Science

Top Story

Early Humans May Have Been Hobbits, Scientists Say

November 18th, 2009
By Tim Gahr
In a strange case of science imitating art, one hobbit has again become the center of a heated and ongoing conflict. Since its 2003 discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores, the Homo floresiensis (nicknamed hobbit because it only grew to be about three feet tall) has caused scientists across the world to debate whether the find is a new species or simply a variation of the modern human. The difference could signal a major paradigm shift in the study of primitive humans. Read More

Other

Advocacy Group FACES Aims to Ease Struggle for Epileptic Students

November 18th, 2009
By Hyeon Soh
In the middle of her chemistry lab, Kaitlin Hardy ’12 suddenly fell to the floor. When she woke up, she was inside an ambulance. It was another seizure — a symptom of her epilepsy. Epilepsy is a brain disorder characterized by repeated, spontaneous seizures. The brain sends and receives messages using nerve cells called neurons, which communicate with each other by firing electrical impulses. Read More

The Scientist: James Paul Alexander

November 18th, 2009
By Nicki Button
Imagine a project that has “no predecessor,” because until now, the technology has not existed to study it. This is the case with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Prof. Jim Alexander, physics, is one of almost 2,000 physicists working to push scientific knowledge of the physical world and question the fundamental laws that govern it. Read More

The Scientist: Monroe Weber-Shirk

November 11th, 2009
By Jing Jin
During the 1980s, Prof. Monroe Weber-Shirk, civil and environmental engineering, volunteered in Latin American refugee camps. At the time, he was convinced that he would devote the rest of his life to development work in Latin America, but his plans were thwarted by a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s disease and his return to the U.S. for treatment. While pursuing a Ph.D. Read More