Contents for the Spring 2009 Issue

Physics and Astronomy
Errors corrected in quantum computing
Post-doctoral fellow Kaveh Khodjasteh and physics and astronomy professor Lorenza Viola have developed a new method for correcting errors in quantum computers, as reported in Physical Review Letters.
In the future, quantum computing may be incredibly fast and powerful. But for now, the individual units, known as quantum gates, are highly prone to errors [...]

Among all the battles we fight with cancer, one has gained the most public attention is breast cancer. Yet, after after years of research and millions of dollars in funding, one in eight women will still be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime (1). The best defense we have so far against this malady [...]

Dean Wilcox is a Dartmouth professor of chemistry who has been a part of the Dartmouth College faculty since 1984. Wilcox has long been highly involved with chemistry.  He received his BS and MS degrees in Chemistry from the University of California, after which he did graduate research at MIT and Stanford University, obtaining a [...]

In 1871, English naturalist Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex as a follow up to his renowned 1859 work on evolutionary theory, The Origin of Species. In the introduction of The Descent of Man, Darwin states that “the homological structure, embryological development, and rudimentary organs of a species, [...]

Extinction marks the evolutionary death of a species. Observing the fates of many species ancient and recent, it appears to be Nature’s mechanism of periodically clearing out the outdated to make room for the fit. But is extinction necessarily inevitable for every species? More specifically, are humans destined to meet an unavoidable end?  
Extinction, Then [...]

Everybody hiccups, especially often as children. The mysterious physiological phenomenon is surrounded by plenty of folklore. Hiccups are an excuse to eat spoonfuls of sugar and try to swallow water upside down. Of course, none of these “remedies” work, as hiccups are simply jerky contractions in the diaphragm. Hiccups can be caused by taking in [...]

When Darwin published On the Origin of Species 150 years ago, he may not have realized the rippling effects it would have throughout history. The work engendered a spark in scientists, educators, and lawyers. Both in the United States and abroad, policy surrounding the inclusion of evolution in education has changed as well. From the [...]

Philosophers conjecture that, thousands of years from now, humans will have evolved into a post-human entity, no longer limited by the relatively fragile nature of our bodies. Computing power will be immense, resulting in a trans-human phase during which technology continually changes the human body until it becomes post-human. According to philosopher Nick Bostrom, humans [...]

We have all seen it in action in others, as well as in ourselves. It is one of the few things that puzzled the Father of Evolution, Charles Darwin. A worker bee cannot reproduce, and exists only for the good of the hive and the propagation of the queen bee’s genes. A vampire bat will [...]

In the late nineteenth century, hemophilia was an incredibly devastating disease, killing people as high in society as Prince Leopold, son of Great Britain’s Queen Victoria. Leopold’s case of hemophilia — a hereditary disease in which a patient’s blood does not coagulate property — appears to have led to an increase in hemophilia research and [...]