BY CHEYENNE ELLIS ’21
This year’s flu season has reached a new high, surpassing records of every season since the 2009 swine flu outbreak. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believes the flu is on track to match the magnitude of the swine flu, which was estimated to infect over 34 million Americans, hospitalizing 710,000 and ultimately killing 56,000 people, according to The New York Times.
A new study published in Current Biology has found a major shift in the gender ratio of green sea turtles around Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, according to VOA News. The results of this study indicate that 99 percent of sea turtles born in the northern part of the reef and 87 percent of adult sea turtles around the Great Barrier Reef are female, according to the New York Times. While this topic has been studied previously, the enormity of the situation, as well as the rapid progression, was unknown to researchers.
BY ALEXANDRA SINGH ’18
I worked in Greenslade’s lab for about nine weeks full-time, using several different instruments such as differential mobility analyzer (DMA), condensation particle counter (CPC), cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRD) and BET methods to determine size distributions, surface areas and the effects of increased humidity on several different types of clay and mineral dusts.
BY SAVANNAH HARRIMAN-POTE ’20
Since the start of the digital age, the transition between presidential administrations has occurred not just in the physical space of the White House, but also throughout the digital landscapes of the federal government. Just as they did in 2008, government websites changed to reflect the platform of President Trump on the day of his inauguration according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, scientists across the country initiated efforts to preserve the government data of the Obama administration.
BY TEAGAN WEBB ’19
Contemporary conversations about birth control, inside and outside of Mount Holyoke, frequently sanitize or ignore its deeply racist history. It’s important to not just think of birth control as an abstract human right, but also as a contextualized practice which continues to be held in the forgotten history of people of color in this country. In order to advocate for access — here’s looking at you, other white democrats! — we blindly celebrate without consideration for the bodies of the past.
BY CHEYENNE ELLIS ’21
Early last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to pull two scientists and an agency consultant out of a Oct. 23 conference in Rhode Island. The conference was set to highlight the impact of climate change on the Narragansett Bay, according to USA Today. All three were expected to present reports on their studies detailing noticeable climate change impacts in the area. The data collected ranged from air and water temperature reports, sea level indications and the impact analysis on the local fish.
