Category: Articles

Amherst College Science Center

ASN Interviews Famed Science Writer Ed Yong Ahead of LitFest

Man in printed shirt gazes into camera for formal portrait

By Kyle Hur and Nora Lowe Ed Yong is a science journalist and the author of two New York Times bestsellers. He has received national recognition for his science writing, including winning the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism and the Victor Cohn Prize for medical science reporting. The Amherst STEM Network had the pleasure of…

Professor Alex Sushkov’s Odyssey Into Dark Matter and Precision Measurement

The Bullet Cluster. Splotches of blue and magenta against a black background.

Cover image courtesy of ESA: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2007/07/The_Bullet_Cluster2 Article by Olivia Fann and Fernanda Sophia Morais Laroca On October 17, 2023, the bottom floor of the Science Center was filled with professors and students enjoying refreshments and conversation. It was time for the weekly Physics Colloquium, a public talk given by a visiting scholar on a topic…

Eli Luberoff, CEO of Desmos, Visits Amherst

A screen grab of Desmos graphing online with an oblong 3D shape shaded red.

By Ryogo Katahira On October 6, a man in his thirties wearing a hoodie and jeans entered a mechanics course classroom in the Science Center. He glanced at the blackboard with its simple energy diagrams while students and professors filed in. His demeanor was entirely casual, but he was the subject of the highly anticipated…

Recent Research News and Treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a prime topic for research due to its vast impact on memory and cognitive decline. In recent years, there has been a surge of information regarding AD research, including reports of fraud from highly cited studies and a new potential treatment. The following article will break down these aspects and offer…

Feeling Sluggish? Sea Slugs Might Have You Beat

Against a tan-colored floor that looks soft and coated in sand and other aquatic debris, a sea slug rests. It has two antennae-like structures. It's abdomen is like a squishy, oblong, yellow, and purple pinecone.

Cover image: Berghia stephanieae. Point of Fort Jeudy, Grenada. 14 feet deep, 24 August 1986. Photo by Hans Bertsch. Reprinted with permission from The Slug Site. Article by Nora Lowe This year’s finals had me feeling especially sluggish, so when I heard that there would be a Biology Seminar on sea slug brains, I thought,…

Exploring Generative AI in Business, Data Science, & Emerging Technologies

A robot shakes hands with a human.

(Cover Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik) By Albina Jambulatova Muratovna  In a world driven by technology and innovation, the intersection between generative AI, data science, emerging technologies, and entrepreneurship is a captivating frontier that promises to revolutionize various industries. Recently, Phil Edmundson, an Amherst alumnus and the founder of Corvus Insurance Holdings, shared his insights…

Can Math be Magical? A Mathemagician Shows How

A flow diagram: The letter N has an arrow pointing up toward N+X and down toward N-X. The resultant for the top is funneled into subtracting X2 from N2-X2, resulting in an isolated N2. The top text says, "WHY? Algebra: (N+X)(N-X) = N2-X2.

By Bibi Hanselman and Bryan Shi On October 16, the Science Center lobby buzzed with a lively atmosphere, packed with students enjoying snacks as they huddled around several of their peers and watched them pull off a variety of card tricks. But among these performers was the true star of the show: Dr. Arthur Benjamin,…

Unveiling the Intriguing World of Curvature and Polyhedra 

By Albina Jambulatova Muratovna  Mathematics often leads us on a voyage into the unknown, where seemingly abstract ideas turn out to be glimpses into the underlying principles of our world. For example, the pine cone is a natural wonder that exhibits a mesmerizing spiral pattern. This spiral arrangement is a striking example of the Fibonacci…

Beneski’s Not-So-Hidden Gem? Dino Tracks

Two gray rock slabs mounted vertically on a beige wall. Each slab has footprint evidence. The left shows the impression, the right shows the natural cast.

By Nora Lowe Beneski Natural History Museum is a treasure trove that houses skeletons, minerals, and even meteorites. However, Beneski’s hidden gem is past the picturesque mammoth skeleton, down the stairs, and around the corner, where an unassuming room actually boasts one of the world’s largest collections of fossil dinosaur tracks. As the Museum Educator,…