The Colorado School of Mines wrestling team squared off against New Mexico Highlands on Friday in their home opener and lost 34-12. Mines gained three victories in the contest from Jacob Gerken (forfeit), Paul Wilson and Luis Gurule (decision). It was Gurule’s tenth victory of the season giving him a record of 10-2 on the season and Wilson’s ninth victory (9-3).
The Colorado School of Mines women’s basketball team squared off against UCCS on Friday and ended their four game losing streak in exciting fashion. Thanks to a three-point play by senior Allie Grazulis in the waning seconds, Mines pulled off the 55-54 road victory. Mines never trailed by more than two points in the game, and their largest lead was nine points, less than five minutes into the second half (33-24).
After putting a halt to a four game skid in exciting fashion on Friday night at UCCS, the CSM women’s basketball squad traveled up to CSU-Pueblo on Saturday evening in search of their second consecutive victory. Behind a solid night from beyond the three point arc, the Lady Orediggers were able to upend the RMAC’s number two team on the road, 55-47.
CSM’s track and field team kicked off the 2014 portion of their schedule in Boulder this weekend at the Potts Indoor Invitational. The two-day event saw Mines athletes fiercely compete with opponents from CU, Metro State, UCCS, and Denver, and come away with some strong finishes and even a few wins including two provisionals.
The No. 13 School of Mines Men’s basketball team went on the road Friday night to UCCS and captured the 77-54 victory bringing them to 13-1 on the season (9-1 in the RMAC). The Orediggers used a stifling defense and all five starters in double digits to regroup after their first loss of the season.
Shortly after the Lady Orediggers basketball team pulled the upset over CSU-Pueblo Saturday night, the 13th ranked Oredigger men’s basketball cruised to a 91-57 win of their own over the Thunderwolves.
The days following Fall Finals are usually met with many hours of sleep by Mines students in an attempt to make up for the lack of sleep accumulated all year. But, with three and a half weeks of winter break between semesters, students find ways to get out and live their breaks to the fullest. This week, Minds at Mines asked returning students, “What was the best part of your break?”
Hanging out on Mount Zion at night can be fun, but no one wants to sit and wait until 3AM for Northern Lights when there is not a realistic possibility of seeing them. Earlier this month, many who read news articles and watched the news found themselves staring at the night sky in disappointment. They had been told there would be perfect conditions for a perfect storm to view the Aurora Borealis, but it was not so.
Last Thursday, Ed Nissen from the Geophysics department crossed Kafadar to deliver a talk on earthquakes to the geologists of Berthoud Hall. Nissen’s research focuses broadly on faulting and LIDAR applications. (LIDAR is a type of satellite mapping that penetrates through ground cover, such as trees, to give detailed bare-Earth topography.) He spoke about the Zagros Mountains, which range across the entire western border of Iran, specifically focusing on an island at the southernmost end of the range called Qeshm Island.
#1: Madison, Wisconsin—Learning Comes at a Cost: Sleep
The purpose of sleep perplexes scientists, and though there are common theories, none of them have been proven as fact. However, a recent study may hold a key to understanding the need for getting enough shut-eye every night. Dr. Giulio Tononi and Dr. Chiara Cirelli, leading sleep scientists at the University of Wisconsin, recently published their findings on the importance of sleep to learning in the journal Neuron. The scientists developed the synaptic homeostasis sleep, or “SHY” hypothesis. SHY states that the importance of sleep is in the abilities to save energy by weakening brain cell connections, avoid stress on the cellular level, and maintain neurons’ ability to respond to stimuli. According to Tononi, sleep is the price the brain pays for learning and memory. “During wake, learning strengthens the synaptic connections throughout the brain, increasing the need for energy and saturating the brain with new information,” Tononi said. “Sleep allows the brain to reset, helping integrate, newly learned material with consolidated memories, so the brain can begin anew the next day.”