Summer slipped into September... need a study carrel?

After weeks of anticipation, the new academic year has begun!  It feels like late October already, but hot September weather is sure to hit us when we least need the distraction of summer breezes on top of September's academic expectations.  Regardless, the science library is a great place to study.  If you want a study carrel here, stop by and fill out an carrel application form.  Leave it at the circulation desk anytime before 4pm on Friday, September 9, and you will have complete consideration along with everyone else in your class and major (senior science majors are given priority).  More about Study Carrels in the science library.

Julia Bair, 5th year double-degree student, publishes in Eur. J. Neurosci.

Just indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge and co-authored by Julia Bair, double-degree Bassoon performance/Neuroscience major from Glencoe, Illinois:

What subcortical-cortical relationships tell us about processing speech in noise.
Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Marmel, Frederic; Bair, Julia; Kraus, Nina

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE 33 (3): 549-557  FEB 2011 [access @ OhioLINK EJC]

Bair's co-authors are based in various departments at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, including the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory.  The team investigated the "effects of background noise on both subcortical- and cortical-evoked responses, and the relationships between them, in normal hearing young adults."

See a sample issue of the journal at Wiley Online Library.

Amanda Schmidt's latest post from China: digging for snails

Assistant Professor of Geology Amanda Schmidt is studying the properties of loess in China, as part of an effort to understand the natural hazards of a region characterized with this sediment. She writes from China: "These [samples] will be used to determine how strong [loess] is, what makes it break in blocks, and what makes it flow. We suspect that the original loess is rather weak and flows easily, but that once it has flowed and set up again, it is quite a bit stronger." Schmidt's posts appear in the New York Times Scientist at Work blog. The bit about snails refers to finding snails buried in undisturbed loess sediments, to use for dating the deposition age. Schmidt includes a great photo of the 3-year old daughter of the park science translator, enjoying her first time "playing in dirt," and helping to sort snails from sediment.

Basic Protocols Freely Accessible in JoVE

JoVE: Journal of Visualized Experiments is a peer-reviewed online journal of videos and other forms of visualization that demonstrate complex procedures, most of which are rather more specialized than needed for our curriculum -- but the "Basic Protocols" section includes 56 videos that are freely accessible and of potential use in the undergraduate laboratory.  See, for example, Generation of Single-Cell Suspensions from Mouse Neural Tissue, by Sandra Pennartz, Sandy Reiss, Rebecca Biloune, Doris Hasselmann, and Andreas Bosio. Free access to the protocol, which is accompanied by a written abstract and pdf describing the technique, is sponsored by Miltenyi Biotec.

Biology major Dylan Holmes co-author in Animal Behavior

About the Journal

Congratulations to junior Dylan Holmes, who co-authored a paper appearing in the current issue of Animal Behavior:

Sing softly and carry a big stick: signals of aggressive intent in the song sparrow.
Akcay, Caglar; Tom, Mari E.; Holmes, Dylan; Campbell, S. Elizabeth; Beecher, Michael D.
Animal Behaviour 82 (2): 377-382 August 2011 [access at OhioLINK EJC]

Also recently published is an article by chemistry professor Matt Elrod:
Kinetics Study of the Aromatic Bicyclic Peroxy Radical plus NO Reaction: Overall Rate Constant and Nitrate Product Yield Measurements.  Elrod, Matthew J.
Journal of Physical Chemistry A 115 (28): 8125-8130 July 21, 2011 [access at ACS Publications]

Diving bell spider, sea urchin, Arctic ground squirrel: on journal covers this week

View this cover online (subscribers only)

We maintain print subscriptions to many journals still, even for those we also access online.  Serendipitous discovery motivated by intriguing journal covers is one benefit of maintaining a print collection.  Three issues received yesterday have gorgeous photographs that are best appreciated in hand - stop by and pick one up!

Seymour, R. S. and Hetz, S. K. (2011).  The diving bell and the spider: the physical gill of Argyroneta aquatica.  J. Exp. Biol. 214, 2175-2181.  Photo, Stefan K. Hetz.

The cover of Development (July 1)  shows the "mouth of an adult sea urchin (Lytechinus variegatus) as the animal attempts to consume a fragment of seaweed.  This still frame from a rapid time-lapse sequence taken by Sarah A. Elliott and Nobuo Ueda at the 2010 Woods Hold MBL Embryology Course was chosen by readers of the Node."  (Cover explanation taken from the table of contents)

Arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii)

A hibernating Arctic ground squirrel graces the cover of The Journal of Neuroscience, July 27, illustrating an article beginning on page 10752.

Jinka, T. R., O. Toien, and K. L. Drew. (2011).  Season primes the brain in an arctic hibernator to facilitate entrance into torpor mediated by Adenosine A1 receptors.  J. Neurosci. 31, 10752-10758.

Photo by Lesa Hollen and Leone Thieman.

Structure for cis,trans-1,4-Difluorobutadiene

View cover at acs.org

New publication by Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Norm Craig:

Semiexperimental Equilibrium Structure for cis,trans-1,4-Difluorobutadiene by the Mixed Estimation Method.  Demaison, Jean F.; Craig, Norman C.
Journal of Physical Chemistry A 115 (27): 8049-8054 published online June 8, 2011
[access at American Chemical Society Publications, for subscribers]

Belitsky Lab Research Presented at ACS Spring Meeting

The abstracts of two presentations by Associate Professor of Chemistry Jason Belitsky have been published as part of the proceedings from the 241st National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, held in Anaheim, CA, March 27-31, 2011.

The first presentation was a collaboration with Oberlin students (Lye and Moore both graduated in 2011, Ellowitz expects to graduate in 2012).

