America is a place where the phrase “United we stand, divided we fall” rings true. However, faith and race have created an interesting division within politics since the country’s beginnings. At the most recent Hennebach lecture, Nancy Wadsworth, the Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver, spoke about connecting faith and race in American political life.
Last year’s census had plenty of people fed up, but the government still knew which families had not sent in their information. The animal world, however, doesn’t work like that, and when a count of animals is needed, things aren’t quite as easy. The Heiland lecture last week, “Airborne Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Case Studies: Conventional and Exotic,” addressed this dilemma as well as more geophysical applications of hyperspectral image analysis. Dr. David Coulter shared some of his experiences in remote sensing from studies in Los Chimberos, Chile, Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco, Hope Bay/Hackett River, Nunavut, and Elk Inventory, Colorado..
2,200 feet of rock has not prevented 33 Chilean miners from enjoying comforts from home. The miners, who have been trapped below ground for eight weeks as of October 5, are using a cellphone-mounted projector to watch movies and can communicate with their rescuers via an ultra-flexible fiber-optic cable nearly half a mile long. Supplies and several electronic devices have been delivered to the miners with a five-foot-long hollow tube which can fit down the ventilation shaft.
Led by Mark Mondry, executive in Residence for the Division of Economics and Business, the ETM lecture series are seminars designed to help professionals achieve success in an increasingly global economy. Last week was the second seminar in the series, “The Value of Networking, Social Media, and Professional Organizations.”
As many students may or may not know, the Colorado School of Mines offers many different instruments to help the students obtain data that would otherwise be impossible to find. Such data includes the elemental breakdown of a random metal alloys or the composition of an organic solid. Such processes used to identify these substances are X-ray photo electron systems, also known as spectrometers. The spectrometer at Mines has a one percent sensitivity rate, giving data that is accurate to that degree. The sputter rate, the rate at which electrons are fired at an object, is 1 nanometer per minute. An auger spectrometer is available in Meyer Hall 175. It uses a process call AES, which means it uses an electron beam that is 0.3 –1 nanometer in diameter to obtain high counts on the near surface area. This machine provides an analysis of the surface area that is about 30 angstroms deep.
“We have fallen behind,” President Barack Obama opined during a college-focused teleconference held Monday. “In a single generation we’ve fallen from first to twelfth in college graduation rates for young adults.” Still, the president proclaimed that, with better incentives on the part of the government and a more refined focus on the nation’s future, “by 2020, we once again [can be] number one and have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”
“First of all, we’re making college more affordable,” Obama explained. “For example, we’ve changed the way federal student loans are administered. Instead of handing over $60 billion in unwarranted subsidies to big banks that were essentially getting this money even though the loans were guaranteed by the federal government, we’re redirecting that money so that it goes directly to students.”
Last week St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital’s held its annual Up ‘Til Dawn Awareness Week. At campuses across the country, concerned students attracted the attention of their peers to raise awareness for the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
Typically, we come to Mines primarily to become engineers. We spend thousands of hours learning everything from calculus to fluid mechanics expecting our merit to be judged by our ability to solve technical problems. Unfortunately for many, this illusion is shattered before we even graduate. No amount of calculus can prepare us to make that critical leap into a job where we can use our technical abilities. Fully communicating your abilities and qualifications are simply not possible using calculus. This is why Mines has the Career Center.
Revolutionary Mining Technology
Technology is not the exclusive domain of the 21st century, as the article “Clear Creek County: Silver Plume Concentration Works” illustrates. This week in 1877, The Colorado Miner spotlighted the Silver Plume Concentration Works, a mill run by a man known as E. Eddy, Esq. This then-revolutionary mill was able to process 25 tons of rock per day while employing only 5 workers. The rocks, containing only very small amounts of the desired minerals, were first thoroughly crushed, and then sifted down to the slime tables. Eventually, the rock was removed and the desired mineral emerged.
In terms of research at Mines, the Chevron Center of Research Excellence (CoRE) is arguably one of the most prized institutions. Located in the basement of Berthoud Hall, CoRE was formed in 2003 as a long-term agreement between Chevron’s Energy Technology Company and CSM, meant to bring together experts in petroleum and geological engineering. As it currently stands, this goal is being met by the amazing staff at this facility. Most of the geologically inclined faculty on campus have nothing but respect and admiration for CoRE and the work they are performing.