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Cutting-Edge Science at IU

Diversity in Sciences Libraries

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[A woman sits at a laptop with books spread around her.]

In 2019, Inside Higher Ed used federal data to show that Latinx and black students switched out of STEM majors at rates of 8% and 11% higher than their white counterparts. This led to people in higher education trying to figure out why BIPOC students did not feel supported enough to stay in STEM fields. The truth is that higher education is white-centric and reinforces many of the same layers of systemic racism that are more widely acknowledged in government, courts, policing, prisons, and beyond. To ensure that all students feel welcome and secure in STEM spaces, collegiate science libraries have launched many initiatives to support BIPOC students in tangible ways…

Clean Water, Healthy Town: The importance of the Monroe Watershed

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[A retention pool covered in grass sits in a large parking lot.]

Lake Monroe is one of the best spots in Bloomington: trails, water skiing, boating, what more could you ask for? But little did you know, Lake Monroe is a lot more than just a leisure activity. It is the main water source for Bloomington and the surrounding areas. Each day the Monroe Water Treatment Plant pumps an average of 15 million gallons of water for people to use. We bath in this water and even drink it. But where is all of this water coming from? It turns out the answer is all around us…

Dog Therapy

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[A service dog, with yellow lab features, stands at the side of a pool with it's harness on while sniffing the forehead of it's handler who is in the pool.]

Mental health awareness in the United States has become less taboo throughout the decade, as people young and old, become more comfortable talking about their mental health. Since 40 million adults in the US are diagnosed with anxiety disorder and 18 million adults suffer from depression, those who are dealing with their diagnosis are trying new approaches for coping with their disorders. While the traditional route of therapy and prescription medication to manage a mental health disorder works for many, the use of therapy dogs has proven as an effective method to improve mental health…

Five skincare ingredients for fall and winter

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[Picture is a pipette with oil coming from it and a small gold spoon with shea butter on it, both placed on a background of lotion.”]

Making sure your skin is properly hydrated and moisturized is essential for healthy skin. However, with Fall and Winter upon us, this weather can throw us off balance! We have all experienced that uncomfortable feeling when our lips are chapped, our cheeks are red, and our face feels tight or dry when walking through the blustery cold. With so many products on the market, it can be impossible to know what ingredients to look for. Depending on your skin’s needs, you may benefit more from certain ingredients over others. Some people suffer from dryness whereas others experience dehydration…

Expanding ‘The Matrix’ of science: The Newman lab inside and out

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[Eight people standing around a table full of science experiments]

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS) assistant professor Dr. Ehren Newman studies circuitry in the brain, particularly the circuitry that is associated with the making of stories and the retrieval of memories. Newman’s background as a computational neuroscientist enables him to bring a plethora of new insight into his current field of systems cognitive psychology. Memory is a complex process with multiple facets. “We don’t remember everything that happens to us with equal probability,” he observes. “Instead, we have fragmented memories of things of varying lengths.” So, how do we choose which memories to store and later recall?

IU’s take on the cannabis trend

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[The image shows Cannabis Sativa plant]

On March 20, 2019, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Professor Emeritus Dr. Brian O’Donnell and Research Scientist Dr. Alex Straiker met with the student community for a Q&A session entitled “Cannabis: Science and Policy.” “IU has been the world center for research regarding cannabinoid signaling,” said Dr. Straiker during his address at the Science Café talk. Having studied cannabinoid signaling for more than 20 years, Dr. Straiker mentions the growing enthusiasm for cannabis use in a variety of forms, like essential oils; not only recreationally, but also for the treatment of anxiety, autoimmune disease, inflammation, and pain management…

An Archaeological Introduction to Coding in Python

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A left-hander sits facing the camera holding a core in her right hand and a hammerstone in her left hand. She is preparing a core to begin making flakes off the rock. Both the core and the flakes produced are considered stone tools.

Programming skills are not only becoming more in demand in industry jobs, they’re also becoming a required skill in academia as well. Programming is now used in almost every discipline for tasks such as data collection,  organization, and analysis. In this post, I’m going to demonstrate how some basic programming in Python can be used… Read more »

How failure fuels science: Perspectives from two early-career ecologists

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Two scientists working at the lab bench, preparing fungal tissues for staining.

Saskia Klink is a PhD student at the University of Bayreuth, who is collaborating with Adrienne Keller. Recently, Adrienne traveled to Germany to work with Saskia on several research projects in her lab. This post is an outgrowth of their discussions together during that time. Check out their previous post to learn more about their… Read more »

From models to the world’s biodiversity: How a theoretical biologist predicts the effects of environmental change

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Dr. Jason Bertram is sitting at his desk working on his laptop. On the screen, you can see graphs that exhibit models that are showing how populations might respond to different environmental challenges.

Upon establishing the Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI) at Indiana University, the leaders and visionaries reported four main goals. The first goal stated that the supported research would create “accurate predictions about coming changes in weather patterns, water, plants and animals, and disease risk.” This goal focused on directly predicting what Hoosiers would have to face,… Read more »

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