Issue 25 by Elements Magazine

ELEMENTS A MAGAZINE FOR SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND

ISSUE 25 - FALL 2019

PLATYPUSES

HOLOGRAPHY

Cover illustration courtesy of Bismikado

The production of Elements magazine is possible due to the funding and support of the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound (ASUPS). We thank Media Board, ASUPS, and, by extension, the student body for making this publication a reality. This magazine was printed by Print NW (Lakewood, WA).

“Learning is what happens at [the] interface of surprise and relevance.” -LIZ NEELEY

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR What draws you to science? Is it the promise of wealth, success, and fame? Unless you are studying computer programming, the answer is probably no. For me, the appeal of science lies in the sense of wonder it evokes, both when I learn something new and surprising and when I see connections that weren’t previously apparent. In these moments I am reminded of why I chose to study science. Unfortunately, I find that it is easy to lose this sense of wonder in the dayto-day frenzy of activity that typifies college life. When it’s after 11 p.m. and you are just trying to get through that last five pages of textbook reading, it is easy to skim over the explanation of inducible defenses in Daphnia without stopping to appreciate the fascinating evolutionary and genetic underpinnings of the process. My hope is that this magazine presents you with an opportunity to slow down and take in some insightful and curiosityprovoking stories about science. While these stories were not organized around a particular theme, one that has emerged naturally is that of interdisciplinarity. This interdisciplinarity includes the intersections between different scientific disciplines, with articles linking holograms and suspension feeders, beavers and sediments, and lizard parenting and microbiology. It also includes intersections between science and other subjects such as activism, art, politics, education, and equity. For those of you looking for additional stories about science, we have included a faculty book recommendation column near the end of the magazine. In the spirit of this column, I would like to recommend a book myself. In The Sun Is a Compass, Caroline Van Hemert tells the story of rediscovering her passion for scientific inquiry. After finishing graduate school, Van Hemert felt disillusioned and disconnected from the reasons she had chosen to pursue biology in the first place. Unsure about what to do next, Van Hemert departed on a 4,000-mile journey from Washington to British Columbia to Northwest Alaska, during which she rekindled her love for the study of the natural world. In addition to being an engaging travelogue of adventure, perseverance, and a very hungry bear, this book emphasized to me how a career in science needn’t follow a narrow, linear path, but can change and reorient over time with your interests. When we share stories such as these, we share with others the wonder and utility of science. In contrast to lab reports and journal articles that seek to present methods and facts while minimizing bias, these narratives acknowledge and showcase the human element inherent to all scientific pursuits. Read on, as students share their own stories of science and discovery. Sincerely,

STAFF

Erin Stewart EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Rachael Stegmaier DESIGN EDITOR

Becca Miserlian COPY EDITOR

Kaela Hamilton ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Beatrice Bugos ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Noah Dillon ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Anna Edmunds ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Noah Bader-Fourney OUTREACH MANAGER

Editor-in-Chief

In this Issue 6

Leaving the Ivory Tower Behind

Eleven Things I Learned at Field Camp Without Lexus Sullivan

Lisa Grimm

Really Trying 12

Botany and Art

Kaela Hamilton

Problem Beavers Fighting Wildfires

Amanda Foster

Neurons and Glia / Semipermeable Membrane

Iris Nosek

Quandaries of Self-Driving Cars

Maria Leuzinger

Access in STEM

Kate Gladhart-Hayes

The Geography of Politics

Quintin Lenti

Leaf Bugs

Bismikado

Go With The Flow

Matthew Wells

Nature Photography

Will Brooks, Nico Heyning, Noah Dillon

Linking Maternally Transmitted Microbes and

Helena Heyer-Gray

Hatch Success in Sceloporus virgatus 34

Platypus Behavior in Queensland, Australia

Nate Hess

Studying Abroad as a STEM Major

Erin Stewart, Kaela Hamilton

An Interview with a New Professor

Noah Dillon

Faculty Book Recommendations

The Allium

Cosmo Nerd

Wag Yourself: Dogs of Harned

Maya Sealander, Staff

Elements Allium Playlist

Staff

Mad Libs: An Email to Your Professor

Citations

THE ERA OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS: LEAVING THE IVORY TOWER BEHIND BY LISA GRIMM

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Photo by Rachael Warriner

“WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?” The voices of nearly 200 young people reverberate through the halls of Congress on a cold November day as we sing in front of then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office. Just seven days after the 2018 midterm elections where the House was flipped to a Democratic majority, one might have expected the environmental community to take a sigh of relief and pat itself on the back. Yet there we were, the frontline generation to the horrors of climate change, getting arrested by the dozens and protesting by the hundreds. It was invigorating, being surrounded by my peers demanding leadership to hear the call and take action. We were a hodgepodge of young individuals from all across the country and all walks of life; there were people from the workforce, students from high school and college, black, brown, indigenous, and mixedrace people, LGBTQ+ people, people from poor and wealthy families, and people with backgrounds in policy, communication, science, and “In the echo everything in between.

perhaps this makes sense when scientists are valued purely for their objectivity, for not being politicized, for staying in their ivory tower. The ivory tower of science is built of competition, elitism, and the never-ending search for pure objectivity. Our writing is praised for being free of value judgments and our work is celebrated when we eliminate bias. In popular media, scientists are most often portrayed as straight cis white men in lab coats and fancy suits—there is little room for women, people who identify as LGBTQ+, people of color, or people from poor or less-educated backgrounds. There is a “publish or perish” mentality that permeates academia, driving fierce competition within the community and forcing scientists to spend more time in the lab or field, endlessly striving to publish, publish, publish. The ivory tower isolates the scientific community from the rest of society.

chambers of

This is hard to hear and believe as a scientist. We are the people who the ivory tower, holding We live in a time of many study the very stuff that our universe is intersecting crises. Not one issue that made of! Not only that, but we are the the evidence and the affects a part of our lives or a part of our ones who measured the carbon dioxide community is separate from another. solutions is not enough to in the air, ran the statistics on how This becomes particularly apparent fast Earth was warming, and analyzed enact the changes we so the progression of climate change. We when looking at the climate crisis— economic inequality drives disparate clearly need in the rest of have an intimate understanding of the effects of natural disasters fueled by processes driving climate change and climate change, racism and colonialism society.” we hold the solutions to the problem put people on the frontlines of climate in technological innovations. Yet in the change, and inhumane immigration policies turn away echo chambers of the ivory tower, holding the evidence climate refugees seeking safety and a livable future in and the solutions is not enough to enact the changes we so Global North countries. Mass incarceration and a broken clearly need in the rest of society. How do we leave the ivory criminal justice system provide bodies to fight increasingly tower and break free of its confining and isolating walls? devastating fires in the United States (1, 2) and people who First, we must speak in the language of the people. lack access to affordable, quality healthcare face mental When we use technical language such as “350 ppm” and and physical health threats without proper care. Not one “1.5 °C vs 2.0 °C,” the core of the issue can be filtered out person is untouched by the climate crisis. That’s why we or disregarded. Those who profit from climate change came together in our homes and in the halls of power to (looking at you, Koch Bros and your fossil fuel billionaire march, sing loudly, vote, strike, and organize. Yet there are friends) have used this phenomenon for decades to fuel lies a small but loud few who choose not to acknowledge, let about the gravity of the situation, despite being the first alone address, the issue. to study and understand the detriment their industry was Virtually all science is united on the causes, impacts, causing to the global future (3). and existence of climate change. But when the wealthiest Second, we must not debate on their turf. If you’ve ever and most politically powerful few ignore the evidence and defended climate change in a debate about whether or not take no action to mitigate and minimize its impacts, it seems anthropogenic (i.e. human-caused) climate change is real as though the problem may not exist, that the thousands of at a family gathering, you know that we haven’t really been scientists are talking about another planet altogether. And

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able to overcome the climate deniers despite overwhelming consensus and evidence. The hurdle to moving away from the debate about the existence of climate change and toward a more productive debate concerning what to do about it is made of the piles of money fossil fuel billionaires have reaped while we desperately try to convince the public that the crisis is something that all people should care about. After hurricanes Maria, Irma, and Harvey; the Camp, Paradise, Carr, and Getty fires; extreme flooding in Southeast Asia; disappearing coastal cities and island nations; and onslaughts of record-breaking hot summers, climate change has rightfully claimed a seat at the table of intersecting crises. We are moving past the debate of whether or not climate change is happening, and much to the chagrin of fossil fuel billionaires, toward debates about finding and implementing the solutions. This is where scientists can shine—we hold many of the solutions and have the skills and knowledge base to develop the innovations that can bring us to a safer climate. Stepping out of the ivory tower means meaningful collaboration with experts from other fields like economics, sociology, psychology, the arts, and history to envision a better future.

atmospheric chemist and climate activist, “It is our actions that count, not our intentions” (4). Reports and studies are crucial to developing the solutions to the crisis, but to make them a reality, we must give the power back to the people by reaching a critical mass of active individuals. The power that the fossil fuel billionaires have is entrenched in our economies, governments, and elections (the Koch Brothers spent nearly as much money as the Republican and Democratic parties during the 2016 election) (5,6). We need to be organizing, voting, and striking to shift the political norms in order to implement the solutions that we have. Our generation is coming to age in a critical moment for our future on this planet. The changes that must be made to our economy and society to avoid climate catastrophe must be made during this time, and it’s going to take all of us. The scientists cannot be shouting from the ivory tower if they are to reach the people and especially the people in power. We must march with the people, vote with the people, strike against injustices and for the planet, and organize ourselves and our friends to tear down the hurdles set by the fossil fuel billionaires and build the sustainable and just future that we want to see.

