What was the focus of your research? I was looking at the effects of agricultural land use on stream biology, specifically what’s within the riparian corridor. That’s the area of land immediately adjacent to the stream, and this is important because it’s been found that the Riparian Corridor can act as a buffer to the stream ecosystem. Trees and...
Science and Tech
Opinion: Genealogy technology provides false sense of connection to past
Brothers Robert and Benjamin Philips were teenagers during WWI. Courtesy | Tracy Wilson When I found my 92-year-old grandmother’s high school yearbook picture online, she was taken aback—she said she thought it was one of the worst pictures ever taken of her. As it turns out, Hillsdale students have full access to records on Ancestry.com— including parents’ and grandparents’ awkward...
Big Tech, big potential problems: campus reacts to developing Supreme Court case
Google Headquarters | Courtesy Getty Images The United States Supreme Court recently heard a case that could allow technology companies like Google to be sued for content their algorithms recommend to users. Family members of Nohemi Gonzalez, who was one of the 100 victims in the 2015 ISIS attack in Paris, are bringing the suit against Google. They argue that...
Research Spotlight: Mark Sprague
Sprague, his adviser Frank Steiner, and research partners conduct their research in a Strosacker lab. Courtesy | Mark Sprague Senior Mark Sprague recently conducted his own research: “Surface Effects on Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation” using a dynamic flow growth model. Sprague did this on campus last summer for six weeks. Can you describe your research? Biofilm is essentially a collection...
Professor feature: David C. Houghton, Biology Chairman
David Houghton and students at a bridge over Mountain Stream in the Huron Mountains. Courtesy | David Houghton Among biology circles, Hillsdale College is known for its caddisfly collection of over 300,000 specimens and the stream ecology expertise of the G. H. Gordon Biostation, both led by Professor and Chairman of Biology, David C. Houghton. Houghton has been teaching biology...
Three physics students earn honorable mention award at national research conference
Three students and their advisor, Stephanie Lauback, presented their research in January. Courtesy | Stephanie Lauback Three Hillsdale students won an honorable mention for their research in biophysics at the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics at Argonne National Laboratory on Jan. 21. Sophomore Abigail (Abby) Gilreath and seniors Linnea Larson and Khadija Hamisi presented their research, titled “Characterization of...
How American chips ended up at Chinese nuclear weapon facility
China gains access to American microchips. Courtesy | Pixabay A new report found that American semiconductor chips are fueling China’s nuclear war machine. For decades, American semiconductor chips flowed freely into China’s top nuclear weapons institute by dodging United States export regulations meant to halt such purchases, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The report found...
Dialing up the past: Hillsdale donor reflects on career
Rosenberg visited the AT&T museum and called his cell phone from a pay phone. Courtesy | Adam Rosenberg When Ronald Reagan launched air strikes against Libya in 1986, he used a cellular phone system invented by Adam Rosenberg and his colleagues. The unsecured connection faltered and failed the commander in chief since it relied on FM waves that could be...
Beth Potwardowski: Senior research spotlight
Beth did her research at the G.H. Gordon Biological Station and on campus. Courtesy | Beth Potwardowski What was your research project? My research was on stream ecology— I was specifically continuing the work that a couple of other graduates had done where they were testing the relative abundance and the other physical composition of streams within three different types...