001 - NatSci News Rewind July 2019 Transcript

Speaker: Jesse Earley:       
You're listening to NatSci New Rewind a podcast that looks back at the monthly news headlines in the world of NatSci. Let's take a look back at the news for the month of July, 2019.

Our water cycle diagrams give a false sense of water security. A new study published inNnature Geosciences was carried out by a large team of experts from MSU, Brigham Young University and University of Birmingham, along with partners in the US, France, Canada, Switzerland, and Sweden to gain a better understanding of how our water cycle works in the 21st centur.

MSU math team performs well at annual exams competition. MSU plays 25th out of more than 200 teams at this year's Putnam math competition and annual event, in which teams of undergraduate students compete to solve extremely challenging math problems.

The making of a Rhodes Scholar, a cycle of success. MSU Alum Clara Lepard earned her B.S. in zoology in spring 2017. In November of that year, she received word that she was a recipient of a Rhode Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford in England. Lepard began her studies at Oxford in the fall of 2018 and currently pursuing her master of science degree in zoology.

Magnetic leadership and stellar coding: NatSci's Chelsea Harris named Howes Scholar. Chelsea Harris, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of physics and astronomy in the Michigan State University College of Natural Science is the recipient of a 2019 Frederick A, Howes Scholar in Computational Science Award.

Connected math collaborative digital classroom environments, focus of NSF grants. MSU's connected mathematics project in partnership with the Concord consortium are using two national science foundation grants totaling four point $5 million to explore new possibilities for CNP classrooms in a digital environment using the Connected Mathematics middle school curriculum.

Upgrade for neutrino detector thanks to NSF grant. The IceCube neutrino observatory, the Antarctic detector that identified the first likely source of high energy neutrinos and cosmic rays. is getting an upgrade. The National Science Foundation is upgrading the IceCube detector, extending its scientific capabilities to lower energies and virgin IceCube to smaller neutrino detectors worldwide.

Successful suppression of mosquitoes using sterile mates in China. MSU, and Sun Yet-Sen University, in partnership with the Wolbaki Biotech Company, the Joint FAO, IAEA Division and others, have successfully suppressed a mosquito vector population in China as part of efforts to use a new technique to control the insect that spreads dengue, Zika and other diseases. The results of this pilot trial were published in the current issue of Nature.

NatSci's Alex Dickson simulates molecules in motion, wins OpenEye Junior Faculty Award. Alex Dickson, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a joint appointment in the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering has received the highly competitive American Chemical Society OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry.

Four NatSci faculty recognized with university distinguished professor title. Four College of Natural Science professors were among 10 MSU faculty members named 2019 University distinguished professors by the MSU Board of Trustees in honor of their achievements in research, teaching, mentoring and community engagement.

Algae living in fungi: How land plants first evolved. New Research from Michigan State University recently published in the Journal eLife presents evidence that algae could have piggybacked on fungi to leave the water and to colonize the land over 500 million years ago.

And that will wrap up the rewind for the month of July, 2019. To read more about these stories, head on over to our website at natsci.msu.edu/news. You can also stay up to date by following us on social. You can find us on Twitter @msu_natsci, on Facebook @MSUCNS, and on Instagram @msunatsci. Thanks for tuning in and be sure to check us out next month.