Student’s Initiative Brings Controversial Scientist to Campus for Lecture
Leslie Cook '04 took Tyrone Hayes on a tour of the college's ecological preserve.
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3/22/2004
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
You can take the frog out of the little kid’s pocket, but every frog lover remains forever part kid. Leslie Cook ’04 and many other Davidson frog lovers came together recently to learn biology from the famous—some would say infamous—Tyrone Hayes during his visit to campus.
Hayes, an associate professor of developmental endocrinology at the University of California at Berkeley, still sees himself as “a little boy who loves frogs,” but he is getting used to being a controversial scientist. His discovery of abnormal rates of hermaphrodism in frogs exposed to the pesticide atrazine has put him at the center of firestorm involving Swiss-based atrazine manufacturer Syngenta, peers who dispute his laboratory results, and the politics of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Hayes made a lecture visit to Davidson through the initiative of Cook, an Oak Ridge, Tenn., biology major who researched Hayes’ work and its fallout as part of a project in her “Amphibian and Reptile Conservation” class. The same week that Cook presented some of her own original research work in the class, Hayes and his controversial findings were featured on the cover of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Cook immediately set herself to the task of getting him to campus.
“Leslie was single-mindedly motivated to find ways to get Dr. Hayes here while she was still at Davidson,” said Barbara Lom, the assistant professor of biology who is directing Cook's honors thesis research. “She’s a delightful example of how Davidson students are academically gifted, personally motivated, and committed to the environment. It also illustrates how a Davidson student can extended her or his academic interests miles beyond the involvement of an average college biology student.”
Cook pressed her case with Lom and other biology faculty members, who were convinced enough to find departmental funding and make her dream real. When Hayes came to campus, Cook and other students heard from him at a luncheon and in his evening public presentation. But Cook had the honor of escorting him on a private tour of the Davidson College Ecological Preserve, where they checked on biology experiments, peered into mud puddles, and flipped over logs to see what was underneath. Back in the lab at Watson Science Building, Hayes also gave Cook some one-on-one feedback about her research.
The controversy surrounding Hayes' findings led to a cover article in "The Chronicle of Higher Education."
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Cook is involved with a long-term study of the effect of the common pesticide malathion on zebra fish, nurturing the experiment from establishment of a colony to publishable research. “I think the relevance of my work for environmental reasons is important,” said Cook. “One thing Dr. Hayes really showed is the widespread relevance of this type of work. My goal is to have my work appeal to a lot of people. The pesticide I’m using is available at Wal-Mart.”
In his Davidson lecture, Hayes--who grew up in Columbia, S.C.--turned his passion for his work into an entertaining and informative rapid-fire presentation comprehensible to both lay and scientific listeners.
Hayes’ covered the molecular mechanisms of how the widely-used weedkiller atrazine in a tadpole pond can change testosterone to estrogen (“You men in the audience can cross your legs now!” he joked.), to how that discovery played out in peer-reviewed wrangling and revisionist scientific methodology, to clandestine attendance at his presentations by corporate representatives.
A long and convoluted political story followed Hayes’ contention that atrazine exposure led to frog testes producing eggs and ovaries with testicular ducts, among other abnormal phenomena. “His colleagues here at Berkeley and around the country say the story is a classic example of the subtle and not-so-subtle tactics that companies sometimes use to influence the outcome of university research that they pay for,” The Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
Ironically, Hayes’ original research occurred while he was a consultant for a company working for Syngenta, which produces atrazine. After much back and forth with peers and regulators, as well as some financial discussions with Syngenta that Hayes characterized in The Chronicle article as “inappropriate,” the EPA ultimately re-approved the weedkiller last fall. The Natural Resources Defense Council sued the White House for records that the NRDC’s Web site says had undue influence on that approval. The European Union has banned the substance, Hayes noted.
Cook got feedback from Hayes about her own research in the effects of toxicity on zebra fish.
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In his effort to emphasize the dangers of atrazine exposure, Hayes now travels widely, speaking to groups of groundskeepers, agricultural workers, factory laborers, scientists, public health officials, patient-advocacy groups, chemical-industry groups, and students.
“If you just let your science speak for itself, there are plenty of other scientists being paid to make it say something else,” Hayes told the Davidson audience.
The long haul of environmental protection is just that, Hayes said: long. For example, he said, there is a legal brief circulating in this country now to redefine “pollution,” because the current Clean Water Act doesn’t cover pesticide use.
As for Cook, biology and environmental toxicology are definitely in her future. In addition to working with Hayes during his visit, she’s been in touch with scientists in China, Australia, Nicaragua, and South Africa. After graduation, she wants to work in a non-profit or public organization to learn more about how science and public health issues work together. She had enough credits to graduate in December, but chose to stay an extra semester to spend more time on her honors project, and to take courses such as genetics and ecological toxicology.
Cook is also a varsity swimmer, and very active in activities such as the BioSociety, tutoring at Mooresville High School, the Red Cross Club, the Women’s Issues Committee, and the Alternative Spring Breaks organization.
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,600 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Davidson is engaged in “Let Learning Be Cherished,” a $250 million campaign in support of student financial assistance, academic resources, and community life.
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