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A mass-ively important project-- "We are trying to see if subatomic particles called neutrinos have mass. If they do, they may be significant players in finding the missing mass in the universe," says associate professor of physics Sean Sutton. In late January, he hosted seven colleagues--four from three French laboratories, MHC physics professor Howard Nicholson, and two scientists from Idaho National Engineering Lab--for the scientists' fourth gathering to purify materials to be used in the test. The experiment itself, called NEMO-3 (for Neutrino Experiments with Molybdenum), will be conducted in the French Alps starting in 1998 and continuing into the next millennium. It will be the culmination of a decade's collaboration among scientists from Russia, the Czech Republic, France, Finland, the United States, and the Ukraine.

By searching for a rare form of radioactive decay, Sutton and associates hope to determine whether neutrinos have any mass. "There are 300 neutrinos per cubic centimeter everywhere in the universe, so even a little mass could help account for the missing mass in the universe." This, Sutton explains, is one of the great unsolved mysteries in astrophysics.

"This work is where the fields of cosmology and particle physics meet."

"Promising practices" praised--The MHC Alcohol and Drug Awareness

Project, staffed by director Susan McCarthy and educator Karen Jacobus, was selected by The Century Council as a model program and included in the Promising Practices: Campus Alcohol Strategies guide published by George Mason University. This sourcebook is designed to assist colleges and universities in developing or enhancing campus efforts to prevent and/or reduce problems associated with alcohol misuse.

The Alcohol and Drug Awareness Project was one of 811 programs that applied from 500 colleges and universities nationwide for inclusion in the guide. The MHC project is described as one of twenty-eight comprehensive programs that focus on integrating program components into a campuswide initiative, the most promising way to address alcohol abuse on campus.

In the winner's circle--Recording another lifetime best, first-year swimmer Katie Herrold broke another MHC record. She swam the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:23.04, breaking the old record of 5:24.64 set in 1989 by Jenn Todor '92. This marks Herrold's second College record in two weeks. According to head coach Cathy Buchanan, "Katie is swimming very well right now, and we are looking forward to New Englands when she will be 'shaved and tapered.' "

Carrie Turban '97 won the fifty-five-meter hurdles for the track team last weekend. The team was competing at the New England Challenge Cup at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT. Turban won the race with a hand time of 8.58 seconds, a personal career best. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the Accu-Track system, so her time rested as unofficial. Otherwise Turban would have qualified for the Division III NCAA Indoor Track Championship. When asked about her disappointment, Turban replied, "I'll just have to do it again next week." Turban was the 1996 NEW 8 (New England Women's Eight) Athlete of the Year for track.

The basketball team has won four of its last six outings, with the most impressive matches coming against last week's NESCAC opponents. Mount Holyoke defeated Wesleyan with .10 seconds remaining in the game when senior Emily McNutt found an open lane for two points, giving her team a 43-42 win. She also led her team for the week with forty-six points, twenty-nine rebounds, nine assists, and seven steals. Her outstanding play earned McNutt NEW 8 Player of the Week honors.

Award-winning correspondence--Marion Kingston Stocking '43 received the Distinguished Scholar Award for 1996 at the Keats-Shelley Association of America's annual meeting. The award was for a lifetime of scholarship on the Byron-Shelley circle, culminating with the 1996 publication of Stocking's two-volume edition of the Clairmont Correspondence. Claire Clairmont was a member of the household of Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, the mother of Byron's Allegra, and the subject of Henry James's novel The Aspern Papers. Stocking's edition of her letters received major reviews from the New York Review of Books and the London Times Literary Supplement, and was selected as "the best book in language and literature" by the scholarly publishers division of the Association of American Publishers.

More Mary Lyon mania in Buckland--On March 2, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Mary Lyon's birth, the Glee Club will give a free concert in the "Mary Lyon Church" in Buckland, MA, where Lyon was baptized. Held at 3 pm under the direction of Cathy Melhorn, the concert will include works performed during the Glee Club's recent European tour and will feature Detached Sayings by MHC music professor Allen Bonde. The piece was originally written for a ceremony commemorating the issuing of the Mary Lyon postage stamp in 1994. Bonde's composition, which has been recently published, includes five humorous excerpts from Mary Lyon's prose.

In memoriam--Betty Nye Quinn, professor emeritus of classics, died January 29 at the age of seventy-five. She was a 1941 MHC alumna, received a doctorate from Bryn Mawr College, and joined the Mount Holyoke faculty in 1959. She chaired the classics department from 1965 to 1986, and retired in 1991. Her academic specialties were classical and medieval Latin literature.

We want your news - Send items of interest to Emily Weir, Office of Communications, or email eweir@mtholyoke.edu.