The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page B3

The Sun in Anne Arundel Wednesday, July 2, 2003: Page 3b ANNE ARUNDELREGION North Glen Burnie Roller coaster malfunction strands riders at Six Flags West Central 24 passengers dangle from ride for 2 hours; no injuries are reported is South said. Park maintenance workers tried for about 45 minutes to get the ride working after it became stuck about 4 p.m., Brady said Firefighters who had rehearsed with a mock rescue on the same ride two months ago prepared for the real thing before park workers successfully moved the coaster back to the boarding area about 6:10 p.m. The park remained open and other activities were not disrupted, but reporters were not allowed into the park. A Six Flags spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Television news video taken from a helicopter showed the passengers sitting calmly while hanging on an incline, before they were moved slowly back to the boarding area.

According to the Six Flags Web site, riders on Two Face: The Flip Side are seated in face-to-face coaches. They are pulled up a 137-foot lift, held for a few seconds and then dropped upside down into another lift. After returning to an upright position, passengers are thrust head-on into a 72-foot high vertical loop before rocketing to the top of a second 137-foot lift. The cause of the malfunction is under investigation. ASSOCIATED PRESS LARGO An amusement park roller coaster stalled nearly 140 feet off the ground yesterday, leaving 24 passengers dangling for more than two hours before workers could repair it.

No one was injured during the malfunction aboard Two Face: The Flip Side at Six Flags America, but paramedics examined all the riders as a precaution after they got down, said Prince George's County fire spokesman Mark Brady. "It was really scary for an hour," said Jessica Coloe, 16, of Woodstock, who said she was sitting in a position leaning forward. "I was looking down about 200 feet." Her friend, Leslie Jones, 16, of Newark, Del, said they were told little about plans to get them down. "We were up there for almost 2 hours," she said. "We kept seeing rescue people but we never knew what was going on." One person needed asthma medication, but firefighters were able to deliver it, Brady How can we help you? Readers may write, call or visit our offices to share ideas for news stories or express their opinions in letters to the editor.

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Delivery: To subscribe or for circulation, delivery or billing assistance, call 410-539-1280 or toll-free 800-829-8000. JERRY JACKSON SUN STAFF David Bennett, 17 (left), Aaron Schulman, 17, and Andrew Ascione, 18 (seated), recently won awards for their project at a science fair in Ohio. Graduates to take project abroad Fair, from Page 1b Editor Bureau chief: Norm Gomlak, 443-482-3420 or norm.gomlakbaltsun.com Frey said. Frey said she studied the relationship between two indicators: the presence of hydrogen and gully features on the planet's surface. "This was the first project of its kind," she said.

Researchers have looked at other aspects of the debate over water on Mars but not these two particular factors together. As one of her awards, Frey will take an all-expense-paid trip to U.S. Space Camp in Alabama this summer. And she is making plans for another project on Mars for next year's ISEF science fair. Has she thought about life on Mars? Yes, she said, but she hasn't read enough about it to take on a project like that now.

"But anything's a possibility." Reporters ASSOCIATED PRESS Passengers are stranded on a stalled roller coaster at Six Flags America amusement park in Largo in this photograph taken from video. Two dozen people were stuck for about two hours. Annapolis: Amanda Crawford, 443-482-3403 or amanda.crawfordbaltsun. com County government: Ryan Davis, 443-482-3409 or ryan.davisbaltsun.com Courts: Andrea F. Siegel, 443-482-3405 or andrea.siegelbaltsun.com Growth and development: Lynn Anderson, 443-482-3404 or lynn.andersonbaltsun.com Naval Academy, National Security Agency: Ariel Sabar, 443-482-3407 or ariel.sabarbaltsun.com Police and fire: Julie Bykowicz, 443-482-3401 or julie.bykowiczbaltsun.com Schools: Laura Loh, 443-482-3402 or laura.lohbaltsun.com West and North County: Rona Kobell, 443-482-3406 or rona.kobellbaltsun.com The lab researchers weren't programmers, so they needed outside help.

"We said, 'We have no idea how to do Kramer said. But the students knew how. Spending hours in Bennett's basement, the three generated a science project that delivered results. "Through the creation of their computer program, they have helped us considerably. They really did a first-rate job; I was very impressed," Kramer said.

Their software could be used by a biotechnology company to create a more developed and marketable system, offering the possibility of profit in the future. But for now, the students take pride in the fact that they developed a goal, broke it down and solved it, Kramer said. "And they did it beautifully." Down the road, Ascione, the biology expert of the group, wants to become a doctor. Bennett and Schulman, who did most of the computer-related work, hope to become computer scientists. Schulman said he knew he wanted to work with computers when he first saw one at the age of 5.

"I love it because you're in control of everything," he said. "You can make it do anything you want it's so universal." The boys' friendship grew as they worked on the project, sometimes sacrificing school-work, they said. As the science fair date approached, they would work until midnight or after. "We got to know the pizza guy very well," Ascione said. Frey, a South River junior who also collected prizes at the science fair, knows about long hours, too.

Her solo project, seeking to prove the existence of water on Mars, led her to spend many days collecting data at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, where her father works. "I've been doing projects on Mars for several years now," are, in Schulman's words, "difficult to explain." The beacons, a type of oligonucleotide, are hairpin-shaped strings of DNA that reveal information in response to the stimulus of shining light. "When they're not attached to something they don't light up, but when they're attached to a corresponding DNA they do light up," Schulman said. By using color coding and combinations of colors, the software enables identification of as many as 32,000 genetic markers, which are anything in the body that can be detected in the DNA, Schulman said. "We can look at one strand of DNA and identify if you have cancer, and it will not be wrong because it's so specific," he said.

"You're basically looking at why things happen it's like the root." The nonprofit institute developed the molecular beacons and uses them to detect infectious agents, such as viruses, bacteria and fungi, said Fred Kramer, chairman of the institute's department of molecular genetics and a professor at New York University Medical School. Through a relative, Kramer established contact with Bennett last summer, and they stumbled on a point where Kramer's work and Bennett's academic interests converged. Soon Bennett and his two friends were in New Jersey for a day to visit the lab and discuss with lab scientists what their project could be. Researchers in the lab had worked extensively with the molecular beacons, which are grouped together to produce identifying codes. They wanted to extend the use of the molecular beacons and needed a method to interpret the code achieved by the molecular beacons' presence.

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