February 26, 2012 – The Oredigger

The Football Informant: Heading across the pond

This is one of those times of year when sports have stalled out and there is little worth paying attention to. It is still too early in the NBA season for games to be truly important yet, and while NCAA’s March Madness is around the corner it still a good distance away. Baseball is beginning spring training, while the NFL is beginning the pre-draft hype ramp. In short, there is not much to watch. However, that does not mean that there is nothing of interest out there.

Women’s Basketball finishes season in dramatic fashion

Angie Charchalis did it again. With the game on the line, and RMAC tournament seeds up for grabs, Charchalis nailed the game-winner with only nine seconds remaining over the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs securing a crucial 73-71 win.

Men’s Basketball finishes regular season on high note

The Mines men’s basketball team completed a road weekend sweep, rolling past the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs 88-52 Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson addresses the present and future of space and science worldwide

Up until the early 1950s, space was a foreign and unreachable concept to most people. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium, illustrated this with a series of quotes from media to respected scientists during this time period. All of them indicated in some fashion that science had nothing left to discover and there only remained insurmountable barriers that man could not possibly hope to cross. One such quote came from F.R. Moulton, a University of Chicago Astronomer, in 1932, “There is no hope for the fanciful idea of reaching the moon, because of insurmountable barriers to escaping the earth’s gravity.”

Fluorescent noise in understanding and treating diseases

After being diagnosed with cancer, Dr. Tim Lei changed his research focus from pure optics to biomedical applications. Since then, he has sought to apply his research techniques towards “Advanced fluorescence microscopy and linear and nonlinear spectroscopy techniques in biomedical applications.” By filtering through noise, Lei was able to determine the movement of proteins in cells using fluorescent dyes, characterizing the difference in protein motion between healthy and infected cells.

Scientific discoveries this week: 2-27-12

Palo Alto, California – Ancient Peruvian temples may have been artfully crafted with acoustics in mind. Stanford University archeoacoustic researchers have reopened a study from the 1970’s, which involves testing the temple of Chauvin de Huantar, for acoustic patterns. The researchers found that the temple displays the ancients’ understanding of acoustics due to the way sound reverberates through the maze-like temple. They speculate that the builders of the temple designed it to make the sound of conch shells haunting, making it difficult to identify the origin of the sound in order to perpetuate the idea that the temple was haunted by a deity.

0

Club Sport of the Week: Men’s Rugby

The CSM Men’s Rugby Club is the oldest rugby club in the state of Colorado, and even played in the first match in the state. With this history behind them, the current CSM team has become a powerful force in the rugby world. Mines Rugby is a part of the Eastern Rockies Rugby Football Union (ERRFU) and competes in Division II of USA Rugby. This is intercollegiate competition against several surrounding colleges and universities. The other teams in their league are University of Northern Colorado, Colorado Mesa University, University of New Mexico, Denver University, Regis University, Western State College, and Colorado College.

0

Athlete of the Week: Dale Minschwaner, Senior, Men’s Basketball

Since his name isn’t Jeremy Lin, Tim Tebow, or Tiger Woods, the odds of senior Dale Minschwaner appearing on ESPN were strongly against him. Factoring in that he is an athlete at a small Division II school in the mountains of Golden, Colorado, the limit of this probability rapidly approached zero.

Grinds my Gears: Small portions

You know what really grinds my gears?
Small Portions at nice restaurants.

You are out for a night on the town and have a great rager to go to. You intend to start off the evening with a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant. On the menu, lobster ravioli attracts your eye. Hungry and eager for food to start off a good night, you order it. When it comes out, however, four tiny squares greet you. Is this a meal you wonder to yourself? Why did I spend all this money and not receive enough food to fuel my night of partying? Why is there an inverse relationship between the amount of money you spend and the amount of food you get?

0

Minds at Mines: Films

The Academy Awards ceremony delivers the highest praise for the best in film. One of the most sought after awards, the Best Picture award, only received nine nominations this year. Among those nominations, none of the films became blockbusters. In the spirit of the Best Picture award, this week, Mines at Mines asks, “What was your favorite movie from the past year?”

Daily Archives: February 26, 2012