The Student News Site of Ithaca College

THE ITHACAN

The Student News Site of Ithaca College

THE ITHACAN

The Student News Site of Ithaca College

THE ITHACAN

Naming contests bring readers closer to science

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer March 27, 2013
March Madness marks the time of year where pretty much everything is turned into a bracket. Southern California Public Radio, for example, crafted a competition among 32 public radio stations, including popular shows such as Talk of the Nation, Car Talk, and two personal favorites of mine, Radiolab and Science Friday. Radiolab itself is currently…

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…

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.…

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…

Mitochondria provide link to our distant ancestry

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer March 8, 2013
Anyone who has taken (or is taking) 200s-level genetics at Ithaca College will be familiar with the mtDNA experiment in lab. While the collection, amplification, and purification of the DNA is a tedious process, the results from processing at Cornell could tell you how close your genes are to a person in another country, a…

Long-form science coverage takes many forms

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer March 5, 2013
Last post, I introduced some of social media’s coverage of science as a way to provide the everyday person with an easily accessible version of science happenings. Many of these are created with the intent to pique the interests of readers who may not have an existing affinity for science. For those whose interests have…

Social media a good place for Science Fun 101

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer March 3, 2013
Science can be scary. Even as a biology minor wanting to pursue science journalism, I’m a little intimidated by the ideas of quantum physics, thermochemistry, or developmental psychology. Unfortunately, it’s the stigma that science is hard that keeps a lot of people out of it, and once they’re out, it’s difficult to get them back…

NASA search for life continues through budget cuts

By Amanda Hutchinson, Contributing Writer February 28, 2013
Despite having been placed on the governmental back burner due to lack of funding, NASA and its work in space research has continued to be a hot topic. For the 2012 fiscal year, the space administration was allotted $17.8 billion in government funding, $648 million less than the previous year. This budget cut was largely…
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