Lastly, in the words of Dr. Heather Price, an

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Artwork by Bismikado

Eleven Things I Learned at Field Camp Without Really Trying BY LEXUS SULLIVAN The scene: mid-afternoon in the beginning of June, partly cloudy, somewhere along the Fife coastline near St. Andrews, Scotland, roughly 4,500 miles from home. Clinging to a sharp, wet rock as the tide comes rushing in, I’m mentally cursing whoever misread the tide table that morning and verbally cursing a lot in general. One classmate goes down after trying to pick their way over a kelp-covered clay layer as another calls out the grain size of a sandstone bed. This is field camp, folks, as real as it gets. If you ask any upperclassman geo major about their summer plans you’ve got a good chance of hearing two words: field camp. Just about every undergraduate rockfocused Earth science program requires their majors to learn field skills like notebook-keeping and hand-mapping in a course known as field camp. Usually lasting 4–6 weeks, field camp is typically completed either after graduation or between junior and senior year, but aligning your classes just right can get you in right after sophomore year (like me!). Larger universities may offer their own camps. Others, like Puget Sound, have no designated program of their own, leaving majors to the hunt that is finding the right field camp for them. At the glowing recommendation of my dear partnerin-giving-Jeff-Tepper-a-hard-time Miriam Cohen (’19) and with the knowledge that I wasn’t going to study abroad

at any other point during undergrad, I attended the 2019 Summer Geology Field Camp run by the University of St. Andrews, which took me across Scotland for five weeks of good rocks and better company. While field camp was definitely good for me (spiritually and academic-requirements wise), in conversations with geo friends a question has arisen: How valuable is an oldschool field-based course when you’re not planning on a field-based geology career, especially as geology as a whole continues to incorporate and place new emphasis on digital methods like GIS (geographic information systems)? It’s an important question, particularly because field camp is a significant investment of time and money for an undergrad (especially if you have to fly to the UK for it). I can’t comment too much on the topic when it comes to future career outcomes, but having undergone my geologic coming of age I can say that I learned a lot more at field camp than mapping. Although some are less poignant than others, I’d like to share with any questioning geologists and curious science enthusiasts the lessons you too could gain at field camp:

1. Compass Skills Don’t have phone service? Accidentally left your GPS on and drained the battery? Fret not, because you know how to quickly triangulate your position using a map and compass if you’ve gone to field camp! A lot of geologic class work and outdoor experiences will teach the basics of a compass, but few will teach you as well as being lost in the Scottish Highlands.

2. It’s High Time to Check Your Tide Tables If you’re out for a full field day on the coast, you WILL have to deal with high tide, but knowing when high tide is can help you maximize mapping time and prevent you from getting cut off in an inlet when you’re already behind on your project. Tide tables are also useful for leisure activities, like fishing and beach camping, and it’s a pretty sweet flex being able to interpret them.

All images by Lexus Sullivan

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3. High-Vis Yellow: A Statement Shade for Every Season Few people are genuinely thrilled the first time someone hands them a high-visibility vest and hard hat, and I for one deeply oppose highly saturated neons in my daily wardrobe. That being said, spending five weeks in full PPE (personal protective equipment, for any laypeople reading) turns the high-vis into a sort of comfort item that you will unthinkingly wear into your local Tesco grocery while buying snacks and alcohol.

4. Data Don’t Exist to be Clear There’s a common perception that scientists like our fields because we’re fact-oriented people, and unlike literary analysis there is often a single right answer to something like a math problem or a species ID. That being said, whenever you’re conducting field-based experiments and studies, you’re almost guaranteed to come across data that you’re uncertain how to interpret. It’s frustrating. You have to make educated guesses. You start to doubt your abilities to see and think. But as long as your map makes geologic sense and matches up with your field notes, no one can really tell you for certain that you’re wrong, just that group consensus suggests that you completely misidentified that rock layer. It’s fine, though, you still got the general direction of compression, which is what really matters in the large-scale story.

5. Water-Resistant is NOT the Same as Water-Proof Ok, I actually knew this one growing up in the PNW, but I was reminded of it after the first Scottish rainy day when half of my class found out the hard way that their jackets and boots were falsely advertised. I did learn that water-proof clipboards were a thing, though, and promptly made one of the best purchases of my life. It kept both my maps and my St. Andrews-supplied ‘water-resistant’ (i.e., not a Rite in the Rain and thus deeply inferior) notebook in much better shape. Oh, and overalls? Truly the ultimate choice when you’re juggling a full field kit. Props to myself for that one. Decent substitutes utilized by my classmates included fanny packs and utility vests, but I was unanimously declared most stylin’.

6. Anything Tastes Good if You’ve Been Out in the Field All Day Long-term field work really changes your standards of living. Hostel showers don’t always function. You can never pack enough clean socks. You’re randomly bleeding and you don’t know how that happened. But what makes it all ok

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are mealtimes. My cooking group got pretty damn good at making tasty and nutritious eats with few ingredients and fewer decent pans (shout out to the Burn Unit—I still think about those salmon bowls), but even slightly slimy ham and mayo on white bread so artificial it seems to reflect the light can satisfy in the right scenario. And haggis? Actually really delicious, exhausted or not.

7. Field Notes are a Science AND an Art I’ll admit, prior to coming to field camp, my field notes left a lot to be desired. They may have worked well enough for me (most of the time), but anyone else trying to decipher them was not in for a fun or easy time. That quickly changed after my gruff Irish camp director chewed me out for not drawing my margins in ahead of time. Were my notes perfect after that? Of course not, especially at the end of a long field day, but I have definitely improved and see the value in having a consistent, clear note-taking style in the field. If only I could apply that to my lecture notes.

8. The Moine is Aptly Named The Moine Thrust Zone in Scotland is one of the most well-documented geologic areas on the planet. It’s a beautiful and confusing place full of gorgeous hillscapes and multiple layers of quartzite that can all look the same but need to be distinguished for mapping purposes (when in doubt, it’s pipe rock and out of stratigraphy because of a thrust fault). Moine also can be traced back to the Scottish Gaelic for ‘peat bog,’ which I learned was pretty spot on when I went shin-deep in mud one day.

9. Networking Comes Naturally When Everyone is Dirty and Suffering Few things fill me with more dread than the phrase ‘networking opportunity.’ I know it’s an important skill, but my stomach still turns when I envision myself shaking hundreds of hands and trying to sell myself as an independent go-getter who also works well in teams. But now I have a multi-state network of peers who like what I like and actually want to help me out, no strings attached. Over the course of camp I got advice on grad school applications, broadened my perspective on opportunities in undergrad, and got to hear about the local geology of everywhere from Idaho to Massachusetts. I made real friends who still like to keep our Snap group active and who love to see each other thrive in geology and life. After all, few things bond people like communal tick checks.

10. Nessie is Real I have no proof, but I visited the Loch. There’s a vibe.

11. Confidence is a Skill You Can Improve On When it comes to schoolwork (and in general, if I’m being honest), I’d say I tend towards the ‘nervous, overthinking, and too hard on myself ’ side of the spectrum. Thankfully, I can say that I’ve grown in self-confidence throughout my college career and made huge progress over the course of field camp. I didn’t know what was going on all of (or even most of ) the time, I was homesick, I was one of the youngest and least-experienced there, and I was just generally really overwhelmed. But I got through it and didn’t fail. Skills I had before got to shine, everyone was kind and encouraging, and I learned more by knowing less coming in. Now if you dropped me off in the middle of nowhere with a compass and a map, I could give you a decent depiction of the geology of the area at the end of the day without majorly freaking out in the process. That’s a big deal to me. Field camp was the hardest but most rewarding thing I’ve done to date. Friends back home may have gotten an earful on how miserable I was in my low moments, but looking back, I wouldn’t do a whole lot differently. The tears shed outside the Durness Youth Hostel dried, my knees finally stopped hurting after a month of recovery, and now I’m left with fond memories and a new sense of pride. Field camp is more than rocks and maps, it’s beautiful country, personal growth, and for me, exceptional staff and 31 other rockhounds who made it a roaring good time. Ending scene: mid-evening in mid-July, the basement level of some pub in St. Andrews, Scotland, roughly 4,500 miles from home. It’s my last night of field camp, and the celebration is dying down. People are starting to split off and head back to the flats, and I’m saying my goodbyes. Hugs are given, promises of staying in touch are made, and my camp director reopens the bar tab. This is my last night of being able to legally drink for a few months and my closest new friends are still in a booth; might as well stay for another round.

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Botany and Art: An emerging branch of science

BY KAELA HAMILTON

This semester, my research on epiphyte ecology hat’s the closest you’ve ever gotten to has given me the unique opportunity to witness the role doing art in a science class? Chances art can play in scientific papers. My studies focus on the are, the most artistic thing you’ve interactions between and within epiphyte species (plants encountered in biology is sketching out a cell, or maybe that grow on other plants in a non-parasitic relationship), electron orbitals in chemistry. There is a common and the trees on which they grow. One component of my assumption within the fields of science and art that the two thesis involves the categorization of disciplines cannot and do not overlap. epiphyte species into functional groups This judgment represents a restrictionist “Art can help based on their physical growth forms. attitude toward the sciences and arts that scientists synthesize Some epiphytes (mostly mosses) prefer confines them into boxes defining what to grow on substrates where they can these words “ought” to mean and how huge amounts of hang pendulously over branches and people in those professions “ought” to knots, while others grow flat against the spend their time. However, throughout information into bark, creeping along the trunk. Although history, people have combined art and images to better the vast diversity of epiphyte growth science to create multi-layered avenues forms could be explained with words, to promote new understandings of their convey their ideas botanical illustrations provide a visual field. and to forge interest representation of the species and show the reader how its morphology reflects Like the famous saying, “a picture and imagination in its categorization. is worth a thousand words,” art can help scientists synthesize huge amounts readers.” While botanical illustrations have of information into images to better only recently become a profession rather than a hobby, convey their ideas and to forge interest and imagination people have been drawing life-like representations of plants in readers. For instance, hand-drawn illustrations of for centuries. Most drawings of botanics were very informal fossils and maps frequently accompanied early geologic and could be used for basic publications, and remain identification. For instance, integral to the teaching herbals, books about plants and dissemination of and their properties, often geology (1). Other fields included realistic drawings of science have not been of plants of interest (2). so lucky in their retention However, most botanical of art in formal works. In drawings were considered a biology, the only images form of art rather than a tool you’re likely to see in a for practical application. published paper are tables Recently, there has been a and graphs.

ABOVE: Plagiomnium insigne, a vertically-growing moss (Illustration by Kaela Hamilton)

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Image source: Wikimedia Commons

ABOVE: Kindbergia praelonga, a pendulous moss (Illustration by Kaela Hamilton)

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

shift to regarding these botanic depictions as instructional illustrations rather than aesthetic drawings. Now, botanical illustrations are being used in conservation. Artists and botanists such as Alice Tangerini illustrate threatened species to characterize their morphology in a way that pictures and words cannot. Tangerini has illustrated over 1,000 species for the Smithsonian, and remains the only botanical illustrator ever hired by the museum (3). My own botanical illustrations will highlight morphological differences in my epiphyte species in a way that photographs cannot; most photos of mosses do not isolate a single individual, and thus do not accurately represent the unique characteristics of a single growth form. The functional groups that epiphytes will be sorted into are based on field observations and the epiphyte morphology, highlighted in the illustrations. The process of creating botanical illustrations has never been formally published in a journal article. For my thesis, I hope to publish the process so that others in the scientific discipline can use botanical illustrations in their formal papers as well.

