All News

The corn from Ohio, the blueberries from Maine, and the strawberries from California that all ended up at your summer barbeque traveled quite a distance before arriving on your plate. “Farm to Fork,” a term used by the college’s food service provider, Bon Appétit, entails buying locally grown products when possible in order to reduce carbon emissions caused by transporting food long distances, as well as to stimulate the local economy. Nicole LaBarge ’15 is working on a Levitt Project, “Analyzing the Sustainability of Bon Appétit at Hamilton College Using Life Cycle Assessment.”

Although many people are frightened of the apian workers, honeybees are an integral link in the global food chain. Since 2006, there has been a noted increase in the prevalence of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) across the world. While many postulations exist, the definitive cause of this devastating phenomenon is not known. Jon Shapiro ’17, in coordination with Analytical Instrumentation Specialist Greg Rahn, is spending the summer conducting research as part of his project, “HPLC Analysis of Neonicotinoid Pesticides in Honey and Their Effects on the Kirkland Area.”

Although hundreds of students enroll in science courses every semester, doing summer research is “so much different than any lab class,” says Hannah Ferris ’16. Ferris, who is conducting organic synthesis methodology research under the auspices of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Max Majireck, is so fascinated by the project that she will be continuing her research with an independent study in the fall.

Although many people might not find archaeology as exciting as it’s portrayed in the Indiana Jones franchise, Morgan Biggs ’16 does. Biggs, an archaeology major, is working with Assistant Professor of Archaeology Nathan Goodale to analyze artifacts from the Slocan Narrows Archaeological Project (SNAP). Last summer, Biggs attended Hamilton’s field school, led by Goodale, and excavated artifacts from the Slocan Narrows Pithouse Village in southeastern British Columbia, Canada.

It might sound surprising, but studying two neurotransmitters found in drosophila, a genus of small flies, may help us better understand human brain chemistry.  While most people may not regularly think about neurotransmitters in our brains, these chemicals are the stimuli behind our frustrations when stuck in traffic or our elevated stress levels when facing a seemingly never-ending pile of assignments. Ashley Perritt ’14 and Niko Wagner ’14 are studying tyramine beta hydroxylase (TBh) and TBh-Related (TBhR) neurotransmitter genes in drosophila to better understand their functions.

Hamilton College is situated roughly 30 miles from Green Lake, a rare meromictic lake in Onondaga Country.  This lake is considered special due to the segregated nature of its water and multiple base layers of sediment that have remained preserved over the past thousands of years.  This summer, Kevin Boettger ’14 and Matt Brzustoski ’15 studied the lake with Associate Professor of Biology Michael McCormick to identify its unique characteristics and features.

Most people are aware that blowing across the top of a bottle produces a tone, or driving on the highway with an open sunroof yields uncomfortably loud turbulence.  The physics behind daily occurrences similar to these regularly go unnoticed, but not so by Bennett Heussler ’15.  He decided to study what causes these sounds and to reexamine previous experiments related to these observations.

“Got milk?” For a group of Hamilton student researchers, the well-known slogan might be modified to “Got calcium?” The most abundant metal in our bodies and a valuable component of milk, calcium serves functions well beyond building strong teeth and bones. Hamilton research students, working with Douglas Weldon, the Stone Professor of Psychology, are examining how our mental processes depend on calcium.  The compound performs lesser known, but essential, roles in blood clotting, chemical signaling and action potential firing.

Because Bisphenol A, or BPA, has been identified as a factor in conditions including obesity, ADHD, reproductive complications and behavioral abnormalities, consumers and health officials have been alarmed at the presence of the chemical in food and drink products for years. In a summer research project,  Lisbeth DaBramo ’15 and Rachel Sobel ’15 are measuring BPA levels in bottles and cans to identify how this toxic compound is introduced into our systems.

Everyone uses language on a daily basis, but few question exactly how we understand what another person is saying.  Interpreting gestures and sounds seems natural to us, yet there is a much deeper and more scientific explanation to it all.