University Of Idaho Food Science Program

• Idaho Food Recipes

Food Science MinorA minor in food science will provide undergraduates with an introduction to the discipline of food science and technology. The minor is designed to supplement technical or business skills obtained in other majors.

Idaho Food Recipes

. Science Update. FeaturesCover Stories.Other Features. Roots: Alumni. Letters.Where are Idaho’s cloned mulesnow?by Bill LoftusIdaho Gem, the world’s first equine clone, has a new career, and so do his cloned brothers. After finishing second in his first race of the season at the Winnemucca Mule Races in Nevada, the world’s most famous mule returned to Idaho.Don Jacklin, the Post Falls businessman who now owns the 5-year-old Idaho Gem, decided he deserved better than to finish second best as a racing mule. Gem competed at the Kootenai County Fair in August and won the grand champion’s purple ribbon in his halter class.All three mule clones born in 2003 are fit and healthy and show no adverse signs of their unusual beginnings as clones, said College of Agricultural and Life Sciences associate professor of animal science Dirk Vanderwall who directs the Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory at the UI.“With his intelligence and his quickness, Gem is very athletic,” Jacklin said.

“He is also eager to please, and he is an outstanding animal.”Idaho Gem’s next career: gymkhanaIdaho Gem’s next career will focus on gymkhana events. His trainer will be Ed Burdick of Rathdrum, pictured above, a veteran in the show ring who appeared in Life magazine as a youth in a story about horse training.Gem’s speed ranked him as No. 3 among the California Fair Racing Circuit’s 80 competitors, but prospects were that he would never beat the top two animals. Idaho Gem excelled in sprints, winning 220-yard races at the Los Angeles County and the Humboldt County fairs in 2007. Most mule races cover distances of 350 yards or longer, and Gem’s leads faded at the wire. Overall, Idaho Gem won 6 of his 22 professional races and finished in the money 16 times.Idaho Star, whose racing career never took off like his elder brother’s, will also return to Idaho from the California race circuit.

Earl Lunceford, like Don Jacklin, a donor to the Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory’s cloning research program, will own Star and use him for trail riding.Utah Pioneer, the third mule clone produced through a University of Idaho and Utah State University partnership, fills the role of educational exhibit on the UI campus in Moscow, allowing school children and other campus visitors to view a clone.Contact Dirk Vanderwall at. UI microbiology professor wins $729,000 grantby Bill LoftusA parasite that infects 15 to 30 percent of Americans and as many as 90 percent of Europeans may have an Achilles’ heel, a protein essential to its movement within the body, a UI researcher believes.Disabling the protein may stop the parasite before it can enter cells and reproduce, said Gustavo Arrizabalaga, microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry assistant professor.

Contact John Van Gerpen at.Tethered to your dairy? UI Extension brings education to youby Marlene FritzFor small and mid-sized dairy producers, breaking away for a half-day UI Extension class isn’t easy. When that class covers complex topics like futures, options, and hedging—necessitating multiple meetings—it can be nearly impossible. In Twin Falls, UI Extension economist C. Where to find best Idaho databy Mary Ann ReeseFinding the most current reliable data for things like population, income, poverty levels, housing costs, minority populations, education levels, crime and safety, and so on at the local, county, or state levels can be frustrating, even with the aid of sophisticated computer searches.To the rescue, 10 University of Idaho Extension community development team members created a free 10-page publication documenting where to find the most reliable data and when to expect new reports. Find Reliable Data Tools for Idaho Counties and Towns at.“It’s designed so you can simply download the document to your computer and click on a link to the information you need,” said Christy Dearien, who led the effort published in September.The publication is part of the Community Data Tools project (That site suggests ways to understand and use data provided by the Northwest Area Foundation’s Indicators Web site at www.indicators.nwaf.org/.Contact Christy Dearien at u or Debbie Grey at. Food science mergerby Bill LoftusAn academic merger will draw together Washington State University and the University of Idaho food science departments.

The new School of Food Science at the two universities formalizes historic ties bridging the seven miles separating them.The partnership, approved by both universities’ governing bodies, will benefit the Northwest’s $17-billion food processing industry, students, and consumers through expanded cooperation. Idaho soil at the Smithsonianby Mary Ann Reese“There are more living creatures in a shovelful of soil than human beings on the planet,” claims one story about Dig It! The Secrets of Soil, an exhibit that opened this summer at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.“Yet more is known about the dark side of the moon than about soil,” the show’s promotional material says. The Smithsonian aims to remedy that gap. Including 54 soil monoliths from throughout the United States, the 5,000 square-foot, interactive show will continue through 2010 and then be available to tour throughout the U.S. (See.)Idaho’s Threebear soil from Latah CountyRepresenting Idaho is Threebear, a distinctive volcanic ash soil from northern and central Idaho.

University of Idaho soil scientists consider it a worthy representative, with its cap of volcanic ash often 18-inches thick, thanks to the eruption of Mount Mazama—now Crater Lake, Oregon—about 7,600 years ago.First identified in Latah County along Threebear Creek, the distinctive soil is a yellowish brown silt loam. Its volcanic ash cap is one reason for the rich forests throughout northern and central Idaho.Only seven states—Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington—claim sizeable areas of volcanic soils.Learn more about the world’s soils at /.