,horses, evendogs,ferretsandcamels. By early 2000, the issue was settled: Dolly was real and cloning adults was possible.

The implications of cloning animals in our society were self-evident from the start. Our advancing ability to reprogram adult, already specialized cells and start them over as something new may one day be the key to creating cells and organs that match the immune system of each individual patient in need of replacements.

But what somehow got lost was the fact that a clone was born at day zero created from the cell of another animal that was six years old. Researchers have spent the past 20 years trying to untangle the mysteries of how clones age. How old, biologically, are these animals born from other adult animals cells?

Decades of cloning research

Dolly became an international celebrity, but she was not the first vertebrate to be cloned from a cell taken from the body of another animal. In 1962, developmental biologistJohn Gurdoncloned the first adult animalby taking a cell from the intestine of one frog and injecting it into an egg of another. Gurdons work did not go unnoticed he went on to share the2012 Nobel Prizein Physiology or Medicine. But it was Dolly who had captured our imagination. Was it because she was a warm-blooded animal, a mammal, much closer to human? If you could do it in a sheep, you could do it on us!

Dolly, along with Gurdons frogs from 35 years earlier and all the other experiments in between, redirected our scientific studies. It was amazing to see a differentiated cell an adult cell specialized to do its particular job transform into an embryonic one that could go on to give rise to all the other cells of a normal body. We researchers wondered if we could go further: Could we in the lab make an adult cell once again undifferentiated, without needing to make a cloned embryo?

A decade after Dolly was announced, stem cell researcherShynia Yamanakas teamdid just that. He went on to be the Nobel corecipient with Gurdon for showing that mature cells could bereprogrammed to become pluripotent: able to develop into any specialized adult cell.

Now we have the possibility of making individualized replacement cells potentially any kind to replace tissue damaged due to injury, genetic disorders and degeneration. Not only cells; we may soon be able to haveour own organs grown in a nonhuman host, ready to be transplanted when needed.

If Dolly was responsible for unleashing the events that culminate with new methods of making fully compatible cells and organs, then her legacy would be to improve the health of practically all human beings on this planet. And yet, I am convinced that there are even better things to come.

Dollys secrets still unfolding

In the winter of 2013, I found myself driving on the wrong side of the road through the Nottingham countryside. In contrast to the luscious landscape, I was in a state gloom; I was on my way to see Keith Campbells family after his sudden death a few weeks earlier. Keith was a smart, fun, loving friend who, along with Ian Wilmut andcolleagues at the Roslin Institute, had brought us Dolly 15 years earlier. We had met at a conference in the early 1990s, when we were both budding scientists playing around with cloning, Keith with sheep, me with cows. An extrovert by nature, he quickly dazzled me with his wit, self-deprecating humor and nonstop chat, all delivered in a thick West Midlands accent. Our friendship that began then continued until his death.

When I knocked at the door of his quaint farmhouse, my plan was to stay just a few minutes, pay my respects to his wife and leave. Five hours and several Guinnesses later, I left feeling grateful. Keith could do that to you, but this time it wasnt him, it was his latest work speaking for him. Thats because his wife very generously told me the project Keith was working on at the time of his death. I couldnt hide my excitement: Could it be possible that after 20 years, the most striking aspect of Dollys legacy was not yet revealed?

See, when Dolly was cloned, she was created using a cell from a six-year-old sheep. Andshe died at age six and a half, a premature death for a breed that lives an average of nine years or more. People assumed that an offspring cloned from an adult was starting at an age disadvantage; rather than truly being a newborn, it seemed like a clones internal age would be more advanced that the length of its own life would suggest. Thus the notion that clones biological age and their chronological one were out of sync, and that cloned animals will die young.

