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School hopes to attract health professionals by Dick Peterson Public Relations Science is doing—discovering new information, not observing, said MUSC physiologist George Tempel, Ph.D. Dr. George Tempel, second row, right, joins in the fun of scientific discovery with participants in the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Math Summer Science Program.  It’s doing science that fuels enthusiasm in the young ninth and tenth graders who gather each summer at Coker College in Lander for the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Math Summer Science Program.  And it’s their enthusiasm and the hope of attracting young minds to careers in science and the health professions that keeps Tempel serving on the school’s faculty. Despite a grueling string of six 13-hour days, Tempel is obviously pumped by the eagerness of the students, who routinely show up 15 minutes early for the discoveries in science sessions Tempel plans.  “These young people were phenomenal,” Tempel said. “They caught the excitement and thrill of discovery and it’s their enthusiasm that keeps me going.” Tempel was one of five Governor’s School faculty members in the first of three one-week summer sessions, held July 9 through 15. Each Governor’s School student was assigned to a faculty member in that student’s general geographic area with the idea that a continuing student-teacher/mentor relationship could resume during the school year. Many of Tempel’s Governor’s School students come to MUSC in the winter to mentor his Saturday Scholars, middle school students he invites to the Medical University to introduce them to the thrill of scientific discovery. At the Governor’s School the high schoolers learned about genes and their function. They learned about protein synthesis and how to measure protein concentration by assessing proteins in their own saliva.  The week’s activities culminated with an exercise in DNA fingerprinting. And they learned it by doing it. Simulating a crime investigation, Tempel guided the students through the extraction of DNA first from plant and then bacterial cells. Once extracted, they used restriction enzymes to cut the DNA which was then separated with gel electrophoresis to create a unique genetic fingerprint. Participants in the Governor’s School for Science and Math were: Meredith Andrepont of Beaufort; Siri Baker of Myrtle Beach; Chad Cotty of Simpsonville; Mallory Hudson of Luray;  Nick Ling of Pawleys Island,  Mallory Locklear of Lincolnville, Katy Rihbany of Moncks Corner; Johnny Tisdale of Manning; Chi Zhang of Mount Pleasant; Annie Irving, Danielle Mongrain, and Sarah Rand of Summerville; and Matt Shingledecker, Andrea Wieters, and Missy Winstead of Charleston.  Two research assistants helping Tempel with the summer program are June graduates of the Governor’s School: Elizabeth Lambert of Charleston, who is headed to Agnes Scott College, and Saswat Kabi Satpathy of Orangeburg, who is enrolling in the University of South Carolina Honors College.