Melanin-based coatings for environmental applications.
Lye, Diane; Moore, Christine; Ellowitz, Micah; Belitsky, Jason M.
Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society 241:  CHED-547 March 27 2011

Structure image
from Wikipedia

This work involved immobilizing melanin from human hair and testing the binding of melanin and its synthetic analogs with heavy metals and dyes, and efforts toward heavy metal sequestration.

Melanin molecular recognition. Belitsky, Jason M.
Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society 241: ORGN-676 March 27 2011
Belitsky's talk focused on analogs of eumelanin and their interactions with metal ions and boronic acids.  His research furthers understanding of colorimetric sensors for lead and inhibitors of synthetic melanin, including applications for molecular imprinting and inhibition.

The abstracts do not appear on the ACS website for viewing by the public, but may be found in SciFinder.

"It was a lark." -- Freeman Dyson, on the early Los Alamos community

On the new book shelf today is a very slim pamphlet, containing the transcript of the PBS production The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb (1981).  Transcribed and printed by PTV Publications, Kent, Ohio, this written record of the public broadcasting production by Jon Else gives a fascinating picture of gathering the best physicists and their students in the "boom town" of Los Alamos.  Under Oppenheimer's leadership, this group of brilliant thinkers, with "kind hearts and humanist feelings," went to work on a weapon of mass destruction.  The Day After Trinity explores how and why the atomic bomb was developed, in the context of relationships of the scientists working together under great stress.  "Their average age was 29, and their job was to construct a mechanism which would trigger, in a millionth of a second, a violet chain reaction.  They had two dance bands, a soda fountain, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, a radio station with no call letters, aa cyclotron, and 7,000 fire extinguishers," says the narrator.  Freeman Dyson, then a physicist with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, remarked "The most striking contraction is the fact that this man [Oppenheimer], who was so unworldly, so unpolitical in his youth, such a great scholar, so fond of metaphysical poetry, should suddenly emerge as the great administrator who put Los Alamos together and produced the atomic bomb."

It is still very thought-provoking reading, 30 years after the making of the documentary.  As we approach the 66th anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nakasaki, Oppenheimer's words remain relevant:  "I think the only hope for our future safety must lie in a collaboration, based on confidence and good faith, with the other peoples of the world."  [OBIS catalog record]

Faculty publication: Tracie Paine, in Neuropsychopharmacology

More into @ Nature.com

A new publication by Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Tracie Paine:

Schizophrenia- Like Attentional Deficits Following Blockade of Prefrontal Cortex GABA(A) Receptors.
Paine, Tracie A.; Slipp, Lauren E.; Carlezon, William A., Jr.
Neuropsychopharmacology 36 (8): 1703-1713 July 2011 [read the abstract]

Oberlin College Library does not have access to this journal (a print subscription costs $2,846 and an online site license would be considerably more).  We can obtain a copy through Interlibrary Loan.

Climate Scientists Face Hostility, Undermining Scientific Freedom

From the American Association for the Advancement of Science:
"Reports of personal attacks on climate scientists, including harassment, legal challenges, and even death threats, have created a hostile environment that inhibits the free exchange of scientific findings and makes it difficult for factual information to reach policymakers and the public, the AAAS Board of Directors said in a statement of concern."

Read “Statement of the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Regarding Personal Attacks on Climate Scientists.” [pdf] Approved on June 28.

Faculty-Student co-authored publication in J PHYS CHEM

Recent publication by Adam Birdsall, '11 and Professor of Chemistry Matt Elrod, as found in ISI Web of Science:
Comprehensive NO-Dependent Study of the Products of the Oxidation of Atmospherically Relevant Aromatic Compounds.
Birdsall, AW.; Elrod, MJ.

Journal home page

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY A 115 (21): 5397-5407 JUN 2 2011. [subscriber access, @ ACS publications]

Imams add their support for teaching evolution

The Clergy Letter Project expands and creates opportunity for Muslims to support evolution, explains Michael Zimmerman in a recent Huffington Post column (posted June 2, 2011).   

Extracted from Zimmerman's column:
"One of the overarching goals of The Clergy Letter Project is to demonstrate that the battle that so many want to portray as being between religion and science is actually something very different. In fact, there are religious individuals whose beliefs are at odds with science, and those people, typically fundamentalists regardless of their religion, are convinced that their perspective is the only "correct" one; that all other religious views are wrong. But, regardless of how much attention these people receive, they are in the minority and their views are every bit as much in conflict with the broader religious world as they are with the perspectives of the scientific community. These fundamentalists are attempting to claim all of religion for themselves by casting it in their own image while working feverishly to redefine science in a way that privileges their idiosyncratic readings of ancient texts."

Related reading:
Being human in Islam : the impact of the evolutionary worldview / Damian A. Howard
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2011

Black lung disease is back with a vengence

Living on Earth on May 27, 2011 presented a sobering story on a highly aggressive form of black lung, or coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, saying "An investigation into last year’s [Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch] coal mine disaster in West Virginia reveals a tragedy within a tragedy: autopsies show most of the men who died in the explosion also had black lung."  The prevalence of black lung had been declining since the 1970s, due to stricter regulations governing the amount of coal dust permitted in active work areas. "Lax enforcement and monitoring of dust" are considered likely contributors to the increased incidence and severity of black lung, coupled with changes in mining practice that result in more silica dust as well as coal dust in smaller, confined areas.

The Government Accountability Office in 2008 found that 87% of miners' claims for disability benefits due to black lung were initially denied (Black Lung Benefits Program, report to U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health Care, Committee on Finance).

Ironically, Senate Hearing 110-527 [Coal: a Clean Future] does not once mention black lung in its 252 pages (hearing before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure, Committee on Finance).  The "clean future" does not, apparently, include miners' lungs -- or the environment around coal mining sites.

