February 2004
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Campus News & Events
Not fit for man nor turtle
It was the coldest January since 1988, but students on Professor of Biology Barbara Brennessel's diamondback terrapin research team kept warm in Wheaton's Science Center while caring for 36 tiny terrapin hatchlings over winter break. The team studies the early growth and behaviors of terrapins before releasing them back into the Cape Cod marshes when the ice melts. The Wheaton team, working with Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (WBWS), received funding for their terrapin research efforts from the Sounds Conservancy in 2003. (more)
The art of chemistry
Students in Associate Professor Laura Muller's "Art, Color and Chemistry" lab course explored the chemical basis of color last semester by experimenting with natural plant material dyes, including henna from the Middle East, indigo from China, catechu from East India, and Osage orange from North America. The students used an array of fabrics and mordants (fixing reagents) to achieve varying effects, then pieced their work into handmade quilts. Go to our photo page to see the results, which the students presented at a poster session in December.
Wheaton's crossword whiz
Mike Doran '07 is among the youngest contributors ever to the New York Times and the L.A. Times crossword puzzle features. The Topsham, Maine, resident has been creating puzzles for years, and his work is now a regular feature in the Wheaton Wire. An interview with the puzzle-meister aired on Maine Public Radio's "Maine Things Considered" on Dec. 30, 2003. (Learn more.)
The desktops of history
Mark LeBlanc, associate professor of computer science, has created a computer museum on campus, dedicated to preserving personal computers from decades past. "My students often view them as strange technology," he says, "and many of the computers we have collected were being used well before they were born." While the machines have outlived their usefulness as work tools, LeBlanc says they play an important role in his teaching. (Read more.)
On the Web
Thinking globally
The Nobel laureate and economist Joseph E. Stiglitz delivered Wheaton's third annual Tropp Lecture last September, stressing that radical reforms will be necessary if globalization is to live up to its promise of improving lives of people around the world. The lecture, entitled "Globalization and Its Discontents," is now available as a Web broadcast, on demand through the WGBH Forum Network.
And while we're on the subject ...
Sarah Burdacki '04 published her article "Strategy, Tactics, and Solidarity: The Anti-Globalization Movement and Its Discontents" in the January 2004 issue of the online review Bad Subjects. Drawing in part on her own experiences at the 2001 protest of the G-8 Conference in Genoa, Italy, Burdacki examines the wide diversity of tactics in the movement today, concluding that "violent forms of protest will not work successfully toward the ultimate goal of gaining credibility and bringing about change." The piece was Burdacki's final paper in the course, "Literary and Cultural Theory," taught by Josh Stenger, assistant professor of film studies and literature. Read the article online.
Athletics
Adversity 101
Sean Kelly '06 of Providence, a point guard on the men's basketball team, was sidelined by physical ailments last semester--first a collapsed lung and then a sprained ankle. But although he couldn't hit the courts, he did hit the books, and made the Dean's List for the first time. Reporter Mike Szostak wrote about Kelly's comeback in the Providence Journal. (Read the story online.)
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