Carrie Jones – News

�ֲ��ý in the News: Nov. 22, 2019

Emily McConville — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 14:46:01 +0000

Andrew Kennedy, Gabrielle Chua ’18, and �ֲ��ý students

Molecule created by �ֲ��ý students could lead to more effective treatment for cancer and Alzheimer’s patients — Multiple outlets

A variety of news organizations reported the invention at �ֲ��ý of Bobcat339, a molecule created by students that could have implications for research and treatment of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Andrew Kennedy and seven students co-authored a paper describing the molecule, which inhibits the ability of a certain enzyme to regulate genes. This class of so-called TET inhibitors could one day limit the aggressiveness of cancers.

With their professor, Andrew Kennedy (right), three of the seven student coauthors of the scholarly article describing Bobcat339 posed last May in a Dana Chemistry lab: from left, Michael Bennett, Haoyu Sun, and Nathanael Kuzio, all ’19. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Gabrielle Chua ’18 was the student who ultimately structured the molecule.

“It’s big for the field of epigenetics, it’s big for cancer research, and it’s big for the field of memory,” Kennedy told local NBC affiliate WCSH-TV, whose segment on the molecule was shared on Facebook by “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.”

Read the stories:

“,” WCSH-TV, Oct. 25, 2019
“,” Maine Public, Oct. 30, 2019

Holly Ewing

�ֲ��ý snags federal cash to help study Lake Auburn — Sun Journal

Steve Collins of the Sun Journal reported that the college will receive $842,000 of a $6 million National Science Foundation grant to figure out how to track and predict cyanobacterial blooms in lakes.

Holly Ewing, professor of environmental studies and the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, is key to the investigation, which is led by Alberto Quattrini Li of Dartmouth College.

Often important sources of drinking water, U.S. lakes are experiencing increases in cyanobacterial blooms, says Holly Ewing. The NSF project will allow better water-quality monitoring than ever before.

The multi-institution, multidisciplinary team will use boats and aerial drones to collect a wide variety of data on several lakes, including Lake Auburn. The project requires understanding communities’ relationships with their lakes, Ewing said.

“Understanding people’s values with respect to how we pay attention to lakes, how we interact with lakes — there’s definitely a cultural and place-based component to that,” she said. “And all of this is intimately related to the science.”

Read the story:

“,” Sun Journal, Oct. 25, 2019

Ryan Smith

Auburn’s Ryan Smith wins marathon, qualifies for U.S. Olympic Trials — Sun Journal

�ֲ��ý staff member Ryan Smith talked to the Lewiston Sun Journal’s Adam Robinson about his victory in the Hartford Marathon in October, which qualifies him for the U.S. Olympic Team marathon trials.

Smith, manager of purchasing, accounting, and licensing for �ֲ��ý Information and Library Services, ran the marathon in 2 hours and 18 minutes.

He’s now headed to Atlanta for the Feb. 29 trials, where he hopes to break the top 50 (the top three in each gender make the Olympic team).

“I’m certainly excited to see the full-time professionals, as always,” Smith said. “In terms of nerves, I think the pressure of trying to qualify is much more nerve-wracking than actually competing there. I’m just going to try and beat as many people as possible.

“That sounds more fun than nerve-wracking, especially because it’s a hilly course and I’m really good on hills.”

Read the story:

“,” Sun Journal, Oct. 18, 2019

Nolwazi Nosisa Ngwenyama ’16

UCT’s 2020 Mandela Rhodes scholars — University of Cape Town News

The University of Cape Town announced that Nolwazi Nosisa Ngwenyama ’16, a �ֲ��ý graduate and graduate student in gender studies, has won a prestigious Mandela-Rhodes scholarship.

Nolwazi Ngwenyama ’16 listens to a speaker at the Office of Intercultural Education at �ֲ��ý in 2014. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

The scholarships are awarded to African citizens with “exceptional leadership capacity” and provide funding for postgraduate study in South Africa.

