By Andrea Yan and Henry Sun Michael Barresi, a Professor of Biological Sciences at Smith College, was the speaker for the Biology Monday Seminar on December 4th. A prominent developmental biologist specializing in the development of vertebrae brains, he is a co-author of the widely-used textbook Developmental Biology. In his talk, he guided us through…
For over a decade, Amherst College has hosted an annual bioscience symposium for students to have the opportunity to hear from and connect with highly experienced Amherst alumni. This year, this event was named the Hughes Symposium as a tribute to the late Dr. Edward Hughes ‘62, P’95, ‘01, an Amherst alumnus whose prestigious career…
From boat ropes to shoelaces, knots are found everywhere in our day-to-day lives. But where things really get tied up is on the microscopic scale. Even the basic code for life inside our cells can sometimes be prone to tangles. So, why exactly are knots found in our DNA, and what are the biological causes?…
By Andrea Yan and Henry Sun Cover image credit: https://lsa.umich.edu/chem/people/faculty/gshultz.html In a packed Kirkpatrick Lecture Hall on October 18th, students and faculty in the Chemistry Department gathered for the week’s Cheminar series, which addressed an unconventional topic. Ginger Shultz, the week’s speaker, is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Associate Chair for Education Development and…
Photo and article by Maya Maaloul What makes changes in data significant? How do we, as humans with subjective opinions, decide this? What methods can detect these changes the best, and what if we can’t find the best tool? During an Amherst College Statistics and Data Science (SDS) Colloquium on September 24, Ben Baumer, a…
By Ryogo Katahira Klara Matuszewska ’26 won a Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award for 2024. The award is to “recognize exemplary research by undergraduate and graduate students” and is selected by the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Matuszekska is a physics and astronomy double major from Warsaw, Poland and works in Professor Daniella Bardalez Gagliuffi’s research…
On Friday, April 5, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Moungi Bawendi lectured at Amherst College. The lecture was held in Lipton lecture hall and was titled “Quantum magic and quantum dots: a synthesis unlocks a nano-world of opportunities.” Bawendi opened his talk by explaining how electrons have different properties at the quantum level. “So…
Photo by Maria Stenzel By Olivia Fann As prospective math majors may have noticed, a certain department was notably absent from 2024 SURF opportunities. This year’s lineup of nine disciplines and 36 total labs participating in Amherst’s Summer Science Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) did not include any members of the math faculty, raising some questions…
By Nora Lowe You’re wiping rainwater from your brow. The damp darkness is only interrupted by the occasional dull, red light, moving to and fro. No, this spooky scene isn’t an alien abduction, but it is still a big night. In fact, it is the Big Night, when spotted salamanders migrate to reproduce, and Amherst…
By Kyle Hur and Nora Lowe Ed Yong is a science journalist and the author of two New York Times bestsellers. He has received national recognition for his science writing, including winning the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism and the Victor Cohn Prize for medical science reporting. The Amherst STEM Network had the pleasure of…