Some of us were convinced that if the cloning procedure was done properly, the biological clock should be reset a newborn clone would truly start at zero. We worked very hard to prove our point. We were not convinced by a single DNA analysis done in Dolly showing slightly shortertelomeres the repetitive DNA sequences at the end of chromosomes that count how many times a cell divides. We presented strong scientific evidence showing that cloned cows had all thesame molecular signs of agingas a nonclone, predicting a normal lifespan. Othersshowed the same in cloned mice. But we couldnt ignore reports from colleagues interpretingbiological signs in cloned animalsthat they attributed toincomplete resetting of the biological clock. So the jury was out.

Aging studies are very hard to do because there are only two data points that really count: date of birth and date of death. If you want to know the lifespan of an individual you have to wait until its natural death. Little did I know, that is what Keith was doing back in 2012.

That Saturday afternoon I spent in Keiths house in Nottingham, I saw a photo of the animals in Keiths latest study: several cloned Dollies, all much older than Dolly at the time she had died, and they looked terrific. I was in awe.

The data were confidential, so I had to remain silent until late last year whenthe work was posthumously published. Keiths coauthors humbly said: For those clones that survive beyond the perinatal period [] the emerging consensus, supported by the current data, is that they are healthy and seem to age normally.

These findings became even more relevant when last December researchers at theScripps Research Institutefound that induced pluripotent stem cells reprogrammed using the Yamanaka factorsretain the aging epigenetic signature of the donor individual. In other words, using these four genes to attempt to reprogram the cells does not seem to reset the biological clock.

The new Dollies are now telling us that if we take a cell from an animal of any age, and we introduce its nucleus into a nonfertilized mature egg, we can have an individual born with its lifespan fully restored. They confirmed that all signs of biological and chronological age matched between cloned and noncloned sheep.

There seems to be a natural built-in mechanism in the eggs that can rejuvenate a cell. We dont know what it is yet, but it is there. Our group as well as others are hard at work, and as soon as someone finds it, the most astonishing legacy of Dolly will be realized.

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Only One In A Thousand PokStop Drops Are Pokmon GO’s New Gen 2 Evolution Items – Forbes

Posted: at 11:20 pm


Forbes
Only One In A Thousand PokStop Drops Are Pokmon GO's New Gen 2 Evolution Items
Forbes
While your local area might be flooded with new Gen 2 Pokmon in the wake of Pokmon GO's latest update, you might be finding that you're missing a few key ingredients in pursuit of some specific evolutions. That would be a set of evolution items ...

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We must redefine archaic evolutionary language – Virginia Tech Collegiate Times

Posted: at 11:20 pm

When a scientific field reaches the stage in which constructed explanations are replaced with facts, it is a step forward. Of course, all sciences have their implicit epistemological framework. This is something that should be at least admitted, but there is a pressing specific issue: the projection of values onto evolution in both common understanding and serious discourse. It is important not to retain fiction when facts are available, especially when that fiction is dangerous.

There is no intention to evolutionary process. Nature is not an entity that intends in the way that we intend. Traits do not evolve for purposes, contrary to what we often project onto them. The traits are not means to behavioral ends, especially reproductive ends. By projecting means-to-reproduction narratives onto evolution, we strip away the beauty of life, rendering fascinating existences nothing but a nihilistic game of chemicals and competition. Beyond that, however, it is dangerous. Why? It is dangerous because it enables systemic hatred.

Lets start with the phrase survival of the fittest. What can you do with that phrase? Well, lets break it down. The most fit to survive will survive. It is ambiguous. It could mean that what tends to replicate itself and not get killed will be most abundant. This is fair, and it is no more political than saying radioactive elements will decay until they are stable. It is intuitive if it does not replicate itself, it will not be around long, and if it gets killed, it will not have the opportunity. This is how it should be interpreted, yet it is almost never stated in such a basic way. Even in biology, and especially in psychology and other health sciences, it gets twisted.

Lets go back to the most fit to survive will survive. What if it was just slightly tweaked: the best will survive, or the fittest should survive. Here, a value judgment was added. There is no best, no quality, if it is viewed as a statement of tendency, but there is if survival is seen as good rather than neutral. From here, simultaneously, one can interpret that survival is the end goal, rather than a statement of tendency. Then, retroactively, the constructed end goal of survival makes traits and behaviors a game of competition, in which the best gets to live.

