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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.

Associate Professor of Theatre Mark Cryer is playing King Claudius in Hamlet with the Saratoga Shakespeare Festival. Performances are held Tuesday through Saturday, July 13-17 and July 20-24, at 6 p.m. and Sunday, July 18 and 25, at 3 p.m. in on the Alfred Z. Solomon Stage in Saratoga Springs' Congress Park. All performances are free and open to the public.

Five Hamilton students will be joined by 12 additional students from seven colleges and five countries (Belgium, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom and United States) for a two-week course on the marine geology of Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf. This National Science Foundation-sponsored program, related to the International Polar Year (IPY) and the LARISSA project (Larsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica), will take an interdisciplinary approach in examining the reason for the ice shelf's dramatic breakup in 2002.

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.

Staring at the computer screen in front of him, Max Williams ’12 rotates a complex MRI image. He opens up the cross sections, targeting the colored area and moving “slices” of the image to better see the specific piece he wants. What is all this technology used to analyze? A chicken embryo’s face, of course! Williams is spending the summer at the Birth Defects Research Lab at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle working to set new parameters for the embryonic development of chickens.

Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Monica Inzer was the focus of a feature article in the spring issue of Inside, the newsletter of the Posse Foundation. “Hamilton Dean Promotes Diversity and Access” praised the College’s need-blind policy, expanded partnership with the Posse program and initiation of the First in the Family project and noted Inzer’s involvement in each.

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.

To the average person, chaos is a concept that lacks any form of organization or order. In everyday language, chaos can mean disaster, tumult or lawlessness. But to a physicist, chaos is just another form of complex behavior. This summer, Leonard Teng ’12 is working to perfect an apparatus developed by Litchfield Professor of Physics Peter Millet and Director of Laboratories/Head Technician Jim Schreve that allows the user to better calculate and demonstrate the properties of chaotic motion.

Couper Librarian Randall Ericson has compiled a bibliography of the works of prominent 20th century author and Nobel prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Spanning the years 1962-75, it includes translations of Solzhenitsyn’s work into all languages, as well as miscellaneous non-literary works such as letters and Solzhenitsyn’s statements to the Soviet Writers’ Union. One of the Solzhenitsyn’s most recognized and celebrated publications, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, was first published in 1962.

Fever, coughing, vomiting, diarrhea: all of these are symptoms of parasite infestation. Nematodes are one of the most common types of human, animal and plant parasites. Not all nematodes are parasitic and not all parasites are nematodes, but these microscopic creatures are part of one of the most diverse phyla on the planet. Suman Sarker ’11, Barsha Baral ’13 and Shahin Islam ’12 working under Assistant Professor of Biology Wei-Jen Chang and Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Ashleigh Smythe, are looking at genetics to more thoroughly categorize nematodes.