RIGHT: One of Alice Tangeriniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s illustrations UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 13

make your own botanical illustrations 1. Find a cool plant. Tape it down on a piece of paper in the desired position.

2. Make a photocopy of the plant. It

is sometimes helpful to decrease the saturation to allow details to come through. If the specimen is small, it is also helpful to zoom in. Make sure to include a scale bar!

3. Outline in pencil. Using tracing paper,

outline the photocopy in pencil. At this point, it is just the shape of the specimen, not the individual parts.

4. Outline in pen. With another sheet of tracing

paper, outline the pencil tracing with a fine-pointed (0.5 micron) pen.

5. Add details. Use an extra-fine pen (0.2 micron). It may be helpful to use a dissecting scope to closely examine details of small specimens.

6. Photocopy. Make a final photocopy of your

completed illustration. You are now a botanical artist!

Adapted from methods published by the Smithsonian Institution

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Problem Beavers Fighting Wildfires BY AMANDA FOSTER

UP IN THE NORTH CASCADES, THERE IS A BEAVER DATING SERVICE. It’s an old fish hatchery that has been repurposed to house so-called ‘problem beavers’ and help them meet others for higher rates of successful relocation. Problem beavers are beavers that build structures in undesirable places, cause problems such as flooding, and cut down trees. The popular solution in the past has been to trap and kill them, but in 2008 the Methow Beaver Project (MBP) began as an alternative way of dealing with beavers. They remove beavers from downstream areas where they are problem animals and relocate them to previously beaverinhabited areas where they can improve riparian (i.e. streamside) conditions (1). As of 2017, the MBP has released 337 beavers (2). These beavers are working to reclaim what once was theirs. In the 1800s, fur trapping was spreading westward, and beaver populations began dropping at alarming rates (3). Although beaver dams are small physical features at the watershed scale, they play a large role in retaining water in mountain watersheds (4). Active beaver meadows

ART BY LUCY CURTIS

(complexes of multiple, different-aged beaver dams and ponds) with high levels of beaver activity store greater volumes of fine sediment behind dams and in ponds (4). Beaver impoundments slow down the stream, which allows the sediment particles in the water to settle out of suspension, accumulating over time. The ponds created by dams reduce the upstream water slope, which helps sediment settle out upstream of the dam (5). Since 1834, approximately 195,000 to 260,000 km2 of U.S. wetlands have been converted to dry land, with much of that land being previous beaver habitat (6, 7). MBP beaver pairs are working hard to “take back” their native wetlands and to repopulate highland mountain areas. The increase in water storage that they create is especially important when considering the recent increase in the number and intensity of wildfires as a result of climate change. Okanogan County (OC), Washington, where the MBP works, has been hit by some devastating wildfires in the past few years. Since 2000, there has been an increase in

ABOVE: Historic trend of wildfires in Okanogan county UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 15

intensity and number of wildfires. In the past five years burn the other side, preventing the fire from spreading (9). alone, OC has been hit by the highest-intensity wildfires it The MBP has introduced the process of trapping, has ever experienced. One way to help combat the effects of setting up dates, and releasing beavers as a way of dealing wildfires is through beavers. with problematic beavers and benefiting the environment. Beaver dams affect where water is It is a process that is much better for beavers located (groundwater, pond, or stream), as than trapping and killing. However, an “An increased well as the timing of its release and total increased tolerance for beavers in urban tolerance for time it spends in the watershed (residence environments is and will be important to time). The dams increase residence time by cultivate. They are just as essential in city beavers in urban streams as they are in montane streams, holding the water within the length of the stream for longer periods, and can increase and still provide habitat for other beneficial environments the level of streams during dry periods. species. is and will be Slower water velocities result in the widening If you are interested in learning of the stream floodplain and increased soil more about beavers, check out The Beaver important to saturation, which means there is more water Believers film at thebeaverbelievers.com, both above and below the surface (8). This the book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life cultivate.” increased saturation can act as a kind of of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben “fire buffer.” When wildfires sweep through the mountains, Goldfarb, and the Methow Beaver Project at animals are able to take refuge near the wetlands, and in methowsalmon.org/beaverproject.html. some cases, the wildfire is unable to ‘hop’ the stream to

ABOVE: A beaver in the process of being relocated (Photo by Erin Stewart)

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ABOVE: A student walking across a beaver complex (Photo by Erin Stewart)

“Semipermeable Membrane” I am fascinated by the microscopic complexity of cell function. A semipermeable membrane uses a diverse range of proteins and structures to ensure the integrity of a cell. In this piece, I have depicted the lipid bilayer and its ligand-gated ion channels. Channels are triggered by the reception of an excitatory neurotransmitter, which increases the flow of calcium ions into the cell. The cell also contains a cytoskeleton to support the membrane and microtubules that facilitate movement within the intracellular space. A kinesin protein walks along the microtubule, an incredible example of the transfer of chemical energy into kinetic movement. The microenvironment of cell structure and its incredible efficiency is something that I’m continuously amazed by. Every thought and action in our lives is mediated by these microscopic factors, and the fact that we are able to recognize and research this blows my mind.

IRIS NOSEK “Neurons and Glia” Glial cells were originally understood to be solely for structural support, with no major functional qualities. However, research has found glial cells to be extremely important in the successful transport of neurochemical signals. Astrocytes, depicted in blue, create a tripartite synapse with the presynaptic and postsynaptic neuron. Astrocytes regulate the chemical environment of the synapse and are able to restrict dysfunctional action potentials from leaving the terminal button. Microglia, depicted in orange, are a major factor in the synaptic pruning of unnecessary neurons. Oligodendrocytes, depicted in green, create a myelin sheath around axons in the central nervous system. This sheath preserves the intensity of the action potential. Neurons are widely considered to be the essential factor in the central nervous system, but they would be dysfunctional without the role of glial cells.

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The Road to Independence:

ART BY BISMIKADO

Quandaries of Self-Driving Cars BY MARIA LEUZINGER It’s 7:30 a.m. You awake in a panic, wondering how you slept through the alarm once again. Work starts at 8:30 and you still need to change, eat breakfast, and somehow navigate through the perpetual I-5 construction. In a precoffee frenzy, you stuff a couple granola bars into your back pockets and decide to finish getting ready on the road. You barely notice the abandoned bicycle at the end of the driveway, swerving just in time. You fumble for the rain jacket buried in the backseat. As the light turns green, you send an apologetic text to work and pull out a crushed granola bar. Arriving at work at 8:54, you snag your jacket in the car door on the way out. Your distraction would have earned you Worst Driver of the Year, except your hands never touched the steering wheel. Although self-driving cars have gained popularity in recent years, they are still met with a fair share of doubt. Those who have seen too many episodes of Westworld and Battlestar Galactica may approach self-driving cars with trepidation. According to dystopian films, sophisticated AI rarely ends well for humanity—think Blade Runner. All right, extreme example, but the philosophical oppositions

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to AI deserve consideration. Others simply enjoy the freedom of driving and have scant interest in yielding control to a machine. Still, there are many who envision a harmonious relationship between humans and machines in the not-so-distant future. Benjamin Jin belongs to this group. Jin has a special interest in meeting the technological challenges facing autonomous vehicles. A graduate student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Jin studies signal processing and machine learning. He recently received his bachelor’s in information technology and electrical engineering from the Technical University of Munich. “What excites me most is the potential impact this technology has on the world, and the technical challenge as well” Jin said in an email. Jin believes self-driving cars could reduce carbon emissions, improve access to transportation for those with disabilities, and virtually eliminate the most common causes of auto accidents. Car crashes are the leading cause of death in Americans between the ages of 15 and 29 (1). In addition to drunk driving, texting, and sleep deprivation, the mere

“There is this argument that autonomous cars will number of passengers in a car affects the likelihood and never be safe enough, because it is hard to teach an AI the severity of auto accidents. A 2012 study by the American intuition and general knowledge that even three year olds Automobile Association examined the correlation between have,” said Jin. “Humans acquire these intuitions at a young driver mortality and number of teenage passengers per age.” In order to safely merge into the automotive industry, mile driven. The study found that for drivers aged 16 to 17, self-driving cars will need intuitions far above those of a one additional passenger under 21 increases the driver’s 3-year-old. Developing these intuitions and moral values mortality rate by 44% (2). Add another teenage passenger, on the road takes time and years of practice. Simply put, and this risk doubles. In car wrecks with three additional between 16 and 35, drivers learn how to handle a myriad of passengers under 21, the teenage driver faces a four-fold unexpected situations, not all of which have been replicated higher risk of death. However, the study also found that in in code. wrecks involving one passenger above 35, the driver faces On March 18, 2018, an automated Uber vehicle struck a 62% decrease in fatality (2). In a self-driving car, the and killed pedestrian Elaine Herzberg as she was walking number and age of passengers would (theoretically) have her bicycle across the street (4). This incident, believed no effect on the risk of an auto accident, making carpooling to be the first death caused by a significantly safer for everyone self-driving car, brought up many involved. Or would it? crucial debates concerning who Self-driving cars maneuver is at fault in autonomous vehicle by using a combination of crashes—is it the car, or those radar signals, video, lasers, and who programmed it? Although navigational systems. They use a driver sat behind the wheel in input from these systems to create order to manually intervene if a map of their environment. necessary, they too neglected to In a process similar to a bat’s notice Herzberg (4). The crash echolocation, the car emits radar took place in the evening and waves that bounce off nearby Herzberg had not been using a objects and calculates the elapsed crosswalk. While jaywalking is time between the emission and not especially uncommon, the car return of these waves (3). This may have been unfamiliar with provides important information this particular situation because regarding the proximity, direction, it did not reflect how pedestrians and speed of nearby objects. From “should” behave in an ideal world. here, the car can predict the actions This represents one of the most of other cars and determine its common concerns with selfnext moves (3). Compare this to, driving cars: that complete trust in say, the self-driving capabilities technology removes the flexibility of Roomba vacuums, which only and intuition that drivers develop change trajectory after repeatedly over years of practice. smashing themselves into the Image source: Wikimedia Commons Self-driving cars offer an refrigerator door. Even so, the exciting potential to decrease automotive accidents and prediction technology of self-driving cars is nowhere near improve accessibility for those unable to drive. Students perfect. like Jin are hard at work improving visual recognition When behind the wheel, we are faced with countless systems and the cars’ familiarity with unforeseen road scenarios that don’t fit nicely into a Driver’s Ed manual. challenges. While they may one day be a liberation from Many of these scenarios require split-second decisions such distracted driving, autonomous vehicles have a long road as responding to a sudden change in weather conditions or ahead of them. a deer leaping into the road. Jin believes the largest speed bump facing self-driving cars will be the challenge of programming human judgments.

