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A Look into Mathematical Biology
Features

A Look into Mathematical Biology

Emily Almgren

Ever wonder how mathematics is used in biology? Professor Rebecca Everett uses differential equations to create mathematical models that represent biological systems. The models provide insight into these systems and predict long-term behavior.

Professor Everett (left) and her research students Maya Gong ‘23, Logan Post ‘23, and Anay Mehta ‘23 (left to right) presenting at Texas Tech University in 2021. The real world is full of complex biological relationships. A rabbit population might fluctuate depending on the fox population, the amount of edible plants, and the spread of disease. Mathematical biologists like Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Rebecca Everett make sense of these relationships using mathematical models. She explains that the mathematical models she creates represent biological systems much like a model airplane represents a real airplane. They are not perfect copies...
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Marking the Passage of Time: Spring 2022 Stargazing
Columns Stargazing

Marking the Passage of Time: Spring 2022 Stargazing

Karen Masters

While it may feel like we’re stuck in a repeating loop of Spring 2020, watching the night skies can remind us that the seasons do actually keep passing by. Here is your stargazing guide for Spring 2022.

While it may feel like we’re stuck in a repeating loop of Spring 2020, watching the night skies can remind us that the seasons do actually keep passing by. Indeed many cultures throughout history have used the night skies to mark the passing of time. In my home country of England, ancient peoples built Stonehenge, probably to track the motion of the Sun (the brightest star in the sky!) and mark the year. In New Zealand, the Maori used the first sighting of Matariki (also known as the Pleiades) to set the start of the new year. The hottest part...
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Dinner in the Woods: A Catalog of Edible Fungi on Haverford’s Campus
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Dinner in the Woods: A Catalog of Edible Fungi on Haverford’s Campus

Oscar Garrett

Haverford’s nature trail has more delicious offerings than a pleasant place to gaunt and jog; you might find your next dinner!

Amanita muscaria (also known as “Fly Agaric”), a beautiful mushroom with a rich history. Image taken in the Haverford Pinetum. Note: All images featured in this article were taken by Oscar Garrett. Disclaimer: Foraging is a fun hobby with tasty rewards, but it can result in injury or death with the right combination of ignorance and misfortune. Do not eat anything you find without being 100 percent sure of its identity. The contents of this article are intended to educate you of these fungi's presence on campus, not identify them. Consult a field guide or foraging expert before consuming any...
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Haverford Bee Handbook
Features Science in Society

Haverford Bee Handbook

Emi Krishnamurthy

Which bees should I be afraid of? What should I do if a wasp lands on my sandwich? Did I just see a murder hornet? This is your guide to the bees on Haverford’s campus.

Bees run the world. They are widely recognized as being integral to biodiversity and food security. Their little lives impact our water cycle, carbon cycle, GDP, architecture, and so much more. Interior of the Vessel in Hudson Yards, NYC (left), honeycomb (right). Photos by Soly Moses and Archana GS. Honeybees First and foremost, the honeybee is an excellent pollinator, skilled honey maker, and close friend to Haverford’s campus. Our own beehive hosts thousands of fuzzy, golden-brown bees that help pollinate our produce at the Haverfarm. The honeybees you encounter on campus are most likely female worker bees collecting pollen and...
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Autumnal Nights: The Full Moon and Evening Star
Columns Stargazing

Autumnal Nights: The Full Moon and Evening Star

Karen Masters

Read Haverford Physics and Astronomy Professor Karen Masters’ seasonal guide to stargazing. What’s in store this fall: full moons, eclipses, and Venus, bright in the night sky.

A photo of the moon and Venus in the sky. Photo by Sean Rozekrans via Wikimedia Commons. As the evenings draw in, the Full Moon is a beautiful and accessible stargazing object. As is the case in the Spring, many cultures have festivals during the Fall that are set by the Lunar Calendar, and so they are explicitly or implicitly tied to the Autumnal Moons. For example, the date of Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur is set by the “lunisolar” Hebrew calendar, which means it (usually) starts on the date of the closest New Moon to the Autumnal Equinox (the date when...
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What is Dark Matter?
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What is Dark Matter?

Hannah James

Dark matter is mysterious to many, and exploring this phenomenon usually leads to more questions than answers. Professors Dr. Karen Masters, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr. Daniel Grin, assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy, provide key answers and explanations.

