Currently, there are 96 candidate vaccines for COVID-19, with 27 candidate vaccines in stage 3 clinical trials. So far,13 vaccines have been authorized across multiple countries, and as of May 10th, 3 vaccines have been authorized and recommended for use in the United States: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson. Differing in how they provide immunity…
Chasing an Amoeba to Cure Cancer
Visible even from the exterior of the Science Center building, the glass-encased upper floor laboratory spaces offer a glance into the inner workings of the research conducted in the Biology Department. Here, students are often seen working on experiments headed by professors, but they can also elect a more independent project their senior year: a…
Thesis Spotlight with Ingrid Wefing
Ingrid Wefing is a senior, a thesis student, a Psychology and Asian Languages and Civilizations double major, and an absolute delight to talk to. I sat down with Ingrid to talk about her upcoming thesis that examines the relationship between belongingness and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Did you know you wanted to study…
The Psychology of Trauma
A series by the Peer Advocates for Sexual Respect and the Psychology Department The Amherst College Department of Health Educations put on a video series inviting psychology professors to answer questions about trauma. Professors from the Psychology Department were asked various questions regarding trauma; their responses are summarized below. There are also links to the…
Being Present, Making Change
On April 14, the Amherst College Department of History hosted the 2020-21 Hawkins Lecture, “Why Diversity Makes Science Not Just Fairer, but Better,” with Dr. Naomi Oreskes. The Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University and author of Why Trust Science? walked us through a fast-paced and compelling presentation on…
Understand Your Attacker. Then You Can Defend
(adapted from a Zoom interview between Samantha Rydzewski and Sarah Lapean) Samantha Rydzewski, a computer science and math double major, took some time out of her busy schedule on March 22 to tell us about her thesis with the computer science department. She is looking at suboptimal attacks against machine learning models, and investigating how…
Revisiting Gradients of Functions in a New, Discretized World
Being in the class of 2021E, I started my mathematics thesis in Spring 2020, and actually concluded it in Fall 2020, officially handing it in on the 11th of November. It was under the supervision of two advisors: Professor Ivan Contreras, a close mentor whose work with a prior summer I hoped to continue in…
Remember Your “Why”: How Psychology Majors Become Educators
On March 9th, Professor Palmquist led the latest conversation of the Psychology Department Spring 2021 Lecture Series. She spoke with Anna Vuong ’18 and Sydney “Kramer” Peterson ’17 about how they went from psychology majors at Amherst to their current jobs as teachers. Anna was a psychology major who was involved in Ed Pros, QuestBridge,…
More Than Just a Headache: A Lecture About Migraines in the U.S
You are working on a 15-page essay at 2 in the morning, and just as you start your concluding paragraph, a burst of pain shoots to your head. The pain lingers for another 4 hours before you call it quits and decide to write the rest of your essay after a good night’s (or morning’s?)…
Planetary cradles: UMass/FCAD colloquium speaker Feng Long presents ALMA view of early solar systems
Solar systems like ours begin as pancakes of dust and gas left over after a star forms. Over time, the dust within these “circumstellar disks” coagulate into planetesimals that will eventually form planets like the Earth. During this early stage of solar system evolution, these circumstellar disks are called “protoplanetary disks” because planets have not…