Darrin Shultz What is smaller than dust and undetected when alone, but, in large groups, puts on a light show more spectacular than all of the glow parties on East Lorain Street combined? Vibrio fischeri (pronounced fisher-eye), the bacterium, of course! These tiny flecks of life swim every ocean in solitude, feeding off even more insignificant...
Stuart McDaniel ’94: Using moss model systems to clarify patterns of biodiversity
Sep 27, 2012
On February 10th, Stuart McDaniel (OC ’94), a fourth generation Obie and current Assistant Biology Professor at the University of Florida presented a riveting description of his research concerning the evolution of reproductive isolation in moss species. After getting his PhD from Duke University in 2005, he decided to continue with his research in the...
Lab Hierarchy: Undergrads have more power than you think
Sep 27, 2012
Many people share the perception that working in a research lab as an undergraduate is analogous to giving yourself up for slavery. You do perform the mind-numbing tasks the post-doc has been putting off for the past three months and in return you are offered “experience”. As someone who spent her summer sitting in front of a computer counting cells for...
An Interview with William Fuchsman
In his many years as a valued professor at Oberlin College, Dr. William Fuchsman has taught a number of chemistry and biochemistry courses. Now in his final semester here at Oberlin, Fuchsman is teaching Bioorganic Chemistry, the couse he is most well known for, and finishing up a number of research projects. The Synapse sat down with him to discuss his...
OP-Ed: Lorain County Health – One Obie’s Take on Healthcare Outside the Oberlin Bubble
As Oberlin College students, we spend about four years of our lives in this rural town of population 8,300. The citizens and local businesses are reliably gracious. There is, however, a remarkable difference between the typical OC student and the members of the surrounding community. College students usually have access to a much higher standard of health care...
Where to Next? Alternative Career Options in Health-Related Fields
Graduation. Whether this word means one more month to you, or you still feel like you just arrived here at Oberlin, graduation is the result we are all striving for. For science majors, the path may be tedious at times and filled with many different obstacles. However, what we ultimately decide to pursue following the ceremony is what’s truly important. A...
David Eagleman: a renaissance man of modern neuroscience
What are your areas of research? There are several prongs to the laboratory. The overarching umbrella … is how the brain constructs reality and how that can be very different inside different peoples’ heads. What I study is time perception and how that can work in different situations, what I study is synesthesia which is a good in road to understanding how...
Frontiers of Cross-Modal Display: The Emoti-Chair as a Model Human Cochlea
It is a shame that some people cannot experience the joy of hearing music. Genetic abnormalities, birth defects, and degenerative diseases can all cause hearing loss, and thus the loss of music perception. Currently, researchers are attempting to bring music to these individuals by reconstructing the ear’s biological machinery; devices, such as cochlear...