Only 40 feet underneath Cornell University’s football field, electron and positron beams race around a half-mile loop of narrow piping nearly as fast as the speed of light in a machine known as the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, or CESR. Junior Laura Salo’s research involving CESR at Cornell this past summer helped move the team one step closer to achieving...
Science and Tech
‘Pedal power’ physics demo shows principles of energy efficiency
The energy bike demonstration hosted by the Society of Physics Students on Friday did more than highlight the physics department — it also helped spread awareness about energy efficiency. “I had the idea that if they were able to feel it in their body, they would get it,” Physics department chair Ken Hayes said. The demonstration, in the Grewcock...
Economics department talks pros and cons of cryptocurrencies
A currency designed to ease internet payment could revolutionize the way people negotiate, from legal contracts to crowdfunding. Hillsdale College Economics Professor Michael Clark teaches when rational to pursue high-risk, high-reward investments, such as cryptocurrencies, a $700 billion market as of Jan. 3 according to Business Insider. Clark said that a cryptocurrency is a digital currency that uses cryptography, a...
Student researches link between pancreatic cancer-related proteins
As a kid, Casey Schukow ’17 used to mow lawns in his Saline, Michigan, neighborhood for extra cash. Years later, one of these neighbors, Dr. Tim Frankel, a general surgeon who also works as a laboratory supervisor for the University of Michigan Health System, helped Schukow find a new job: assisting in a pancreatic cancer research project. At his...
Students bring chemistry to life at local schools
How do you make water seemingly vanish? Take a cup, put a superabsorbent polymer in it, pour water into it, and turn the cup upside down. The water doesn’t flow out. It’s like magic. Members of Hillsdale’s chapter of the American Chemical Society visited Gier Elementary School last month for its Family Science Night and performed an assortment...
Hillsdale ACS competes in ‘Battle of the Chem Clubs’
In the end, it was the titration lab that was their downfall in the Battle of the Chem Clubs. Senior Andrea Lee, a biochemistry major, was the only member of the five-person team that had taken analytical chemistry, and that was over a year ago. “In a titration lab, you’re trying to find the concentration of a basic solution,” Lee...
‘Super blue blood moon’ rises in morning sky
Early Wednesday morning, a lunar eclipse occurred in combination with two other lunar phenomena, dubbed the “super blue blood moon.” During the lunar eclipse, the Earth passes between the sun and the moon, casting a reddish tint on the surface of the moon. “The Earth has an atmosphere and the moon doesn’t, so when you have the Earth blocking the...
Analog on campus: Antiquated technology lives on at Hillsdale
Anyone who has taken one of Professor of History Ken Calvert’s classes knows about his love of the overhead projector. Instead of the digital projectors wired into the ceiling of each classroom, Calvert prefers a boxy contraption illuminated by an incandescent light bulb that looks like it belongs in a “Looney Toons” episode. But Calvert is proud to be a...
Student researches development of ‘child’s moral compass’
It’s not every psychology research project that starts with decorating onesies for the participants, but it’s different when the research subjects are 6 to 24 months old. In preparation for her research project on infant social judgments, senior Mikaela Overton met with her adviser, chairwoman of psychology Kari McArthur, to iron “Baby Scientist” onto the gifts she planned to give...