More about --
Black lung:  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Massey's denial of culpability for the disaster: Wall Street Journal, June 3.
Mountain top removal for coal extraction.

Three new publications from science faculty

Articles by Dan Stinebring, Francis D. Federighi Chair in Physics, and Mike Moore, Assistant Professor of Biology, were published recently:

PNAS.org May 17, 2011

Contemporaneous and recent radiations of the world's major succulent plant lineages.
Arakaki, Monica; Christin, Pascal-Antoine; Nyffeler, Reto; Lendel, Anita; Eggli, Urs; Ogburn, R. Matthew; Spriggs, Elizabeth; Moore, Michael J.; Edwards, Erika J.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 108 (20): 8379-8384 MAY 17 2011
--
Angiosperm phylogengy: 17 genes, 640 taxa.
Soltis, Douglas E.; Smith, Stephen A.; Cellinese, Nico; Wurdack, Kenneth J. ... Moore, Michael J., et al.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 98 (4): 704-730 APR 2011
--
Effects of intermittent emission: noise inventory for the scintillating pulsar B0834+06.
Gwinn, C. R.; Johnson, M. D.; Smirnova, T. V.; Stinebring, D. R.
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL 733 (1): Art. No. 52 MAY 20 2011

Welcome to Alumni, Family and Friends of Grads!

OA Librarian Blog

The science library will be open for 17 hours during Commencement/Alumni weekend, and we look forward to greeting all visitors - especially former student assistants of the science library (and family and friends of our graduating seniors).  Stop in and make yourself at home!  Check out the science faculty & student publications display at our entrance, enjoy access to the Web from any of the 19 public Macs, and learn about open access journals in the sciences by following the link on the Science Library web page [Open Access Journals in the Find Articles box].

It isn't too early to start planning for Open Access Week.  Please share good ideas for promoting open access on campus.  I will be in the library on Sunday afternoon - be sure to say hello!  [Staff profile]

The Books Are All Shelved!

It's true, we've completely caught up with shelving all of the end-of-semester book returns.  At least until the next armload is deposited on the circ desk or dumped into the book return.  You can return books to the outside book drop (east wall of the library) anytime, so if the warm breeze, blue sky and brilliant sun have kept you happily engaged outdoors (and who could blame you?), drop off your library books anytime you remember - before you leave campus!

Summer reading possibilities are endless, if you're staying in Oberlin for the summer (even if you're going away but plan to return for fall semester!).  Take a look at the New Books list;  The Darwin archipelago caught my interest.  You're sure to find something appealing here!

If you really want the books currently checked out to you (for the summer), just stop by and let us update your patron record with your summer address.  Takes just a moment or two!

On this day in 1925 - John Scopes arrested for teaching evolution

This comes from:

The illustrated almanac of science, technology, and invention day by day/facts, figures, and the fanciful / Raymond L. Francis.  New York : Plenum Trade, c1997.

1925 - "John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in a Tennessee public school.  In the famous 'Monkey Trial' the next month in Dayton, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100.  The verdict was reversed on appeal.  Ironically, Scopes was not a biology teacher (he was a physics teacher substituting for a sick biology teacher), and he was not even in school the day when evolution was taught."

The Scopes trial is considered in this recent book in the science library:

Galileo goes to jail : and other myths about science and religion / edited by Ronald L. Numbers.  Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009.  The myth in this case being that the Scopes trial ended in defeat for anti-evolutionists - they won the case then (though lost on appeal), and continue to push anti-evolution legislation.  

Learn more about current efforts to challenge the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education.

ncse.com

 

Biology and Chemistry student-faculty collaboration: J Chem Ecol paper

This paper, published in the April issue of Journal of Chemical Ecology, is the result of collaboration among faculty members in Biology and Chemistry (Garvin and Whelan, respectively), current students Rutter and Austin, and recent graduate Shaw:

Gray Catbird - thanks to Lake County Species report.

Volatile and Semivolatile Compounds in Gray Catbird Uropygial Secretions Vary with Age and Between Breeding and Wintering Grounds.

Shaw, Clara L.; Rutter, Jordan E.; Austin, Amy L.; Garvin, Mary C.; Whelan, Rebecca J.

JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ECOLOGY 37 (4): 329-339 APR 2011 [access at OhioLINK EJC for subscribers]

Transactions from WIT Technology conferences, 1993-2009, now open access

From a press release received today.  More @ WIT Press e-library website

WIT Press has announced that, effective immediately, Wessex Institute of Technology papers in their e‑library published from 1993 through 2009 are available on an Open Access basis.

The Wessex Institute of Technology is making the papers Open Access in order to ensure the widest dissemination of papers presented at WIT Conferences.

The WIT Press e-library consists of six sets of Transactions containing papers presented at Wessex Institute of Technology conferences, as follows:

• Biomedicine and Health
• The Built Environment
• Ecology and the Environment
• Engineering Sciences
• Information and Communication Technologies
• Modelling and Simulation

A seventh set of Transactions, State of the Art in Science & Engineering, contains selected chapters from WIT Press books on the latest developments in various fields of science and engineering.

Happy 226th Birthday, John James Audubon

Enjoy just a small selection of John James Audubon's beautiful birds by browsing one of the many compilations of his works and guides in the science library.  Start with:
Audubon : early drawings / introduction by Richard Rhodes ; scientific commentary by Scott V. Edwards ; foreword by Leslie A. Morris.  Cambridge, Mass. : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008.  QL674 .A85 2008 (in oversize shelving)
and follow up with an author search in OBIS on Audubon, John James, 1785-1851

The University of Pittsburgh Library has made available, online, their complete double elephant folio set of Audubon’s Birds of America, accompanied by his Ornithological Biography. It is a marvelous collection to have digitized and made public.  Thank you, University Library System staff!  Univ Pittsburgh Audubon web site.