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 19

Access in STEM: Biology Faculty Participate in College Program for Incarcerated Women BY KATE GLADHART-HAYES

in fall 2017, Thines taught with post-doctoral fellows from ccess to education in the United States is shaped the University of Washington. Currently the course has by experiences of privilege and oppression at three sections: cell physiology and biochemistry; genes, every level. In higher education in particular, the genetics, and inheritance; and evolution and ecology (3). cost makes education inaccessible to many. The Freedom Because of its location in a prison, FEPPS faculty Education Project Puget Sound, also known as FEPPS, have to navigate barriers that they don’t have to in is a valuable tool in approaching issues of systemic their regular classes. One of these barriers is the lack of poverty. Located in the Washington Corrections Center interaction with students between classes; the students for Women (WCCW), the program provides education to have no ability to email professors or attend office hours. To inmates. Seventy-five percent of those in the program address this, faculty provide as much written information will be primary caretakers for children when they are as possible, including images. They provide a lecture released; 85 percent are survivors of domestic violence or summary for students to use while sexual assault. Organizers in the FEPPS “Regarding designing working on homework. Thines said he program say that “education is the single most important factor in breaking cycles lab, Thines says that uses the text more than he otherwise would since he’s not available to answer of poverty and incarceration” (1). he likes to ‘approach questions outside of class. FEPPS provides a “rigorous The faculty also have to be college program to incarcerated it from a creativity flexible to unexpected schedule changes. women, transgender, and gender nonconforming people in Washington and perspective rather than Sometimes, movement is canceled and students are unable to attend class creates pathways to education after they frustration.’” because they cannot move between release from prison” (1). FEPPS began buildings. Thines said one day his class was cancelled partwhen the Women’s Village, a program started by women way through and then uncancelled again before the end. To in the WCCW, invited professors to create an education account for these types of changes, the faculty include a lot program in 2011. FEPPS continues to have incarcerated of buffer time—about a day and a half per unit of the class individuals involved in leadership and works with the as well as time during each lecture. This also helps address Education Advisory Council, composed of women in the the lack of between-class communication by leaving more prison, when making decisions (2). FEPPS works with local flexibility since they do not know where students are at in universities, namely the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma terms of understanding the homework. Saucedo said this Community College, Pacific Lutheran University, Evergreen was daunting because faculty have more control over class State College, and the University of Washington (1). Through time at Puget Sound, and introductory science classes and the program, 34 students have earned Associate of Arts the degree programs are very structured; of unexpected degrees. A Bachelor of Arts degree program through the changes to the schedule, she said, “you’re building this University of Puget Sound was just approved by the Board castle, and ... now you’re missing part of it” (4). of Trustees in October. Currently 17 students are enrolled in Labs for the FEPPS program are also limited and the first BA-level class (1). require more advance planning. Faculty are very limited in The FEPPS program offers a biology course for what they are able to bring into the prison. For example, non-majors. This term, Bryan Thines, Leslie Saucedo, and they cannot bring in foil or glassware. However, they are still Peter Wimberger, faculty members in the Puget Sound able to have lab and have done strawberry DNA extraction biology department, are co-teaching the course. Courses and a photosynthesis lab with a water plant. However, may be co-taught by individuals from different institutions;

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Saucedo noted that most of the departmental learning goals for biology focus on the practice of science and, at Puget Sound, are mostly learned in the lab. The lab experience also helps students to understand the application of what they learn in lecture. For her, the question was, “How do you practice the process of science with very limited reagents?” She highlighted reagents as being a particularly significant piece based on the prison’s rules. Regarding designing lab, Thines says that he likes to “approach it from a creativity perspective rather than frustration.” Addressing bioethics is also very different in the context of the FEPPS program. Saucedo included an ethics lab in her section, drawing on material used in Biology 111. When she talks about ethics in her courses at Puget Sound, Saucedo draws on her own experience as a scientist and questions about research ethics she has encountered during her career. In the FEPPS program, bioethics was much more personal to many of the students, given their own experiences with violence. The students in the FEPPS program also have a wide range of backgrounds. Some have taken college classes, many have not taken science classes recently, and some have not had science classes at all. Some of those who have been incarcerated for many years have been taking classes in the program for a long time. Saucedo noted that this was particularly challenging because college professors may not have the training in education to help students who have different existing knowledge bases and reading comprehension abilities. The faculty began the first day of the course with all three professors sharing about their fields and interests in biology and talking with students in small groups about what they wanted to get out of the course. They also talked about the best and worst classes that they’ve ever taken. Thines said that it’s “critical that the teaching team is coordinated,” both because of the need for students to adapt to new teaching styles and the lack of out-ofclass interaction.

Thines said that he appreciates how the program brings together faculty from different institutions and breaks down disciplinary barriers. He said teaching through the program is very rewarding and that the students are very engaged. Working with students from such a wide range of backgrounds pushes him to grow as a teacher. While the BA program has been approved by the University of Puget Sound Board of Trustees, big questions regarding the function of the program remain. Saucedo argued that teaching in the program will need to be considered in faculty members’ teaching loads; if she had not been on sabbatical this term, the time commitment would have been too much. She also noted that a number of students who had hoped to take their class were unable to move their work schedules to accommodate it. She hopes that the university will explore ways to support and advocate for students to increase access.

ART BY BISMIKADO

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 21

The Geography of Politics Using computational methods to

During the summer of 2018, I did mathematics research looking toward detecting gerrymandering through topological methods. Topology, in math, studies how a space is structured, and our space here was of U.S. voting districts. Going into the research, I had not realized the interrelatedness between this research and geography, or any other subject for that matter. Gerrymandering is redrawing congressional districts to amplify or suppress the voting power of particular groups, and thus is geographic in nature. I can name countries and features all over the Earth, but I did not know what geography was really about. I did not know that geography was concerned with how we draw maps (every way of drawing a map is biased) or that it was so deeply concerned with how we understand how humans live (the distance experienced between two places is vastly dependent on infrastructure and mobility). My research the summer of 2018, which I did with Puget Sound professor Courtney Thatcher, was about applying the field of computational topology, which often deals with the structures of data, to understand gerrymandering in the U.S. This past summer I participated in the Spatial Modeling and Electoral Districting Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). A National Science Foundation grant was awarded to professor Jim Thatcher at University of Washington Tacoma to run the program. I joined a group of 11 other undergraduate students from across the U.S. for eight weeks, learning about concepts in geography, politics, U.S. law, mathematics, and computer science. The purpose of this research was to find other ways to create voting districts and to understand how maps can be reshaped by travel time rather than the literal â&#x20AC;&#x153;as the crow fliesâ&#x20AC;? distance. There were students that were majoring in political science, math, urban studies, and geographic information systems (GIS). I found it incredible that we focused so much on interdisciplinary work. For instance, the study of GIS has helped us map our data as well as assess the ways we could display our data on a map.

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BY QUINTIN LENTI

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

study gerrymandering

ABOVE: An illustration of the principles of gerrymandering All this interdisciplinary work is in stark contrast to many other REUs. Many REUs specialize even within their respective disciplines. The model of research as going somewhere as narrow as possible until you find something new becomes inadequate, especially since the perspectives of other fields can help you progress in your own.

For the first few weeks of the research, we participated in, for example, rivers and mountains that do not allow in lessons and listened to lectures that highlighted one to go directly between two places. Understanding the geography. Our work was centered on Ohio’s congressional mathematics and the computers that perform the massive districts. Many of Ohio’s districts were considered to be number of distance computations is critical to doing this politically gerrymandered, meaning that they were drawn work, yet we need to also interpret this work in light of the to give one political party more representation than another laws and legal precedents regulating the redistricting that is in an election. Because of this, we wanted to see if features done. In order to shine in the many subfields of geography, present in our analyses of the state could be indicators of I have found that embracing these intersections is key. redistricting. Ultimately, I have come to believe that Our group was able to show that specific districts interdisciplinarity is essential for modern research, as well in Ohio that seemed poorly drawn as as come to appreciate the importance if they were politically gerrymandered “In geography, you are and implications of geographical work. I were actually very connected when plan on going into teaching in the coming always playing with years, and given my emphasis in math, you factor in travel time across the region. Additionally, we laid a lot of the I plan on teaching that subject. This the intersections.” groundwork for creating a statistical tool research has taught me the importance to address the connectedness of groups by demographic of bringing broad-strokes discussions into my prospective and location data. classroom. It taught me to factor in how people and their Another thing I learned by the end of the summer environments help decide how knowledge is created. is that going into graduate school does not require Also, the moment a student leaves the classroom, it is this specialization. In geography, you are always playing with interdisciplinary understanding that gets exercised and the intersections. For our REU, if we are to understand practiced the most. how “close” members of a district are, we need to factor nationalatlas.gov OHIO TM

Where We Are

43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

Van Wert

Huron

INDIANA

Medina

4 Union

Darke

Dayton Montgomery

Kettering Middletown

Franklin

7 Knox

Coshocton

Noble

Perry

Lancaster

Jackson

Ohi

KENTUCKY

Monroe

Washington

Athens

Vinton

Adams

Belmont

Marietta

Athens

Highland

Morgan Hocking

Pike

Cambridge

Zanesville

Ross

Brown

Jefferson

Steubenville Harrison

Guernsey Muskingum

Clinton

Clermont

U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey

New Philadelphia

Columbus Pickaway

Columbiana

Carroll

Holmes

Coshocton

Fairfield

Canton

Tuscarawas

Warren

Cincinnati

Mahoning Stark

Licking

Beavercreek

Youngstown

Alliance

Massillon

Fayette

Hamilton Fairfield

Hamilton

Madison

Clark

Greene

Wooster

Delaware

Westerville

Champaign Miami

Springfield Preble

Akron

East Liverpool

Morrow

Mt Vernon

Sidney

Marion

Bellefontaine

Greenville

Ashland

Richland

Marion

Logan

Shelby

Trumbull Portage

Summit

Wayne

Mansfield

Hardin

Auglaize

Mercer

Crawford

Wyandot

Allen

Lima

Geauga

Parma

Van Wert

Ashtabula

Euclid

Lorain

Norwalk Seneca

Findlay

Elyria

Erie

Hancock

Butler

Albers equal area projection

Fremont

Sandusky

Fostoria

Putnam

MILES 0

Sandusky

Ashtabula

PENNSYLVANIA

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15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Defiance Paulding

