LOCAL
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2019
THE OBSERVER — 5A
FESTIVAL
Continued from Page 1A
Dick Mason/The Observer
Joe Nuxoll, president of the Association of Oregon and Transit Advocates, speaks at the start of Saturday’s Eastern
Oregon Rail Summit at Cook Memorial Library.
TRAINS
Continued from Page 1A
because of funding issues.
“We need your help if (the return
of passenger train service) is going to
happen. It will be a longer term effort,”
said AORTA President Joe Nuxoll of
Eugene.
The need for passenger train service
in Northeast Oregon is greater now
than it was in 1997, Nuxoll said. A big
reason is that Greyhound Bus now
provides one westbound and one east-
bound bus a day, while 22 years ago at
least two westbound and two eastbound
buses made daily stops in La Grande.
Nuxoll would like to see as much of
the Pioneer route, which ran from Port-
land to Salt Lake City, Utah, restored
as possible. However, he said it is more
realistic to start small by first attempt-
ing to restore the Portland to Boise part
of the Pioneer route.
The AORTA president said that
when people are speaking up in support
of Amtrak, they need to address one
of the most common criticism of it —
that its subsidized with government
funding. This is a weak and unfair
argument, according to Nuxoll, because
all modern transportation receives
substantial government funding.
“All transportation is subsidized,” he
said.
He explained that virtually all high-
way construction and maintenance is
funded by the government and that air
travel is possible because of airports,
which receive significant levels of gov-
ernment assistance.
Nuxoll emphasized that the best way
to get members of Congress to begin
looking into expanding Amtrak’s routes
is for local city councils and county com-
missions to pass resolutions in support
of having local and regional passenger
rail service. He said that when sena-
tors and members of congress learn of
the resolutions they will know that the
people they represent want passenger
trains to return.
Mark Meyer of Portland, an AORTA
board member, said he believes there is
strong bipartisan support in Congress
for expanding Amtrak.
One of these leaders is U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden, D-Portland, who is a supporter
of Amtrak, according to Jeff Broderick,
a graduate student at Portland State
University who is earning a master’s
degree in urban planning. He also noted
that U.S. Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Eugene,
who is chair of the House Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure, is in
a good position to help boost Amtrak’s
expansion.
Broderick, like other speakers at
Saturday’s meeting, emphasized the
importance of communicating with leg-
islators about restoring Amtrak service
in Northeast Oregon.
“Your first step should be contacting
your legislators,” he said.
He said that part of the problem
Amtrak faces is that it received a weak
mandate from the government when it
was created in 1971. This makes it dif-
ficult to get large sums of money from
Congress.
“It is a fight for it to get funding from
Congress each year,” Broderick said.
Many of those attending the meet-
ing Saturday talked of how much they
miss passenger train service, and the
atmosphere in the library’s communitiy
room was one of hope and excitement.
“You have priceless enthusiasm,” said
Louis Musso, a member of All Aboard
Washington.
The documentary follows the journey of the world’s first
“cyborgs” and the scientists and entrepreneurs who are
researching the field of neuroscience and its potential for
changing a person’s life. The three main subjects of the
story are Bill, a tetraplegic who is helping researchers
discover the possibilities of regaining control of his body
through technology; Anne, a woman living with Parkin-
son’s disease who undergoes a surgery to alleviate some of
her symptoms; and Stephen, a blind man who is regaining
his sight through the implantation of technology in his
eyes.
The filmmakers also talked to experts and innovators
in the field. One of the entrepreneurs is La Grande native
Bryan Johnson.
“It took massive amounts of exploration and research,”
Gaby said about developing the film. “We had to weed out
what was snake oil and what was neuro-technology.”
While this technology is not widely available, Gaby said
she hopes the film shows its potential and the possibilities
it could have for general public application.
“The fear is only wealthy people will have access to one
of the biggest breakthroughs in this field,” Gaby said.
In dealing with the sensitive topic of people’s medical
struggles and their journeys, Gaby said, she had to be very
careful and considerate during the process. She recalled
filming Anne’s and Stephen’s surgeries and realizing how
a speck of dust on the film crews camera technology could
mean failure of the surgery because of the field of steriliza-
tion needing to remain clean.
“As a documentary filmmaker, you tend to enter people’s
lives at the most dramatic moments. It comes with a lot of
responsibilities and a lot of care,” Gaby said. “For Anne to
have trusted us to be in (the operating) room, it’s a huge
weight on your shoulders. As a director, I don’t take that
lightly. You have to treat these moments like they’re life
and death of your own life.”
Gaby said filming this documentary was like a master
class in neuroscience, where observing the research and
seeing these advancements firsthand doesn’t make you an
expert but they provide you with more knowledge than you
had before.
“Whatever comes up that feels really important and is
about people that inspire me is the next topic I’ll do,” Gaby
said about her next project.
STEM
Continued from Page 1A
they watched it bubble.
“I’m going to say it
released a gas,” Eckstein
stated before jotting down
the observation in her lab
book.
Several students at a
time rotated through testing
stations, and some were a
tad reluctant at first to get
too near the zombies —
university volunteers for the
day — in the bio lab. But
the girls soon enough tested
the poor creatures to see the
pupillary response to light,
the knee-jerk reflex and
their heart beats.
Angela Baird of Baker
said this was her first time
attending and she enjoyed
learning about DNA and
using pipe cleaners to make
a replica of a neuron.
“I call it Medusa because
it looks like Medusa,” she
said.
Paige Wolfe of Baker said
she enjoys learning about
science so the whole day
was a kick. Madison Bry-
ant with Sunridge gave a
similar assessment: “I like
all of it.”
The event culminated
with parents and other
family members filling the
back rows of Huber Audi-
torium at the university to
witness the groups present
their findings and conclu-
sions. The three groups also
Sabrina Thompson/The Observer
Elena Gaby is one of the co-directors for the film “I
Am Human” which explores the simultaneous evolu-
tion of humans and technology. The film was shown
at a special screening Friday night at EOU.
Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group
Dr. DeAnna Timmermann, an associate psychology professor at Eastern Oregon
University, instructs a group of middle school girls in a series of tests that they will
perform during a lab session at the 2019 Girls in Science event at Eastern Oregon
University Saturday afternoon.
reached consensus.
The zombies were con-
scious and human, they
said, but as one young
scientist told the crowd,
Potshard was “sitting there
like a bump on a log.” Only
one scenario accounted for
his affliction, they said: Pot-
shard ingested tetrodotoxin,
the deadly neurotoxin of the
puffer fish. And Potshard
subsequently infected the
other zombies.
The mystery solved, the
girls remained jazzed as
they returned to their regu-
lar lives. And perhaps the
zombies were as well.
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Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group
A “zombified professor” is rolled through the group of
participants during introductions.
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