Wesleyan Science Outreach

And here's another cool way to work with students outside the bubble. Anna Komor '09 sends in info about Wesleyan Science Outreach:

Like working with kids? Like science? Like giving back to your community? Then you'll like working with us.

Our program runs weekly after school science clubs at local elementary schools, as well as other science outreach events such as the upcoming Science Saturday. We need students to help run the clubs, design activities and maintain our website and blog.

There will be a General Interest Meeting to find out more about the program:
When: Tuesday, Jan 27th at 9pm
Where: Exley 137
Have questions? Contact Anna at akomor@wes.

Large Hadron Collider to Start Colliding Hadrons

After years of preparation, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN will begin its long-awaited task of busting open a lot of subatomic particles today.

What will come of this, the biggest, most expensive science project in human history? The answer to all of science? A planet-imploding black hole? The end of organized religion? The Higgs boson? A harder better stronger faster Internet? Probably not more than one or two of those things, but in any case expect to hear a lot of inscrutable technical jargon in the coming months (if you pay attention to this sort of thing, anyway).

Wired: The Large Hadron Collider Will Not Destroy the World Tomorrow, or Ever

RIP Albert Hofmann

Some sad news everybody: Albert Hofmann, the Swiss Scientist who first synthesized LSD-25 died yesterday at the age of 102.

Starbursts and Milky Ways!

Join the Astronomy Department and Science Hall for a special open observing night Thursday, April 17th from 8-9PM in the Van Vleck Observatory. Have you ever wanted to see the sky up close and personal? Well here is your chance to see both Saturn and the Moon through the telescopes! Don't worry if it is cloudy, we'll have the planetarium out too! (The weather looks good, so there should be clear skies for viewing)

Everyone is welcome! Bring your friends and prefrosh!

Where: Van Vleck Observatory (top of the hill)
When: Thursday, April 17th (tomorrow)

Edit: fixed font--Xiaoxi

Craig Mello at Wes on Thursday

You guys better not take my seat, but Nobel Prize in Medicine winner Craig Mello (of UMass Medical School) is going to be speaking this week at Wesleyan. His lecture is called "Return to the RNAi World: Rethinking Gene Expression, Evolution and Medicine".

Date: Thursday, February 28th
Time: 5:15
Venue: Shanklin 107

There are enzymes called slicer and dicer! Sweet! (also, here he is with a fly?)

More info on Dr. Mello

Halp!

I know this is totally self-serving, but it's not that different from what we do for other people, so please just be nice about it.

I am looking for someone to help me with a research project over the Thanksgiving break. I know it's short notice, but the person I had as my plan B can't do it anymore. I can train you in like 10 minutes, at either noon or 2:30 tomorrow. It just involves moving flies from one set of vials to another. It's really easy, it just takes about half an hour each day: Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat.

Compensation = baked good or whatever you want from Weshop, within reason.

Please help! People who already have keys to Hall-Atwater would be great.

email mfoos@wes

Thank you!

Scientific Bonger

You always knew scientists could build sick bongs. After all what else are you gonna do in MB&B/Chem 420? But dude! How are we gonna smoke up in the MRI machine? I mean those THC pills don't really get me high anyway! Leave it to Harvard to build a research bong (Wesleyan... where are you at? c'mon! Does no prof here want undergrad help designing scientific bongs?):

It's not often one gets one's bong in the scientific literature, let alone one designed to allow you to smoke weed inside an MRI scanner. A team from Harvard Medical School are interested in how smoked marijuana affects the brain, but have come to the inevitable conclusion that it's actually quite hard smoking a joint when you're lying on your back being brain scanned.

So the research team put their heads together (!), and realised they needed to design a bong - a water pipe for smoking marijuana - safe to use in an MRI scanner... The researchers tested their creation with a simple brain scan, declared the project a success and published their MRI-safe bong design in the medical journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior.
-Link (Mind Hacks).