Cleveland 11 Lorain Cuyahoga

Wood

Bowling Green

Henry

Lake

Ottawa

Defiance

Toledo

Lucas

Fulton

Williams

D NA

The Constitution prescribes Congressional apportionment based on decennial census population data. Each state has at least one Representative, no matter how small its population. Since 1941, distribution of Representatives has been based on total U.S. population, so that the average population per Representative has the least possible variation between one state and any other. Congress fixes the number of voting Representatives at each apportionment. States delineate the district boundaries. The first House of Representatives in 1789 had 65 members; currently there are 435. There are non-voting delegates from American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

ONTARIO

MICHIGAN

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS

113th Congress (January 2013–January 2015)

Meigs

WEST VIRGINIA

Gallipolis

Scioto

Gallia

Portsmouth

Lawrence

Ironton

The National Atlas of the United States of AmericaO R

ABOVE: Ohio’s congressional districts in the 113th United States Congress

pagecgd113_oh.ai INTERIOR-GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, RESTON, VIRGINIA-2013

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 23

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LEAF

BISMIKADO

BUGS

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 25

Go With The Flow: Using Holography to Study Suspension Feeders

BY MATTHEW WELLS

Since the mid-20th century, the global concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has steadily increased, leading to major climate phenomena. One of the consequences is increased global temperatures leading to the disappearance of arctic ecosystems (1). While this is a fairly known issue, many would admit to having an understanding limited to a causal relationship between CO2 concentration and the degeneration of the environment. While most focus on large, more charismatic ABOVE: a) Hologram of a single Vorticella within a animals, it is vital to study the impacts of microscopic solution seeded with microscopic tracer beads. The organisms on the events unfolding around us. Study of tracer beads are identified by their diffraction pattern these interactions will serve as a great source of scientific and b) extrapolated from the 2D hologram into 3D space, allowing us to pinpoint the location of the bead. inquiry for years to come. In Professor Rachel Pepper’s biophysics lab we study these microscopic organisms with the goal of understanding via a self-generated feeding flow. The feeding flow has been how aquatic ecosystems react to externalities such as predicted to vary with the organism’s three-dimensional increased CO2 or oil spills. One of our subjects for study orientation (3). Keeping our goal of fully understanding an is a group of organisms known as Microscopic Sessile ecosystem in mind, it’s been estimated that MSSFs filter Suspension Feeders (MSSFs). These single-celled protists, every fluid particle within a marine coastal area at least which include Vorticella, live attached to surfaces within once per day (4). Creating a numerical model for the uptake freshwater and marine environments. They are also known of particulate matter by these protists would serve as a tool to play a major role in the ocean carbon cycle. for predicting how an ecosystem might react to an oil leak, Without diving too much into the nitty gritty biological sewage spill, or heavy metal contamination. road-mapping, this cycle can be generalized in three steps. Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) is one such The first is the accumulation of atmospheric CO2 within method for taking our flow field measurements. PTV microscopic plants that belong to a group of organisms relies on recording the motion of objects in the flow, then known as phytoplankton; these going through each frame of the “It is vital to study the impacts video and calculating the object’s phytoplankton subsequently serve as food for MSSFs. Following this, location and velocity. To perform of microscopic organisms on the MSSFs are consumed by larger these measurements, we employed zooplankton and the predatory the expertise of the Laura Waller events unfolding around us.” cycle continues until we reach the Computational Imaging Lab at the larger, more charismatic animals we are familiar with, University of California, Berkeley. For 10 weeks during such as fish and whales. The end of this process signifies the summer we worked to construct an Inline Digital a healthy reallocation of atmospheric carbon into organic Holography system at the Waller lab. As members of the lab carbon within living organisms (2). we had the privilege of spending time among staff scientists MSSFs are special because they feed on phytoplankton at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and meeting

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ABOVE: a) Image of a single Vorticella with a reference angle where the x axis is the surface of the attachment. Our model predicts that the flow field varies the organism’s angle relative to the surface of attachment as displayed by streamlines (b-e). and subsequently produce streamlines from the motion of with career research groups. It was truly an eye-opening the tracer particles. experience that is unparalleled in my time at the University Here I want to mention the hard work and dedication of Puget Sound. of lab members Jesus Deloya Garcia and Lukas Karoly who To get back on topic, Inline Digital Holography works have laid so much groundwork within a single summer. on the basis of light interference. When we incident some Professor Rachel Pepper has a longlaser or LED beam on a ball in front term plan to take this experimental of a surface, an outline of the ball “Creating a numerical framework and turn it into the newest will appear on the surface. At the STEM learning tool for students at model for the uptake of microscopic level, this outline on the the University of Puget Sound. As the backdrop will also have fading rings particulate matter by these academic year progresses we will forming around it. These extra rings be continuing to measure Vorticella are the result of diffraction, or the protists would serve as a flow within a newly constructed interference of light waves caused by tool for predicting how an computational imaging lab within the light bending around the ball. What we Puget Sound Physics Department. In have done is taken that 2D information ecosystem might react to the future, these techniques would be and extrapolated it into 3D space (5). This creates a digital hologram. In our an oil leak, sewage spill, or offered in an upper-division course, allowing students of all backgrounds case, the ball is actually a collection to explore their educational heavy metal contamination” of microscopic tracer beads floating opportunities within interdisciplinary around a Vorticella and our wall is a subjects such as Biophysics or Computational Imaging. If CCD camera that records videos of the beads moving in it’s too long to wait, please reach out to Professor Pepper. solution. Our goal is to capture a series of videos for various We are always eager to assist those interested in learning. angles of attachment, track particles moving in the fluid,

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 27

Nature Photography The beauty of nature can be found from Tanzania to Borneo to right here on campus. Featured in this section is Puget Sound student photography from each of these locations.

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Nico Heyning

Nico decided to send back some photos of the charismatic megafauna he has been seeing while studying abroad in Tanzania. If you like Nicoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photography, you can find more at nicopedia.smugmug.com.

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Noah Dillon

Noah traveled abroad to Borneo in 2018 and saw a diversity of arthropods.

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Will Brooks

Will leads the weekly bird walks at the Slater Museum and frequently sees amazing birds on campus.

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Thanks, Mom!: Linking maternally transmitted microbes and hatch success in Sceloporus virgatus BY HELENA HEYER-GRAY At first glance, Sceloporus virgatus doesn’t seem like strategy. So how do eggs defend themselves against a great parent. The lizards, native to southern Arizona and omnipresent soil pathogens? This question is particularly northern Mexico, abandon their eggs, laying them in the pressing because eggs, unlike adults, can’t avoid soil and investing no additional parental care. Not only environmental dangers. that, but their laying season coincides directly with the Sea turtles provide a valuable clue. A recent study beginning of Arizona’s brief but spectacular summer rains, found microbes with potential antifungal properties on the which, in addition to transforming the visible landscape, eggshells of Hawksbill sea turtles (4). So, when investigating also awaken dormant fungal spores in the soil. This sudden how a lizard protects its eggs from fungus, testing for the fungal bloom seems like a lot for any organism—let alone presence of a community of microbes that acts like an soft, delicate eggs—to handle alone. As it antifungal barrier between eggs and turns out, though, the eggs might not be “The eggs might not be the soil isn’t a bad place to start. The so alone after all, thanks to their mother’s existence of this antifungal microbial so alone after all, thanks community on eggshells was the first ability to harness the power of an ancient evolutionary struggle between bacteria key component of my hypothesis. The to their mother’s ability second was that these microbes are and fungi. This summer, I conducted research to directly investigate the to harness the power of vertically transmitted, or passed down extent and mechanism of the potential from mother to egg. So how do the an ancient evolutionary microbes get on the egg in the first place? relationship between S. virgatus, its To answer this question, we need symbiotic microbes, and the pathogenic struggle between bacteria look no further than the unsung hero of soil fungi in its habitat. the system I’ve been investigating: the To explain exactly why I spent a and fungi.” cloaca. The cloaca, or the shared opening week and a half in Arizona this summer, of both the reproductive and digestive systems in birds and sitting on cacti and bumping into rattlesnakes while trying reptiles, is every egg’s passage to the outside world. It’s also to lasso lizards with a fishing pole, a bit more background exactly the kind of environment in an organism is needed. First, let’s get back to the fungus. Soil fungus that tends to have lots of microbes is problematic for any organism that lays its eggs in soil, living in it (5). These two key characteristics because fungal infection kills eggs by blocking the tiny pores in the shell and smothering the embryo inside (1, 2, 3). Fungi don’t just opportunistically infect dead eggs in order to feed off of them, either; fungus was found to be actively seeking out and infecting the eggs of a species of rock lizard (3). The role of fungus in egg mortality is of particular concern for sea turtles, due to their endangered status, and studies of this system provide a useful point of comparison to S. virgatus, as both species bury their eggs in soil. Of course, some soil-incubated eggs have to survive; otherwise, it wouldn’t be such a common reproductive

RIGHT: A female S. virgatus in the field 32 | ELEMENTS

make it the most likely source of any antifungal microbes that are deposited on S. virgatus eggs. Much the same way that human babies born via C-section miss out on the beneficial microbes transmitted during vaginal birth and can experience health issues (6), eggs that don’t come into contact with the microbial community of the cloaca might be more vulnerable to fungus. In the course of previous studies conducted in the Weiss lab, a difference in hatch success was observed between eggs that had been oviposited (laid by passing through the cloaca) versus dissected (removed from females before contact with the cloaca). The simple observation that fewer dissected eggs survived until hatching provided preliminary support for the mechanism for antifungal microbe transmission outlined above. The first step of formally testing for any beneficial microbes transferred via the cloaca was comparing the hatch success of dissected and oviposited eggs. This in turn required collecting 24 gravid (egg-carrying) females from their natural habitat in Arizona. These females were then sent to Tacoma, where we obtained eggs by dissection or via oviposition induced with oxytocin. I split these two groups into two separate treatments: half of the eggs were incubated in soil moistened with a suspension of fungal spores and hyphae in water, and the other half were incubated in sterile soil. This set-up allowed me to look at egg hatch success across four groups: oviposited/ sterile, oviposited/fungal, dissected/sterile, and dissected/ fungal. Because we hypothesized that bacteria transmitted via contact with the cloaca reduce fungal infection and increase hatch success, it was necessary to compare the