Ngwenyama triple-majored in politics, anthropology, and women and gender studies at �ֲ��ý. A native of Eswatini, she volunteers with the United World Colleges Eswatini National Committee.

Read the story:

“,” University of Cape Town News, Nov. 7, 2019

Rebecca Herzig

For Millennial women, body hair presents a complicated choice — HuffPost

In the HuffPost, Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Rebecca Herzig helped guest writer Sofia Barrett-Ibarria round out her argument that while choosing not to remove body hair might be a “feminist” choice, body hair is more complicated than a “to shave or not to shave” binary.

In 2014, Rebecca Herzig heads to the lectern to deliver a talk. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ��ý College)

Herzig is the author of Plucked: A History of Hair Removal. In the HuffPost, she pointed out that while there is some mainstream acceptance of body hair on women, the stigma around body hair can have real, negative consequences, especially for women who are not “able-bodied, white, young, thin and toned, expensively dressed, etc. — in every other way,” she told Barrett-Ibarria.

Read the story:

“,” HuffPost, Nov. 5, 2019

Peter Weyand ’83

Inside the six-figure project to solve the mystery of NBA flopping — The Guardian

It’s a phenomenon that baffles and frustrates basketball fans: flopping. And from a science perspective, Peter Weyand ’83, a professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University, knows more about it than almost anyone, writes The Guardian’s Patrick Hruby.

Funded by Houston Rockets owner Mark Cuban, Weyand and his team set out in 2014 to measure how much force it takes to knock someone over and what it looks like when a basketball player is genuinely set off balance, vs. embellishing a light hit or straight-up faking a foul — that is, flopping. They ran tests using first a dummy, then real people wearing heavy padding.

Turns out, it doesn’t take much force to knock someone over. “In many cases, if the defender just doesn’t move their feet, then down they go,” Weyand said. “I’ve been through thousands of charge-block collisions, and never realized how easy it was.”

A rather obvious indication of a flop, the SMU team found, is when players stick their arms straight up as they go down — that doesn’t happen naturally.

Read the story:

“,” The Guardian, Oct. 30, 2019

Renee Leduc ’98

Will 5G Affect Weather Forecasts? — BBC Click

The program quotes Renee Leduc ’98 on how a recent Federal Communications Commission action could harm meteorologists’ ability to forecast the weather, including dangerous hurricanes.

The issue has to do with an FCC decision to auction off specific wireless radio frequencies to commercial wireless providers for next-generation 5G networks.

The scientific community, including Leduc, opposes the move. They say that giving these frequencies to 5G networks will interfere with unique measurements from weather satellites that are very important to weather forecasting models, the two most well-known being the American model (GFS) and the European model (the ECMWF). The FCC says the interference is not a threat.

Renee Leduc is quoted in this BBC Click story about how turning over specific radio frequencies to wireless providers could harm weather forecasting.

Founder and principal of the consulting firm Narayan Strategy, Leduc is a member of the American Meteorological Society’s Board on Enterprise Economic Development and its International Affairs and Radio Frequency Allocation committees.

She told The Washington Post that it’s “crucial” that the question of interference is “decided in a way that is informed by atmospheric science since the measurements are so crucial to sound weather predictions.”

The issue is front and center at the World Radiocommunications Conference, which ends Nov. 22 and where “for the past month they have been working to coordinate the deployment of 5G technologies across the world,” Leduc tells �ֲ��ýNews.

Read the stories:

“,” The Washington Post, March 8, 2019
“” Nature, Nov. 22, 2019

Carrie Jones ’93

The unstoppable Carrie Jones; New thriller ‘In the Woods’ released — Mount Desert Islander

Down East arts journalist Nan Lincoln spoke with author Carrie Jones ’93 about her new young-adult thriller, In the Woods.

The novel, co-written with Steven E. Wedel, follows a teenage girl as she investigates possibly paranormal events. The two writers’ conversation, however, ventured into Jones’ other projects, from the children’s book festival she helped organize to her prolific books and blogs.

“I have to write — all the time,” Jones said. “If I don’t get my ideas onto the page they pile up. But I love seeing where my characters will take me. It’s always a new adventure.”

