Scientists and Engineers for a Better Society

Patrick Vogt of Berlin’s Technical University in Germany, and colleagues at Aix-Marseille University in France created silicene by condensing silicon vapour onto a silver plate to form a single layer of atoms. They then measured the optical, chemical and electronic properties of the layer, showing it closely matched those predicted by theory.

Silicene may turn out to be a better bet than graphene for smaller and cheaper electronic devices because it can be integrated more easily into silicon chip production lines.

Read more about silicene at Newscientist

Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists

New Orleans, LA – “The fishermen have never seen anything like this,” Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. “And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I’ve never seen anything like this either.”

Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.

Cowan’s findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP’s oil and dispersants.

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP’s 2010 oil disaster.

Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp – and interviewees’ fingers point towards BP’s oil pollution disaster as being the cause.

Eyeless shrimp, fish with lesions… Watch the video here!

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/04/201241682318260912.html

“On the one hand, Americans love convenience and scientific progress and thus herald drugs like Miltown and Xanax as miracle cures … On the other, Americans value self-­reliance and authentic experience and regard dependency on chemicals as weak… chemical purity is held up as a sacred shield against future environmental cataclysm and failures of personal health…”

http://nymag.com/news/features/xanax-2012-3/

Mental Health Awareness Week is an effort to create awareness and stimulate discourse about mental health on campus with the intent of helping to remove the stigma that surrounds mental illness. We hope to enlighten students and also give them hope. We want students to know that they are not alone and that there are resources and support for them both at Columbia and outside of the Columbia community. Below is brief overview of the week’s events. For detailed event info check out our calendar

M-F there will be tabling on college walk with t-shirts, mental health statistics and resources, Alice! stress balls and sleep kits, and Stressbusters backrubs!