News

Multimedia artist Julia Christensen took video cameras to Lake Erie to document the ice that keeps the lake healthy—and what its absence could mean in the future.

In the wake of California’s devastating wildfires, Akpan talks to scientists at the National Fire Research Laboratory about how fires spread and the concept of creating defensible space.

Bard psychology professor Justin Hulbert’s research suggests that people who have experienced early trauma develop better cognitive control skills.

Professors Gautam Sethi and Robyn Smyth have been recognized for excellence in geosciences education by the professional development organization On the Cutting Edge.

The study, reported in the journal Nature Sustainability, was led by Felicia Keesing of Bard College and Brian Allan of the University of Illinois.

Study, Reported in the Journal Nature Sustainability, Led by Felicia Keesing of Bard College and Brian Allan of the University of Illinois

A study of 3,588 square kilometers of privately owned land in central Kenya offers evidence that humans and their livestock can, in the right circumstances, share territory with zebras, giraffes, elephants and other wild mammals—to the benefit of all.

The study, reported in the journal Nature Sustainability, focused on Laikipia County in central Kenya.

“Laikipia County hosts 10 percent of Kenya’s wildlife, but none of the country’s national parks or preserves,” says University of Illinois entomology professor Brian Allan, who led the study with Bard College professor Felicia Keesing. “Most people depend on livestock for income and almost 70 percent of the land is devoted to large-scale ranching or pastoralism.” 

As human populations increase, so does the pressure to expand agricultural and pastoral areas into grasslands now dominated by wildlife.
 Wildlife tourism is another source of revenue for landowners, however, as the area hosts exotic white and black rhinoceroses, Grevy’s zebras, and painted dogs, notes Keesing.

“This is leading some to remove traditional barriers between livestock and wildlife because there are benefits to having multiple sources of income,” she says.

There are big potential downsides to allowing livestock and wildlife to share territory, however, the researchers say. Wild cats sometimes prey on domestic animals. Wildlife and livestock may compete for water and grazing resources. They also can share diseases, including tick-borne infections like East Coast fever, Q fever, and bovine anaplasmosis.

“There is no greater diversity of tick species anywhere on the earth than in eastern and southern Africa,” Allan says. “And many of the ticks are host generalists, meaning they’ll happily feed on a cow, a gazelle or a zebra—and they’ll also bite humans.”
 To determine the ecological and economic effects of raising livestock on territory also used by wildlife, the researchers surveyed tick abundance, vegetation, and the dung of large herbivorous mammals on 23 Laikipia County properties during July and August in 2014 and 2015.

“We identified the ticks and sequenced DNA of tick-borne pathogens to identify infectious agents associated with the ticks,” says Keesing. The team also interviewed managers and owners of each property about the type and abundance of livestock on their land and the percentage of revenue derived from wildlife tourism and livestock operations.

The researchers found that the practice of regularly spraying cattle with acaricides, which kill ticks without directly endangering birds or other creatures that feed on ticks, dramatically reduced the number of ticks in the grazed areas.

“Reducing the number of ticks is one key part of a strategy to reduce the transmission of tick-borne diseases,” says Keesing. “These diseases can sicken and kill people, livestock, and wildlife, which is particularly devastating in a vulnerable ecosystem experiencing many competing demands.”
 About 16 percent of the ticks collected at the study sites carried at least one bacterial or protozoal infection, the scientists found. There was no difference in the proportion of infected ticks found on properties devoted entirely to wildlife and those where wildlife and livestock were integrated. Tick abundance, however, was 75 percent lower on integrated properties than on those hosting only wildlife.

Livestock- and wildlife-related income accounted for more than 70 percent of revenue for the properties studied. Wildlife abundance was highest on properties with moderate densities of cattle—but not on land supporting sheep and goats, the researchers found. There was also less green grass on livestock-only and wildlife-only properties than on land shared by both, and the quality of the forage was highest on integrated lands.