Read the story:

“,” Mount Desert Islander, Oct. 27, 2019

Matt Moretti ’06

Pioneering mussel farmer buys rival, plans expansion — Portland Press Herald

The Portland Press Herald reported that Bangs Island Mussels, a Portland, Maine-based producer of rope-grown mussels, bought local competitor Calendar Island Mussel Co.

Bangs Island Mussels is owned by Matt Moretti ’06.

In 2016, Matt Moretti ’06 feeds mussels into a machine that works to break apart tissue connecting many of the clusters. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ��ý College)

The company produces mussels by growing them on ropes suspended from rafts, selling the product to Portland restaurants as well as wholesalers. The key to sustainable mussel farming, Moretti told PPH reporter Peter McGuire, is scale, and with the new acquisition Bangs Island Mussels can double its production and workforce.

“The economics of it are such that the faster you can add on volume to your production, the sooner your costs drop and profits go up,” he said.

Read the story:

“,” Portland Press Herald, Nov. 18, 2019

Elizabeth Strout ’77

Oprah reveals Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout as new book club pick — CBS This Morning

With bestselling author Elizabeth Strout ’77 sitting next to her, Oprah Winfrey announced on CBS This Morning that Strout’s new novel, Olive, Again, is her new book club selection.

Olive, Again is the sequel to Strout’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Olive Kitteridge.

Winfrey said she admires Strout’s ability to take “the simplest of things and turn them into something that feels real to us.”

Oprah Winfrey talks with Elizabeth Strout ’77 on CBS This Morning.

Melissa Wong ’01

Women Of The C-Suite: “Fear is a liar; fear will tell you the craziest things” with Melissa Wong, CEO of Retail Zipline — Authority Magazine

Carly Martinetti of Authority Magazine, a publication on the platform Medium, interviewed Melissa Wong ’01, co-founder of Retail Zipline.

Building a company, Wong said, requires fearlessness — even when you think you should be afraid.

“Fear is a liar,” she said. “Fear will tell you the craziest things. When I first started, I legitimately feared our company would fail. … When you’re in the moment, don’t let feelings of fear lead your actions or choices.”

Working in communications for Old Navy showed Wong how hard it is for large retail brands to get their own stores to implement ideas. So she and a co-founder started Retail Zipline, which streamlines that kind of communication.

Read the story:

“,” Authority Magazine, Nov. 3, 2019

�ֲ��ý in the News: July 21, 2016

Jay Burns — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 18:57:02 +0000

Maine Baseball Hall of Fame’s nine inductees include a �ֲ��ý ace — Portland Press Herald

, nine baseball legends including Thom Freeman ’63 joined the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame during ceremonies in Portland on July 17.

Thom Freeman ’63 tips his hat as he and fellow Maine Baseball Hall of Fame inductees are honored prior to a Sea Dogs minor league game at Hadlock Field in Portland. At left is Dan Deshaies, a great Maine umpire, and at right is Dave Gonyar, who played on UMaine teams that went to the College World Series. (Photograph by John Lanza ’67)

Freeman, �ֲ��ý’ six-foot-six ace right-hander of the early 1960s, led the Bobcats to Maine State Series titles in 1962 and 1963 and to the 1962 NCAA tournament. He later organization.

In 1962, �ֲ��ý was the New England selection to the Eastern NCAA Small College Tournament, held in Teaneck, N.J. In �ֲ��ý’ first game, Freeman held Fairleigh Dickinson to just a run in the Bobcats’ 2-1 win. �ֲ��ý fell to Rollins College in the title game.

�ֲ��ý went 8-4 in the 1962 regular season; Freeman won seven of those games and lost just one, with a 1.83 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 68 2/3 innings. He pitched two thirds of the Bobcats’ innings.

