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To know where we are with Geographic Information Systems is to understand who we are.
“A place is what it is because of its location. Where we are is who we are.” Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa did not take geography for granted. He understood that a place is a space with an identity. Throughout his work Pessoa created multiple personalities to write his poetry, so much so that his literary…
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Reading Between the Atoms – Writing on the Nanoscale
“Why can’t we write the entire twenty-four volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin?” Richard Feynman offered up this daunting challenge (with a rather paltry $1000 prize) at his famous 1959 Caltech lecture “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” – a seminal event in the history of nanotechnology. In 1985,…
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Evolution and Consciousness
Archaeopteryx, found in 1861, was the first transitional fossil discovered that suggested intermediate forms between feathered dinosaurs and modern birds. Unearthed just years after Darwin published “On the Origin of Species”, Archaeopteryx seemed to support Darwin’s theories about evolution. Since then, 28 other transitional species between birds and dinosaurs have been discovered, as well as…
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Genome editing just got a lot easier
This post is cross-posted with the PLOS Student Blog If you’ve recently taken a glimpse at the front page of any major science news outlet, it is likely you are no stranger to an emerging genome editing technology known as CRISPR/Cas9. With the help of RNA, Cas9 (a bacterial enzyme) can be programmed to target specific…
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The Art of Science and the Science of Art
Every year, the Townsend Center for the Humanities invites a cultural icon to campus as the Avenali Chair in the Humanities, and every year, the Avenali Chair in the Humanities delivers a lecture. It’s an amazing opportunity to hear from fascinating individuals, but I found about this only because last year’s speaker was none other…