Name: Ningxin Xu

Hometown: (born and raised in) Beijing, China

Major: East Asian Studies MA

Three topics/ideas/issues that intrigue me:
1. human animal relations
2. understanding of the animal in Western discourse from Plato to the Cartisian tradition to Derrida
3. indigenous religions, posthumanism and ecological humanities

Most interesting bit of news I read today (or lately): Boyang Lake Dam project underway in Jiangxi, China

Ji Weitao, the vice director of the Jiangxi Province “Boyang Dam Construction Office,” says in an interview that although construction of the dam would potentially wipe out the population of white cranes, which is listed as “Critically Endangered” by the IUCN, he believes that the cranes should “learn to adapt because the rule of evolution is survival of the fittest.”

Name: Akul Sharma

Hometown: New Delhi, India

Major: Economics

3 Topics: Future of fossil fuels in transportation, Renewable energy, Economic development in India

News: Trump admitted Putin was involved in hacking US election, despite refusing to acknowledge it previously (striking, given his personality)

Name: Jessica Li Marlow

Hometown: Spartanburg, SC (NW corner)

Major: Undecided but interested in ICS (focusing on China and East Asia) and Global Health!

Three Topics/ideas/issues that intrigue me: art, femininity/masculinity, Disney

Most interesting bit of news I read recently: There is a new primate species called the “Star Wars gibbon”! It lives in SW China.

Name: Jazmine (Jazz) Moreno

Hometown: Sacramento, CA

Major: Neuroscience

Three topics: Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, and Color Photography/Drawing

Interesting bit of news I recently read: I read about how by 2022 it will be possible to see the double star explosion will be able to be seen with the naked eye.

Name: Syed Ameen Ahmad

Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio

Major: Neuroscience

Three topics/ideas/issues that interest me: Air pollution, chemical runoff, noise pollution

Interesting Piece of News I read today: The FBI is being investigated from resurfacing the Clinton Email controversy.

Name: Ryan Bronstein

Hometown: Ashland, KY

Major: Economics

Three topics that intrigue me: Marine Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Law

Most interesting news I have read recently: In DNA replication, the enzyme helicase spins at 10,000 rpm to unravel the double helix.

Name: Alyssa Cleveland

Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia

(Intended) Major: Environmental Science and Policy and Global Health

Three Topics that Intrigue Me: Tropical Biodiversity, Cultural Anthropology, and Ecology

Most Interesting Bit of News I read (heard) lately: the missing link to sending a man to the moon was Euler’s Method (Hidden Figures movie)

Name: Brielle Tobin

Hometown: Casper, Wyoming

Major: Undecided, perhaps Neuroscience BS

Intriguing topics: The changing nature of the Antarctic and Arctic, suicide prevention in Inuit populations, and how different areas of the world are responding to environment change

Most interesting bit of recent news: My hometown recently reached record setting low temperatures for this time of the year, around -33 degrees Fahrenheit. Needless to say, I stayed inside most of break.

Name: Margaret Overton

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Major: Psychology BS and Environmental Science and Policy minor

Three topics/ideas/issues that intrigue me: Child development, climate change/green energy, and college basketball

Most interesting bit of (fake) news I read today: This Clickhole article about how yawns are caused by ghosts putting their hands in people’s mouths

Name: Mary Osborn

Hometown: Durham, NC (Bull city born and raised)

Major: BS Biological Sciences, Masters of Arts in Teaching Class of 2017- Science Education

Three topics/ideas/issues that intrigue me: Science Education and Communicating Science, Sustainable Agriculture, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Most interesting bit of news I read today (or lately): There could be more than 3 properties of water…

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-have-discovered-new-state-matter-water-180961546/