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Show POLLUTION University research works to improve environment The subject of the conservation of natural resources has long rested in conventional apathy; political speeches on the subject have always been able to draw a yawn from all sides of the American public. But suddenly it seems that a nationwide cry has been raised against the pollution of our land-and finally the "silent majority" has found its voice to answer it. The topic has taken on the proportions of a mass movement, under the name of Ec-ology~the study of the relationship between environment and life. Ecology is now definitely a political issue: College students are banding together to request ecological courses; people everywhere are demanding legislative action against industry and other pollutants. At last the conservationists are not alone; it is as if man has suddenly been awakened to the fact that the earth is, after all, a finite place. Yet much of the uproar is merely of the bandwagon variety; many of the groups which are becoming militant are doing so for the sake of militancy. Said one University of Utah professor, "A lot of the ones protesting in this issue do not know what it is exactly that they are talking about." So it is reassuring to discover that, beneath the uproar of the populace, definite progress is going on, ironically, in the battle against the bad side of progress itself. And just as Utah is by no means separated from the problem, but right in the very heart of it, so too our University is keeping up and in many ways setting the pace for research in the field of pollution. Our biology department is the focal point of two research projects which may prove to be of vast significance in the fight to save our natural surroundings. 316 |