Dr. Karen Masters, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy (left), Dr. Daniel Grin, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy (right). Dark matter is mysterious to many, and exploring this phenomenon usually leads to more questions than answers. Professors Dr. Karen Masters, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr. Daniel Grin, assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy, provide key answers and explanations.  This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the distribution of dark matter in the center of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 1689, containing about 1,000 galaxies and trillions of stars. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter...
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How Quickly is the Universe Expanding? The Hunt for the True Hubble Constant
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How Quickly is the Universe Expanding? The Hunt for the True Hubble Constant

Lydia Guertin

Though scientists have researched the increasing expansion of the universe for years, a contentious debate still churns regarding the true value of this rate of expansion and how it may be changing right before our eyes.

Microwave emission map that shows the Cosmic Microwave Background, a distribution of early universe temperatures. The blue spots are colder than the red spots. Via NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day/Planck Collaboration It is now a well-known fact that the universe is expanding, but how quickly is it growing? Despite decades of cosmological research across the globe, no astronomer can definitively identify this rate of expansion, the Hubble Constant H0. Such uncertainty stems from Hubble Tension, the quantitative difference between two different methods used to calculate H0. Luckily, Dr. Bruce Partridge, one of the original collaborators on the Planck Satellite...
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Crystal Synthesis: A Sneak Peak into the Norquist Lab
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Crystal Synthesis: A Sneak Peak into the Norquist Lab

Asher Maitin

Asher Maitin ’21 explains the Oxide Project in the Norquist Lab, where students work to generate crystals using compounds that are largely neglected in published literature.

Simulated image of crystal structures. The work done in Alex Norquist’s Chemistry Lab at Haverford College involves both the synthesis of novel compounds with exciting properties as well as addressing inequalities in material chemistry datasets. For instance, some materials can be used for material synthesis but are not due to various human-driven biases and decisions. One example is the material availability bias, referring to the cost of a material, or how readily available the material is to locate and use.  The Norquist Lab at Haverford is divided into several different projects, all pertaining to material chemistry and machine-learning, which can...
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Summer Stargazing: Black Holes and Shooting Stars
Columns Stargazing

Summer Stargazing: Black Holes and Shooting Stars

Karen Masters

Summer nights are short but warm, and many people spend time camping — an ideal activity to mix with stargazing. Try looking for Sagittarius, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, meteor showers, and even a partial eclipse of the sun this summer.

Scroll to the bottom of this article for a stargazing and astronomy calendar for Summer 2021. The summer is one of my favorite times for stargazing. The nights are short but warm, and many people spend time camping — an ideal activity to mix with stargazing. Try looking for Sagittarius, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, meteor showers, and even a partial eclipse of the sun this summer. You can see almost everything I suggest below without any equipment. Sagittarius is one of my favorite summer constellations to look for. Greek astronomers saw a centaur firing an arrow, but I always look for...
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The Ocean as a Key Resource in the Antibiotics Arms Race
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The Ocean as a Key Resource in the Antibiotics Arms Race

Emi Krishnamurthy

One key solution to fighting antibiotic resistance is to discover new antibiotics. Shreya Kishore ’21 shares how she screens marine bacterial cultures in pursuit of discovering a novel antibiotic.

Shreya Kishore ’21 in the Whalen Lab at Haverford College. Shreya Kishore is currently a senior Chemistry major with a biochemistry concentration and health studies minor at Haverford College. As a peer tutor and member of the Chemistry Student Group, Kishore is passionate about increasing the transparency of Haverford’s chemistry department. She plans on working toward her Chemistry PhD at Stanford University this fall. One key solution to fighting antibiotic resistance is to discover new antibiotics. Shreya Kishore ’21 shares how she screens marine bacterial cultures in pursuit of discovering a novel antibiotic. Almost 100 years ago, Sir Alexander Fleming...
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Spring Skies: Martian Fever
Columns Stargazing

Spring Skies: Martian Fever

Karen Masters

Let Karen Masters, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Haverford, lead you on a stargazing journey through Spring 2021.

Photo by Sky Xe, via Wikimedia Commons. If you plan to go stargazing just once this spring, you should find the planet Mars. You cannot have missed how missions to Mars have been in the news recently, with three missions arriving at the planet in mid-February. The orbits of Mars and Earth line up every two years, creating a window of favorable conditions to send spacecrafts. During the last window which opened in July 2020, three separate spacecraft were launched: the “Hope” spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft, and a mission from NASA which includes both...
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A Look into Mathematical Biology