LEFT: An S. virgatus egg infected with fungus RIGHT: An S. virgatus egg during incubation rates at which fungus infected dissected or oviposited eggs in sterile conditions and when they were exposed to fungus. After seven weeks, hatchlings began to emerge, allowing me to calculate the hatch success for each of the groups. The results were consistent with our initial hypothesis: the hatch success of the oviposited eggs was significantly higher than the hatch success of the dissected eggs. While there wasn’t a significant difference in hatch success between the sterile and fungal groups within each treatment, hatch success of the dissected/fungal eggs was the lowest of the four groups. Contact with the cloaca and its resident microbes seems to have a definite impact on egg survivorship. To build on this finding, I’m currently growing bacteria and fungus from swab samples of the eggs taken during incubation. Preliminary results indicate distinct differences in abundance and diversity of fungal and bacterial communities on eggs in each of the four groups. Strikingly, there seem to be fewer strains of fungi and more strains of bacteria on oviposited eggs— further pointing to an antifungal role for cloacal microbes. It seems like S. virgatus might not be such bad parents after all.

LEFT: A comparison of the final percent of eggs that survived and hatched in each of the four treatment groups. Significantly more of the oviposited eggs survived; within groups, there was no significant difference in the hatch success of eggs depending on their exposure to fungus. All images courtesy of Helena Heyer-Gray

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The Semi-Aquatic Egg-Laying Mammal in Action: Platypus Behavior in Peterson Creek, Yungaburra, QLD BY NATE HESS, LILY WONG, SOPHIE BROWN, AND TESS NOBLE STROHM

This is the true story of 19 young Americans finding Shaw, it was originally thought to be a made-up creature, platypuses both in a creek and in their hearts. On a cold, wet sewn together with parts of other animals (1, 2). The small, morning in Yungaburra, Queensland, Australia, we boarded furry, semi-aquatic creature was unlike anything seen by a the bus at 5:30 a.m. to venture out to find the platypuses. European before, with its bill and small beaver-like tail (3). Hailing from the United States and This baffling creature was the subject in Australia to study ecology with “When the first platypus was of our study, which took place during the School for International Training the species’ breeding season (early (SIT), the vast majority of us had brought to Europe in 1799 by October). In the two mornings we never seen a platypus outside of the George Shaw, it was originally spent at Peterson Creek, we observed comfort of our living rooms watching and recorded platypus sightings to the TV show Phineas and Ferb. With estimate how many individuals were thought to be a made-up in the area. the “Perry the Platypus” theme song Platypus sighting and foraging still ringing in our ears from the bus creature, sewn together with data were gathered along Peterson ride there, we arrived at Peterson parts of other animals.” Creek. From start to end a distance of Creek and spent the next two hours about 650 meters of creek, or a little less than half a mile, counting, timing, and adoring the platypuses that came and was observed. On the morning of Friday, Oct. 4, at least 13 went through our zones. platypuses were spotted. Multiple groups reported sightings The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a species of foraging and of interactions between platypuses. There native to Australia, and is known as one of the only mammals were also accounts of platypuses either mating or fighting to lay eggs, along with four species of echidnas. When the between zones. On the first day we observed that they spent first platypus was brought to Europe in 1799 by George a little more than half their time above water and the rest BELOW: Platypus at Peterson Creek of their time diving. However, observations on the next day (Photo by Gary Bondeson) showed far less activity. There were only six platypuses spotted and some areas only reported one sighting overall. Despite fewer platypus sightings, there was an overall trend of more time spent on the surface. Over the course of both days, time spent above water was two times higher than time spent underwater. One explanation as to why platypus activity differed from day to day could be changes in human activity. Human traffic along Peterson Creek was more pronounced on the second day of observations. The Landcare Group, a conservation organization operating out of Yungaburra, conducted removal of invasive weeds in Peterson Creek between our observation days, and this might have led to some variability in platypus behavior.

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ABOVE: Map of the section of the Peterson Creek Walking Trail that data were gathered in. Observations were made from the western side of the bank. (Image by Gary Bondeson)

Our findings are similar to a 2002 study by Philip Bethge, who noted that platypus activity is highly variable (4). Past SIT studies have also shown this variability in platypus activity; a study in March 2019 noted only four platypuses in the creek, while we observed 13 (5, 6). It is possible that platypuses were more active during our observation periods because our study was conducted during the platypus mating season (7). However, we cannot

“Agricultural runoff and habitat degradation are usually seen as highly detrimental to animal health; however, platypuses seem to be exceptionally resilient.” make broad claims about changes in platypus abundance over time, because, in the words of Smith and Grant, “the lack of observation of platypuses does not necessarily mean they are definitely not present” (1). Interestingly, foraging behavior also differed in our study when compared to the study from March 2019. A noticeably lower surface-to-underwater ratio was found this year than in past SIT studies (5, 6). Generally speaking, a lower ratio implies that platypuses are foraging more efficiently (4, 8, 9, 10). Platypuses in March seemed to spend more time searching for food and less time actually eating it, while the platypuses we saw in October spent more time on the surface and less time foraging. This suggests that

food is more abundant for platypuses in October than it was in March (11). Due to runoff from nearby cattle pastures, Peterson Creek is likely high in nutrients and able to support the ravenous diets of at least 13 platypuses. Platypuses eat benthic invertebrates (insects that live on the river bottom) by digging around in the silt and turning up rocks with their duck-like bills (8, 12, 13, 14). Typically when we think about human effects on the environment we note the negative aspects. Agricultural runoff and habitat degradation are usually seen as highly detrimental to animal health; however, platypuses seem to be exceptionally resilient (15, 16, 17). A 2009 study found that platypuses can remain abundant in areas with high habitat degradation and nutrient levels because nutrients do not adversely affect the prey of the platypus (16). This is an important aspect of studying platypus populations because they theoretically could be an indicator of stream health. Future research into this topic is needed, and can help paint a larger picture about these animals and how they interact with humans and the environment. Our overall experience of this project was enjoyable and unforgettable. Most of us had never seen a real-life platypus before, and in two days alone we saw 13. These cute critters were fascinating to observe and it was a great opportunity to get a glimpse into their lives. The logistics and framework of this project are not complex; the study can be repeated by anyone who is dedicated enough. If you are passionate about semi-aquatic egg-laying mammals and can rise at the same time as the sun, then you too can help further the understanding of these creatures. Just a few words of advice: get yourself some coffee first.

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 35

SCIENCE OVERSEAS:

Studying Abroad as a STEM Major

BY ERIN STEWART AND KAELA HAMILTON

Think you can’t study abroad as a science major? Think again! While it can be tricky to incorporate a study abroad experience into your academic plan, there are a number of great programs that cater to a range of scientific fields. For majors with a strict sequential structure, a directexchange program may be the best option when it comes to earning credits towards your major. The University of Puget Sound supports direct enrollment at Englishspeaking universities located in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Because these universities are relatively large, they generally offer courses comparable to those at Puget Sound, plus some classes you may not be able to find here. If you don’t want to attend a traditional university while abroad, DIS Copenhagen and AIT Budapest offer programs that cater to students in molecular biology and computer science, respectively. For those interested in ecology, wildlife biology, and conservation, field-based study abroad programs are also a possibility. School for Field Studies (SFS) and School for International Training (SIT) offer field-based programs in locations including Tanzania, Madagascar, Turks and Caicos, Australia, and Ecuador. Southwest Semester, a program run by Puget Sound, presents a good field-based option for geology students interested in learning about the American Southwest. If you simply can’t fit study abroad into your academic schedule, you may want to consider summer study abroad opportunities. Madrid Summers is a popular program that incorporates internships in biology, chemistry, and neuroscience. Certain spring courses also involve a study abroad experience after the semester ends, such as ENVR 335, which takes a group of students to Borneo at the beginning of the summer. Many field-based programs also offer summer sessions that last several weeks. The downside

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to summer study abroad is that any university financial aid you may have does not apply, so program costs generally need to be paid out-of-pocket or with alternate sources of financial aid. Make sure to check for scholarships available through your study abroad program, as many offer funding to students with financial need. Finally, if you aren’t tied to the idea of going abroad but still want to experience science at another institution, the National Science Foundation offers summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) at universities all over the U.S. for a wide variety of scientific fields. These experiences focus on a directed research project, and come with housing and a stipend. Check out the accounts below from science majors describing their experiences abroad. Have questions? Contact the study abroad office to learn more and discuss the feasibility of incorporating study abroad into your academic plan.

MARLA MOSER (EXERCISE SCIENCE) Program: IES Abroad Location: Nantes, France I studied abroad fall 2018 in Nantes, France. I was studying the French language as well as its culture. I took a gastronomic class that was interesting because we got to learn about the preparation and presentation of food in France. Plus we learned a lot about where food comes from and the history behind it all, and got to meet farmers, chefs, bakers, and vintners (wine makers). This has been applicable to exercise science because we are required to take a nutrition class, where we learn all about nutrition. With this in mind, the gastronomic class has helped me to think about where food comes from and the proper way to prepare it, where to get it, and what nutritional value the food gives us. Even though the credits that I received were not specific credits for exercise science, I did receive general credit as well as credit that helped finish a minor in French.

Photo by Marla Moser

KAELA HAMILTON (BIOLOGY) Program: School for Field Studies Location: Turks and Caicos I spent the spring of my junior year in the Turks and Caicos studying marine biology. The research center where the program takes place is located on South Caicos, a small island in the Caribbean. While there, I took courses in marine ecology, resource management, and environmental policy, which all transferred for my biology major and EPDM minor. My favorite part about the program was the directed research component. I performed an independent project on coral reef rugosity, or texture, in which I learned how to use 3-dimensional modeling software to create models of corals in order to assess reef health. For this project, I logged over 20 hours of scientific diving! Through the program, you can get your general scuba and advanced diver certifications, and recreational diving and snorkeling are available weekly. I also loved that many of our classes took place out in the field—most of our quizzes were taken in the ocean, not in the classroom! I think this program is great for students who want to spend a lot of time engaging in field research and are passionate about working with local communities.