I wonder if they had to include in their discussion section something like, "That bong ripped like a charm, I was blazed as hell in that MRI cabinet!".

WesResearch?

If you’re anything like me you came to wes not only because you wanted a liberal arts school, but also because you knew the programs here in the sciences are totally solid (link proof). One of the great things about the sciences at wes is the departments and majors tend to be relatively small so getting to know professors on a personal level is practically a given. This also means that finding a professor to do research with is actually incredibly easy: you just have to ask. There’s an amazing plethora of cutting edge research being conducted here. You don’t have to be a major, and you can even be a freshman, which is something I think a lot of frosh don’t realize! Personally, I’m only starting to pick this up now as a sophomore and the geek in me is quite excited.

New Science Building Location: Foss Hill?

See that? That's an official plan to put the brand new Molecular and Life Science Building at the Base of Foss Hill. Take another look in 3-D.




That's Wyllys Ave. in the foreground and that's the base of Foss Hill on the right. Among the many locations being currently considered, some of which call for the demolition of the stately Shanklin, this plan, known as Option G, is apparently the idea of one faculty member who wants to bring the sciences closer to the center of campus.

In all likelihood the plan will not pass. "It's not going to happen," said Matt Ball '08, current WSA member and unopposed candidate for WSA President (his only competition is the write in candidate "Giant Joint," who in past years has pulled quite a few votes). "The talk about it sounds like it's pretty much doomed," he said.

At Sunday night's WSA meeting, most people signalled their displeasure with the idea--though some did try to compromise.

"What if they constructed it in a way so people could sled under the building?" one WSA member quipped.

If you'd like to see the options that are actually being considered, go to Blackboard and you can see all the plans. The planning has only been going on for 12 weeks and there's still time to influence the direction of the project. Consider checking it out.

Stem Cell Research Niche at Wesleyan?

Daniela Altimari of The Hartford Courant brings us this story of two Wesleyan Professors who are using stem cell research to find new possible ways to treat epilepsy:

Wedged between UConn and Yale, the powerhouses of stem cell research in the state, two Wesleyan University professors are working to determine whether these building blocks of life can be used to treat epilepsy.

The research being done by Jan Naegele and Laura Grabel involves implanting embryonic stem cells into the brains of mice that experience epileptic seizures.

Few non-scientists understand the complexities of their work. They simply want to know when there will be a cure. Embryonic stem cells, which have the potential to develop into any type of cell in the body, are a promising source of potential treatments for afflictions such as spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer's and epilepsy.

Naegele and Grabel, like most stem cell researchers, don't expect their research to lead to immediate treatment therapies. "There's a real danger of people having their hopes raised," Grabel cautioned. "The investment needs to be made today, but it's not going to lead to a cure overnight."

"I have a kind of long-term mentality," added Naegele. "We're going to try and make progress step-by-step."

The two scientists, whose labs are across the hall from one another at Wesleyan, have taken a significant step forward in recent months: After years of patching together funding, they each received major grants.

Grabel, a professor of biology at Wesleyan, will get $800,000 from the state for her project, one of 21 supported by Connecticut's $20 million stem cell initiative. While the bulk of that money - about $12 million - will fund research at the University of Connecticut, Wesleyan's small but vibrant stem cell program also will receive a boost.

"It's been fun to watch Wesleyan's profile rise here in the state," said Grabel, who will participate in StemCONN '07, a two-day symposium on stem cell research that begins today in Hartford.

Although President Bush vetoed a provision last summer to spend federal money on human embryonic stem cell research, Connecticut and several other states have launched their own programs.

Dr. J. Robert Galvin, the commissioner of the state Department of Public Health and chairman of its stem cell advisory board, said Grabel's proposal received strong marks from the committee reviewing the proposals. "Wesleyan University is nowhere the size of the University of Connecticut or Yale," he said. "However, the quality of the work is very high."

(more)