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Posts tagged ‘stephen’s science syndicate’

Dec 5

Stephen’s Science Syndicate: Fighting the Scientific Brain Drain Among US Universities

It has been long held in American history that the Cold War was not only fought in terms of the number of nuclear armaments but in the classroom as well. A dramatic shift towards the focus of scientific study both in primary and secondary education occurred in the United States to out compete the Soviet Union. Many of the organizations and technologies we interact with today can be attributed to the Cold War era scientific developments, ie NASA. However our glory days here in the United States are beginning to take a hit.

A recent amount of growing evidence suggests that up to 40% of students pursuing engineering or science degrees in undergraduate study end up switching majors out of a scientific field or failing to get a science degree. Even the Obama Administration has recognized this trend and has called for our universities to graduate 10,000 more Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) students each year. The question then, is what happens to all these young and talented students out of high school when they enter college, many of which have the strongest SAT scores and GPA’s upon entrance?

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Oct 27

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Stephen’s Science Syndicate: Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology

Alfred Nobel

Continuing the series on the Nobel Prizes, this post highlights the 2011 award winners for the study of medicine or physiology.

The award for medicine or physiology has been given 102 times since its inception in 1901. Compared to the awards in physics and chemistry, the Nobel for medicine or physiology has been given to multiple laureates in a given year more so than to one laureate. The prize in medicine or physiology was the third one to be mentioned in Alfred Nobel’s will with the first recipient being Emil von Behringfor his work on blood serum therapy to treat diphtheria and tetanus.

The 2011 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology was awarded to Bruce Beutler, Jules Hoffmann, and Ralph Steinman with Dr. Beutler and Dr. Hoffman sharing one half of the award while Dr. Steinman sharing the remaining half. The individuals were awarded the prize for their research into the activation of innate immunity as well as the role of dendritic cells in adaptive immunity.

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Oct 19

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Stephen’s Science Syndicate: Chemistry Nobel

Alfred Nobel

The Nobel Prize is likely the most coveted award for those involved in scientific research, literature, economics, and peace studies. Considering the nature of the prize, I will be writing a brief series on the Nobel’s awarded in the fields of chemistry, physiology or medicine, and physics by highlighting the work of the individuals receiving the awards for 2011.

For a brief background on the Nobel Prize: Alfred Nobel originally established the Nobel Prizes in his will when he died in 1895. Mr. Nobel was actually the inventor of dynamite and due to his regret for “finding more ways to kill people faster than ever before,” he established in his will that individuals selected for exceptional work in each of the mentioned categories receive a financial award along with a medal and diploma. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selects the physics and chemistry awards while the National Assembly in Stockholm selects the medicine or physiology award.

This year the Nobel Prize for the study of chemistry was awarded to Dr. Dan Shechtman for his discovery of what are known as “quasicrystals.” As many of the prizes have been awarded to discoveries that have revolutionized a scientific field, the year’s was no different.
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Sep 28

Stephen’s Science Syndicate: Life, Happiness, and Coffee?

When did J-Term End??

I’ve never actually seen any real statistics on how much the average Middlebury student drinks coffee, but I’m sure its astoundingly high. With mid-terms and finals along with every Sunday night, it appears that coffee at Middlebury is consumed with the same intensity that students participate in extracurriculars, study, and loathe winter. Speaking of winter, it often seems that around campus by the middle of February, many of us begin to fall into the depression style funk of Old Man Winter. Well according to this new study of another highly stressed population, nurses, coffee may actually reduce the risk of depression by up to twenty percent.

The study compared the risk of depression on female nurses who had drank between zero and three or more cups of coffee per day. Those who drank four cups a day had a reduced risk of depression of twenty percent. Meanwhile, those nurses who drank one cup a day had a reduced risk as well but not nearly as much compared to those essentially mainlining coffee.

Sep 23

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Stephen’s Science Syndicate: Was Einstein Wrong?

"God does not play dice."

Stephen, a new contributor to Middblog, will be writing a semi-regular science column for our often neglected but still important community of Bi-Hallers. 

Many people outside of physics departments may not know that there is in fact (for now) a universal speed limit. This universal speed limit is also known as the speed of light, or roughly 300000000 m/s. Back in the early 1900′s when Albert Einstein revolutionized the world as we know it, he postulated the most famous equation for which he did not win the Nobel prize, E=mc^2. In his proofs and those by many others, it has now long been understood that anything with mass cannot travel faster or at, the speed of light.

This fundamental understanding of Einstein’s theory on relativity has been a cornerstone for the study of physics for the last 90 years. However just as the world underwent a physical revolution when Einstein created his theory of relativity, another revolution may be on the rise after recent findings. At the CERN facility in France/Switzerland, Italian scientists have experimentally found particles moving faster than the speed of light! Check out this news posting by Nature
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