Photo by Kaela Hamilton

Photo by Kavanaugh Kaji

KAVANAUGH KAJI (BIOLOGY) Program: Madrid Summers Location: Madrid, Spain I went to Madrid, Spain two summers ago. There, I worked in a microbiology lab at the Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Alimentación; they were studying the differences in intestinal microbiota of obese and normalweight people to determine if any specific families were present in the obese people. Not only did I learn common procedures for microbiology labs, such as changing cell media and subcultures, but this experience also helped fine-tune my communication skills in the lab. The credits for my lab experience did not go towards my major in Biology, but I did get credit for taking a 200-level Spanish course. I also got credit for an internship away that went toward the university requirement credits. In general, this was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot about how research is done in other countries!

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NOAH DILLON (BIOLOGY) Program: Borneo Field School through the Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment Location: Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo

Photo by Erin Stewart

ERIN STEWART (BIOLOGY) Program: School for Field Studies Location: Rhotia, Tanzania During spring 2019 I studied wildlife management in Tanzania. My program included classes on wildlife ecology and management, environmental policy and socioeconomic values, and Swahili language, and took us to Serengeti, Tarangire, and Lake Manyara National Parks, as well as Ngorongoro Crater. The last month of the program was devoted to directed research projects, during which I worked with a group of students to survey reptile and amphibian diversity in a community forest. We also went on a ten-day excursion to Kenya where we compared the different wildlife conservation and management strategies employed by the two countries, and visited Amboseli and Tsavo West National Parks. Of course the mammals in these places were amazing, but I was also blown away by the variety of birds we saw in the national parks, including secretary birds, hornbills, and bee-eaters. I had learned about many of these organisms as a docent at the Slater Museum, and this made seeing them in person that much more special. As someone interested in a career in ecology and conservation, the field-based nature of this program was extremely valuable in that it brought me up close to environmental issues, and gave me hands-on experience with a variety of research techniques. One of my big takeaways from the program was the necessity of socioeconomic considerations when it comes to devising conservation plans. Overall, my experience abroad greatly enhanced my understanding of global environmental issues and the challenges of conservation, while providing me with credit toward my major.

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In the spring 2018, I took a course called “Thinking About Biodiversity: Borneo Travel Study” with Professor Peter Wimberger. This included a trip mostly funded by the Luce Foundation to Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, a biodiversity hotspot in Southeast Asia. It was a great opportunity as a STEM major to be a part of a study abroad program that was only a month long and associated with a course. I was able to get a full academic credit that counted as a Connections course and a 0.25 activity credit for traveling abroad. The coursework prior to traveling allowed me to prepare for the abroad portion and make the most out of the experience. I got to work on a project about bioprospecting in Sarawak, Borneo. Bioprospecting is when the biodiversity of an environment is studied to discover and commercialize natural products that can be used in industry. This includes finding new medicines, cosmetics, foods, and more! The topic was perfect for understanding the connections between science, capitalism, and the rights of indigenous groups. I enjoyed how it broadened the way I view science’s role in society, which is not always highlighted in my biology courses.

Photo by Noah Dillon

ALLISON CULLINEY (GEOLOGY) Program: University of Otago, IFSA Butler Location: Dunedin, New Zealand

Photo by Amanda Foster

AMANDA FOSTER (GEOLOGY) Program: Southwest Semester (University of Puget Sound) Location(s): Utah and Arizona This program included a history class (History of the Southwest) and a geology class (Field Methods) taken concurrently, and required no previous geology experience. The history component was really interesting, and worked well with the geologic perspective: we got both geologic and anthropogenic history. We took our classes as normal during the spring semester, and once classes ended, we left for two weeks. It was really interesting to learn about a place within the U.S. that I could easily go back to. It was also a new place for me; I hadn’t spent much time in the Southwest. As we drove our way into geologic history, we got to know different rock units pretty well. I am almost more familiar with the geologic history of the Southwest than I am with Washington’s history—I know the Moenkopi, Wingate, Kayenta, and Chinle units like my friends. Our group for this trip was just incredible—I wouldn’t have wanted to spend two weeks in a van with anyone else. Credits were easy because I took the two courses as normal. Everyone received an incomplete in the Field Methods course until we got back from the trip, but that was the only thing that was different.

I studied abroad at the University of Otago during my spring semester in 2018. The five months I spent in New Zealand were the bests five months of my life; I loved it so much that I’m actually spending my winter break over there this year! Some of my favorite things about studying abroad were hiking around the country with a group of likeminded individuals, the flatting experience and Dunedin nightlife (a bit rowdier than Puget Sound!), and Whittaker’s chocolate. I met so many incredible people—from Kiwis to Americans to Europeans—whom I’m still good friends with today. While at the University of Otago, I took a geology course in which we spent two weeks in the field learning various field techniques, which ended up being one of the best and most useful geology courses I’ve taken yet. We used labs to focus on the skills necessary to create and interpret different sorts of geologic maps and created our own geologic maps in the Fiordlands. All of the courses I took in New Zealand transferred back as 1.13 units and fulfilled necessary requirements, so studying abroad actually worked out really well for me. Beyond the classroom, I learned an incredible amount about New Zealand and, (as cliché as it sounds), myself. I regularly pushed myself beyond my comfort zone and became a much more social and confident person because of it. My time abroad was an incredible, life-changing experience that I will forever cherish!

Photo courtesy of Allison Culliney

Special thanks to Study Abroad Coordinator Carmen Eyssautier for providing information for the introduction.

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 39

Who is Oscar? An Interview with a New Professor BY NOAH DILLON Meet the newest marine microbial ecologist at Puget Sound! Dr. Oscar Sosa was hired this past year as an assistant professor in the biology department. He can be seen giving lectures, teaching in labs, or walking his dog Geordi around Thompson. Having worked in Oscar’s lab for the past few months, I decided to interview Oscar to learn more about his backstory and share some facts about him with the Puget Sound community.

Growing up

Biology as a passion

Photo courtesy of Oscar Sosa

Oscar grew up in Mexico right on the border with the United States near the Gulf of Mexico. He would frequently go back and forth across the border to go to school and see friends and family. Oscar explained that he was fortunate to have gone to a really good elementary school that built his foundation for enjoying the sciences. He said that growing up in Mexico no one explained the possible careers in science: “[It] was kind of a black and white thing. You either go to med school or you don’t do science. You do something else.” Paths for pursuing the science besides the medical field opened up for Oscar once he started university.

The Gulf of Mexico is a beautiful place, which is part of the reason Oscar decided to major in biology at university. He worked with a marine biologist during undergrad and was able to do a mix of field and lab work in ecology. Oscar said, “[the outdoors] inspired me to be a biologist because I got to be out there.” At university, Oscar was able to become part of a community of people with similar interests in ecology and conservation. He thought of the research sphere as a home away from home. Although the border between Texas and Mexico was only a few blocks from the university, it presented a very real barrier for the communities in the area. Oscar recalled having to travel back and forth to campus before deciding to settle on the Texas side for university. This meant not being able to see his friends and family in Mexico as often. That is why finding the biology research community was so important for him. An underlying character trait that I notice in Oscar is the desire to build and contribute to the community.

40 | ELEMENTS

In pursuit of a career

Oscar explained that he enjoyed biology for the sake of biology and was enthused that he could make a career out of it. Being thrown into a research environment early in his undergraduate studies, Oscar said, “fixed my direction.” Seeing the lifestyle of his mentors, he decided that being a professor was the right fit for him. A professor position would allow him to continue research and pass along his knowledge to students. Most importantly, being a professor would allow him to become part of a community. His experiences living and researching on the Texas coast made marine biology and oceanography the perfect fields for him to focus on. That is why after graduating Oscar found himself traveling to the frigid East Coast for a PhD program at MIT specializing in both marine biology and oceanography. Subsequently, he finished a postdoc position in the pleasant Hawaiian climate only to settle in the drizzly Pacific Northwest.

You’ll like Tacoma

So, does Oscar like Tacoma and Puget Sound? I am happy to report that he does! Oscar describes Tacoma as a good, friendly environment that reminds him of home. Compared to the East Coast, Honolulu, or Seattle, he finds Tacoma to be slower-paced. He is also enjoying the Puget Sound community, saying that both staff and students are friendly and eager to help.

The future for Oscar

From talking with Oscar, I learned that his long-term goal is to become a better professor and mentor. He has limited teaching experience but is eager to learn and adapt to what students need to succeed. He is teaching Genetics this fall and Biology 111 next spring. I can speak from personal experience that Oscar’s goals of becoming a mentor are genuine. It is his kind-hearted nature that makes Oscar a fantastic fit for the Puget Sound community. An important priority for Oscar is continuing research. The PhD program he went through gave him special training in the fields of oceanography and marine biology that he wants to continue. His primary interest is understanding the microbial communities of the Sargasso Sea (the sea surrounding Bermuda). Oscar explains that the Sargasso Sea is an oligotrophic gyre, meaning that there is limited nutrient availability to sustain life. The plankton community, the foundation of the food web, in this area is adapted to survive nutrient-poor conditions. These adaptations led researchers like Oscar to wonder how the environment could affect these communities. Oscar’s main concern is the production of methane gas from microbial communities using uncommon metabolic pathways and how methane production may change in the region due to the changing global climate.

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 41

I asked about the future direction for the lab and Oscar said, “I’m hoping to have more students, like yourself, work on [the] project because what I’m planning is to recruit students in the next couple years to go do field work with me at sea.” This would be a great opportunity because participating in field work and creating a lab community would recreate for others the experience Oscar had during his undergrad. Now, he gets to share those opportunities and inspire more students to follow their passion.

The important stuff

To really understand Oscar, I had to find out about the most important topics for Puget Sound students. Preference for Opp or Divs? Oscar described himself as a “home coffee person” for early mornings but he has been to Opp and Divs. Oscar took the middle road and said he enjoys both of the rivaling cafes. He thinks Opp is more convenient, being located in the Thompson courtyard, but Divs provides a more relaxing break with the chance to walk over to Wheelock. His choice of drink: lattes because they are the closest to the café con leche that his family drinks in Mexico.

