Feb04
Posted on Feb 4 by
This past week Emmanuel College celebrated Founder’s Week. This week-long event seeks to celebrate the Sisters of Notre Dame, the founding of the College itself, and the Mission the College seeks to uphold. This is one of the best times for the Department of Chemistry and Physics to reflect on ways that we, as a group, go out and uphold the Mission of the College, particularly related to service to the community. Each year members of the Department of Chemistry and Physics take part in National Chemistry Week which seeks to educate and engage the community, especially the younger generations, in a specific science topic. For example, the past NCW themes have have included “Colors of Chemistry” and “the Science of Rocks.” Another event that students take part in each spring is the Colleges of the Fenway Muddy River Symposium. All students enrolled in the Analytical Chemistry course discuss environmental impacts and collect data on water quality in the Muddy River and Emerald Necklace parks and in Boston tap water. Students volunteer to present the class findings at the...
Jan25
Posted on Jan 25 by
Throwback to year ago when Chemistry of Fire and Explosives, a two thousand level chemistry elective, was being offered. The course covers the different types of fire and explosives that exist in the world and their relation to combustion, fire-fighting, military, and forensics. Throughout the course, there are a variety of demonstrations done that are valuable when it comes to understanding the properties of fire and explosives and how they work in the world. Fire safety is another priority in this class and one of coolest demonstrations done last spring was the fire extinguisher training. During this training, students learned about the different types of fire extinguishes used to fight different fires. The different types of fire extinguishers include Class A which is ordinary combustibles like wood and paper; Class B is flammable liquids, such as gasoline or cooking oil; Class C is flammable gases like hydrogen and methane; Class D is combustible metals like magnesium and potassium; Class E is electrical equipment; and Class F is fires that have to do with cooking like cooking oils. These classes are...
Nov22
Posted on Nov 22 by
The inaugural session of the new Friendly Emmanuel Natural Science Seminar (FENSS, for the Fenway) was held in October. This seminar series is jointly hosted by the Departments of Chemistry and Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and Psychology and will feature Emmanuel faculty, Emmanuel students, and esteemed invited scientists from across the Boston area. In this first session, Dr. Allen Price, Associate Professor of Physics, and Dr. Benjamin Allen, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, presented about the research they each conduct on campus and beyond. Both research topics have to do with understanding and predicting natural phenomena in everyday life. Dr. Price presented on, “How DNA binding proteins find their way: Your binding site is only a hop, skip and a jump away…” and Dr. Allen presented on “Evolution in time and space.” Dr. Price investigates the way in which DNA binding proteins are able to determine the specific location in the genome that they are suppose to bind to and quickly work. More specifically, it has been observed through sensitive techniques that proteins actually slide on a DNA molecule. Dr. Price...
Nov12
Posted on Nov 12 by
Senior chemistry majors, Krista Meserve and Francis Delano, were recently awarded Grants In Aid (http://www.nesacs.org/awards_grants-in-aid.html) to attend and present at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society conference in New Orleans this spring. Krista Meserve has been part of Dr. Gerdon’s research team for three years while Francis has been part of Dr. Sears’ research team since his freshmen year. Both research enthusiasts attended and presented at the ACS conference in San Francisco last spring. The travel award was highly competitive and covers part of the cost to travel to New Orleans to present the results of the research they have been doing over the years. It is so exciting to see such deserving students receive an amazing award such as this one. Wishing them both the best in their research and in New Orleans this upcoming spring! ~Written by Brielle Favole...
Nov02
Posted on Nov 2 by
October 22nd through October 28th the country celebrated National Chemistry Week! National chemistry week is an event put on throughout the nation that encourages members of the American Chemical Society and others to raise awareness of chemistry at the local level and get people of all ages to learn ways in which chemistry is applicable to real life. Each year there is a different theme to National Chemistry Week. This year, the theme was “Chemistry Rocks.” Boston celebrated National Chemistry Week by hosting events at the Museum of Science as well as at the Boston Children’s Museum. Emmanuel students, faculty, and staff volunteered at and attended both events including the department’s very own Prof. Eric Camire. Both of these events mostly catered to teaching kids about chemistry. While volunteering, chemists helped eager kids with experiments having to do with rocks. For example, one experiment showed how gems were made from rocks using pressure by using clay, rice, and a rolling pin. Another experiment allowed kids to drop rocks into water to observe the fact that different rocks had different...
Oct01
Posted on Oct 1 by
On Wednesday September 13th, physics professor and research enthusiast, Dr. Price traveled to Washington D.C to attend The Rally for Medical Research Capitol Hill Day. People at this rally included researchers and people who have been directly impacted by medical research itself. The purpose of this rally is to call on the country’s policymakers to make funding for the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation a national priority and raise awareness about the importance of continued investment in medical research. This investment in medical research ultimately leads to more progress, more hope, and more lives saved. Similarly, federal funding in this medical research has given a number of student researchers here at Emmanuel world class training opportunities that they may otherwise not have gotten without funding from either of theses institutions. Its so amazing to see some of our very own taking action! ~by Brielle Favole...