From left, six-foot-six Thom Freeman ’63 (left) poses with head coach Chick Leahey ’52 and other stars of the 1962 season: slugger Howard Vandersea ’63, with a team-leading four homers, and John Lanza ’67, a team-leading .363 average. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

In his remarks at the induction ceremony, Freeman thanked a “special lady” in attendance: Ruth Leahey, widow of “our beloved �ֲ��ý coach,” Chick Leahey ’52, who died in March at age 90.

Freeman talked about his various love affairs that bloomed when he came to �ֲ��ý, with the state, the people, the college, the city of Lewiston, and a “beautiful young lady from Lewiston named Claire,” his future wife. They’ve been married 52 years.

Not on the love list was “spring” baseball in Maine. “Not so much” of a love affair, he admitted. “We were snowed out one year on May 14. Our southern trip was Boston. And all our state games were north of us.”

A large Bobcat contingent attended the ceremony, and, in fine �ֲ��ý fashion, Freeman ended his remarks with “Yes, it is a great day to be a Bobcat!”

Common roots of two iconic American artists at the �ֲ��ý museum — Maine Sunday Telegram

However briefly in the mid-1960s, writes Bob Keyes in the Maine Sunday Telegram, musician Bob Dylan and painter Robert Indiana “shared a zenith,” Dylan propelled by “Like a Rolling Stone” and Indiana by his painting LOVE.

“Tilt,” silkscreen on triple-primed canvas from the “Like a Rolling Stone” series by Robert Indiana.

“Their worlds didn’t directly intersect, but both made furious work on the streets of New York that has lasted a half-century,” of Robert Indiana: Now and Then at the �ֲ��ý College Museum of Art.

The exhibition features the premiere of Indiana’s Like a Rolling Stone, a series that renders lyrics from Dylan’s groundbreaking hit in Indiana’s unmistakable style, thus merging the sensibilities of two of the 1960s’ definitive pop-culture figures.

A �ֲ��ý friend’s advice pays off for a new high school coach — Valley News

Driving from New Hampshire to �ֲ��ý for Reunion in June, classmates Breck Taber ’96 and Dan McGee ’96 talked about their other alma mater, Lebanon High School, where the girls soccer coaching job was vacant.

“It’s a long car ride, and (McGee) kept saying, ‘Breck, you have to apply for that job,’” Taber told Valley News reporter Jared Pendak. “Eventually, I realized he was right, that it would be something I’d regret if I didn’t do.”

Taber, who co-owns the Omer & Bob’s sports store in Lebanon, applied for the job, got it, and takes over as the Raiders’ head coach this fall.

Young-adult novelist Jones picks up the social-justice gauntlet — Portland Press Herald

Carrie Jones ’93 has published two books since May, including this week’s Flying, a young-adult science fiction title.

In a profile of writer Carrie Barnard Jones ’93 in the Portland Press Herald, the young-adult novelist talks about her path through �ֲ��ý, including meeting the poet Seamus Heaney — chronicled in the of �ֲ��ý Magazine — as well how she infuses social-justice themes into her young-adult books.

Jones has two recent books out, Time Stoppers, published in May, and Flying, released this week.

Jones recalls her uncle, an attorney, challenging her to “pick up the gauntlet” as a writer.

She told reporter Michael Berry the : “If you can, you should always fight for others.”

Berry says the philosophy has “not only informed Jones’ fiction for middle-graders and young adults, it has led her to engage in public service” and other social causes, including “co-editing a collection of nonfiction essays about bullying.”

Time Stoppers, like Jones’ other books, tells a fantasy story. But for Flying she chose the science-fiction genre because “I wasn’t seeing a lot of characters” like her intended female protagonist, who goes from weak to strong as the story unfolds.

The unusual case of an animal ignoring a genetic trait in a potential mate— Molecular Ecology

Humans and other animals pay attention to characteristics of their potential mates. When it comes to genetic compatibility, the attention might be subconscious but it’s still there.

Professor of Biology Don Dearborn is the lead author of new research that explains the instance of an animal — Leach’s storm petrels — that ignores one important genetic trait of their potential mates, their immune system.

Specifically, the petrels ignore the “major histocompatibility complex,” a set of genes that help fight off pathogens like viruses and bacteria.

