Injury prevention moves online
By IevaAugstums
Assignment Reporter
As long as you haven’t sprained
your fingers, the solution to all of
your personal injury and fitness prob
lems may be only an e-mail message
away.
Campus Recreation’s Ask-A
Trainer service is now online to better
serve die university community.
“Every individual usually has
some concern that they would like
addressed,” Chris Oelling, campus rec
assistant director for Injury
Prevention and Care, said. “We are
hoping that Ask-A-Trainer will suc
cessfully answer any injury-related
questions that people in the campus
community may have.”
Ask-A-Trainer is a free service
that allows students, faculty and staff
to e-mail injury-related questions to a
certified athletic trainer in the Office
of Campus Recreation and receive
personal feedback.
Oelling said IPC wanted to find
another way to promote its services to
the campus community, and e-mail is
a convenient option for individuals to
find out information.
To use Ask-A-Trainer, access the
Office of Campus Recreation Web
page at http://www. uni. edu/crec/, and
select the Injury Prevention and Care
sight, Oelling said. Once at the IPC
home page, individuals should e-mail
their injury-related questions to certi
fied athletic trainers Chris Oelling or
Brad Abell.
Abell, campus rec graduate assis
tant for IPC, said IPC will respond to
questions personally and confiden
tially.
“Students do not use the Injury
Prevention and Care office as much as
they should,” Abell said. “Hopefully
with today’s technology, people will
use Ask-A-Trainer and take advan
tage ofthe other services we provide.”
The services IPC provides are free
to students enrolled at UNL and for
campus rec members, Abell said.
Oellljngsaid other IPC services
include, but ate not limited to:
■ Prevention of athletic injuries.
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR for Injury Prevention and Care, Chris Oelling, exam
ines graduate student Erin Patton's ankle Tuesday. The trainers are new
able to answer questions through the Ask-A-lfrainer program now available
one-mail.
■ Recognition and evaluation of
injuries.
■ First aid and emergency care.
■ Taping.
■ Stretching techniques.
■ Direct referral to University
Heath Center.
■ Massage Therapy.
Megan Armbruster, a student
trainer for IPC, encourages the cam
pus community to stop in for answers
to any injury-related questions.
“We do serve a lot of students, fac
ulty and staff,” Armbruster said.
“However, a lot of people who could
use our services don’t” i
For more information about IPC
and services it offers, stop by either
room 36 at campus rec or room 29
East Campus Activities Room, or call
Chris Oelling or Brad Abell at (402)
472-3467.
Engineer: Theory treated unfairly
By Josh Funk
Senior Reporter
UNL alumnus Weldon Vlasak
has done what Albert Einstein could
n’t: develop a theory of pure field
physics.
But the scientific community
won’t acknowledge his ideas.
“I have meaningful answers for
some important scientific questions,
but no one will listen,” Vlasak said.
Vlasak says his theory explains
the source of gravitational attraction
and challenges some commonly
accepted scientific assumptions.
An engineer by trade, Vlasak
nurtured his interest in theoretical
physics by rummaging through
California flea markets.
There he found chemistry,
physics and engineering textbooks
for a few pennies, but the knowledge
contained in them was priceless to
him.
When he wasn’t pioneering guid
ed missiles for Motorola, Vlasak
spent his free time exploring nonlin
ear forces and the mysteries of the
universe.
“I found out that one plus one
doesn’t always equal two in the
world of physics,” Vlasak said.
His curiosity had been aroused.
After completing his bachelor’s
degree at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln in 1954, Vlasak
never stopped learning. He complet
ed his masters at the University of
Arizona in 1958 and his doctorate at
George Washington University in
1970.
But the more he learned, the less
satisfied Vlasak became with accept
' ....".^
ed scientific explanations of atomic
forces.
So he applied the electrical equa
tions he knew to be correct to the
inner workings of the atom.
But when his findings did not
agree with the textbooks he’d read,
Vlasak was forced to develop his
own theories on the shape of the
atom and attractive forces therein.
“I found the forces tend to act
like a spring: increasing as you pull
on the atom,” Vlasak said.
Armed with figures exact to 50
decimal places, Vlasak used a com
puter graphics program to develop a
model of the atom consistent with
his findings.
In Vlasak’s model, the proton at
the center of the atom rotates around
a central point.
And when an atom becomes
excited it does not expand. Instead,
the orbit of the electrons around the
proton changes.
The 69-year-old engineer’s ideas
challenge some the 100-year-old
ideas that are the basis for modem
science.
But where Einstein couldn’t
account for atomic forces, Vlasak
found a way.
After developing his theories
Vlasak searched, unsuccessfully, for
an examination of his ideas.
“You cannot get to the truth with
out considering the possibilities,” he
said.
Whether it means vindication or
humiliation, all Vlasak wants is
someone to examine his theory.
Rejected by scientific journals,
denied by publishers and ignored by
university professors, he chose to
publish his own theory, “The Secret
of Gravity and other Mysteries of the
Universe,” in the hopes that someone
would give it attention.
Instead, Vlasak ended up with a
closet full of the small, blue, hard
bound books and more cold respons
es.
When the UNL physics depart
ment was contacted to evaluate
Vlasak’s theory, professors refused
to look at it
“If his theories are worthwhile he
should be able to get them pub
lished,” said Thomas Morgan, asso
ciate professor of physics and astron
omy.
The physics department dis
counted Vlasak’s theory without cur
sory examination and Morgan called
it “ridiculous.”
As a UNL professor, Morgan
said he sees new theories all the time,
none of which amount to anything.
“These theories need to be pub
lished to get consideration,” Morgan
said.
Unless something is published in
a respected scientific journal, pro
fessors will not consider it, but sci
entific journals do not want to pub
lish anything hat is not written by a
university professor.
“There is a lot of politics
involved in getting published in one
of those journals ” Vlasak said.
Vlasak is currently working with
one of his former professors from
George Washington University to
publish an article and further his
research.
Vlasak continues to seek consid
eration of his ideas and his challenge
to the scientific community remains
the same:
“Prove me wrong!”
Thursday, February 5,1998 1 Daily Nebraskan ■ Page 7
“Use your noon hour to RELAX”
For more information, cad Sue at 472-7450
Counseling ^Psychological Services
• February 5 Visualizing Change 8c A Trip
to the Beach
• February 12 Ten Second Breathing &
Spiritual Centering
Tuesdays • February 19 Breath 8c Mindfulness
12:10-12:45 Mediation
UHC-Room 43 • February 26 Thoughts Library &
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