Thanks also to Google Doodle for commemorating John James Audubon.

"In Brief" in New Scientist - always satisfying!

If you're curious about the natural world and don't have time or the inclination to delve deeply into scholarly journal literature, the New Scientist section "In Brief" is for you.  Every week, just 10 minutes will reward you with a wealth of startling new research findings, summed up in engaging reports aimed at a general audience.  You can always find an issue of New Scientist on our "Journals Received This Week" display - settle into the comfy chair positioned there and enjoy brief summaries condensed from peer-reviewed journal articles.  New Scientist writers are marvelous at their craft, and you may well be drawn to read the entire issue cover to cover.

"In Brief" this week includes:

• Angry birds kiss and make up after a brawl
• Stem cells grow into partial eyeball
• Prejudice linked to fertility cycle
• Like cannabis, but without the buzz
• Bye-bye electrons, hello atomtronics

The headings alone draw one's attention, and reading these short summaries is always satisfying.  So pause as you pass by the new journal display, and learn something amazing - did you know, for example, that bird parents choose which chicks to feed by discerning the amount of UV light reflected from the chicks' foreheads?  Wild, right?  Heavier chicks reflect less UV light than lighter nestlings, and parents give more food to the chicks reflecting more UV light.  The study that led to this conclusion:  Aviles, J., et al.  Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, DOI: 10.1007/S00265-011-1164-8.

Thousands of Scientific Posters in Open Access Repository

Access F1000Posters.com

The Faculty of 1000 Open Poster Repository for Biology and Medicine offers the poster presentations from 180 international meetings, to date.  Free access to anyone in the world, with links to the full-text of subsequently published articles (accessible by subscription, as required).  F1000 invites submissions for the repository.  The most recent conference invited to be represented in the repository is the New York Academy of Sciences meeting on Music, Science and Medicine, including a presentation on music treatment for redirecting repetitive behaviors of children on the autism spectrum.

Scientific posters presented at conferences typically represent the most up-to-date research in a given area, with results and methodology that may or may not be published at a later date.  The information in posters has traditionally been limited to those attending the conference; the F1000 repository allows access to anyone, widening the potential impact of the research and speeding communication.

More info.

When Science and the Media Mix

Christopher Reddy's editorial, When Science and the Media Mix, published April 1 in Science (the print issue just received today) is perfectly timed with today's symposium (Day 2 of Journalism in the Age of New Media), sponsored by The Oberlin Review and a host of other college departments and organizations.

Reddy says, "At their best, science and journalism both research exhaustively, discover knowledge, and communicate it accurately and objectively."  Come hear David Schlesinger, former Editor in Chief of Reuters give the keynote presentation today at 4:30pm, followed by a panel at 7pm including Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad of Radio Lab.  Krulwich and Abumrad excel at communicating science for the general public, and would no doubt agree with Christopher Reddy's statement, "Communicating is risky, but not doing so is riskier."  He goes on to say that scientists and journalists must "make continual efforts to learn each other's languages" so that knowledge is not "locked in laboratories, misunderstood, unused, or even worse, misused."

The journalism symposium events are in Hallock Auditorium of the A.J. Lewis Center.

Reading for Spring Break

Some lovely and important books were received today - consider taking one along on your spring break travels, or to enliven a quiet spring break on campus.

This is especially relevant if you're heading to warmer climes:

Hot : living through the next fifty years on earth / Mark Hertsgaard [publisher's description]

Noted journalist Hertsgaard has covered climate change stories for years, and the birth of his daughter five years ago gave rise to an entirely new perspective on the urgency for action.

The slim volume noted below will inspire you to give serious consideration to a science teaching career, and packs into a small spot in your luggage or back pack:

• The X factor : personality traits of exceptional science teachers / by Clair Berube 
The author readily admits that nothing in the book can be proven, contrary to what one might expect in a book about science, and includes the ability to channel rebelliousness and nonconformity as an important trait for teaching science. A bit of rebellion and nonconformity are useful for challenging dogma or advancing new scientific ideas, and need to be fostered productively in science classrooms and labs, says the author. It is an interesting read!

There are at least two dozen other good books on the new book shelf. Take a look as you turn your thoughts to a break from required reading and academic deadlines.

Understanding the earthquake in Japan

From today's News & Analysis on the AAAS Science web site:
"The 11 March Tohoku earthquake ranks among the five strongest temblors recorded by modern instrumentation. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Japan Meteorological Agency now peg the magnitude at 9.0. The quake ruptured more than 400 kilometers of crust along the Japan Trench subduction zone, where a tectonic plate is diving beneath the northeast coast of Honshu Island."

Learn more about subduction zones, plate tectonics and earthquake occurrence in these titles:

access at USGS pubs

• Subduction zone geodynamics / Serge Lallemand, Francesca Funicello, editors. Berlin : Springer, c2009   
• Fault-zone properties and earthquake rupture dynamics / [edited by] Eiichi Fukuyama. Boston : Elsevier Academic Press, c2009
• Dynamic planet: monitoring and understanding a dynamic planet with geodetic and oceanographic tools  / Paul Tregoning, Chris Rizos (eds.)
  Berlin ; New York : Springer, c2007
• Relative motions between oceanic and continental plates in the Pacific Basin / David C. Engebretson, Allan Cox, Richard G. Gordon. Boulder, Colo. : Geological Society of America, c1985
• Earthquakes and tsunamis in the past : a guide to techniques in historical seismology / Emanuela Guidoboni, John E. Ebel.  Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009
• The orphan tsunami of 1700 : Japanese clues to a parent earthquake in North America / Brian F. Atwater ... [et al.]. Reston, Va. : U.S. Geological Survey ; Seattle : In association with University of Washington Press, 2005

New publications by science faculty and students

Oberlin Author:
Karla Parsons-Hubbard, Associate Professor of Geology.

