Hi there! My name is Alison Weiss, and I am a rising senior at Amherst. This summer, I am working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva, Switzerland. As a physics and computer science double major, it is exciting to be spending the summer at the place where both the Higgs boson…
BDSM and Bias: Introducing a Psychology Thesis Process
Hi everybody! My name is Sarah Lapean, and I am a rising senior at Amherst College double majoring in English and psychology. I am doing a thesis in each of my majors, and this summer I received funding through the Gregory S. Call Summer Student Research Program to do preliminary work on my psychology thesis…
A New Approach to Data Analysis: Chloe Wohlgemuth Thesis Spotlight
The following was adapted from an interview between Chloe Wohlgemuth ’22 and Max Hauschildt. Could tell us a bit about yourself? Why did you decide to do a senior thesis? I am a computer science and physics double-major. Aside from one AP class, I had never taken computer science before coming to Amherst. Coming to…
Cooking up multicellularity in a tube
There is a palpable difference between the macroscopic animals we interact with daily and the microscopic unicellular organisms we can only appreciate under a microscope. The transition from unicellularity to multicellularity is perhaps one of the most significant evolutionary transitions that we know of today, even among other large-scale evolutionary transitions, such as tetrapods moving…
New Deep Learning Network to aid Prostate Cancer Discovery
In addition to being one of the common forms of cancer for men, ,prostate cancer is responsible for the second highest number of cancer-related deaths for men across the United States. ,In a recent study, researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard developed a biologically informed deep learning…
What Can Spatial Separation of Ribosomes and DNA Tell Us About The Evolution of Eukaryotic Cells?
Where do eukaryotic cells come from? The simple answer is, we do not know. However, Asgard archaea is currently seen as the closest prokaryotic relative of eukaryotes, and recent research has been conducted to explore Asgard archaea on a microscopic level. Eukaryotic Signature Proteins (ESPs) are proteins that differentiate eukaryotes from prokaryotes. Interestingly enough, genomes…
Back in Action: Psychology SURF Presentations
On Friday, September 24, nine students from the psychology department presented their summer research in the Powerhouse to a crowd of students and professors. Topics ranged from prejudice to mental health to child development, and everyone was excited to share their findings. The first poster in the lineup was presented by Nyla Guadalupe ‘23, who…
Truth or Dare: Distrust of Trans Folks
Photo courtesy of City of Toronto Twitter account (@cityoftoronto) In order to give some background on my research this summer, I thought it made sense to discuss a paper written by my internship professor. In 2019, Rebecca Totton and Kimberly Rios published “,Predictors of anti-transgender attitudes: Identity-confusion and deception as aspects of distrust.” This paper…
Biologically Blue: Lauren Simpson Thesis Spotlight
Tell us a little bit about yourself. What inspired you to write a senior thesis?I am a Senior Psychology major from New York. I had never taken a Psychology class before coming to Amherst. I took an Intro class and I loved it and I was particularly interested in abnormal psychology and that led to…
Picking Up Good Oscillations: Annika Lunstad Thesis Spotlight
The following was adapted from a Zoom interview between Sarah Lapean and Annika Lunstad. Annika is a physics and math double major. She came to Amherst wanting to study physics, but without a clear idea of where she wanted to go with it. The summer after her freshman year, she participated in the Summer Science…