It’s a morning ritual for many: boil some water, grab a favorite mug, and puzzle over the tea box — is this a morning for black tea or green? Or what about chamomile? Tazo or Twinings? The search for the perfect cup of tea was the fuel for — and the focus of — senior Anna Meckel’s biochemistry research....
Science and Tech
Houghton discovers potential caddisfly species
While slogging through a glacial lake in his one-person raft, Professor of Biology David Houghton spotted a tiny waterfall. The water fell clear, harboring just the kinds of insects for which Houghton had been looking. One of them, he thinks, was an undiscovered species. “An untrained eye would say, ‘That’s a stick,’ or ‘That’s a bug’ or something. I’m trained...
Professors speak on climate change solutions
Rising global temperatures are the cause of a lowered concentration of protein in pollen and could be the cause of a recent uptick in bee deaths. This and other consequences of human-caused climate change were discussed Oct. 11 at a lecture held by the Hillsdale College Democrats in the wake of several major natural disasters in 2017. Professor of...
Kraft joins psychology department
Visiting Instructor of Psychology Caroline Kraft only minored in psychology as an undergraduate student at the University of Kansas, but after a developmental psychology class piqued her interest in the field, Kraft earned a doctorate in psychology and joined the Hillsdale College psychology department this fall. Her senior year of college, Kraft said a developmental psychology class she took...
Hillsdale contributes to Nobel Prize-winning project
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded researchers the Nobel Prize in Physics last week for the first detection of gravitational waves, thus confirming one of Albert Einstein’s century-old predictions. “It’s kind of surreal to me that it actually happened,” said Ryan Lang, assistant professor of physics with academic ties to the award-winning researchers from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave...
Wisconsin native studies heat-shock proteins in dairy cows
When senior Abigail Engel designed her thesis project for her biology major, the inspiration for her research originated close to home —Wisconsin. “My research is about quantifying heat-shock proteins in dairy cattle,” Engel said. “I was interested in how much of a role genetics plays in how well cattle deal with heat-shock.” Engel, who said she is interested in...
Students react to Apple’s iOS 11
With the release of ARKit, a new augmented reality software in iOS 11, the boundaries between the digital world and the physical world have become blurred. The new ARKit software enables users of eligible devices to experience games and apps overlaid on the real world, using apps that allow users to play with digital pets, preview how new furniture would...
From dig to display: Swinehart, alumnus find fossils for museum
Before a specimen can be displayed in a museum, it must first be discovered, cleaned, and prepared. During the week of June 10-17, a professor and an alumnus of the biology department worked on fossil digs in Chadron, Nebraska, with the goal of finding specimens to add to the collection in the college’s Daniel M. Fisk Museum of Natural...
Hurricane Maria damages Arecibo Observatory
Hurricane Maria caused damage to instruments at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, home to the world’s second-largest radio telescope and other instrumentation used by Assistant Professor of Physics Timothy Dolch and Hillsdale College students. The hurricane damage affected the telescope’s receiver, the 430-MHz feed, which fell and created a hole in the the the 305-meter William E. Gordon Telescope. A...