• The relationship of bionts and taphonomic processes in molluscan taphofacies formation on the continental shelf and slope: eight-year trends: Gulf of Mexico and Bahamas.  Powell, EN; Brett, CE; Parsons-Hubbard, KM; Callender, WR; Staff, GM; Walker, SE; Raymond, A; Ashton-Alcox, KA.  FACIES 57 (1): 15-37 JAN 2011 [access at OhioLINK EJC]

More about facies in AccessScience

Oberlin Authors:
Adam Darer '11, Neil Cole-Filipiak '10; Alison O'Connor '11; and Associate Professor of Chemistry Matthew Elrod.

• Formation and stability of atmospherically relevant isoprene-derived organosulfates and organonitrates.  Darer, AI; Cole-Filipiak, NC; O'Connor, AE; Elrod, MJ  ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 45 (5): 1895-1902 MAR 1 2011 [access at ACS web site]

More about organosulfur compounds in AccessScience.

Recent science publications by Oberlin students and faculty

Three new publications from Oberlin authors were just indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge:

Oberlin author:  Professor of Chemistry Rob Thompson

• Applications of argentation solid phase extraction to the capsaicinoids: Purification of commercial standards and isolation of homodihydrocapsaicin (8-methyl) from 'Bhut Jolokia.'  Thompson, Robert Q.; Loa, Kathleen.  FOOD CHEMISTRY 126 (3): 1424-1430 JUN 1 2011 [access in OhioLINK EJC]  [image of capsaicin]

Oberlin author:  Julia Bair, 5th year, double degree student.

• What subcortical-cortical relationships tell us about processing speech in noise.  Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Marmel, Frederic; Bair, Julia; Kraus, Nina.  EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE 33 (3): 549-557 FEB 2011 [access in OhioLINK EJC]

Carbon is published by
Elsevier; more info at
Sciencedirect.com

Oberlin author:  Jacob Schalch, Senior physics major.

• Micro-channel development and hydrogen adsorption properties in templated microporous carbons containing platinum nanoparticles.  Yang, Yunxia; Brown, Craig M.; Zhao, Chunxia; Chaffee, Alan L.; Nick, Burke; Zhao, Dongyuan; Webley, Paul A.; Schalch, Jacob; Simmons, Jason M.; Liu, Yun; Her, Jae-Hyuk; Buckley, C. E.; Sheppard, Drew A.  CARBON 49 (4): 1305-1317 APR 2011 [access in OhioLINK EJC]

Discovery shuttle headed for home

Space shuttle Discovery undocked from  the International Space Station this morning, on the last leg of its final journey.  Noah Adams presented a nice piece yesterday on All Thing Considered, about the push from museums to "land" a shuttle for permanent display.  It would be great to see Discovery come to roost in Ohio, at The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force! (located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just a few miles from Dayton).  An archive of events and work completed on Discovery's last journey is at the NASA web site archive of mission updates.
Today's feature from Reuters.com

Will Scripps Institution of Oceanography lose its library?

The news that University of California San Diego may have to close its Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library is alarming news, indeed.  Losing the expertise of the staff, some of whom would lose their positions, as well as losing the integrity of a collection of such historical and research significance, would affect the the oceanographic teaching and research community far beyond California's borders.  Although selected parts of the collection would remain available, both digitally and in a proposed consolidated science library, the use and management of those materials in a cohesive marine science collection with dedicated staff, would be adversely impacted.  The prospect is sad to contemplate.

Learn more:  Nature news article; Library Journal report.  Save the SIO Library now has a Facebook presence, and Deep Sea News posted a Scripps Library update yesterday.

Lectures celebrating the 125th Anniversary of C.M. Hall's discovery

C.M. Hall, from Oberlin College Archives
see also CM Hall collection guide

Presentations by Gregory H. Robinson, Franklin Professor of Chemistry at University of Georgia, and Kevin Anton, Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer, Alcoa, are highlights of today's Charles Martin Hall celebration.

An ISI Web of Knowledge cited reference search of Professor Robinson's publications, dated 1984-2010, resulted in 187 cited publications, several of which have been cited well over 100 times, for a total of 1,509 citations.  One of the most recent and frequently cited publications (co-authored with Oberlin alumnus Bruce King) is this article published in Science:

Wang YZ, Xie YM, Wei PR, King RB, Schaefer HF, Schleyer PV, Robinson GH. 2008. A stable silicon(0) compound with a Si=Si double bond. SCIENCE 321(5892):1069-1071.

The article with the highest citation count dates from 1997, and was published in JACS:

Su JR, Li XW, Crittendon RC, Robinson GH. 1997. How short is a -Ga Ga- triple bond? Synthesis and molecular structure of Na-2[Mes*2C6H3-Ga Ga-C(6)H(3)Mes*(2)] (Mes*=2,4,6-i-Pr3C6H2): The first gallyne. J AM CHEM SOC 119(23):5471-5472.

Robinson's talk this afternoon drew an appreciative crowd of faculty, students, staff and townspeople.  We all look forward to the keynote address by Mr. Anton this evening!

To not want to know is disastrous.

This quote from Marcelo Gleiser, posted on NPR today, is a perfect introduction to Evolution Weekend, just a few days away:

To not know is fine. To not want to know is disastrous.

