Science Rules at MHC's Annual Symposium

Jessica Dryden '99, shown with one of the small burrowing sea anemones that are the subject of her research, was among the students who presented their work at the twenty-fourth annual campus science symposium.

After researching everything from the role of placenta formation in the miscarriages of Norway rats, to what drives the discharge of the campus brook, forty-five MHC students came together on April 9 to share their projects with fellow students and faculty members at the College's twenty-fourth annual science symposium. With the support of faculty advisers, these students have been conducting research this year in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental studies, geology, mathematics, neuroscience and behavior, and physics.

The titles alone give a sense of the high level of sophistication of the student research. Jeannine Moineau '99 discussed "A Review of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Including Diagnosis, Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms, and Pathophysiology of the Disease"; Emily Willard '99 presented her work on "A Fractal Analysis of Vascular Branching in the Parapodia of Nereis virens"; Audi Okullo '99 gave her talk on "Controlling Tangent Pinches in Nonideal Multicomponent Distillation." Not surprisingly, the results of research projects presented at the symposium are sometimes published in scientific journals or presented at professional meetings.

Jessica Dryden '99 discussed her research on the small burrowing sea anemone. She contacted the few people in the U.S. who have done research on this creature, got specimens, bred them, and learned to make histological sections (to examine tissue structure) of the adults and embryos to determine how the anemones make hundreds of ciliated, stinging balls of cells that are wafted about in their bodies and laid with the egg masses. Nematosomes, as they are known, are structures which float within the hollow tentacles and body cavity of the animal.

"Nematosomes are composed of flagellated epithelial cells (so they are motile) and cnidoblasts (which are stinging cells)," Dryden reports. "Most of the time nematosomes swirl around in the body of both females and males. The only time they leave the body is when females release eggs. They do not appear to be a method of protection, though currently there is no known purpose for these fascinating structures," she says. "It is a pleasure to see a student who is great with the organisms, quick to learn to new techniques, and quick to notice unusual features of her animals," says Dryden's adviser, Associate Professor of Biological Science Stan Rachootin.

Emily M. D'Urso '99 talked about her involvement in efforts to devise a method to make furans, a class of organic compounds. They occur in many natural products (for example, the anti-ulcer drug zantac has a furan in it), several of which have interesting and useful properties. The MHC chemistry department has devised a method to synthesize these compounds through a six-step sequence. Emily is investigating how many different kinds of compounds can be made; her reaction sequence involves the preparation and reaction of a group of compounds called organosilanes, compounds that were first prepared at MHC and are unique.

"Emily's work involves lots of sophisticated techniques. For example, she has to use our 250 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer to analyze the chemical structure of her reaction products--to tell if a reaction worked or not," says D'Urso's adviser, Professor of Chemistry Janice Smith. "She has had excellent exposure to work which will serve her well in the chemical industry or in graduate school."

MHC students certainly have research down to a science!

Photograph by Nancy Palmieri