Category: Biology
Y:1 students get high-tech exposure
Students in Janet Stevens’ “Economic Botany” class use iPads and high-tech photographic technology to study plant communities on Sweet Briar’s campus.
Sweet Briar alumna studies chocolate
Alexandra Gold DiFeleceantonio ’08 is the lead author behind a recent study that explains why we can’t stop eating chocolate — among other things. The study, undertaken by scientists from the University of Michigan, was published in the journal Current Biology and is featured in an article in the Smithsonian’s online magazine and at scientificamerican.com.
Biologist Argues Fishery is Risky Business
Soon, cownose rays will be arriving at their summer breeding ground in the Chesapeake Bay. They swarm into the Bay, by some estimates in the millions, setting up an inevitable clash between man and fish that seems to escalate with each migration. The rays — big mollusk-eating predators — are blamed for harming commercial [...]
2012 Presidential Medalist is Crazy Like a Vixen
Once a year, Sweet Briar bestows upon a senior its highest honor, the Presidential Medal. Alexandra St. Pierre accepted this year’s medal from President Jo Ellen Parker on Wednesday, March 21, during the Academic Recognition Dinner. The annual event also celebrates first-year honors and dean’s list students. Speculation is typically rampant as the ritual ceremony [...]
SBC’s ‘Shark Man’ to Speak on State of the Oceans
Sweet Briar biology professor John Morrissey will kick off the Great Decisions Lecture Series 2012 with his presentation “State of the Oceans” at 3 p.m. this Thursday, Feb. 2 in the Lynchburg Public Library Community Room, 2315 Memorial Ave. Great Decisions is a national, civic education program that encourages participants to learn about U.S. foreign [...]
For Wildlife Specialist, Summer’s Dog Days are Good Times
Kimberly Leach Burge says Sweet Briar stoked her love for “all things reptiles and amphibians,” but lately she’s developed a fondness for Boykin spaniels, too. The 2000 biology graduate is a wildlife education specialist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The spaniels have become an important asset to her work with a statewide project [...]
Rays’ Hope: Good Science Defends Maligned Predator
Maryanne Grey ’12 chooses lunch carefully on days that she is working on her senior independent study research. Sorting through the semi-digested contents of cownose ray stomachs and intestines is smelly work. “I try to eat something that if I was to get sick, I wouldn’t mind it coming back up,” she says. Once past [...]
Internship is a Real Zoo
Biology major Kendall Harris’ interest in veterinary medicine led her all the way to California this summer, where she is working in the Oakland Zoo’s 12-week Zookeeper Intern Program. Harris, a rising junior, is chronicling some of her activities on her blog, A Day at the Zoo. She has been assigned to care for a [...]
Biologist Pioneers Use of CREATE’s ‘Time Machine’
Sweet Briar College’s Janet Steven is enjoying the perks of being a Fine Fellow. First, the fellowship came with equipment and training on the GigaPan system, a pioneering tool that has been making headlines in the scientific community. It combines a robotic camera mount and software that stitches together thousands of photographs taken with an [...]
Sweet Briar Professors’ Biomathematics Paper Stands Out
A paper co-written by biology professor Robin Davies and mathematical sciences professor Raina Robeva has been selected for inclusion in the “Highlights of 2010” issue of CBE-Life Sciences Education. Robeva and Davies wrote the paper, “Mathematical Biology Modules Based on Modern Molecular Biology and Modern Discrete Mathematics,” with co-authors Terrell Hodge, formerly of Sweet Briar [...]
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