Here is a further observation: Some people want to know, but don't know how to find or assess the accuracy of their information sources. More alarmingly, they don't know that they don't know how to find or assess information. The apparent ease of finding so much so quickly through any Web search engine does not translate into knowledge.  Next time you feel completely certain, absolutely sure, that your understanding of a particular issue or problem is correct, take careful stock of the source of your information: who funded the research?  is it free of bias?  who reviewed the data before publication? who is likely to profit (or suffer) from the research results?  do the authors hold educational degrees or certification relevant to their research findings?

Evolution Weekend is an excellent time to consider how scientific theory can be reconciled with personal belief without undermining faith or denying the integrity of scientific data.

Related reading:
The Prism and the rainbow: a Christian explains why evolution is not a threat / Joel Martin
Evolution vs. Creationism: an introduction / Eugenie Scott

Congratulations, Mike! Assistant Professor Moore wins NSF CAREER grant

Great story on Oberlin.edu - and exciting to see Mike Moore's work to be rewarded with this NSF grant!  It is especially nice to learn that the grant will support collaboration with area high school teachers, in addition to teaching and research with college students and colleagues:

(From Oberlin College Headlines)  "In addition to supporting student-faculty research opportunities in his lab, Moore will use the CAREER grant to improve student understanding of the core concepts in evolutionary biology both at the college and high school levels. He plans to run a summer workshop for area high school teachers in which he’ll give instruction on phylogenetic concepts — material that isn’t covered in Advanced Placement biology curriculum, but necessary for intro-level biology courses in college. He will also work with the faculty who teach the introductory BIOL 102 course to implement new lab activities aimed at getting students up to pace on extracting plant DNA and building an evolutionary tree."

For an artistic view of plant evolution, check out 
The art of plant evolution / W. John Kress and Shirley Sherwood, Richmond : Kew Pub., 2009

Welcome to Spring Semester! Carrel Signup This Week

Study Carrel applications for spring semester are at the circulation desk; carrel assignments will be posted on Friday morning.  Any senior science major who had a carrel in the fall may keep that assigned carrel - but you must let us know you want it still!  Send a message to science.library@oberlin.edu or tell whomever is at the circ desk.  More info.

Closed this afternoon! Snow and ice have us down, but not defeated.

The library should re-open on Thursday, after this mega-storm blows itself farther north and east.  Is this a contender for one of the biggest snowstorms in weather records?  You decide.  Read "10 Biggest Snowstorms of All Time."

Helen E. Blackwell '94, co-editor of Chemical Reviews, Jan. 2011

Helen Blackwell, class of 1994, is co-editor with Clay Fuqua of 2011 Bacterial Signals and Chemical Communication,  special issue of Chemical Reviews [access on the American Chemical Society site is limited to subscribers].  Their editorial, Introduction to Bacterial Signals and Chemical Communication, is a cogent and easily understood explanation of the ability of bacteria to communicate through the release of chemical compounds.  A significant aspect of this communication is known as "quorum sensing" - that is, releasing certain compounds in response to the density of bacterial cells and other environmental factors, which facilitates coordination among bacteria so they can more "effectively colonize and manipulate host organisms."  The mechanisms for chemical signaling between bacteria species and among bacteria and host species are complex and varied, as evident from the different review articles in this special issue, and the implications for human health are exciting.

The editors conclude, "Understanding these processes [of bacterial conversation] provides the opportunity for scientists to intervene in the conversation and guide it in specific directions that potentially mollify the negative activities of microorganisms and promote the their beneficial attributes."

Space Shuttle Challenger Astronaut Remembered

photo from aerospaceguide.net

From NPR's Morning Edition:  "Ronald McNair was one of the astronauts killed 25 years ago on Jan. 28, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded.  As his brother recalls, McNair's life was all about exploring boundaries - and exceeding them." [more]

Each Friday Morning Edition features a remembrance or interview from StoryCorps.  Today's story came from Carl McNair, brother of Ronald McNair, the second African-American to become an astronaut.  Perseverance to borrow books from the public library, then restricted to whites only, was an early indication that the young McNair would pursue his dreams.  That, and his interpretation of Star Trek's diverse crew as possibility rather than science fiction, is a touching tribute to a young person's goals.  That public library in Lake City, S.C., now celebrates Ronald E. McNair's legacy [story from the Charlotte Observer].

Radioactive... a tale of love and fallout

We have received an extraordinary book; part biography, part art, part science, and full of passion and creativity.  It is a delight for the eyes and intellect - and it smells delightfully bookish, from the combination of so many colored inks and fine paper.  The cover offers an extra treat of tactile pleasure, with slightly fuzzy imprinting of images and lettering.  The content, of course, makes it truly special, giving insight into the lives of Marie and Pierre Curie, and their abiding love and shared genius in the discovery of radioactivity.  The book considers also the scientific and romantic partnership of their daughter, Irene, with Frederic Joliot, who as a team discovered that radioactivity could be "provoked rather than simply observed," and worked so closely together that they could not always say who had an idea first.  The author, Lauren Redniss, brings the reader to more contemporary issues as well, and provides copious source notes.  It is sure to be off the shelf and into a borrower's hands quickly!

More new books arrived! High time, too.

Just when cobwebs threatened to form on the books displayed since mid-December, a shipment of new books was wheeled into the library.  Good stuff, all of it.  The World is Blue caught my eye immediately, and reminded me of the BBC story heard today of the polar bear who swam continuously for nine days, seeking sea ice, losing 22% of her body fat and her yearling cub in the process.  A photograph of a polar bear, looking directly into the camera, is the last image in The World is Blue.

The world is blue : how our fate and the ocean's are one / Sylvia A. Earle.
Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, c2009.

Sylvia Earle is former NOAA Chief Scientist, and the first person to walk untethered at the lowest depth ever—1, 250 feet. She is founder and director of Deep Ocean Research and Exploration, which designs instruments for deep-sea exploration.

