Oberlin College Science Magazine
Feb 17, 2012
Take a moment to look around you. What do you see? If you’re reading this in Oberlin, chances are you’re seeing low-rise collegiate buildings, paved pathways through grassy quads, a few sleep-deprived students, and a distinctly flat Ohio terrain. But it didn’t always look like this; we’re only seeing a snippet of what this land has looked like...
Feb 17, 2012
By Lizzie Roberts Every time you’ve gone a full day without eating until dinner, had three tests on the same day, been barraged by seemingly endless bills, or been chased down by a pride of ravenous lions, your brain has reacted by secreting hormones that tell your body to kick it up a gear. While stress can sometimes be a useful motivator in the...
Feb 17, 2012
By Sam Fisher One of the most curious innovations made possible by digital computation is the class of machines that can perceive their environment and learn from it. This is referred to as Artificial Intelligence, thanks to analogies that link these machine processes to human intelligence. While current artificial intelligence methods are far from imitating the...
Feb 17, 2012
By Isaac H. McCreery You and I probably share common memory: a long day, a day when the world has seemed beyond comprehension, beyond focus, and all one can do is stare slack-jawed at it in all its daunting complexity. I often find refuge in a book; right now I end my overwhelming days curled up with Hemingway. He has a brilliant way of distilling the...
Feb 17, 2012
By Gabe Marx and Elie Goldberg Anyone who has gone through high school has experienced their fair share of human social hierarchies. There are the individuals that sit on the high end of the social totem pole and there are those that, unfortunately, sit at the bottom. What determines a person’s position on this spectrum? At first glance it seems as...
Feb 17, 2012
By Mia Dawson By the fourth or fifth day, it’s only the weak and the maimed turtles that return, effortfully hauling themselves from the ocean. Turtles that have lost limbs to predators and boating accidents struggle futilely to dig out nests for their eggs. It’s an urgent task — a turtle preparing to nest is so filled with eggs that her internal organs...
Feb 17, 2012
By Anna Dardick Still waiting on your Hogwarts letter? Fear not, for as technology advances, one thing becomes clear: science is the new magic. Whereas miraculous and devastating events, from earthquakes to hallucinations, used to be ascribed to supernatural forces, science can now explain it all (or at least try). In a modern world, science is not only...