GOVERNMENT/PUBLIC SAFETY 
Keyword cops
Crime busting by cell phone? CitizenObserver.com, a company based in St. Paul, Minn., helps connect law enforcement agencies with citizens and businesses through the Web, cell phones and digital devices such as Blackberrys. Two Texas counties, Travis and Bexar, and nine Texas cities are wiring citizens into crime prevention networks through the company. The service is free.
For example, in March 2007, a 7-year-old girl was missing after school in Pflugerville. Travis County Sheriff’s detectives put an alert on the system that noted a relative might have picked her up and put her in a potentially dangerous situation. Three days later, detectives located the missing child and returned her to her parents.
Eight Texas-based community watch programs are also part of the program.
Search tools such as CitizenObserver’s can help law enforcement agencies save time and man-hours in the hunt for missing persons.
Nationally, more than 1 million children are reported missing each year, according to the Office of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
For more information, contact CitizenObserver, (888) 952-2200, info@citizenobserver.com
NUTRITION
Lean and green
Students at the University of North Texas (UNT) have a new weapon in the battle against the bulge. In an effort to provide students with healthier food choices, UNT launched a new cafeteria in October 2006 called “Mean Greens.”
Mean Greens offers only organic and healthy foods, and the goal is for meals to pack fewer than 300 calories and 10 grams of fat. Diners can choose from such menu items as grilled meats, sushi, vegetarian selections and organically grown produce.
Texas’ organic foods market grew from about 100,000 acres of crop and rangeland in 2000 to more than 325,000 in 2005.
Regenia Phillips, director of dining services for UNT, said the university started the cafeteria in response to student requests.
“A number of students told us the food we served was great, but they wanted a place where they would not be tempted to eat foods with higher fats and calories,” Phillips said.
For more information, contact Regenia Phillips, (940) 565-2462, regenia@hsl.admin.unt.edu
AEROSPACE
Submarine in space
A Texas-made robotic submarine has been making deep dives in Mexico — but someday it might end up a lot farther from home.
The Deep Phreatic Thermal explorer (DEPTHX), created by Austin’s Stone Aerospace, is an “autonomous” underwater vehicle designed to operate without human guidance. Onboard computers and dozens of electronic sensors allow DEPTHX to navigate independently.
DEPTHX is part of a $5 million NASA-funded study to explore technologies that could be used to explore Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Many scientists believe Europa may be hiding a liquid-water ocean beneath its icy crust.
Space exploration and Texas have gone hand in hand for some time. NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston accounts for more than 26,000 jobs around the state and more than $2.5 billion in wages and $3.5 billion in annual spending.
For more information, contact Stone Aerospace, (512) 247-6385
EDUCATION
Joysticks 101
A college student will develop the next big hit in video gaming inside a college classroom. This is the vision of Bob McGoldrick and his 90-student video game development program at Austin Community College.
“In the past, most developers learned by themselves,” McGoldrick said. “But today’s games are much more complex, the development teams are much larger and the [stakes are] much higher.”
McGoldrick got the idea for the program after learning of Austin’s place in the video game market, which has about 60 development studios, employs more than 1,000 workers and generates annual sales of $195 million.
McGoldrick hopes to eventually offer an associate’s degree.
For more information, contact Bob McGoldrick, (512) 223-7662, rmcgoldr@austincc.edu
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Water from thin air
The average adult needs to drink at least a half-gallon of clean water every day — but what if there is no water available?
Florida-based Aqua Sciences Inc. has developed technology that literally captures water out of thin air, even in desert conditions. The company has contracts with the U.S. Army to provide its water generation systems to soldiers in Iraq.
The company claims its units will slash current $30 a gallon costs to about 30 cents per gallon.
These machines tap the air’s ambient humidity via a proprietary — and secret — technology and can produce anywhere from 350 to 1,200 gallons of fresh water per day, even in extremely dry conditions, the company said.
Expansion of the technology could be huge for Texas’ water concerns. Texas’ annual water demand is projected to top 21.6 million acre-feet by 2060, according to the Texas Water Development Board’s preliminary 2007 water plan Water For Texas.
For more information, contact Bill Riggs, Aqua Sciences Inc., bill@Aquasciences.com
HEALTH CARE/MEDICAL SCIENCE
Venom for strep
Like something out of a horror movie, laboratory tests in Texas have shown that a toxin similar to one found in snake venom helps spread deadly “flesh-eating” infections through the human body. Researchers at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston say the discovery is an important step toward developing new treatments for necrotizing fasciitis and other strains of Streptococcus, such as strep throat.
For more information, contact the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, (713) 441-1261
HEALTH CARE/MEDICAL SCIENCE
Vitamin D fights cancer
Vitamin D, produced by the body when exposed to sunlight and found in animal fats, may play a role in curbing the progression of breast cancer, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.
Researchers from Imperial College in London measured the levels of vitamin D in 279 women with invasive breast cancer. The results showed that women in early stages of the disease possessed significantly higher levels of vitamin D than women in advanced stages of the disease.
Breast cancer costs Texans more than $1.2 billion annually in costs and lost productivity.
For more information, contact Laura Gallagher, l.gallagher@imperial.ac.uk