Nora Grenfell '12 reports on a 15-day field study trip to Iceland, led by Upson Chair for Public Discourse and Professor of Geosciences Barbara Tewksbury. More ...

A small but significant meeting takes place on a recent Saturday afternoon; it is the Safe Zone workshop. People often with limited exposures to the gay community attend the workshop to be updated on appropriate vocabulary and learn about their own biases regarding the LGBT community. Megan Bolger ’11 is ensuring that this essential form of student-driven education lives on at Hamilton.

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This is Nora Grenfell's '12 third report from a field study in Iceland.

Our backcountry camping tour of Iceland began our second week. Prior to that, we had been staying in hostels around the capital area, but come Sunday we piled our packs in a bus and prepared for a week on the road. Our bus was nicely equipped with a cooking trailer, and we were accompanied by Sola, our cook (and her daughter Sofia, whose English put us all to shame) our driver, Franz, and our guide, Jon, who has known Professor Tewksbury for more than 30 years! More ...

Many Americans underestimate the art of Japanese animation known as anime. Not only is anime a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States alone, but it reincarnates important aspects of Japanese culture that may not otherwise be as accessible to American audiences. Alex Benkhart ’11 is investigating the characteristics and popularity of the Japanese heroine that echoes back to earlier tenets of Japanese culture. More ...

Nora Grenfell '12 is providing updates from Iceland, where Upson Chair for Public Discourse and Professor of Geosciences Barbara Tewksbury is leading eight Hamilton students and nine students from SUNY Oneonta in a 15-day field study.

Our trip began with a 9 p.m. flight from Boston’s Logan international airport, and ended with us arriving four time zones ahead of New York in Iceland at 6:30 a.m. We hit the ground running, driving from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik across the Reykjanes ridge. As we drove, we observed the oldest rocks in Iceland. Since the island has been built up by magma rising from the mid-Atlantic ridge, the oldest rocks are at the edges of Iceland while the youngest land lies in the center on the volcanically active zone. So far we have been able to observe both the older zones in Iceland and areas where there has been volcanic activity as recently as 30 years ago. More ...

Over the past 60 years, the People’s Republic of China has had a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church. Since the communist state first obliterated almost all religious representation, it has gradually opened up. Funded by a Levitt grant and with the guidance of Professor of History Douglas Ambrose, Tongxin Lu ’11 is evaluating the status and future of the Catholic Church in China. More ...

In the brain of every insect embryo, budding neurons grow and develop, in the same way as in the human brain. The protein tyramene beta hydroxelase (TBh) has been found in the budding neurons in insect embryos, as well as its relative TBhR (R is for “related”). Sumithra Nair ’12, working with Professor of Biology Herman Lehman, will try to shed some light on this common, essential yet enigmatic protein. More ...

Sitting in front of a computer screen, scientists spend hours staring at satellite images of outer space, searching for exploding supernovae. But surprisingly, visual identification is the main way that astronomical laboratories identify supernovae. Led by Assistant Professor of Physics Natalia Connolly, Ileana Becerra ’11, Anne Vilsoet ’11 and Will Eagan ’11 are creating a smarter computer program that will more reliably detect supernovae in satellite images. More ...

In a small lab on the second floor of the Science Center, two identical-looking vials of specimens sit side by side, waiting to be processed. But although the samples may appear to be the same, they were collected from almost opposite sides of the Earth: Green Lake in Fayetteville, N.Y., and Antarctica’s Hughes Bay. Working under Associate Professor of Biology Michael McCormick, Libby Pendery ’10 and Agne Jakubauskaite ’13 are using similar methods of analysis on samples from two very different locations to  detect and classify the species of microbes that are present at different depths. More ...

When it comes to the mind and the body, we live immersed in two opposing viewpoints. While many of us believe in the power of science and the firing neurons of the brain that account for many of our actions, we continue attributing our sensations and thoughts to a separate concept of the “mind,” an abstract entity only loosely connected to the physical body. Working with John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy Richard Werner and through an Emerson grant, Himeka Hagiwara ’11 is exploring the mind-body dichotomy and the conflicting perspectives that are so prominent in our culture. More ...