This can adopt any prejudice one wants to incorporate. It can be turned into an argument for eugenics, for sexism or against the disabled. It can enable human-centrism if mental capacity is held as a measure of value. It can be turned into an argument for gender roles and heterosexuality by pitting men and women as inherently different (viewing gender as entirely nature and disregarding nurture), using selective biological facts as evidence and generalizing to such an extent that everything is binary with no middle ground. The middle ground, androgyny, is a deviation in this view. Relationships that do not lead to procreation are a deviation as well. And deviations do not lead to survival, do they?

It also makes the case for capitalism, perhaps explaining why the twisted interpretation of evolution is the prevailing one. By adopting the value-infused interpretation, you can absolve yourself of any guilt you might have about exploiting labor, concentrating power, hoarding wealth while the majority struggles to get by, pitting people against each other or devaluing expression in favor of anything that further increases your wealth and power. You do not have to feel bad about causing deaths, stripping creative joy from peoples lives and inhibiting mutual fostering and collective growth. You fought hard from the bottom and made it to the top. You earned it because you just had the ability. It is just facts; it is just how it is. You cannot be held responsible because it is nature.

This is why it is so important to understand the phrase survival of the fittest, and evolution in general, completely free of value judgments, even one as simple as survival is good, because from there, many flavors of hate and structural oppression can co-opt the concept of evolution to justify themselves. It may seem tedious to make that distinction, but in the grand scheme of things, our lives and livelihoods depend on it.

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Latest evolution of Downtown Madison’s Park Hotel has business customer in mind – Madison.com

Posted: at 11:20 pm

The latest evolution of the Park Hotel on the Capitol Square is ready for its formal dedication.

A ribbon cutting is planned for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday to mark the completion of the renovations.

More than a year of renovations to the 213-room hotel at the corner of South Carroll and West Main streets wrapped up in fall 2016 with about $8 million being spent to update the building's exterior, according to project documents filed with the city. Building permits filed with the city also show another nearly $4.9 million being spent on a complete interior renovation, though the number may be higher but the Mullins family, which owns the hotel, declined to disclose the total amount spent on the project.

George Wiesner, general manager of the Park Hotel, said the building's freshened outside look should have a lifespan of about 30 years, though interior amenities, including rooms, will be updated as needed to keep the hotel looking fresh.

Another major interior overhaul comparable to those just completed likely won't happen again for at least another decade, said Brad Mullins of the Mullins Group, a real estate and management firm. His family, which acquired the hotel then called the Park Motor Inn in 1976, began discussing renovating the property about four years ago.

"We wanted to reposition it again as a premier property on the square," Mullins said. "It is a legacy to our family and it was the first hotel on the Capital Square."

Wiesner said the Park Hotel, which carries the Best Western Premier brand, the hotel chain's top offering, is focusing on business customers as well as hosting events seeking full services including catering. The hotel provides lodging to about 100,000 guests and hosts about 400 events annually.

Wiesner said the hotel offers amenities sought by today's business travelers. He said guests have complimented the hotel on its updated offerings including ample ports in rooms to recharge portable electronics and fast, reliable wireless internet access.

No floor was untouched and the hotel remained open throughout the renovation. Elevators were updated and provide continuous service from the main floor through ninth floor of the hotel.

Wiesner said upper floor rooms were renovated first and work later moved onto the lower floors. The former Top of the Park restaurant on the eighth floor, which closed in 2001 and now is used primarily to host events, was expanded and can accommodate events of up to 120 people.

"The last part to get done was the lobby and bar," he said.

Mullins said building new is easier than renovating a property that remained open.

"It reflects out commitment to downtown Madison and to our employees who could keep working during the project," he said.

