This post is from ScIU’s archives. It was originally published by Victoria Kohout in August 2017, and has been lightly edited to reflect current events. Chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. Your grandmother’s perfume. Newly cut grass. Each of the listed descriptions is extremely different but can be linked together by one fundamental thread–smell…. Read more »
Current Events
Not your typical summer school: An IU program engages high school students in the wonders of science
Being a teacher is one of the many hats that graduate students across the country wear during their career. As a graduate student who has taught several science courses, I know that keeping students engaged is always a challenge, particularly in required and introductory courses. While I have taught different levels of undergraduates, from freshman… Read more »
Earth Day 2018: Reclaiming climate science
This post is from ScIU’s archives. It was originally published for Earth Day 2017 and has been lightly edited to reflect current events. When scientists communicate with the public about politics, they often frame the issue as “science vs. politics.” For instance, some scientists champion speaking truth to power, while others suggest that they stay out of… Read more »
Inching toward a cure for PTSD
Dr. Yvonne Lai is well known for her work at IU’s Gill Center for Biomolecular Science. However, she and her collaborators are also making waves in the business world with the growth of their startup company Anagin Inc., a promising pharmaceutical venture located in Indianapolis. Dr. Lai’s research focuses on novel drug therapies for post-traumatic stress… Read more »
The grand challenge to prepare Indiana for environmental change… and the hope behind it
Typically when you think about a bunch of academics discussing environmental change, it has an air of doom and gloom. The projections aren’t promising: the global temperature is predicted to rise 0.2 °C each decade, resulting mainly from anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases, and this will continue to result in rising sea levels and unpredictable,… Read more »
President Trump calls for the re-establishment of mental asylums: A discussion of deinstitutionalization.
Following the school shooting in Florida at the end of February, President Trump advocated for the re-establishment of “mental asylums”, also known as psychiatric hospitals, citing a much-needed improvement of the mental health system and as a solution to gun violence in America. In order to contextualize the President’s claims, in this blog post, I’ll… Read more »
Interwoven Threads
A profile of IU professor Sharlene Newman in celebration of Black History Month Any glance at the demographics tells us that African American women are among the least represented of any group in STEM disciplines. Such is true in the field of psychological and brain sciences, where Sharlene Newman is the only African American professor… Read more »
Explosion underscores importance of laboratory safety
On Sunday, January 28, 2018, there was a significant explosion in a chemistry laboratory. Fortunately, no one was injured due to the laboratory being vacant at the moment of the explosion, but the fume hood where it occurred was severely damaged. The safety sash, which consists of four safety glass panels at the front of… Read more »
ScIU’s Top Hits of 2017
2017 was a good year for ScIU. We exceeded our goal of publishing one post per week, and published a total of 56 blog posts! Traffic to our website has increased by 53% per post since fall of 2016, and our list of subscribers continues to grow! A few posts in particular received a lot… Read more »
The process of science and politics and the risks to education
As recently as Thursday of last week, two different versions of a tax reform bill were working their way through a reconciliation committee comprised of House Representatives and Senators. The House version of the tax reform bill had called for changes to the tax code that would have dramatically affected the personal finances of graduate… Read more »