Liberal Arts Colleges Are Disappearing

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Roger Baldwin

The number of liberal arts colleges in the United States has dropped 39% since 1990, from 212 to 139, reports Michigan State University scholar Roger Baldwin. While financial woes have led to closures or mergers with larger institutions, many schools have simply transformed their missions into something less philosophical and more career-oriented.

With smaller classes, liberal arts schools are traditionally valued for their focus on student development rather than career development. Their missions often include promoting tolerance and understanding of different populations and ideas.

“The diversity of U.S. higher education is widely regarded as one of its strengths,” says Baldwin. “But American higher education will be diminished if the number of liberal arts colleges continues to decline.”

Source: Michigan State University, www.msu.edu.

WordBuzz: Narbs

© KEN BENNETT / WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY

Ananda Mitra, professor of communication at Wake Forest ­University.

Narrative bits, or “narbs,” refer to small bits of information in the digital universe that, when collected, tell an otherwise untold story. The term is credited to Wake Forest University communication professor Ananda Mitra, who believes that narbs offer a way to turn massive amounts of social communication into a tool for predicting behavior and reactions.

For example, using computer algorithms to analyze hundreds of blogs written in English by people in the Arab world, Mitra concludes that the deadly protests in September 2012 following the release of an anti-Muslim video on YouTube could have been predicted.

“The research so far shows patterns emerging that indicate anti-Muslim images would have excited existing emotions that were identifiable in the writings of people in the region,” he says. “There were things going on in these narratives that gave us a moment for pause.”

Source: Wake Forest University, www.wfu.edu.

Progress toward Nano Self-Construction

© KATHY F. ATKINSON / UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

Eric M. Furst, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware, reports new findings of how tiny particle building blocks can be directed to self-assemble into specific structures.

Researchers have been working with nano-sized particles for years and assembling basic structures out of them, but nanoparticles may soon start assembling themselves. A research team at the University of Delaware is using a magnetic field to direct a mass of nanoparticles to disperse and then self-assemble into an array of crystalline formations.

This “guided phase separation” of nanoparticles has never taken place before, according to the researchers. This breakthrough signifies rapid progress in the use of nanoparticles as building blocks in new higher-performing functional materials, as well as products that build themselves.

Source: University of Delaware, www.udel.edu.

Radiation Shields for Space Workers

GSI

In GSI’s linear accelerator, charged atoms can be accelerated up to 20% of the speed of light. This technology enables researchers to simulate collisions with space-based particles.

Cosmic radiation—charged particles that emanate throughout deep space—is a deadly obstacle to future human expeditions to Mars, the asteroids, or other locations beyond Earth. Now, the European Space Agency is partnering with a German particle-accelerator laboratory to develop “radiation shields” that might protect spacecrafts’ crews from exposure.

Researchers at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, are running various materials through simulated collisions with space-based particles to see which materials withstand impact. They report that shields made of water, polyethylene, and hydrogen-rich materials patented by the British company Cella Energy all show promise.

Source: European Space Agency, www.esa.int.

Underwater Navigation Modeled on Fish

COMPOSITE IMAGE BY JANE BAKER, DHS S&T

Boston Engineering’s ­BIOSwimmer and its inspiration, the tuna.

The tuna’s fast, nimble body is a perfect model for underwater propulsion. The Boston Engineering Corporation is developing a prototype BIOSwimmer robot that sports a fish-shaped form, tail, and fins.

Funding is courtesy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, which hopes to deploy the BIOswimmer on underwater patrols. It would be ideal for cramped, polluted, or dangerous environments that humans couldn’t reach, according to its designers. By emulating fish, the device might be free of the propulsion and maneuverability difficulties that conventional unmanned underwater vehicles commonly exhibit.

Source: Science and Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, www.dhs.gov /directorate-science-and-technology.