Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine – Summer 2016
Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine – Summer 2016
Kids weave tales of snakes and eagles and bearsTwo first graders walk into a class. They open a science book they wrote together. They read it aloud to college students, who clap and ask questions. This is no joke. It’s a joint effort of a science-writing class at CU-Boulder and a first-grade class at Bear Creek Elementary School. Read more >> | |||
In science, many are blinded by gender stereotypeFinding a dearth of rigorous research into gender biases, researchers designed two studies to examine “whether subtle variations in feminine appearance erroneously convey a woman’s likelihood of being a scientist.” The answer, they found, was “yes.” Read more >> Adolescent caffeine use may raise anxiety-disorder riskMany have felt the jitters of too much caffeine, but new evidence suggests that such consumption puts adolescents at risk of suffering those symptoms on a daily basis, even after discontinuing use, a CU-Boulder research team has found. Read more >> Prof’s class examines the sociology of yogaProfessor Lori M. Hunter has spent a semester prompting students to grapple with questions about the intersection of society and yoga. The course, which she believes is the first of its kind, is an upper-division class designed to hone students’ critical-thinking skills. Read more >> Biblical scholar explores the power of BabelModern readers of the Holy Bible—both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament—often say that context is critical. Samuel Boyd, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, heartily agrees. And he should know. He has no fewer than 23 ancient Near East tongues at his disposal, including four dialects of both Hebrew and Aramaic—the language of Jesus—and two each of Greek and Babylonian, not to mention Hittite, Ugaritic, Ethiopic, Punic and others. Read more >> When regulators rule, are citizens fully apprised?When politicians actively seek to gum up or slow down the legislative works in an effort to throw up obstacles to governors or presidents, they often increase the power of executive-branch bureaucracies or courts to make the rules. The result can be a less-informed citizenry, researchers find. Read more >> CU Café percolates diversity in researchA group called CU Café (the group initially began meeting over coffee) offers a student-run seminar series that brings in minority scholars from other institutions to talk about their research and give their perspectives about succeeding in the academic environment. “It’s small, but it’s powerful,” one participant says. Read more >> History of Coyote Valley zeroes in on RMNP ecology“So often, big-picture understandings turn out to be wrong or incomplete. So I took the opportunity to really go deeply into this place that is insignificant by most traditional definitions and doesn’t have an archive or what we typically think of as watershed moments. When you don’t have all that, as an environmental historian, what you are left with is the place itself.” Read more >> Much ado about something, four centuries laterOn the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death this year, the campus is staging two significant Shakespearean events. In its 59th season, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival will move closer to performing all of Shakespeare’s canon for the second time—a feat most companies have yet to achieve once. And the famous published edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays, printed in 1623, will be exhibited on campus. Read more >> Experts at CU to mull next 50 years of local open spaceBoulder’s public open-space system was launched 50 years ago, and an event at CU-Boulder will bring together experts who will discuss the lay of the land in the next half-century. Read more >> | Dean’s Letter: The class of 2016 both survived and thrivedThe Class of 2016 has special significance for me personally. Along with this year’s graduating class, I became a part of CU-Boulder in 2012, joining the university as this college’s dean. I’m delighted to see the successes of this remarkable class of students in earning their degrees. Read more >> CU-Boulder heads off Shakespeare fear...with funDoes your stomach experience toil and trouble at the memory of a pinched and scolding high-school English teacher peddling Bardic cod-liver oil? Does the idea of seeing a Shakespeare play threaten to put you to sleep, perchance to dream? Well, “You haven’t seen ‘Hamlet’ until you’ve seen a 10-year-old do ‘Hamlet.’” Read more >> SEEC positions CU as global hub for Earth researchThe newly completed Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex “establishes CU-Boulder as the epicenter for environmental sciences and geosciences research nationally and perhaps worldwide,” says Provost Russ Moore. The center was officially dedicated this month. Read more >> Alum’s unplanned paths led to prosperity and pandasTake a pinch of serendipity, add a dash of coincidence and top it with a smidgen of good fortune, and you have the recipe for Janet Romberg Pollack’s life. The CU-Boulder alumna and donor is now a narrator at the giant panda exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. But how she got there is a tale of unexpected twists and surprising turns. Read more >> Rising-star scientist got her start at CU-BoulderDisbelief still lingers in Allison Cleary’s voice months after winning the grand prize in the 2015 SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists. Cleary, who is completing a combined MD/PhD program, received the award, which includes a cash prize, a trip to Sweden and publication in an esteemed journal, for an essay she wrote about the physiology of breast cancer titled, “Teamwork: the tumor cell edition.” Read more >> Horsing around is serious business for this alumWhat can you do with a liberal-arts degree? Beth Cross, who graduated from CU-Boulder in 1986 with a BA in political science, has an answer: Become an entrepreneur. She did this in a big way, co-founding Ariat International, a company that specializes in high-performance equestrian footwear and apparel. Read more >> Water-expert alumnus swims into current affairsThink of Robert R. “Bob” Crifasi as a kind of Zelig or Forrest Gump when it comes to water in Boulder, Denver and northern Colorado—he spent a quarter century getting his hands wet, both literally and figuratively, in countless ways. Crifasi, who earned bachelor’s degrees in geology and chemistry and master’s degrees in geology and environmental science from CU-Boulder, has served on the boards of—and often, pitchforked weeds, trash and the occasional dead skunk for—11 Boulder County ditch companies. Read more >> Bilingual pediatrician is medical ‘historian’ for patientsAlumnus and pediatrician Mike Nelson uses his degrees every day and credits a passionate professor with helping him get into medical school. Nelson followed his passions, Spanish and history, which in turn led him to medicine. Having traveled in Latin America with Amigos de las Americas, a program connecting volunteers to community-health programs, Nelson quickly learned what he could accomplish with a medical background. Read more >> Dance prof Ellsworth wins Guggenheim FellowshipCU-Boulder dance Professor Michelle Ellsworth is among a diverse group of 178 scholars, artists and scientists from the U.S. and Canada to be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship this year. The awardees are appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, and were selected from a group of nearly 3,000 applicants. Read more >> | ||
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