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(11/20/13 11:17pm)
Renowned Biologist and Science educator Sean Carroll came to the College last Thursday, Nov. 14, and gave two talks, one on his recently published book “Brave Genius: A Scientist’s Journey from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize” and the other on the field of evolutionary developmental biology and how different forms evolved in animal species.
Associate Professor of Biology Catherine Combelles introduced Carroll on both occasions, citing his award winning research as a Professor of Molecular Biology at Washington University, and his work in science education as the Vice-President of the Howard Hughes Medical institute. She also mentioned his well-reviewed books on popular science and his science column in the New York Times. In his two lectures Carroll lived up to his laurels and combined his brilliant research with an ability to interestingly communicate scientific concepts.
Carroll fittingly began his talk on Jacque Monod with Rudyard Kupling’s quote “if history were taught in the form of stores, it would never be forgotten.” He then related the incredible tale of Jacque Monod, who was both one of the leaders of the French resistance against the Nazi regime and a winner of the noble prize in Physiology.
Monod was a French Jew and a graduate student in biology when the Nazis invaded France. He halted his research, which would one day win him a Nobel Prize, and joined the most militant of French resistance group. His escapades included barely escaping a deadly Gestapo raid, running arms across the Swiss border, and arming French Resistance fighters to help the allied forces during D-day. He eventually became one of the leaders of the resistance movement and helped liberate Paris from the Nazis.
Carroll linked Monod’s efforts during the French Resistance to his biological research saying “chance played a huge role in his personal life, along with his thinking about biology” and because of this “it was really Jaque Monod who drove home the role of chance in the course of life on earth in his 1980 book called chance and necessity.”
During the Q&A session Sean Carroll widened his topic to science and society. Carroll advocated for a greater role of science in culture, saying “cultural impact can happen through science – the Apollo program had a huge impact, we watched that drama unfold day by day. I think there are possibilities to find some galvanizing experiences that we can share that might gives science a little better penetration into the hearts and minds of people.”
Carroll also touched upon the conflict over evolution in America and the fact that nearly 50 percent of Americans believe in creationism. In leading the science education branch of the Howard Hughes Medical institute, which he described as the “largest private supporter of science education in the U.S”, he said that “one strategy I employ is I decided I wasn’t going to argue with anyone over 22. I think there’s no return on that investment, zero. Because I had the experience of seeing glimmers of openness and flexibility in college student and younger when exposed to certain things, such as the idea that lots and lots of large religious denominations fully embrace evolutionary science.”
In Carroll’s more science heavy lecture on Evolutionary Developmental biology he described the importance of evolutionary developmental biology to our understanding of evolution.
“Development is the process that makes form,” he said, “and therefore changes in that process must underlie the evolution of form. That’s why the field of developmental biology is so integral to understanding the evolution of form.”
He also gave a survey of the incredibly surprising finds of the recently created field which few people had predicted.
“The gene that is responsible for the development of the legs in the fruit fly embryo, is also active in the development in the legs of a butterfly, and the appendages of a shrimp, and strangely enough the wings of a chicken,” he said. “So this gene is used in the formation of all sorts of appendages in the animal kingdom. And this was very surprising because the expectation was, that for example furry animals had different gene recipes than bugs. No biologist on the planet predicted these homologs and that there would be similar genetic ingredients in the making of bodies in things as different as earthworms, and fruit flies, and mice.”
Diversity in form, Carroll explained, was not caused by the development of new genes, but rather new ways of regulating existing developmental genes. Thus, although all animals in the animal kingdom have similar genetic toolkits, they utilize them in different ways.
Carroll combined both erudition and eloquence, and entertainingly explained one of the most important concepts in biology and science.
(11/06/13 9:39pm)
The fact that each chemical equation scribbled on a blackboard often translates into a spectacular, real life occurrence is easily underappreciated. For instance, eyes may glaze over when they see the equation 2H2O2 -> 2H2O + O2, and one would not expect to be amazed to witness the reaction. But when chemistry student Cece Burkey ’15 demonstrated the experiment by filling a carved pumpkin with hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst, the chemicals expanded rapidly into hissing colored foam called elephant toothpaste, which burst out from the eyes and mouth of the pumpkin.
On Wednesday, Nov. 13, Burkey, along with students Alex Scibetta ’14, Peter Hetzler ’14, Shannon Reinhart ’15, David Stillman ’14, and Associate Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry Roger Sandwick are holding an event called Alchemistry pHun to bring this chemical reaction and many others alive for local kids and College students.
The five students will act as different famous scientists, don a costume, and perform a variety of interesting chemistry experiments, such as the above elephant toothpaste experiment.
“[The five students are] organizing and handling everything, which is a bit different from previous years,” Sandwick said.
Each of the students is selecting two or three chemistry reactions to perform, which they are going to weave into a story.
Sandwick explains that they are choosing “experiments and reactions we know happen and we’ve always wanted to do but we’ve never had a chance to do. A few are things past professors have done for us.”
The students were still finalizing the reactions, and a few are trade secrets, but the ones they revealed promise to be exciting. One student joked that “we sent out a brainstorming email and next to my name was just the word explosives.” The group mentioned using liquid nitrogen, creating a methane canon, exploding a piñata and lighting a hydrogen balloon on fire.