It seemed very fitting that we received a replacement copy of Wendell Berry's The gift of good land : further essays, cultural and agricultural (Counterpoint Press, c1981) in the same shipment as Rebels for the soil : the rise of the global organic food and farming movement / Matthew Reed. (Earthscan, 2010).  The two books are excellent bookends for the past two decades of progress toward sustainable agricultural practices.

Browse the new book shelf - you will find a good read for that lull between the end of Winter Term and the start of spring semester!

Wag the Dog - last showing in the Big Read film series

Join us for the last showing in our Fahrenheit 451 film series! 
Sponsored by the Oberlin Big Read.

Wag the Dog

Wednesday, Jan 26, 2011

7 pm

Oberlin Public Library

Before elections, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to "fabricate" a war in order to cover-up a presidential sex scandal.

Director: Barry Levinson
Writers: Larry Beinhart, Hilary Henkin
Staring: Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Anne Heche

Faculty publication: Zeb Page in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

As indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge:

Cryptic metasomatism during exhumation of Franciscan eclogite and hornblendite revealed by in situ delta O-18 analysis of garnets.
Page, F. Zeb; Essene, Eric J.; Kita, Noriko T.; Valley, John W.
GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA 74 (12): A785-A785 Suppl. 1 JUN 2010

This is an abstract of a presentation made at the 19th Annual V.M. Goldschmidt Conference (Goldschmidt 2010: Earth, Energy, and the Environment, Knoxville Tennessee, June 13-18, 2010)

Nicole Foss speaking in Oberlin on January 28

Nicole Foss will be speaking in Oberlin on Friday, January 28 at 7pm, on A Century of Challenges: Building Local Resilience in an Era of Economic Turmoil & Resource Depletion.  She writes at The Automatic Earth under the pseudonym Stoneleigh.  The talk will be held at First Church in Oberlin, 106 N. Main St.

This event was announced on her blog and on Mike Ruppert's radio show, The Lifeboat Hour. 
see More details and a poster [pdf].  About Nicole Foss.

Foss runs the Agri-Energy Producers' Association of Ontario, where she has focused on farm-based biogas projects and grid connections for renewable energy.  A new publication from the OECD gives an overview of biogas and related topics: Bioheat, biopower and biogas: developments and implications for agriculture / Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Yet one more reason to thank industrious microbes

This delectable collection comes from
Malley's of Cleveland, Ohio.  And,
closer to home: Suzin L. Chocolatier

Improving some of the world's best chocolate by optimizing a microbial starter culture is sweet research, as reported in December 1,  2010 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.  The article is nicely summarized on the ASM news site (Researchers Select Microbes to Improve Chocolate). Fine chocolate is most definitely the product of careful science and creative culinary art!

Read the full article:
T. Lefeber, M. Janssens, N. Camu, and L. De Vuyst. Kinetic analysis of strains of lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria in cocoa pulp simulation media toward development of a starter culture for cocoa bean fermentation. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 76: 7708-7716.

Food microbiology is well-represented in each issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.  For a general introduction, try Food microbiology / Martin R. Adams and Maurice O. Moss.  Royal Society of Chemistry, 2008.  Human diets were be very boring, indeed, without the myriad types of food we enjoy only through microbial action (not discounting the essential role of microbes in the gut!).

Good Luck on Exams! Check out a new book when it's all over...

Exam Day 1 is looming, and every table is occupied here in the science library - though some chairs are still free, if you're willing to share space at the big reading tables.  Good luck to everyone; may your short-term memory perform brilliantly and solidify into long-term knowledge.

More than a dozen new books were delivered today, which could entice you to explore a new subject once this semester's exams are behind you.  The potential disaster of a world without bees is explored in-depth by Allison Benjamin and Brian McCallum.  Nothing like the prospect of world famine due to the loss of these amazing pollinators to redirect your attention from whatever you are studying so madly at the moment.  There are, coincidentally, two more books focused on bees on the new book display right now: Why do bees buzz, and Honeybee democracy.  Check out all three and you could find yourself taking the first step toward apiculture!

There are plenty of other options, including a compilation of this year's best science and nature writing, so take a break and browse our display.

Alumna Felisa Wolfe ('00), now Wolfe-Simon, and her work on arsenophiles

Felisa Wolfe, when she was an Oberlin College
Science Library student assistant

MSNBC's Cosmic Log has been attentive to the research of Felisa Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues, and the response from other researchers to their provocative findings, published in Science, that a bacterium can utilize arsenic rather than phosphorus ['Weird life' researchers answer critics].  Before heading off to graduate school and her present position with the U.S. Geological Survey, she was Felisa Wolfe of the science library student staff!  A little known fact of her life at Oberlin, no doubt.  As a 2000 grad, Felisa was one of many science majors who lived through the upheaval of Science Center construction, without reaping any of the benefits  - we moved to the new science library in August 2001 and the rest of the center was completed the following year.  Felisa was also among the last group of students given the Metcalf Student Assistant award when that award was based strictly on merit, rather than longevity of employment.  She was one of the best, providing excellent service at our combination reference/circulation service desk.  It is always great to see scientific publications of former students, and especially exciting when novel research findings challenge long-held assumptions.

Faculty and Student Publications

The following articles, published last month, were just indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge.  Three former students (Mauck, van den Heuvel, and Hull) are named as co-authors of the first paper,  with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Catherine Oertel.