These findings suggest that certain management practices can enhance the viability of livestock operations while also maximizing wildlife abundance and health on the same lands, the researchers say.
 “It has been the attitude of conservationists that conservation lands must be kept secure and undisturbed from human uses, including livestock production, and I can sympathize with that perspective,” Allan says. “But our data are starting to suggest that there could be circumstances where livestock-wildlife integration can work—for the benefit of all. A productive savanna ecosystem may be the perfect place to try it.”

“This project demonstrates that research on the complex interactions of natural and human systems can foster innovative management strategies to preserve environmental quality and economic productivity,” says Tom Baerwald, a program director for the National Science Foundation’s Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems program, which funded the research. “The findings are applicable in many parts of the United States and in other regions around the world."

The National Science Foundation and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign support this research.

For more information, visit dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0149-2.

Professor Dueker, director of Bard’s Center for the Study of Land, Air, and Water, talks about his new report published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Bard College math professor Lauren Rose has been helping girls in the Hudson Valley develop their appreciation of math through the Bard Math Circle.

Results from coastal Maine and Namib Desert reveal common drivers of fog microbial composition, the study finds.

Gettinger, codirector of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, observes that the project’s remote location has resulted in delays and cost overruns.

Results from coastal Maine and the Namibian desert reveal that fog is full of diverse microbial communities that form a viable connection between marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

The study indicates that traumatic experiences might contribute to the adaption of cognitive control skills, thereby improving survivors’ later resilience.

Gettinger, codirector of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, weighs in on the challenges of deploying counter-drone measures “in the domestic space.”

George D. Rose ’63, distinguished visiting professor of biophysics, is known for his groundbreaking research on protein folding.

In 2011, Rose won a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany and was named Honorary Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Technical University of Munich. Two years later he was appointed Temporary Eminent Scholar in the Technical University’s Department of Chemistry. Rose, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University, earned his MS in mathematics and computer science and PhD in biochemistry and biophysics from Oregon State University. In 1999, he received the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science.

Bard alumnus Troy Simon spent a childhood in and out of trouble and school. Now he’s pursuing dual master’s degrees at Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Nursing.

When Tierney Weymueller first came to Bard for Language and Thinking, she was struck by how much was happening on campus. "I remember during L&T just being so amazed that we would go to hear the orchestra, then to the museum on campus, and then to go see a play. There were just so many different things going on all at once in this space. . . . I remember that being really exciting."

Tierney grew up all over, and has lived in New Mexico, Ireland, and Canada, among other places. Bard's programs in dance and environmental science attracted her from the start. She had always lived in cities, and was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the campus and her growing love for the Hudson Valley area.

At first, Tierney decided to pursue both dance and environmental and urban studies. But she had an eye-opening experience taking a class with Eli Dueker that focused on science accessibility. She decided to major in EUS with a focus on communications. Her academic work has centered around “how to make science accessible to people, or how to make it interesting, relatable, and transparent.” At Bard, Tierney made time to be involved with the Dance Program by taking dance classes and performing in other students' Senior Projects.

Taking the Water course with Professor Dueker cemented Tierney’s interest in science communication and environmental education. For Tierney, the class was “a perfect blend of scientific components and the various social issues around water. . . . We did group experiments, and my group worked at a farm in Red Hook. Our project was water colony testing, but then we also ended up organizing a tree planting and working with this farmer. I got to see how environmental science could be more holistic: it wasn’t just me in the lab by myself; it was a way of addressing social issues that I was interested in, kind of like this whole package."

Tierney has interned with the Saw Kill Watershed Community. There, she attended the monthly community meetings and assisted in organizing their water monitoring program. During her time at Bard, Tierney's involvement with the community helped her “understand that this whole outreach and communications side to science is ultimately what I’m really excited about.”

