OUR VIEW: USU technology is on the edge

Just over a week ago, two sets of Siamese twins, in two separate operations, were successfully separated. After hearing about these significant surgeries, which happened in Dallas and Rome, we reflected on technological achievements a little closer to home. Many students don’t realize or appreciate what scientific breakthroughs are going on at Utah State University.

Mules, mules, mules! Yes, that’s right, the controversial topic of cloning, almost unthinkable and considered by many immoral, has happened in our very own Cache Valley. Granted, they were mules and not humans, but still, three genetically identical mules were created in a Utah State laboratory and these are the only members of the equine species ever cloned. It’s amazing science, and we are awed by it.

The new $40 million library, expected to be completed by Fall 2005, will be the most prominent building on campus. It will have an Automated Storage Retrieval System that can hold 1.5 million volumes of books. The volumes will be stored on bookshelf-type apparatuses in a five-story warehouse. Various cranes will travel quickly throughout the aisles to retrieve a bookcase on command. Students can even watch this process through a Plexiglas window on the third floor of the library. You can see technology in action.

So, the next time you consider all the high-tech stuff you hear about worlds away, remember that USU is home to some of the innovative technological advancements in the world.