Synthesis and Structures of Pb3O2(CH3COO)2·0.5H2O and Pb2O(HCOO)2: Two Corrosion Products Revisited.
Catherine M. Mauck, Titus W. P. van den Heuvel, Michaela M. Hull, Matthias Zeller, and Catherine M. Oertel
Inorganic Chemistry 49 (22): 10736–10743 Nov 15, 2010. [access at ACS Publications]

Low luteinizing hormone enhances spatial memory and has protective effects on memory loss in rats.
Shira G. Ziegler, Janice E. Thornton.
Hormones and Behavior 58 (5): 705-713 NOV 2010.  [access at OhioLINK EJC]

Extended Hours for Exam Period!

The Science Library has never offered so many hours on a weekend before.  To accommodate the exam schedule, we will stay open until midnight on Friday, and be open 8:30 am - midnight on Saturday and Sunday.  Come on in!  But leave your food outside, please.  More hours.

Media Oddly Silent on Climate Talks

This is a disturbing development, perhaps indicative that the American public has difficulty focusing on long-term, complex problems in competition with WikiLeaks, tax cuts, the economy in general, and a lame duck legislative body focused on other issues.  Climate change waits for no lawmaker or policy wonk, however.  As one of the "most serious challenges facing us today" (Union of Concerned Scientists), media coverage needs to be accurate, thorough and accessible to all.

"At last year’s climate meeting in Copenhagen, the room was buzzing with thousands of reporters. However, today climate change seems to be a forgotten story. Democracy Now! reviewed the transcripts of last week’s evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC in the United States. The Cancún talks were not mentioned a single time." (Democracy Now!, Dec. 6, 2010).

National Public Radio, however, provided good coverage of the talks on All Things Considered.  Thank you, NPR. 

Roger Pielke, Jr. writes with clarity and insight about climate change policy in his new book, The Climate Fix. There are nearly 200 books on similar topics in the same section of shelving; it is an excellent place to learn the facts regarding climate and global warming.

Just ordered: When a billion Chinese jump

Spurred by today's interview between NPR's Steve Inskeep and author Jonathan Watts, journalist for The Guardian, I've just requested purchase of his book "When a billion Chinese jump: how China will save the world - or destroy it."  The interview provided a glimmer of hope for solving China's enormous environmental problems, as well as the challenge of balancing economic progress and environmental responsibility. "I think China is moving very, very quickly on renewable energy and clean tech," Watts says, "precisely because its environment is so bad that they have to take extreme actions."  Until Oberlin's copy is here and ready to be borrowed, request a copy from another OhioLINK library.  Read an excerpt from the book at NPR's Morning Edition.

Mountain Top Removal Road Show & Deepening Our Connections

I am posting these event announcements on behalf of Oberlin Earth First! and Students for Carbon Neutrality.

Tonight 7:30pm Oberlin College Wilder Hall [room location TBA]

The Mountaintop Removal Road Show includes a stunning 20-minute slide show about the impacts of mountaintop removal on coalfield residents, communities and the environment, and features traditional Appalachian mountain music and shocking aerial photos of decapitated Appalachian mountains.

Tuesday 4pm OC Wilder Hall Room 112

Deepening Our Connections is a workshop linking the fields of deep ecology, ecofeminism, social ecology, environmental justice, and mysticism and showing how they can work together to fight oppression and move towards the collective liberation of all living beings. Integral theory is used in the workshop to show the importance of bringing different perspectives together. The workshop is very participatory, no prior knowledge of any of the subjects is required.Sponsored by Oberlin Earth First! and Students for Carbon Neutrality.

Call Your Legislator - ask for LSTA Funding!

A message from the American Library Association

Fund LSTA at $300 Million!

Please call your Congressional representatives and tell them to fund the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at $300 million for FY 2011. LSTA funding is distributed to states by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through population-based grants. LSTA the only source of federal funding for public libraries, and with more and more public libraries facing state and local budget cuts, it is critically important that libraries receive this money.
Take Action! 

Travel with a good book

Heading off for Thanksgiving break?  Take along some good reading!

Info @ Google books

Fragile web : what next for nature? / edited by Jonathan Silvertown, will give you a renewed interest in the biodiversity of whatever region you are visiting in the next few days.

From the publisher's summary:   [Fragile Web] "discusses the importance of the world's ecosystems and how directly or indirectly humans are responsible for the fate of nature. Crucially, it also examines what can be done to protect the natural world and why it matters. Although we cannot undo all that we have done, ignoring the current crisis facing biodiversity could fundamentally change the lives of future generations."

We have at least 50,000 other great books close at hand, so stop in before you leave campus.  Have a good break!

And, for those staying in Oberlin, the library will be open Friday afternoon as well as normal hours on Saturday and Sunday.  See our HOURS.

Paleobotany text a hefty addition to new book shelf

Paleobotany: the biology and evolution of fossil plants, 2nd ed., by Thomas N. Taylor, Edith L. Taylor and Michael Krings (Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier, 2009) is by far the heaviest book on the new book shelf, and may have on average the most images per page, so it caught my attention in our most recent shipment of new books.  What a treasure of authoritative text, illustrations, photographs and other visually presented data!  Far more than a simple compendium of fossil data, the authors provide historical context of the interpretation of systematics and classification, and photographs too numerous to count of cited authors.  The photographs and other illustrations of researchers easily span 180 years, and give a human face to the history and ongoing story of paleobotany.  This is a delightful feature in such a comprehensive tome, and will be appreciated by anyone interested in the history of science.

Understanding climates of the past is essential for understanding current climate change, and paleobotany is an vital tool for the study of ancient climates.  The Encyclopedia of paleoclimatology and ancient environments is an excellent resource for more on this subject [view at OhioLINK EBC or Springerlink.com].

Entropy and Rust [Letter], D. F. Styer

New publication from Daniel F. Styer, J&M Schiffer Professor of Phyics, as indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge.

Styer, D. F. 2010. Entropy and Rust [Letter].  American Journal of Physics 78: 1077-1077.