
Virus genes help determine if pea aphids get their wings
The findings shed light on the important role that microbial genes, like those from viruses, can play in insect and animal evolution.

‘The great democratic voice’
May 31 is the 200th anniversary of poet Walt Whitman’s birth, and Rochester has a few ties of its own to the poet who contained multitudes.

‘Difference teaches you humility’
Donald Hall was formally installed as the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of the Arts, Sciences & Engineering during an investiture ceremony Wednesday, in which is spoke about how his past experiences inspire him to address the needs of students and faculty who are facing challenges.

‘Optical tweezer’ takes Nobel concept in a new direction
Rochester researchers are trapping nanoparticle-sized silica beads in an “optical tweezer” in a series of experiments that could shed new light on the fundamental properties of lasers.

‘Your sexuality is yourself, as the total person you are’
The latest Rochester Women profile looks at the life of Mary Calderone ’39M (MD), a pioneering advocate for sex education who was both celebrated and vilified for her work during a time a great cultural division over sexuality and feminism.

‘This vacuum in our education is more than a matter of polite regret’
Vera Micheles Dean served as the founding director of the University’s Non-Western Civilizations program, one of the first such interdisciplinary programs for undergraduates in the country.

When parenting teens, keep calm and don’t carry on
In a new study, Rochester psychologists found that mothers and fathers who were less capable of dampening down their anger are more likely to resort to harsh discipline aimed at their teens, and that fathers in particular were not as good at considering alternative explanations for their teens’ behavior.

First in the family
“I grew up feeling I would go to college no matter what,” says Hajim Scholar and computer science major Maisha Idris ’19. Idris’s story is striking, but not unusual at Rochester, where about 20 percent of undergraduates are first-generation, or “first-gen” students.

One family, two generations, three degrees
A car accident during his first winter break had left Giuliano Agostinho de Castro ’20 paralyzed from the chest down. Now he’s back on campus, and his parents are his classmates.

‘Drifting open eyed into insanity’
Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation has acquired a remarkable collection of 52 personal letters from author and early feminist reformer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who minces no words when it comes to motherhood, marriage, and depression.