“[The goal is] to get elementary and middle school kids interested, show them how cool chemistry can be, and get them to question what is happening,” Sandwick said.
This year’s Alchemistry pHun event is the latest in a series of chemistry outreach events held by the College’s chemistry department.
“In my general chemistry class we went out to the elementary schools and split up and went into different classrooms,” Burkey said. “So if you count each [of those] as a show there have been a lot of them.”
The group believes chemistry demonstrations are important in encouraging kids’ interest in science.
“A lot of these little kids have no idea about the science behind what is happening,” said Reinhart. “But if you just ask them what they think is happening, they will start thinking about it, and asking questions. I think that this is one of the most important things in terms of getting kids excited about learning.”
In the past the chemistry demonstrations in McCardell Bicentennial Hall have attracted a large amount of interest from the community.
“In BiHall at night this will be the fifth show,” Sandwick said. “The very first show filled the room and people couldn’t get in. People were mostly from the community and there weren’t many college kids. But I think these guys will attract more.”
The event targets local kids and the community, but this year the team also hopes to draw more students from the College.
“We’ve advertised in the Addison papers, and we’ve contacted all sorts of schools. But the advertisement is also focused more on campus than the previous times,” Sandwick said.
The event is likely to fill up quickly, so on Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m. come early to Lecture Hall 216 in McCardell Bicentennial Hall to enjoy the ingenuity of these students as they demonstrate chemistry at its most interesting.
(10/02/13 11:15pm)
A walk in the woods with a forager reveals all the neglected treats. As Jake Faber ’16 strolls along the forest floor he scans the undergrowth looking for edible plants and mushrooms. He lets loose a victorious cry, strides over to a small tuft of weeds, and takes a handful.
“This,” he explains, “is a wood sorrel. It tastes good, kind of like a lemon, and is used as flavoring. Try a little, although not too much because the oxalic acid in it can be poisonous in large quantities. You would have to eat a lot of it though.” I eye it, take a bite, and decide to pick some to munch on later.
Foraging is a growing trend in the U.S. and Faber and Aiofe Duna ’16.5, co-founders of the Foraging Club, are trying to introduce it to the College. Foraging is the act of searching for wild plants, fungi and fruit to consume. The idea for the club started last spring semester in a conversation between the two.
“Aiofe and I found out we were both really interested in foraging,” Faber said, “and when we started talking about it we heard there were a lot of other people on campus who thought that it sounded cool and wanted to learn about it, but were afraid to try it because they didn’t now enough to avoid things that would poison them.”
The two then decided to create a group where students could learn to safely identify and collect wild mushrooms and plants. The club plans on holding expeditions into Middlebury’s surrounding woods for a hands on foraging experience, as well as inviting guest professional lecturers on campus to speak and hold workshops.
Duna and Faber thought students would be interested in foraging on a number of levels. For starters, it’s a valuable survivalist skill. If you ever find yourself lost in the woods, you don’t want to end up like Alex Supertramp and eat a handful of poisonous seeds. And, however unlikely it is to find oneself in such a rough situation, people still enjoy being prepared for the worst and knowing they could do what survivor man does. On another level, it brings a heightened appreciation and understanding of nature.
“There’s the survivalist aspect,” Faber said. “But I think practically it’s something that gets people to become more aware of what’s going on around them in the forest. It changes how people view the landscape. There’s a lot going on in it.”
Foraging is also a nice way to apply the knowledge learned in the class to one of the most fundamental of personal concerns, hunger.
“If you understand the basics of ecology and plant biology,” Faber said, “you can apply it and make it more relevant. A lot of people are turned off by that sort of memorization because they think it’s tedious and abstract, but if you can apply it to something tangible it brings a sense of fulfillment.”
Foraging also taps into the same well of inspiration as the organic farm and Weybridge house, the effort to build a more personal connection to the food we consume.
But foraging also has a darker side. Many plants and fungi have evolved toxins to fight off predators, and some pose health concerns to humans. Faber is well aware of the health threats, and plans to safely avoid anything dangerous.
“The two biggest [concerns] ,” Faber explained, “are the Jack O’Lantern and the destroying angel. They are both very toxic, and look sort of similar to two edible mushrooms that some more advanced foragers try to eat...” Instead, Jake and Aiofe have made up a list of eight safe mushrooms safe for consumption that have little to no chance of being mixed up with other mushrooms.
“Morels, chicken of the woods, lions mane, hedgehog, puff ball, and lobster,” Faber said, listing off the safest mushrooms. “Each of those is pretty easily distinguishable; none of them have look-a-likes that are really dangerous or inedible. Each of them has particular characteristics that give them away, so that as long as you teach someone to look for that one thing they can determine what it is.”
It was this concern for safety that led the club to be initially rejected by the club committee last year.
“The approval process for us is slightly more difficult than other clubs, because foraging has risks that are associated,” Faber said, “So we need to work with risk management before we can officially go out and do activities, so right now we are reworking our constitution that will hopefully allow us to start doing things pretty quickly before the fall foraging season ends.”