An adult Leach’s storm petrel is measured and fitted with an individually numbered leg band during island research in the Bay of Fundy. (Photo courtesy of Don Dearborn)

An evolutionary biologist, Dearborn says that “the explanation seems to lie in evolutionary history.”

Like many species of birds and mammals, a Leach’s storm petrel possesses two copies of the important immune-defense genes. “But in contrast to what is seen in most animals, the duplicated genes in storm petrels are not identical,” Dearborn says. “They’ve evolved to become functionally different from each other.”

In other words, the offspring of a Leach’s storm petrel will “inherit a genetically diverse and robust immune system even if their parents didn’t pay attention to genetic features when choosing a mate.”

One upshot, Dearborn says, is that storm petrels “have the freedom to choose mates based on other features — such as who will be a good parent.”

For animals that do respond to such things as a potential mate’s immune-defense genetics, it’s thought that in that subconscious activity. “The idea that any animal, including humans, could tend to some of a potential mate’s characteristics and not others has wide implications for future genetic research,” Dearborn says.

Saying that his study is perhaps “unique among wild-animal animal studies” in its level of genetic detail, Dearborn did his off-shore island research in the Bay of Fundy.

Dearborn’s coauthors include Elena Mandzhukova ’15, a biological chemistry and Russian double major now teaching science at Kents Hill School in Maine.

Carrie Jones – News

�ֲ���ý in the News: Nov. 22, 2019

Andrew Kennedy, Gabrielle Chua ’18, and �ֲ���ý students

Molecule created by �ֲ���ý students could lead to more effective treatment for cancer and Alzheimer’s patients — Multiple outlets

Holly Ewing

�ֲ���ý snags federal cash to help study Lake Auburn — Sun Journal

Ryan Smith

Auburn’s Ryan Smith wins marathon, qualifies for U.S. Olympic Trials — Sun Journal

Nolwazi Nosisa Ngwenyama ’16

UCT’s 2020 Mandela Rhodes scholars — University of Cape Town News

Rebecca Herzig

For Millennial women, body hair presents a complicated choice — HuffPost

Peter Weyand ’83

Inside the six-figure project to solve the mystery of NBA flopping — The Guardian

Renee Leduc ’98

Will 5G Affect Weather Forecasts? — BBC Click

Carrie Jones ’93

The unstoppable Carrie Jones; New thriller ‘In the Woods’ released — Mount Desert Islander

Matt Moretti ’06

Pioneering mussel farmer buys rival, plans expansion — Portland Press Herald

Elizabeth Strout ’77

Oprah reveals Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout as new book club pick — CBS This Morning

Melissa Wong ’01

Women Of The C-Suite: “Fear is a liar; fear will tell you the craziest things” with Melissa Wong, CEO of Retail Zipline — Authority Magazine

�ֲ���ý in the News: July 21, 2016

Maine Baseball Hall of Fame’s nine inductees include a �ֲ���ý ace — Portland Press Herald

Common roots of two iconic American artists at the �ֲ���ý museum — Maine Sunday Telegram

A �ֲ���ý friend’s advice pays off for a new high school coach — Valley News

Young-adult novelist Jones picks up the social-justice gauntlet — Portland Press Herald

The unusual case of an animal ignoring a genetic trait in a potential mate— Molecular Ecology

�ֲ��ý in the News: Nov. 22, 2019

Andrew Kennedy, Gabrielle Chua ’18, and �ֲ��ý students

Molecule created by �ֲ��ý students could lead to more effective treatment for cancer and Alzheimer’s patients — Multiple outlets

�ֲ��ý snags federal cash to help study Lake Auburn — Sun Journal

�ֲ��ý in the News: July 21, 2016

Maine Baseball Hall of Fame’s nine inductees include a �ֲ��ý ace — Portland Press Herald

Common roots of two iconic American artists at the �ֲ��ý museum — Maine Sunday Telegram

A �ֲ��ý friend’s advice pays off for a new high school coach — Valley News