Some of the updates that won't be seen by guests include the new locker rooms for the hotel's 120 employees and a modernized heating and cooling system.

Wiesner is confident future guests will appreciate what has been done to the hotel.

"The work done here far exceeded our expectations," he said.

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Three superstars that should be a part of Triple H’s new Evolution stable – GiveMeSport

Posted: at 11:20 pm

Recent speculation has suggested a new stable will soon be coming to the WWE that could cause some problems to members of the Monday Night Raw roster.

The rumor indicates that Triple H will be starting up a new stable like Evolution on Raw, and the reported members so far are The Game, WWE Universal champion Kevin Owens, and Samoa Joe.

The original Evolution had four members; Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Batista. If the new Evolution is going to follow the same path with four members, here are three superstars who could fill up the last spot in the stable perfectly.

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Finn Balor has been out of action since SummerSlam last year when he injured his shoulder in a match against Seth Rollins for the Universal championship. However, it is speculated he could be making a return anytime soon, just in time for WrestleMania 33.

Balor's wrestling style is very different to that of Owens and Joe, which will help to create a dynamic to the stable, and his relationship with Triple H back in NXT will fit in well with what appears to be a trend with the rest of the group's members.

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The Demon King's injury occurred during a match with Rollins last summer, and it looks like The Architect could be the first casualty of the new stable. This could be a good angle to turn Balor heel and add him to the group.

If WWE truly wants it to make it a new Evolution, a way of doing this would be to add Charlotte to the stable and reignite the Women's revolution in the process as well. She has the pedigree to be part of such a group as she is the daughter of The Nature Boy, Ric Flair.

Keeping a Flair in the stable would show its links to the past, and her in-ring ability shows she deserves to be part of what is bound to be a historic group under the leadership of The Game. It would also allow The Nature Girl to become an even more dominant figure in the Women's division than she already is.

When the original Evolution formed back in 2003, Randy Orton was the youngest member as he was only in his early 20s when the group came together. A current NXT superstar who could fill this role isPete Dunne, who is only 24-years-old.

Dunne made his name at theUK Championship Tournament that WWE held last month and only debuted in NXT earlier this week with a win againstMark Andrews. His inclusion in the new Evolution stable, however, would show the company's confidence in the British superstar and why they held a UK tournament in the first place.

The Bruiserweightcould be used in a similar fashion to what Orton was,using the group in order to climb up in the WWE. He has the charismato be a successful heel in the company, and the stable could be a good stepping stone for future success in the WWE.

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7000 Solar Train Stations Self-Driving Car Evolution 100% Wind Electricity In Denmark Tesla Model 3 Updates … – CleanTechnica

Posted: at 11:20 pm

February 26th, 2017 by Zachary Shahan

Miss some of our stories thispast week? Below were the 20 most popular, followed by my 30 favorites of the week. Also, remember, you can get our free daily newsletter to not miss anything oryou can get our free weekly newsletter to always catch these roundup posts.

How about my favorites? As always, its hard to decide, but here are 30:

100% wind electricity in Denmark is insane in such an awesome way.

Speaking of 100% renewables, gotta love the UKs Squeaky.

But Big Renewables are spreading all over the world now, not just in Europe, with this weeks biggest stories being a 1.8 gigawatt solar project in the UAEand an overall solar pipeline of 5.7 gigawatts in the Middle East & North Africa region.

Dereks review of the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electricwas superb definitely worth a read if you missed that.

I love Joses monthly electric car sales reports on Europe and China, and also thought Chinas electric bus sales update was stunning.

Norway is still in a league of its own relatively speaking, though, with 37% of new cars now being electric.

LG Chem lifting its battery production capacity is another good sign.

And I think I have to like my own original piece for EV-Boxs rEVolution blog, which is a preview of what I will talk about in Amsterdam next month.

The electric car revolution may be far ahead of the electric plane revolution, but its certainlyexciting to see the initial seeds of commercial electric airplanes.