She also worked in the Eel Project. Every spring the glass eels migrate up into different tributaries of the Hudson. Using a net at the Bard Field Station, volunteers count the number of eels and then set them free.

Last summer, Tierney taught on the Hudson River sloop Clearwater. The Clearwater is an environmental education vessel, originally built by Pete Seeger, that sails up and down the Hudson. People go onboard to learn about the ecology and history of the river. The Clearwater focuses especially on educating young people so they’ll gain a new appreciation for the river and learn to protect it.

Tierney's Senior Project was an environmental oral history about people who work on, live near, and otherwise use the Saw Kill. She conducted interviews exploring people's relationships to the river and historical or ecological knowledge about it, and then wrote stories about the Saw Kill from these different perspectives.

In 2018, Tierney received three awards from the College: the Hudsonia Prize (shared with Elinor Stapylton), awarded by Hudsonia Ltd. to a student showing promise in the field of environmental studies; the Patricia Ross Weis '52 Scholarship, awarded to talented students in the social sciences who uphold Bard's values by ensuring a strong community; and the Rachel Carson Prize, honoring an outstanding Senior Project in environmental and urban studies that reflects Carson's determination to promote biocentric sensibility.

"The best part about Bard," Tierney observes, "is how your classes and activities connect to the community around the College. I have loved getting to know people in the Hudson Valley. Like the Saw Kill Watershed Community and the Clearwater staff—I’ve just gotten to know this group of people that’s really invested and active in this area. That has also become my community outside of Bard." She adds, "Without the professors here, I wouldn't have realized how this kind of work is really important to me. I wouldn't have known that this kind of community outreach around science exists; so it’s really exciting. . . . I love this area. The Hudson River—adore it. The fact that we can, as students, walk through the Tivoli Bays—I walked that walk every day last summer."

Tierney is now traveling through Europe with her two roommates from her first year at Bard. In the fall, she will begin work for the World Ocean School on board the historic schooner Roseway.
 

Monica Elkinton is the assistant municipal attorney for Anchorage, Alaska, the largest municipality in the state. "Anchorage contains about half the population of Alaska, about half a million people," Monica notes. "It's the most racially diverse city in the United States." Her job is to defend the city from lawsuits like personal injury or employment discrimination. "I am a civil litigator and go to court all the time, including doing jury trials. I also advise the municipal departments on legal issues. I like that it's a stable job, but with some excitement and variety, and the opportunity to learn all about how our local government works."
 
Monica studied mathematics at Bard and went on to Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. She was also a TLS Scholar. "I loved participating in Math Table for lunch and Pi Day parties, but I knew math graduate school wasn't for me." When Monica was a first-year student, Professor Lauren Rose told her, "Math majors can do anything. They can even go to law school." That stuck in her mind.

"In the 2000 election, the Dutchess County Board of Elections wouldn't let Bard students register to vote," Monica remembers. "So I organized a bunch of protests and we talked to a lawyer from the New York Civil Liberties Union and got help from the Dutchess County Democratic Party." Monica befriended a party leader who worked for Senator Chuck Schumer. She offered Monica a part-time unpaid summer internship in her office. These were Monica's first steps into a career in law.
 
After graduating from Bard, Monica went to Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. The school "has paragraph evaluations instead of grades and focuses on public service and social justice instead of competition. It also has mandatory internships as part of the law school graduation requirements." Some students choose to do their internships in Boston, but Monica decided to do hers all over the country. She worked for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and then for public defenders in Alaska, Kentucky, and Miami. After graduation she became a criminal defense attorney in Anchorage, before taking her current position for the city.
  
Monica sought breadth in her Bard education. She took as many nonmajor classes at the College as she could, including courses in the music, religion, political studies, art, literature, and history programs. "All of it helped me to figure out what I wanted to do for a career, along with what I did not want to do," she recalls. "Bard taught me to be creative and to not be too scared about thinking outside the box. A math background helps me line up my ideas in a linear way, and use logic to draw conclusions. Writing proofs in math is pretty similar to writing legal briefs. I wrote so many papers at Bard that writing is also completely second nature to me. I am always surprised how many people there are in the world that don't know how to write."

