GREEN is cool

Can plants, flowers, and dirt really help cool a building or home? Researchers from our Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture think so … they call it a green roof, and they’re testing their theory atop one of the college’s buildings.

The college will install one of the first sloped green roofs in Houston atop the Burdette Keeland Jr. Design Exploration Center, formerly the old Band Annex. There are huge benefits to green roofs, says Associate Professor of Architecture Geoffrey Brune (’72).

“Green roofs offer value that all Houstonians can relate to,” he says. “They can retain water, slow storm water drainage, mitigate flooding, and reduce heating and air conditioning costs—I think everyone in Houston would appreciate that.”

Also, Brune says enough green roofs may help the entire city beat the heat. During the day, reflective surfaces in roofs, buildings, and concrete parking lots absorb heat. At night, these same surfaces radiate heat—known as the heat sink phenomenon. “By grouping green roofs in an urban area, we can begin to reverse this phenomenon since roofing materials no longer hold the heat,” he says.

“Theoretically, with enough green roofs, we may actually lower the temperature of the city.” Architecture students are finalizing tests on a mock green roof. It’s made of special water-absorbent soil and covered with a variety of indigenous Gulf Coast plants that are ideal for Houston’s climate. The plants have flourished over the past year and are still growing—surviving storms, wind, rain, and heat. The final green roof is expected to be installed by early 2007.

— Jo Anne Davis-Jones (’79)

SUGARfix

They brought us one step closer to understanding diabetes … and made history while they were at it. Peter Vekilov, associate professor of chemical engineering, and Dimitra Georgiou, a chemical engineering doctoral candidate, have found a new means of crystal formation—it’s only the third-ever such discovery and the first in nearly forty years. The means of crystal formation they found occurs in the pancreas. The organ forms tiny insulin crystals, about 5 nanometers in size, and injects them into the bloodstream—it’s widely believed that insufficient insulin production leads to adult-onset diabetes. “Our goal was to understand how the body creates insulin,” Vekilov says. “This will allow medical researchers to discover why some individuals don’t produce enough insulin and thus develop diabetes.” The next step beyond that, he says, is to stop the disease altogether. Today, diabetes affects nearly 21 million Americans or 7 percent of the population.

— Chris Evans (’01)

March of the PENGUINS

You can learn a lot from a penguin. In fact, they may help the elderly get on their feet again. Working with dozens of King penguins at Galveston’s Moody Gardens, Max Kurz is looking to these ungainly walkers to suggest a more stable form of locomotion for humans. “Penguins may look clumsy on land, but they’re actually very efficient walkers,” says the assistant professor of health and human performance. “They walk up to seventy-five miles to reach a nesting ground in the wild.” By studying the way these birds shift their balance to compensate for their limitations on land, he’s developing physical therapies for people who have difficulty walking. In these sessions, patients would practice the side-to-side motions used by penguins. The result: a mobile human patient. Many of Kurz’s ideas are inspired by his frequent trips to the zoo and outdoors. “Nature has already done many of the experiments for us,” Kurz says. Next up—elephants and alligators.

— Chris Evans (’01)