A 100 car all-electric taxi fleet is hard to not get overly excited about as well, and that was matched by Maven getting 100 Chevy Bolts in LA, but both of thosewere beatenby Dubai ordering 200 Teslas for electric taxis.

Of course, the many Tesla quarterly updates, especially regarding Model 3, were interesting to read. Plus, there was that earlier cool news of Tesla hiring 150200 people a week at the Gigafactory.

Firstsolarwind hybrid power plant in US? What took so long?

Speaking of late arrivals, I also loved Susans take on renewable energy fromthe EU finally getting into Russia as well as her piece on who benefits if Russian oil sanctions end.

On the flip side, looking at oil & gas, fracking seems to be causing more leaks than expected, and oil & gas wells being linked to childhood leukemia is clearly depressing even if its not surprising.

Speaking of disturbing shit we have a White House that intends to destroy the state, a newhead of an EPA that used to copy & paste letters from the oil & gas industry as his states attorney general. Preterm births, deaths, and suffering are certain to rise under Trumps and Pruitts EPA.

TeslaMondo is maybe my favorite blog so funny and so good at pulling critical points out of the haze. This ones a must-read.

This is just awesome: $1.8 Billion Of Indias Coal Tax Invested In Renewable Energy So Far.

As is this: 7,000 Railways Stations In India To Go Solar.

Despite all of the wonderful stories above, this one might be my favorite of the week: Hidden Taxes.

Buy a cool T-shirt or mug in the CleanTechnica store! Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech daily newsletter or weekly newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

Tags: Chevy Bolt, China, Denmark, Donald Trump, EPA, Europe, Ford, GM, Hyundai, Hyundai Ioniq Electric, India, Russia, Tesla, UK

Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species) with the power of the typed word. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor, but he's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession, Solar Love, and Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and energy storage expert. Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in.

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Lego robotics championship encourages students to solve real-world problems – Channel3000.com – WISC-TV3

Posted: at 11:19 pm

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JANESVILLE, Wis. - Janesville Parker High School hosted a statewide Lego robotics championship Sunday, where 36 teams showed off their programming skills.

The program First Lego League is for students in fourth through eighth grades. This years theme, Animal Allies, asked students to build and program a Lego robot to complete animal-related tasks.

Teams also invented products to solve real-world problems. One groups project hit close to home for members.

Anvita and Anay Bansal, from Richmond Schools team, recently lost their cousin in India to dengue fever. Anvita explained that this is a viral infection caused by the Aedes mosquito.

Our whole team was really struck by [his death], Anvita said. We wanted to make sure this didnt happen to anybody else, so we decided to make preventing dengue our project for Lego League.

The team from Sussex, Wisconsin created a device to repel mosquitoes that may be carrying the deadly virus. The invention had rotating chambers filled with various essential oils. Their project even explained financial details about how to make this product affordable to those living in third world countries.

The six winning teams selected at the Wisconsin robotics championship will move on to the national level, with four teams advancing to the First Lego League world festival and two teams submitting their projects to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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Korah team, two Missarenda brothers, off to World Robotics Competition – SooToday.com

Posted: at 11:19 pm

SooToday has received an update from the Saults Jonathan Budau, Superior Heights physics teacher and local VEX Robotics Competition organizer, after the secondary school level provincial VEX Robotics Championships in St. Catharines.

Lone Wolf has done it. They are off to the World Championships for VEX Robotics.

Lone Wolf, a team of Korah students, was the top northern team.

In the exciting finals matchup, the Lone Wolf Alliance faced a powerhouse Alliance of the Lancebotics from Toronto, Team Winston from St. Catharines and Bramptons Viking Robotics B. However, Lone Wolfs squad was unstoppable, and fought hard to win, taking home the gold medal as the top Teamplay performance. This is the highest finish ever by a northern Ontario team at this level of competition, Budau wrote in an email to SooToday.

During the final awards presentations, Budau was given the Provincial Volunteer Of The Year award, in recognition for his efforts to create a district program that now has the largest per capita participation of any robotics program in Canada, and possibly the world.

