Nifty Fifty
kcollins | March 24, 2010
The questions that plague most scientist are: why, how, where did this come from? Answering those fundamental questions is how mysteries of the world are discovered and solved. Forensic Anthropology takes these questions a little further as these types of questions are answered in a legal domain. According to the American Board of Forensic Anthropology: Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical or biological anthropology to the legal process. Physical or biological anthropologists who specialize in forensics primarily focus their studies on the human skeleton. Much…
kcollins | March 10, 2010
"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." ~~Mark van Doren
The chemical structures danced across the page as I sat trying to figure out what reaction came next. It was the beginning of organic chemistry as an undergraduate and people had warned me that o-chem would be a bit of a monster. Over that previous summer I had heard countless horror stories about how hard organic chemistry can be. As a biology/ pre-med major I had no other choice but to endure this course. Yet by the second month of class I enthusiastically soaked up the varied drawings, rapidly mastered the new…
kcollins | March 1, 2010
What is out there? Is there life on other planets? People have pondered these questions for centuries as they have looked up into the night sky and wondered what might lie beyond. Pop culture is littered with these reflections in film, book and TV. After watching Steven Spielberg's E.T. as a kid, I was fascinated by the idea that an extraterrestrial life might like Reese Pieces and secretly hoped I could turn a Speak and Spell into some kind of communicator device, just like how E.T. 'phoned home'.
The question, "Does other intelligent life exist beyond our planet?" is something that…
kcollins | February 21, 2010Many moons ago as a chemistry major, one of my first college internships was working in product development for paints and coatings. That summer I discovered the fascinating world of formulation science and was in awe of the chemistry that went into making everything from my shampoo to dishwashing soap. The chemistry and the science of the world around me came alive and I was amazed by the breadth and the scope it touched in my life.
Here is a video of one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Nifty Fifty speakers, Diane Bunce, demonstrating the "Chemistry of Thanksgiving" and making…