STORIES
Stories
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Bobby Rush
FINDING FLORIDA'S SOUL
Around the turn of the century, when African-American lumbermen, sawmill workers and turpentiners walked home along north Florida's rural, sandy roads, they'd stop to talk, to complain about the boss, to drink a beer or moonshine, relax around an open fire, and play a game of cards.
Those hangouts, called jooks, often began as open-air areas, and never offered much more than a roof and a dance floor.
But there was more than the building.
"These places have soul," said Tallahassee bluesman Charles Atkins.
Richter, left, and Herndon
FSU, THE LEADER IN EASTERN EUROPE CLEANUP
For many years before the Cold War ended, two scientists - one from Florida State University and the other from the Technical University of Budapest in Communist-dominated Hungary - were planning ways to help pull Eastern Europe out of its environmental morass.
Roy Herndon, the American, first met Peter Richter, the Hungarian, in 1974, after Richter was able to persuade the Communist government to let him come to FSU for a year to earn a master's degree in physics.
Herndon, at the time a visiting faculty member in the same subject, was struck by how much the two scientists had in common, including a love for environmental issues and a strong background in nuclear physics.
Garnet-colored states shows where FSU graduates are currently meteorologists.
FSU GRADUATES DOMINATE WEATHER CASTING IN NYC
The weather phenomenon of the year may not be El Nino, after all, at least not in the world of television weather casting. In New York City, an equally rare occurrence is in the air - or on it - as alumni from a single university are dominating the local television forecasts in the nation's largest media market.
The university is Florida State, and the FSU products at the top of television's Mount Everest are Janice Huff, lead meteorologist at WNBC since 1995, and Mark Danon, who in August was promoted to the top weather position at WCBS.
"It's very rare, incredible, and bodes well for FSU's meteorology program," says Danon. "I'm very proud to be a part of it."
Leigh-Ann Jack and Don McCorquodale
NEW PLASTIC BATTERY IS LIGHT AND TOUGH
Drop by drop, Leigh-Ann Jack carefully portions a clear liquid from a bottle into a glass beaker. Her movements are slow, almost otherworldly, as she holds the eyedropper through the rubber gloves that reach to her armpits and protrude into the air-tight box holding the chemicals and the beaker.
Jack, a chemical engineering and chemistry major, is one of several Florida State students taking advantage of an unusual partnership between the university and a private research company. The partnership is breaking new ground in materials research and giving undergraduate students both practical experience and a little extra cash.
The joint venture between the private firm, Skylab Technologies Group, and FSU's Center for Materials Research and Technology (MARTECH) has as its goal the development of a battery - one that looks more like a plastic business card and is lighter, leak-proof and more durable than today's batteries.
Lotas
Bowling
CITY KIDS STUDY THE SEA
Ten eighth graders - five from Harlem and five from north Florida - spent a week together this summer on the Gulf of Mexico, learning about marine biology, the environment and what it takes to be a scientist.
One student from New York summed up nicely the differences down south.
"It's fun here," said Elizabeth "Lizzy" Ryan, 13. "When I'm at home in Harlem, it's dangerous so I don't really go out. Here you can go out. You can do anything you want like looking for fishes or crabbing."
The idea of bringing Harlem eighth graders to the FSU Marine Lab at Turkey Point - and the money that made it happen - came from Judy Lotas, a partner in a Manhattan advertising agency and a 1964 graduate of Florida State.