To top off the evening awards, the Excellence Award for overall tournament winner in all performance and judging categories combined, and the highest award given at this event, was Lone Wolf Robotics, who now hold the title of top robotics team in Ontario, Budau reported.

Lone Wolf will join brothers Chase and Hunter Martel from Missarenda Consolidated Public School (in Missanabie), who earned a World Championships invitation in last weekends VEX IQ provincial elementary event, and will mark the first time that any northern team has earned a world invitation at either VEX robotics division.

The World VEX Championships will take place in Louisville, Kentucky from April 23 to 29.

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RJHS robotics team finishes off season – Russellville Courier

Posted: at 11:19 pm

by BY SAM HOISINGTON hoisington@couriernews.com The Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

It's been over two weeks since their last robotics competition of the season, but members of the Russellville Junior High School (RJHS) robotics team are still hard at work on different projects in the school's engineering classroom.

Maybe it's a part of their routine now -- team members spend about two hours daily working on robotics-related projects during the season -- or maybe it's a genuine love of science and engineering being formed that keeps them hard at work.

The last competition went well enough, with the team placing second overall. The robotics team is made up exclusively of ninth-graders, and they were up against teams of older students from bigger schools, some of who had been involved in robotics since fifth grade in districts where that was an option.

Sylvia Woods, an engineering teacher at RJHS and the robotics club sponsor, said she was "very, very pleased" with the team's performance, pointing out that many of the team members are also involved in jazz band and the Quizbowl team, among other extracurricular activities.

Jake Hodges, team captain, had mixed feelings about placing second.

"Well, it was equally satisfying and depressing," Hodges said. "It's our first year, so you know, a bunch of freshmen students coming and beating a bunch of engineering experts was pretty good, but then also the fact that we came in and got second place after months and months of hard work was kinda sad because we don't get to go any farther with it, but I'm proud of it overall."

Only the first-place team gets to advance to the statewide competition.

For a period of time, it may have looked like the team of dedicated newcomers might take first. Some unexpected trouble with the robot lost them a few rounds of the competition, though.

"We blew out one of our cortexes, which is the brain of the robot, so that stops everything from moving. We shorted it out so much, used it so much, it just fried up," Qui Nguyen, co-captain and main mechanic, said.

"We had to think up on the spot," Josue Mendoza, main electrician/mechanic, said, recalling the tension of the moment.

The team had to work together in that moment, using their different areas of expertise and working together as a team. Members of the team say that although they have different titles, everyone is viewed as important.

"All roles are equally important," Jaedon Enchelmayer, mechanic, said. Fellow teammate Alex Tanner, who primarily worked on documentation for the robot build, also chimed in to echo a similar sentiment.

"Overall, we're essentially equal to one another. We just have the roles we play," Tanner said.

The 13 team members all have different personalities, interests and aspirations. But many of them say they're interested in joining the robotics team when they move to the high school next year.

Woods has even bigger plans for them, though.

"One day these kids will put a robot on Mars -- I just know it," Woods said.

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Local Vex Robotics teams ready for state – Elizabethtown News Enterprise

Posted: at 11:19 pm

From outside the Project Lead the Way suite at the Early College and Career Center, the hum of robots could be heard.

Its crunch time for all the Vex Robotics teams, and inside the suite, busy students work on their programs, tweak their robots, add new parts or practice a new strategy. Teams from Hardin Countys schools practice at EC3.

State competitions for Vex Robotics are a week away for the middle school teams and two weeks away for high-schoolers. The middle school contest is March 4 at EC3 in Elizabethtown. The high school competition is March 11 at Martha Layne Collins High School in Shelbyville.

Ten teams from Hardin County middle schools have qualified for state. At the high school level, 10 teams also have qualified. Teams from Hardin County have won state three consecutive times since the program started in 2013.

