Besides Richard Green, I would say Joseph Fourier or Johann Radon just because my work wouldn’t exist without them. The Fourier transform is integral to MRI as the data is frequency encoded. For other imaging techniques that use projection data, e.g., CT, the Radon transform is important in image reconstruction using a technique called filter back projection.
I’ve been neglecting my #CHMedicalImagingSeries because I’ve been crazy busy at work. We are getting a new SPECT/CT which, ironically (or maybe not) is the next modality in the series. Because cancer affects so many people, directly and indirectly, I think it’s important to re-share Buddhini Samarasinghe’s stellar work in her series. Even for researchers like us, cancer is personal. When the drudgery of lab work or analysis makes you want to crawl under your desk or when frustration from confounding results makes you want to pull your hair out (if you have hair), we remind ourselves of the loved ones, friends, acquaintances, etc. that have been hurt by cancer. We march on, with your support, with your stories, with your courage.
So if you want to know about cancer without the jargon, read Buddhini’s series. Hopefully my series will resume soon.
W.K. Kellogg Biological Station – Michigan State University
My sister chose the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS), the manor in particular, to have her wedding ceremony this past Friday. It’s a fantastic venue for a wedding, with wild flowers everywhere, history, and science. W.K. Kellogg was the business-minded, of the two Kellogg brothers. He’s the one who founded the cereal company. John Harvey Kellogg was the brother who started the sanatorium in Battle Creek, MI. There is a lot of information about the brothers, including the documentary The Kellogg Brothers: Corn Flake Kings, so I’m only going to briefly talk about the biological station.
The manor was the home of W.K. Kellogg and was built in 1925 overlooking Gull Lake in what is now called Hickory Corners, MI. In 1928, W.K. Kellogg deeded Kellogg Experimental Farm and the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary to the Michigan State College of Agriculture. The entire 32 acre estate was given to the Michigan State University in 1951.
Bird Sanctuary
W.K. Kellogg was interested in wildlife conservation and KBS is fortunately the intersection of three major bird migration routes. The bird sanctuary opened in 1928 and is a major attraction. Their mission statement: The W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary conserves native habitat for migratory and resident birds and through research, education, and outreach helps people gain environmental awareness about our past, present, and future.
Kellogg Experimental Forest
The Kellogg Experimental Forest is 728 acres, which includes two artificially created ponds. They have developed hybrid spruce and poplar trees. The Spartan Spruce, is a cross between a blue spruce from southern Colorado and the white spruce from Michigan’s upper peninsula. The needles are blue like a blue spruce but soft like a white spruce.
Biofuel
KBS is working on a lot of interesting questions related to biofuels, such as economy (when does it make economic sense for farmers to switch to production of biofuel sources), what effect does growing biofuel sources, such as corn, have on soil or wildlife habitat, and how much cellulose based ethanol can be made produced from various crops. For example Brazil is doing quite well with sugar cane based ethanol, whereas in the USA most of the biofuel ethanol is from corn.
There’s a lot of interesting science going on at KBS. I plan to go back to see the bird sanctuary, especially the birds of prey.
