From: Montana State University (Bozeman, MT)
The University of Montana showcases Knox College alumna Oliwia Zurek for her work in immunology, advocacy for science research and her new status as a US citizen: Oliwia Zurek hadn’t been a United States citizen for a full week before she headed off to Washington, D.C., to meet with Montana’s congressional delegation.
“It was kind of overwhelming,” said Zurek, [a 2010 Knox graduate] who is in her third year of pursuing a doctorate in immunology and infectious diseases.”I was taking my citizenship exam and going through a swearing-in ceremony on Friday, and on (the following) Tuesday I was walking around the Capitol going to meetings with senators and house representatives.”
The native of Poland was part of a program that brought 20 students and post-doctoral researchers from across the country to Washington in mid September to advocate for the preservation of funding that helps support basic scientific research in the biomedical field… Read more…
From: The Register Mail (Galesburg, IL)
A recent Knox College News Team poll showed 59 percent of 213 registered voters [in Galesburg] interviewed said they would choose Obama [for President]… The Knox College journalism class published their findings of Obama’s 57-27 lead over Romney in The Register-Mail on Oct. 28… Since 1992, the Democrat to receive the lowest percentage of the overall Galesburg vote was President Bill Clinton, with 53 percent of the working-class city’s vote when he unseated incumbent President George Bush in 1992… Read more…
From: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Ottawa, ON)
Knox College psychology professor Frank McAndrew is one of the experts featured in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program, “The Real Dirt on Gossip,” Nov. 8 and 10, 2012 on CBC. While some argue that “gossip is a character flaw,” McAndrew said, it is also “an irresistible urge that taps into an innate drive” to collect information that might be exploited in social competition. McAndrew and his students have studied gossip extensively. CBC said that its program “THE REAL DIRT ON GOSSIP uncovers the fascinating science and intrigue behind this most human compulsion…” Read more and watch the trailer for the program… or catch the full interview with Prof. McAndrew.
From: The Register Mail (Galesburg, IL)
[The Knox News Team analyzes the results of its pre-election polling, which show that] Galesburg voters remained supportive of the president [Barack Obama] despite his difficult road to re-election…
Andrew Civettini, professor of political science at Knox College, agreed that Obama likely gets a home state bounce in Galesburg, but also pointed out that Galesburg has directly benefited from the president’s economic policies. “Just down the road from the college they’re working on a major road project (the West Main Street overpass of the railroad tracks) made possible by the stimulus package,” Civettini said. “Western Illinois has done quite well with the stimulus and some people could certainly be thinking about that.”… Read more…
From: Pacific Standard (Santa Barbara, CA)
The founders of Facebook proudly announced a few weeks ago that the social networking site now has one billion regular users. A mind-boggling statistic, to be sure. But how, exactly, are people using the site, and what is it providing them? Recently published research by Knox College psychologist Francis McAndrew suggests there may be different answers to that question for men and women.
McAndrew surveyed 1,026 Facebook users ranging from age 18 to 79, living in 54 different nations… “Overall, females engaged in far more Facebook activity than did males,” McAndrew and co-author Hye Sun Jeong report in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. “They spent more time on Facebook and had more Facebook friends…” Read more…
From: Earth Times (Ripon, N. Yorkshire, UK)
Research by Knox professors Jennifer Templeton and James Mountjoy is noted as “the very first demonstration of visual mate choice lateralisation.” They and colleagues in Australia found that the male Gouldian finch uses only the right eye to evaluate potential mates; research originally published in Biology Letters.
British web site EarthTimes reports: “Your colour, your size and your song are what matters if you are a bird choosing a mate. In a polymorphic species, where several colour variations exist side-by-side, mates are chosen often because they match the chooser. But in the very rare and absolutely beautiful Gouldian finches (Erythrura gouldiae) from northern Australia, this can only happen with the use of the right eye, linked internally to the brain’s left hemisphere The zebra finch also uses his right eye to eye up his female during a static early stage of courtship. This seems to mean that these birds have a strong specialisation in each hemisphere for different tasks…” Read more…
