blogs

Guten Tag!

By The Ithacan • March 26, 2013

Approximately over one billion people around the world are learning English. In Europe more than 90 percent of children learn English from the start of elementary school. In the U.S less than a third of schools require or offer foreign language courses. While foreign countries believe becoming diverse in more than one language especially English…

Made Up

By Rebecca Billings • March 25, 2013

I’ve been talking a lot about makeup lately. And not in the Seventeen-esque “what color eye shadow will match my nail polish and skin tone while still making it look like I don’t have any eye shadow on” kind of way. The conversations I’ve been having—with my boyfriend, with other feminists, with my little sister—have…

Foreign policy post-Chavez

By Rachael Hartford • March 24, 2013

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s self-proclaimed “Bolivarian” leader, passed away March 5, leaving many around the world asking: What will Venezuela look like without Chavez? Chavez, who led the country since taking power in 1998, seems to be just as divisive in death as he was when he was alive. Even his interim successor was contentious. Chavez…

Voyager 1 still in solar system… for now

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer • March 22, 2013

Anyone on Twitter today and yesterday may have seen the myriad tweets about Voyager 1 finally leaving the solar system 35 years after its launch. Despite the studies released that confirmed this, scientists in the program said that it can’t be confirmed that it has indeed left. Voyager 1, along with its sister craft Voyager…

Better late than never: Here’s my bracket

By Andrew Kristy • March 22, 2013

It's 10:30 on Thursday night and I feel obliged to write a blog about March Madness. Probably should've written a post earlier this week to fill my quota, but I sank into a small aggressive depression once I realized that it was still 30 degrees and snowing in Ithaca and I had piles of homework…

A week in photos — March 21, 2013

By Ithacan Staff • March 21, 2013

Click to enlarge and view captions.

Raising the dead… sort of: Scientists revive extinct frog species

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer • March 20, 2013

Despite what Casper may have suggested, it’s still not possible at this time to resurrect the dead beyond resuscitating someone whose heart stopped. However, scientists have been able to bring back a species of frog that has been extinct since the 1980s through cloning processes and DNA that has been frozen since the 1970s. The…

Coronaviruses a continuing concern for medical professionals

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer • March 18, 2013

Ask any person on the street about coronaviruses, and the chances will be pretty good that they don’t know what you’re talking about. However, chances are also pretty good that they’ll have had one before, as coronaviruses are one of the leading causes of the common cold, and our pets are often vaccinated against them.…

Apparently Satan looks a lot like President Obama

By Chloe Wilson • March 18, 2013

On March 3rd, The History Channel premiered "The Bible," a ten-hour miniseries produced by Mark Burnett, to record ratings. The series became the subject of many entertainment news publications for its weird on-set happenings, but now the series is the subject of a political controversy. The March 17th episode of "The Bible" was the first…

March 14th a momentous day in math, food, and physics

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer • March 15, 2013

Today may seem like just an average March day, but to the science community, it represents the celebrations of a critical number, a world-renowned scientist, and today the confirmation of a particle that is responsible for giving matter its mass. Depending on how people write their dates, Pi(e) Day could be January 3 at 4:19…

Drug-resistant “superbugs” a global concern

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer • March 13, 2013

It seems as though sickness is part of the school experience, even in college. The flu ran rampant through the country this past winter and claimed at least one of my neighbors, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the sore throat I’m currently nursing was a product of exposure at school. If it is indeed…

March already a revolutionary month for HIV research

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer • March 11, 2013

It seems as though March has just started, and in the 10 days we’ve had so far, two groundbreaking studies regarding HIV have been released. Last week, a Mississippi child born with HIV was deemed “functionally cured” after tests showed there was no replicating virus in the child’s system a year after ending treatment. This…