The Foraging Club hopes to get approval, because not only is it a fulfilling activity but it is important to spur on interest in a neglected, important scientific field. The fungi kingdom is not only the most diverse in the animal kingdom, but it is also one of the least understood. The fungi kingdom has given us penicillin and many other useful drugs. While the Foraging Club might not find the cure to cancer, it would raise awareness of this often-neglected kingdom of life.
Faber and Duna hope to gain official approval sometime this Fall and start leading expeditions as soon as possible. To contact them to express interest head over to their website, go/shroomsquad.
(09/18/13 11:15pm)
It can be intimidating to step into a professor’s office. With complex computer algorithms scribbled on black boards and overflowing shelves filled with worn books, the causes of intimidation are vast. Speaking with PhDs about their area of specialty and intense focus can be a daunting experience for undergraduates. But at every turn among the mountains of textbooks, the professors here at Middlebury College greet students with warm smiles and a patient explanations. The College distinguishes itself from larger institutions with both the brilliance of its professor and the enthusiasm of these instructors to engage with students and transmit their immense knowledge.
The five new professors in McCardell Bicentennial Hall continue in this tradition and gladly introduced themselves and their research. Their work ranges from black holes and ultra-luminescent galaxies to the neurons of earthworms, and their experiences traverse the world from remote Indian villages to observatories on the summits of Hawaii. Below is a bio of each professor, although these few paragraphs do little justice to the subject. Students should feel encouraged to seek out these professors, give them a warm welcome, gape in wonder at their scientific projects and discoveries and maybe even take one of their courses.
To meet with Assistant Professor of Physics Eilat Glikman, one must climb to her office on the 7th floor of Bicentennial Hall, appropriately situated closest to the observatory and the stars. This fall Glickman is teaching Intro to the Universe (PHYS0155). After a conversation with Glikman and her enthusiastic elucidation of the universe’s mysteries, it is difficult not to marvel at the magnificence of the cosmos. Glikman researches a certain type of galaxy called a quasar. They are the hottest and brightest objects in the universe — one reportedly radiates 100-times as much energy as the entire Milky Way galaxy. Large clouds of matter surround the black hole at the center of these galaxies. Matter is pulled by gravity into the black hole and as it falls it radiates intense bursts of energy and heat. In the course of her research, Glickman has used the Hubble Space Telescope and traveled to Hawaii to use the observatory atop mount Mauna Kea. Prior to coming to the College, Glikman taught at Yale University for two years. She has also participated in a local outreach program called Girls Science Investigation, which works to garner interest in the sciences in middle school girls.
The computer science department has hired two new professors this year, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Ananya Christman and Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science Christopher Andrews. Christman is teaching two courses this fall, Data Structures (CSCI0201) and Opearting Sysytems (CSCI0314). Christman focuses her research on computer algorithms for graphs and networks. At Wake Forest — where she taught for three years prior to being hired here at the College — she worked with students on several projects including a computer algorithm to determine the shortest and most reliable route into downtown Washington D.C. She worked for a community organization in Harlem that helped underprivileged women learn basic computer skills required for employment. She also traveled to India and taught English to women in rural villages.
Andrews is teaching The Computing Age (CSCI0101) and Computer Architecture (CSCI0202) this fall. Andrews recounted that although he grew up around computers and his father’s software company, his primary interest had been in theater. In college, he doubled majored in theater and computer science. For several years after college he was employed as a theater and event technician. He worked on a number of projects that included theater productions, boxing matches, corporate meetings, and television shows. Andrews previously taught at Mount Holyoke for two years and Knox College for four years. His research focuses on information visualization. Specifically, he works on facilitating the use of large, 50 foot high resolution screens and he developed a new analytic environment for large displays called Analysts Workplace. Andrews is also interested in Generative art, and would one day like to possibly teach a J-term course in computer-generated artwork.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry AnGayle Vasiliou, new to the chemistry department this year, is teaching General Chemistry II and Quantum Chemistry this semester. Before coming to Middlebury, she taught at MIT while finishing her Post Doctorate. Her research focuses on the chemical processes behind clean and renewable biofuels, which are anticipated to be an important energy source in the next century. While at the University of Boulder for her Ph.D, she worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and worked with the particle accelerator at Berkley. Vasiliou also participates in local outreach to interest kids in chemistry called explosions days and hopes to possibly host an event on campus for students.
Assistant Professor of Biology and Neuroscience Professor Glen Ernstrom taught for a year at two fellow NESCAC schools, Bates and Bowdoin, before coming to Middlebury. Ernstrom researches the neurogenetics of round worms. He first became interested in round worms while researching them under Martin Chalfie at Columbia University, who later won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Ernstrom analyzes how individual genes are linked to the function of the round worm’s nervous system and biological clock by mutating genes and observing the behavioral changes.
“After working with students in these first few weeks, and thinking about the possibilities about what I can do as a teacher and researcher, my walk to work turns into an all out run,” Ernstrom said. “I am so happy to have landed here.”
Each of these professors promises to be valuable additions to the faculty in Bicentennial Hall.