sealPurdue Science, Health Briefs
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December 1999

Goldberg contestants to immortalize 20th century

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Video and photographs of past contests are available. Journalists will not be allowed on the stage with the machines during the competition, but they are welcome on stage before and after the contest. Purdue will provide video and photo pool coverage and direct audio and video feeds. An ISDN line is available for radio interviews. Video b-roll, photos and a news release will be available the afternoon of the event. Satellite assistance is available. If you have questions, contact Jesica Webb at the Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2079, jwebb@purdue.edu.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University students will immortalize the 20th century's most significant inventions Feb. 12 during the 18th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.

The competition honors the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who specialized in drawing whimsical machines with complex mechanisms to perform simple tasks. Each year, Purdue students are challenged to build actual working machines that Goldberg himself might have dreamed up.

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The task for this year is to place in a time capsule a minimum of seven items representing the best inventions, ideas and discoveries of the past 100 years. Previous contests have asked students to make a cup of coffee, put a stamp on an envelope and drop a penny into a piggy bank – all in 20 or more steps. The entire process must take nine minutes or less.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 11 a.m. in Purdue's Elliott Hall of Music. The winner of the competition will represent the university at the National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, to be held at the same location April 8.

Students will place their selected inventions into the time capsules by combining the principles of physics and engineering with common objects, such as rubber bands, marbles, mouse traps and bicycle gears, plus lots of ingenuity. Points are deducted if students have to assist the machine once it has started. Teams also will be judged and awarded points based on the creative use of materials and use of related themes.

The local contest is organized by members of the Purdue chapter of Theta Tau, with support from industrial sponsor General Electric Co. It was first held at Purdue in 1949 and ran until 1955. The fraternity revived it in 1983 to celebrate National Engineers' Week, and the national contest has been held at the university since 1988.

Last year's campus contest was won by eight School of Technology students representing the Purdue chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. That machine was based on the theme "Wide World of Sports" and included a miniature downhill skier crashing in a spectacular fashion reminiscent of the opening of that ABC program. The machine used 55 complex steps to tee up a regulation golf ball. The machine also was awarded the "People's Choice" trophy by the audience.

The Purdue team went on to win the national competition, defeating teams from the University of Texas at Austin; Oakland University, Rochester, Mich.; Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.; Vanderbilt University; and the University of Toledo.

Past national competitions have been featured on "Newton's Apple," "Late Night With David Letterman," NBC's "Today," CBS's "This Morning," CBS News, "Beyond 2000," CNN and "Good Morning America."

CONTACT: Joe Martin, interim contest chairman, (765) 743-5276, jjmartin@purdue.edu

Lactose intolerant? Get milk

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A glass of milk may be the best medicine for those suffering from lactose intolerance.

Dennis A. Savaiano, dean of Purdue University's School of Consumer and Family Sciences and a specialist on lactose intolerance, says that consuming milk can help people recondition their digestive systems to accept dairy foods without discomfort.

His studies have found that controlled consumption – such as a half-glass of milk on a full stomach – can help the body build up a tolerance for lactose products.

"If you only consume dairy products once in awhile, you are more likely to have symptoms from them," Savaiano says. "Also, if you consume them by themselves, as opposed to as part of a meal, they tend to be transported throughout the intestine more rapidly and are more likely to cause symptoms."

Intolerance is the result of low adult levels of the digestive tract enzyme lactase, which breaks down the lactose found in milk and converts it into simple sugars that the body can use as energy. Without lactase, undigested lactose ferments in the intestines, causing unpleasant side effects such as bloating, gas and diarrhea.

Most adults don't produce enough lactase to completely break down the lactose from a large dairy meal. In fact, up to three-fourths of the world's population doesn't produce enough lactase to digest large amounts of dairy foods without some discomfort, says Savaiano, who has studied lactose intolerance for more than 16 years.

His studies have found that by consuming smaller amounts of milk several times a day for three or four weeks, lactose-intolerant people can train their digestive systems to break down lactose.

"Our studies have shown a really amazing adaptation of the large intestine of humans," he says. "The large intestines contain bacteria that help digest lactose. By altering the diet over time, bacteria more effectively digest lactose, making milk very well tolerated."

He recommends starting with one-quarter to one-half cup of milk with meals two to three times a day, and slowly increasing milk consumption.

For those people who experience only slight discomfort when consuming dairy foods, Savaiano offers the following tips to improve digestion of milk and dairy products:

• Eat dairy foods in moderation, and avoid eating large amounts at one sitting.

• Eat dairy foods as part of a meal, such as a cup of milk over cereal with fruit, or a glass of milk with dinner.

• Eat yogurts, which are well tolerated because they contain a lactase that helps the body digest lactose in the intestine.

• If necessary, use over-the-counter digestive aids.

CONTACT: Savaiano, (765) 494-8213; savaiano@cfs.purdue.edu.

PHOTO CAPTION

Purdue 's 17th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest winners react in February 1999 after their machine performed a perfect run-through. Members of the winning team, representing the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the School of Technology, were, from left: John Spitzer, Stephen Schrock and Timothy Clauss. This year's contest will be Feb. 12. (Purdue News Service Photo by David Umberger)
A publication-quality photograph is available at the News Service Web and at the ftp site. Photo ID: Rube00.preview

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