Growing up on Martha’s Vineyard, Samantha Rabin ’11 never thought her home was that different from any other. But now that Rabin is older, she realizes that because she is surrounded by crowded hotels and sun-scorched bathers, her seemingly commonplace life is actually dominated by an unusual economy. She is working with Associate Professor of Sociology Jennifer Irons to assess how a person’s financial position shapes his or her relationship to the community. More ...

Galectin-1 is a small protein with big responsibility. Its over-expression is associated with treatment of inflammation-related diseases and muscular dystrophies. Conversely, its under-expression is ideal for therapeutic measures against cancer and HIV development. The dual role it plays in the regulation of the immune system makes it a medical celebrity, especially when paired with its ligands. More ...

For Andrew Peart ’10, the literary movement known as Language poetry is the “pinnacle of modernist experimentation.” In the middle of our discussion at the library, he got up out of his seat and brought back Poetry magazine. Within seconds, he was pointing out what he thought were the best poems in the magazine. More ...

If your computer begins to flash neon colors and warning signs, it’s not about to explode. It could be a malware or virus that resulted from a buffer overflow – a problem that occurs when a program stores data outside the memory the programmer set aside for it. A buffer overflow won’t kill the computer, but it will make it more vulnerable to hackers. More ...

Meromictic lakes are stratified like layers of cake. They are interesting biological case studies because their surface and bottom waters never mix, and their sediments often date back thousands of years. One example of a meromictic lake is Green Lake located in a New York State Park just east of Syracuse. It was the first lake in North America to be classified as such, and scientists began recording data on it as early as 1839. Sean Linehan ’10 and Elizabeth Pendery ’10 are studying the biological diversity of Green Lake this summer with Associate Professor of Biology Michael McCormick. More ...

Do we have control over what we remember? Sarah Bookbinder ’10 and Clifford Robbins ’10 are researching directed forgetting, a method for thought control in which participants are told to forget previously learned material. More ...

If she ever had trouble falling asleep during her trip to Ireland this summer, Erica Kowsz ’11 could have just counted sheep. They roamed outside her tent on the abandoned island of Inis Airc, and although living with them for almost a week was a bizarre experience, Kowsz says they made good company. More ...

Clathrate hydrates are like cages. They are sculptures of ice-like water-based solids that can trap very small molecules inside of them. Studying their behavior can help decide what uses they might have and what kind of industries could benefit from their reactions. More ...

It was love at first sight. At four years old, Will Eagan '11 became entranced by the computer game Math Blaster, which revolved around a mathematical adventure in outer space. For Eagan, math and astronomy are two subjects that continue to captivate him 16 years later.

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iPhones are slick and manageable, which is why the owner of one gets a certain satisfaction out of using it. He likes the sleek black frame and the way the icons slide effortlessly across the screen. The way in which he interacts with this piece of technology is called the user interface -- the ease with which a person is able to assess the state of system and how he can use it to his best advantage. This summer, Samuel Hincks '11 will analyze how cognitive workload can help facilitate user interface. More ...