Her advice for current Bard students? "When I started at Bard, I didn't really know what to major in. When I started law school, I didn't really know what kind of law I wanted to practice. It's OK not to know, and to be exposed to lots of different things. You'll figure it out." She adds, "Try out as many things as you want. You'll never know until you try. ... There's a whole big world out there of possible jobs. Find as many people as possible who actually work in the field you want and talk to them about what it takes to get there."
  
Monica's favorite aspect of her time at Bard was the faculty in the Mathematics Program. "I loved my department faculty, and how close the Math and Computer Science Programs were. I also don't think I've ever had a chance since Bard to go to so many film screenings and art and photo shows. The student art and music were amazing!"
 

Cameron Ogg ’11 is a graduate research assistant and Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Cameron graduated from Bard in 2011 with a degree in biology and a concentration in global public health. After Bard, she worked at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital before going to graduate school.
 
Describing her research at the University of Tennessee, Cameron says, "In the lab, I use neuroimaging as well as behavioral approaches to better understand how different brain states, such as attention, can modulate sensory processing and lead to changes in perception." Whether presenting her work at a conference or teaching kids at brain awareness events, she enjoys sharing science with others. "I hadn’t realized that this isn’t the case with all scientists (there are plenty who would love to stay behind the bench). I’m hoping to cultivate and utilize this enthusiasm and excitement as I move forward in my scientific career."
 
As a Bard senior, Cameron realized that she wanted to attend graduate school, but she decided to take some time off after graduation to make sure it was the right choice. She worked for a year in the Small Animal Imaging Core at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. "Working in a research environment solidified my desire to attend grad school." She began her program the following fall.
 
Several linguistics classes that she took at Bard stimulated her interest in neuroscience. "Without this exposure to the humanities, I wouldn’t have found the scientific field I love now!" she observes. Cameron's Senior Project examined tick-borne illnesses. "My mentor at Bard, Dr. Felicia Keesing, encouraged me to participate in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. This early research experience, along with the critical and creative thinking cultivated at Bard, has proven so valuable to me in the years since."
  
Cameron advises current Bard students to be flexible as they approach their careers and life after graduation. "You may have a very specific plan about 'what you want to be,' but unexpected opportunities can end up being better than you could have imagined! Consider and explore alternatives—at the very least, you’ll have grown from the experience."
  
What did she enjoy most about Bard? "Don Eastman, the president of Eckerd College, said that a liberal arts education 'provides… for the development of the skills necessary… to become effective and thoughtful citizens of the world.' I am so thankful that not only did I get to become an educated citizen of the world at Bard, but that my son, who was born while I was at Bard, did as well. It’s more important than ever these days!"

Professor Swapan Jain publishes his research with Bard undergraduates in the journal Chemical Communications, in an article titled "A ruthenium–platinum metal complex that binds to sarcin ricin loop RNA and lowers mRNA expression."
 

The new deployment is “most probably in support of U.S. objectives in Libya, where the U.S. has for several years used drones to mitigate the threats posed by Islamic militant groups.”

The global environmental impacts of meat and dairy farming are far more damaging than previously thought, a new study shows. Professor Eshel weighs in on the results.

Gettinger, codirector of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, sees regulatory value in the data the new program will generate.

Smith, an award-winning entrepreneur and tech evangelist, will deliver the address at the College’s 158th commencement on Saturday, May 26.

The risk of such a policy, says Gettinger, “is that countries may be more willing to use military force when they can do so without risking their own people.”

Seniors Elena LeFevre, Nicola Koepnick, Adelina Colaku, Page Benoit, and Madeleine Breshears, and Bethany Zulick ’16 are among the Fulbright winners for 2018–19.