Figgy and Geordi (Photo by Oscar Sosa)

A small bit of advice

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Dog owner? Oscar adopted a chihuahua named Geordi (after the Star Trek: The Next Generation engineer) over the summer. Geordi is a great dog that loves people but was getting anxious when left alone. In mid-October, Oscar adopted a chihuahua-terrier mix from the Humane Society named Figaro to give Geordi a friend. Oscar said that Figaro “goes by Figgy because we like Fig Newtons—well, I like Fig Newtons.” Both Geordi and Figgy were stray dogs but now they have each other as company.

In concluding my interview with Oscar, I asked what advice he has for people. His suggestion is to have fun and build friendships because those relationships are important to form and maintain. He also encourages people to volunteer and work to make their community a better place. With those attitudes, Oscar is a great addition to our Puget Sound community. If you’re interested in learning more about Oscar and his research, consider taking one of his classes or talking to him when he’s around Divs or Opp grabbing a latte.

FACULTY

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Image courtesy of Penguin Random House

s much fun as it is to read textbooks and journal articles, everyone likes to read something a little more engaging on occasion—professors included! We asked faculty across a range of departments for their top popular science and science fiction book recommendations, and compiled their responses in this column. So, the next time you are looking for something to read other than Organic Chemistry by David Klein, make sure to check out some of the titles below!

Nonfiction

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World

by Andrea Wulf

“This arresting biography of Alexander von Humboldt illuminates the life of one of the most influential scientific thinkers and philosophers in Western scientific history. From his visionary insights into ecosystem functions, the impacts of human activities on climate, and the connectedness of natural systems to his stances against slavery and his influence on transcendentalists and early environmentalists, Humboldt’s impact as an ecological visionary and deep-thinking humanist is still felt today.” -Peter Hodum (Biology/EPDM)

The Hunt for Vulcan: ... And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe

by Thomas Levenson

“This short book is about the ‘discovery’ of a planet that was never there. It is an engaging read that explores some of the excitement and challenges of scientific research, the successes and failures of Newton’s theory of gravity in light of astronomical observations, and Einstein’s work on general relativity.” -Amy Fisher (STS)

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 43

Image courtesy of Penguin Random House

Image courtesy of W. W. Norton & Co.

“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman “Richard Feynman was one of the most well-known and interesting physicists of the 20th century, and this book talks about his adventures throughout his career, including working on the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project, teaching physics at Caltech, and playing the bongo drums.” -Amy Spivey (Physics)

The Book of Numbers by John H. Conway and Richard Guy “A delightful tour of all sorts of topics related to numbers. Chapters include ‘The Primacy of Primes,’ ‘Geometric Problems and Algebraic Numbers,’ ‘Imagining Imaginary Numbers,’ ‘Some Transcendental Numbers,’ and ‘Infinite and Infinitesimal Numbers.’ The explorations in the book are brief and easy to read, but at the same time thoughtprovoking. And the book has lots of pictures!” -James Bernhard (Mathematics)

The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America by Steven Johnson “It is a biography of Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), a British chemist who is often mentioned in general chemistry texts for his work on understanding gases. What made the book so interesting to me was learning about the wide range of interests and impacts Priestley had. For example, in addition to isolating oxygen and investigating its role in respiration, Priestley invented soda water (but didn’t bother to patent or develop it), was friends with Benjamin Franklin (and wrote an important early text on electricity), was a founder of Unitarianism (who had to flee England when his house was burned down by a mob), and was influential with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams (he spent the last decade of his life in America).” -John Hanson (Chemistry)

Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen “It is about island biogeography, Darwin, Wallace, evolution and extinction: basically understanding evolution and extinction through the lens of island biogeography. By far one of the most interesting, informative, and entertaining books I have read!” -Carrie Woods (Biology)

Great Tide Rising: Towards Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change by Kathleen Dean Moore “I got so much clarity about the values we have about climate change that control how we think about it, and what we do about it.” -Steven Neshyba (Chemistry)

by Martin Campbell-Kelly et al. “This book traces the relatively short history of computing, from the days when computers were a human occupation to where we are today. I like that it doesn’t just focus on all the technical aspects of ‘computer K’ and ‘computer K+1,’ but that it explains the social and economic factors that motivated investments (and breakthroughs) at various points in time which would usher generation K to K+1.” -David Chiu (Computer Science)

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Image courtesy of Counterpoint Press

Computer: A History of the Information Machine

by John McCormick “It’s written for a broad audience, and does an excellent job of explaining the elegance and genius of some of the algorithms that power our everyday life—like how Google ranks search results, and how information is exchanged securely and accurately over vast distances. It’s full of useful analogies and interesting historical asides.” -Brad Richards (Computer Science)

The Sports Gene: Inside the Science Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein

“Epstein’s treatise on the ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate is informative and thought-provoking. It raises questions about genetic determinism that we should all be grappling with that range beyond athletics.” -Alyce DeMarais (Biology)

A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table by Michael Gordin

Image courtesy of No Starch Press

Image courtesy of Penguin Random House

“Gordin gave the IYPT [International Year of the Periodic Table] presentation on campus in April, which was the ‘condensed version’ of this book. This book provides a better understanding of Mendeleev’s personality and background and how they contributed to the development of his version of the periodic table. It also outlines various (non-scientific) historical events that directly or indirectly impacted how Mendeleev’s version of the Periodic Table rose above those of others.” -Jo Crane (Chemistry)

Image courtesy of Princeton University Press

9 Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas that Drive Today’s Computers

Fiction The Martian by Andy Weir “It’s the book that the 2015 movie was based on, and it describes in detail the many steps the protagonist had to take to keep himself alive for 500 sols [Martian days] in a very hostile environment. The science seemed pretty solid throughout.” -Ken Clark (Geology)

Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things by Carlos Bueno “It’s made for kids—it’s written in the same style as The Phantom Tollbooth, which many people know and love from their childhoods. But it’s written about concepts in computer science. The protagonist is a girl named Lauren, who is struggling to find her way back home while navigating a world of algorithms, dining philosophers, redblack trees, misguided brute-force designers, and other assorted strangeness.” -Adam Smith (Computer Science)

The Overstory by Richard Powers “The Overstory is a story about trees, people, and their connections. Beautifully written by Powers, it was a finalist for the Man Booker prize last year.” -Peter Wimberger (Biology)

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 45

WELCOME TO

THE ALLIUM MAD LIBS, WADERS, and MORE!

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COSMOPOLITAN NERD

ip! l s p ure Ni s g in Mak straps your cure e are s

Wading int o new fashio n trends: What you need to know

How dee p is too deep ?

Know th e limits of your waders

t e w t ge o t How e staying whil dry

WHO WORE IT BEST? WADERS EDITION

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g a w

BY MAYA SEALANDER + STAFF

tag yourself: dogs of harned Kava

Always tired Silent but deadly ;) Thompson > Harned Only goes to events for the free food

Boots Has never eaten a vegetable Superiority complex Semi-aquatic Great smile

Odin Fiercely loyal Would rather stay home than go out Derpy friend Always orders the same thing at a restaurant

Geordi/Figgy Craves attention Always with the squad Short friend Loves hugs

Dewey

Chonk Bffs with Kava At least 3 brain cells Always down for a hike

Tobi Always in lab Would fail the marshmallow test Prefers the top bunk Chaotic good

Capi Always wearing pajamas Loves cheese Sleeps on the job Jogs for fun

Heath Afraid to look in a mirror Snugglebug Always chomping Still a minor

Allium cover illustration by Kaela Hamilton 48 | ELEMENTS

Need some musical motivation to pull yourself out of the supermassive black hole that is the internet and start doing your homework? Never fear! Below, we have compiled a list of quality science-themed songs for your listening enjoyment.

YLIST Image source: Wikim A L P edia GS

ON S E C e With Science” N ed M d n IE Bli he C S “ S ultures lood C

Go to tiny.cc/ elementsplaylist to find these tunes!

ngo Boi o ng Oi y Absofa ve” b cto sol is “D

Sc ie e Sun Shine?” by The h t nt y M s e o is i D g ht y t” y e a h r M n h “Imi B “W y Jo e b by tos y” Gi t i i s v an ” ra by ts lack Hole B “ “G ” b An Z y y dr bb Ha Ga ew na y b P a ” s e sion by her T “ Pit La ” Up ik e de r a e “S p o h B r S o h y t s e w pa Swe me ce e o h “C S t he by m ”

“B ir d in g

“

“R e tr o

“Th e

ons

by T hom as Dol by B “Bl by a ck y ” a d l H● pi E l t y o b p n ” i J n ohn le d l Ma o t l ” e k c ph by o Co s R o “ h GW P “ nder” by Tw SN “Lave o D oor o rd d Bowie Ci an “Wei i c D a vi ne e B rd y M b m Sc y ” y b ie a C t nc ics” by Bla l di a” then cka e” s i Od l li Ca ci l ou a c s i

by Sleeping At La st urn” t a “S

Com m

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND | 49

Hi Professor

(name)

I started working on my

(noun)

lab report, and I’m feeling a bit

(adjective)

. I’ve never written a lab

report before, and I’m not sure what to include in the introduction. I start off by talking about the effects of on (plural noun)

(plural noun)

, then mention the difference between

(plural noun)

I finish it by presenting my hypothesis that

(plural noun)

(verb)

(plural noun)

and . (plural noun)

. Does this sound

to you? I’m also having trouble with the results section. I tried to analyze the data, but RStudio (adjective)

(adjective)

and keeps giving me a/an

(noun)

but they weren’t able to help. Can we meet at

message. I asked my lab partner for

(location)

Sincerely, (name)

50 | ELEMENTS

(plural noun)

at to discuss this? (time)

Hi Professor

(name)

I wanted to ask a question about the exam we got back on (noun)

out of

(number)

(day of the week)

. I got a

(number)

, and was hoping to go over some of the questions. First, I’m confused about section

(letter)

question , part (number)

(letter)

key you posted on (website)

about (plural noun)

. I looked at the (plural noun)

, and the answer makes sense, but I don’t remember talking about it in

class. Was it covered during the class I missed due to a friend, but they were pretty

(-ing verb)

(adjective)

(-ing verb)

? I got notes from (plural noun)

so I didn’t use them. It would be really

(adjective)

me the lecture slides from that day. For exam

if you could send

, I will make sure to clarify anything I don’t understand at

(number)

the (noun)

Sincerely,

session before the exam (insert [number] of exclamation points)

(name)

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

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Back cover photos courtesy of Amanda Foster, Allison Culliney, and Noah Dillon

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