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VOLUME 113 ISSUE 103
TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2019 Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida
Not officially associated with the University of Florida
UF professor to join Florida Inventors Hall of Fame By Daisha Peek Contributing Writer
From beginning to end, the second floor of the UF chemistry lab building is lined with posters of inventor Richard Yost’s work — much like a museum. But the 66-year-old UF chemistry professor’s greatest recognition will take place Sept. 20 in Tampa when he gets inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Yost will be honored for a lifesaving device the world didn’t know it needed: the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The Hall of Fame honors inventors who have made life-changing discoveries that impact Florida and other parts of the U.S., according to its website. For the past 40 years, the $250,000 tool created by Yost and his former professor Chris Enke at Michigan State University has reshaped analytical chemistry. The spectrometer is used to measure the weight of molecules, Yost said. Today, it’s used around the world for newborn testing, Navy research, environmental analysis, drug testing for the Olympics, blood testing and many other applications.
Their inspiration for the spectrometer came from wanting to computerize manual scientific tools, which was a new idea in the 1970s, Yost said. About 20 years before, German inventor Wolfgang Paul invented the quadrupole, a ring of four poles wrapped together that sorts out ions by weight. “This quadrupole is a beautiful, simple device, and I knew in graduate school I wanted to do something with it and mass spectrometry,” Yost said. Before Yost’s invention, mass spectrometry — the study of the mass and charges of ions — was not widely used in chemistry. Ions are simply atoms or molecules with electrical charges, and they help scientists understand the chemical makeup of things. There are many molecules with the same mass, so scientists need a way to identify which ones they’re working with, Yost said. Yost, an eager student with a chemistry background, convinced himself he could find a new efficient way to find the weight of molecules with a quadrupole. At the time, scientists who didn’t use quadrupoles to weigh molecules relied on a process that involved curving
ions by putting an ion beam into a magnet to create an electromagnetic field. Smaller ions curved more than larger ones. Yost said it was just like it sounded: complex and timeconsuming. The triple quadrupole mass spectrometer instead turns molecules into ions by placing a charge on the compound. Parts of the molecule, which can then be individually weighed and identified, are separated using an electrical field, he said. The device, made of three quadrupoles in a row, was a breakthrough, Yost said. “I sat down and wrote a proposal to the National Science Foundation to build this instrument, and the reviews were quite consistent: it was a stupid idea, this would never work and we didn’t know what we were talking about,” he said. “So, it wasn’t funded.” It was frustrating, but Yost’s team didn’t give up. He sent the invention proposal to the Office of Naval Research, not knowing if the Navy could benefit from using his device in its nuclear submarines, he said. “I’m an internal optimist,” Yost said.
SEE HALL OF FAME, PAGE 3
Courtesy of Richard Yost
Richard Yost, 66, participates in a PhD commencement ceremony in April where he escorted his most recent PhD graduate. The UF chemistry professor will be inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame in Tampa on Sept. 20.
UF Infirmary includes students Alachua County conversion as part of active shooter drills therapy ban meets resistance THE SHCC IS REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THESE DRILLS BY AN ACCREDITATION AGENCY By Tori Whidden Staff Writer
While going into the infirmary with a 101.7° fever, a summer B freshman experienced something scarier than a flu diagnosis. “You’re not going to believe what just happened to me,” Ben Milrot wrote in his family group chat. At 10 a.m. Thursday, Milrot, an 18-year-old UF political science freshman, was waiting for his Tamiflu prescription when he was shuffled into a closet, silenced and kept in the dark for an active shooter drill in the pharmacy. “I was sitting down waiting, and out of no-
LOOKING AHEAD TO FOOTBALL SEASON
The Alligator’s River Wells warns against underestimating Miami, pg 10
where there was a voice over the PA system saying, ‘Attention UF Health. This is an active shooter drill,’” Milrot said. The pharmacy staff locked the doors, turned off the lights and took Milrot and one other sick student into a closet for 15 minutes while police officers banged on the doors, Milrot said. “It was a drill, so I might as well act like it was real,” Milrot said. “I was so dizzy, and I was standing there trying to catch myself from falling every 30 seconds.” This drill was conducted by the UF Student Health Care Center, which is required to do four drills a year by their accrediting agency, the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, said UF spokesperson Steve Orlando. One of those drills has to be a fire drill and one of them has to be a code blue, indicating
SEE SHOOTER DRILL, PAGE 3
LIBERTY COUNSEL IS BEGINNING TO PURSUE LEGAL ACTION By Ashley Lazarski Staff Writer
Weeks after Alachua County’s ban of conversion therapy became a countywide ordinance, members of Liberty Counsel, an Orlando-based conservative Christian legal advocacy group, are attempting to halt to its progression through legal action. Liberty Counsel has sued multiple government entities for similar legislations across the country, including the states of New Jersey and Maryland. Roger Gannam, the assistant vice president of legal affairs for Liberty Counsel, said he does not agree that the term “con-
Where in the universe is UF’s moon tree?
The university’s prized, moon-orbiting sycamore has been on campus since 1976, pg 3
version therapy” accurately conveys the form of therapy which has been banned. Instead, he describes this as a political term to describe the opinions of opponents of the ban who do not think they should affirm children who are experiencing attraction to the same sex or identify as a different gender identity. “The vast majority of young people who either identify as transgender or who indicate that they’re experiencing samesex attractions will literally grow out of that,” Gannam said. There is no evidence to support Gannam’s claims, according to a 2007 American Psychological Association report. Gannam said there are misconceptions about conversion therapy, usually involving the idea of a counselor telling children
SEE CONVERSION, PAGE 3
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Palm-killing disease spreads to Alachua County Lethal Bronzing Disease is putting sabal palm trees at risk of wilting and losing color, pg 5
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