Professor Keesing is codirector of “The Tick Project,” a first-of-its-kind study to see if tick reduction can be effectively accomplished on a large scale in entire neighborhoods.

The Purple Comet Math Meet is a free, online, international team mathematics competition designed for middle and high school students.

The $9.4 billion budget request represents a significant expansion in drone spending over 2018.

Extending the definition of food loss to include inefficient dietary choices, a new study quantifies the benefits of plant-based diets versus animal-based diets for food security. The study, published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), is coauthored by Bard College Research Professor Gidon Eshel. Animal based foods require more resources per unit product (gram, calorie, or gram protein) than plant-based foods. Since resources allocated to feed production for livestock yield less human food compared with what they could have yielded if they were instead used for plant-based food production, allocating resources to animal-based food production constitutes an effective food loss. Alon Shepon and colleagues quantify this “opportunity cost” by estimating the amount of food that could be produced if animal-based items were replaced by nutritionally at least comparable plant-based items in the U.S. diet.

The authors found that plant-based replacements could produce 2- to 20-fold more protein per acre than beef, pork, poultry, dairy, or eggs. The authors further estimate that replacing all animal-based products in the mean American diet with plant-based alternatives would allow increased food production sufficient to feed approximately 350 million additional people, or 110 percent of the current U.S. population. This putative added food availability handily exceeds potential food availability gains by elimination of conventional food losses, mostly spoilage, leaky supply chains, or post-retail waste.

Gidon Eshel is research professor in environmental science and physics at Bard College. He earned a BA from Haifa University and MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

More coverage at Phys.org: “Food waste: The biggest loss could be what you choose to put in your mouth”
 

Extending the definition of food loss to include inefficient dietary choices, a new study quantifies the benefits of plant-based diets versus animal-based diets for food security.

See how New Annandale House was built in this short video. Four repurposed shipping containers make a new media lab, home of Bard's Center for Experimental Humanities.

Bard College’s Center for the Study of the Drone released a 23-page report that breaks down available counterdrone products and identifies the ways each solution approaches drone mitigation.

With its double-height space and glass end walls, Bard College’s new media lab is not your standard prefab container building.

Arthur Holland Michel '13 is a finalist for the Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, given to support the completion of significant works of nonfiction on topics of political and social concern.

Bard College student Lily Zacharias ’19, who is majoring in Political Studies with a concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies, has won the prestigious Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs’ 2017 International Student/Teacher Essay Contest on the World’s Greatest Ethical Challenge. Zacharias received first prize in the undergraduate category for her essay “Artificial Intelligence’s Ethical Challenges.”

Professor Eshel’s latest study shows that a single change in food habit could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Corals associate the smell of plastic with food, a new study finds—an example of what Bard biologist Bruce Robertson calls an evolutionary trap, which he defines as occurring “when the cues animals use to make decisions are no longer reliable.”

Professor Christopher LaFratta publishes his research with Bard undergraduates in Optics Express journal, in an article titled "Augmenting mask-based lithography with direct laser writing to increase resolution and speed."
 

Professor Keesing, who is codirecting a study aimed at reducing Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, says that ticks are remarkably well adapted to surviving extreme temperatures.

The Citizen Science Program at Bard College will hold a conference titled 'Why Science Matters" on Monday, January 15. The event is a new addition to the annual science literacy intensive for first-year students that takes place this month. The conference includes a number of talks and panels engaging novel perspectives on the connections between science and other areas of human thought. Bard College faculty and staff as well as outside speakers will present, including Francesca Gamber, principal and history faculty member at Bard High School Early College Baltimore. Professor Gamber will give a talk titled "Bending toward Justice: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Localism of the Moral Universe" and moderate the subsequent panel discussion. Visit the Citizen Science website to view all of the conference abstracts.

The study, which established a relationship between onshore wind speed and total microbial aerosols at an urban waterfront, has implications for public health management and urban microbial ecology.