Engineers

Joseph H. Wiseman Jr., 83, of Lower Moreland, a longtime engineer, died Thursday, March 14, of pneumonia at Aria Health-Torresdale Campus. Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Wiseman graduated from Olney High School in 1947 and what is now Drexel University in 1951. He lived in Holland, Bucks County, for 30 years before moving to Lower Moreland in 1993. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers after completing the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps at Drexel.

When Annmarie Cantrell, a chef and wellness educator, gives cooking demonstrations, she always talks about the importance of fresh, unprocessed food and her concerns about genetically engineered ingredients. She and her husband, Sam, no longer plant corn on their Maysie's Farm in Chester County, in part because she worries their organically grown crop will be contaminated by windblown pollen from nearby farms that grow genetically engineered corn. She and other members of a fledgling local group, GMO Free PA, are fully behind legislation that would require labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms that are sold in Pennsylvania.

In the wake of a damning grand-jury probe and criminal charges against eight people, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will investigate its contracts with lawyers, financiers, engineers, and others, turnpike chief Mark Compton said Monday. Compton, who started work as the agency's chief executive officer last month, said he was "personally offended by the conduct" outlined in the grand jury report last week. The 85-page report depicted a pervasive culture of money, political favoritism, and influence-peddling at the Turnpike Commission, with contractors selected on the basis of political contributions to state officials.

I'm certain Sarah Palin spoke for many when she tweeted upon hearing the news that a New York judge had prevented implementation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to regulate sugary drinks: "Victory in NYC for liberty-loving soda drinkers. To politicians with too much time on their hands we say: Govt, stay out of my refrigerator!" No doubt those "liberty lovers" view dietary habits as a matter of free will and personal responsibility. If only things were so simple. There's no question that most of us can do something about our weight.

SEPTA named a new chief engineer Wednesday to oversee its tracks, bridges, power facilities, and buildings. Andrew Gillespie, a six-year employee of the transit agency, will replace Jeffrey Knueppel, who was recently promoted to deputy general manager. Gillespie, who lives in Doylestown with his wife and three children, will be paid $160,000 a year. - Paul Nussbaum

HARRISBURG - A state senator thinks that Pennsylvania ought to do what no other state, including left-leaning California, has done: require that food products be labeled to show whether they contain genetically engineered ingredients. Or at the very least, said Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery), the bill he introduced Tuesday should start a conversation here on one of the hottest topics in consumer health circles. "I am concerned about the lack of information available about the presence of genetically engineered food, and I believe it is every consumer's right to know what ingredients are found in the products they buy," Leach said Tuesday in an interview.

John R. Boehringer, 82, of Wynnewood, an engineer and inventor who founded a biomedical engineering company, died Tuesday, March 5, of cancer at home. Mr. Boehringer's life was marked by an intellectual curiosity that led him to build a sailboat as a teen and to learn, in midlife, to fly airplanes. "He was always curious," said his daughter, Barbara McConnell. "He always wanted to learn new things. " In 1967, Mr. Boehringer, known as "Jack," founded Boehringer Associates, a consulting firm in Wynnewood specializing in cost-control management in manufacturing and hospital operations.

LOS ANGELES - In a Mars first, the Curiosity rover drilled into a rock and prepared to dump an aspirin-size pinch of powder into its onboard laboratories for closer inspection. The feat marked yet another milestone for the car-size rover, which landed last summer to much fanfare on an ambitious hunt to determine whether environmental conditions were favorable for microbes. Using the drill at the end of its 7-foot-long robotic arm, Curiosity on Friday chipped away at a flat, veined rock bearing numerous signs of past water flow.

Enjoy hands-on science and engineering activities at Drexel University on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. during Philly Materials Science and Engineering Day. Learn about materials science, expressed in laymen's terms as "the study of stuff," and learn what everyday things we use are made of and how they work. The event is free and presented by the departments of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania.   Philly Materials Science and Engineering Day, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Bossone Research Enterprise Center on Market Street between 31st and 32d. Event is free.