EC3 has been setting the pace for the state, said Jason Neagle, Project Lead The Way instructor for EC3. Our goal is to be good at the national and world level.

Neagle is aiming to win overall excellence in a robotics program. The first step, though, is to qualify for the Worlds competition in Louisville. To do that, Hardin County teams have to win at the state competition.

Weve set our goals high, Neagle said. We want to win excellence awards. Weve been knocking on the door for the past few years.

They hope to knock down the door this year, and hes optimistic about their chances.

THEY DON'T STOP

Thor Newsome, a seventh-grader at East Hardin Middle School, worked at building new arms for the teams robot at practice Wednesday. The new arms will act like a clamp and help the robot pick up more objects.

Thor and his team hope the change will help them earn more points, which could make a difference at the state competition. Their team, EHMS Vex A, currently is ranked third in the state.

A Vex competition has two parts: a head-to-head competition and a skills challenge. This year, robots are tasked with picking up yellow stars and soft-sided orange cubes and then throwing the objects over a 2-foot fence. The objects equal different points, with cubes having a higher value. The action takes place in a 12-by-12 arena.

Susan Hatfield, East Hardins Vex coach, wouldnt let them dismantle the robot until they built the new parts. After all, this is risky business, tweaking the robot so soon before a competition.

I told them not to mess up what youve got when you are third in state, Hatfield said.

East Hardin has three teams going to state, the most of any middle school in the district. Its Hatfields first year coaching the program.

Weve got a good team, she said. Kids spend hours programming. One kid stays up all night notebooking. They dont stop.

In a corner of the practice room, another team is working on programming their robot to be autonomous, meaning they will pick up objects and fling them over the fence without being controlled. Its a way to earn extra points, sixth-grader Gabi Sutherland said.

Near the end of their weekly practice, the teams robot could run on its own.

A TRADE-OFF

Tyler Sweckard and his team from John Hardin High School opted to make drastic changes to their robot this past week, switching up the motors.

Before, there were six motors in the robots chassis and four in the tower. This week, they took two motors from the chassis and put them in the tower. The change will give them more power but not as much speed.

Its a trade-off, said Sweckard, a senior.

Sweckard said it was stressful changing the robot so late in the season because he said the choice came down to efficiency. The new design will be more efficient.

On Thursday, the team had finished most of the work. All that was left to do was wiring and rewriting the robots programming.

Thats 4,000 lines of code I have to change, Sweckard said. Its going to be a late night for me.

Once the robot is put back together, the team will go back to practicing their driving skills. Sweckard said thats the best preparation for state.

Just practice, practice and more practice, he said. It never stops.

'ADD 30 TONS OF STRESS'

Andrew Schreacke dreams about robots, or rather the robot noise. He has nightmares about stripping gears.

Schreacke captains 6135W, the top team in the state. The Central Hardin High School junior also is the lead driver, meaning he controls the robot during competitions.

In January, the team was ranked No. 1 in the world. Theyve since dropped to No. 16, but Schreacke said knowing people in China and around the world were talking about his team was a great feeling.

I dont know if I can put it into words, he said.

Schreacke has come a long way in one year. Last year, his robot was incapacitated almost every match, so his was one of the bottom teams at EC3. He said he barely qualified for state the last two years.

Now, 6135Ws robot is the one to beat. He said theres added stress with their success.

Its as much as last year, but add 30 tons of stress, he said. This year, theres a constant battle to be the best.

In practice before state, Schreacke isnt tweaking the robot or writing new programs. Instead, hes working on new strategies for the skills challenge in which he tries to earn as many points as he can in 60 seconds. He said the new strategies should help rack up more points.

He estimated hes done the 60-second skills run 600 to 700 times.

But he doesnt mind the extra work or long hours. He wants to win.

We are raising the bar about what we think a Vex Robotics team should be, he said.

Katherine Knott can be reached at 270-505-1747 or kknott@thenewsenterprise.com.

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Local Vex Robotics teams ready for state - Elizabethtown News Enterprise

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