From fecal transplants to nuclear disarmament: recent work for the Chronicle of Higher Education

Fecal microbiota preparations, from donated fecal material, stand in bottles in a freezer at about -80 degrees F in a laboratory used by the OpenBiome project in MIT’s Microbiology Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The OpenBiome project screens donations for a variety of disease agents and then provides these samples to hospitals around the US for treatment of clostridium difficile infection, which affects approximately 500,000 people in the US and kills about 14,000 annually. The samples are used in fecal microbiotal transplants (fecal transplants) and work as extremely efficient treatment for c. difficile infections.

Mark Smith is a PhD candidate in MIT’s Microbiology Graduate Program and helps run the OpenBiome project at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Fecal microbiota preparations, from donated fecal material, stand in bottles in a freezer at about -80 degrees F in a laboratory used by the OpenBiome project in MIT’s Microbiology Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The OpenBiome project screens donations for a variety of disease agents and then provides these samples to hospitals around the US for treatment of clostridium difficile infection, which affects approximately 500,000 people in the US and kills about 14,000 annually. The samples are used in fecal microbiotal transplants (fecal transplants) and work as extremely efficient treatment for c. difficile infections.

Mark Smith is a PhD candidate in MIT’s Microbiology Graduate Program and helps run the OpenBiome project at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The OpenBiome project screens donations for a variety of disease agents and then provides these samples to hospitals around the US for treatment of clostridium difficile infection, which affects approximately 500,000 people in the US and kills about 14,000 annually. The samples are used in fecal microbiotal transplants (fecal transplants) and work as extremely efficient treatment for c. difficile infections.

Handwritten notes about the samples contained inside hang on freezers holding fecal samples and microbiota preparations in a corner of a lab in MIT’s Microbiology Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The freezers keep the donated fecal materials at about -80 degrees F. The OpenBiome project screens donations for a variety of disease agents and then provides these samples to hospitals around the US for treatment of clostridium difficile infection, which affects approximately 500,000 people in the US and kills about 14,000 annually. The samples are used in fecal microbiotal transplants (fecal transplants) and work as extremely efficient treatment for c. difficile infections.

Students walk past Joseph Warren Bartlett Hall on the campus of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. The building is planned to be demolished as part of an ongoing plan to restructure the school’s footprint. The building currently houses a few academic departments, including English and Journalism, and classrooms.

Juanita M. Holler, FAIA, is Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities & Campus Services at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. She is standing outside South Campus Hall, a building which currently holds offices but is planned to be repurposed for classroom use after other buildings are demolished as part of the school’s restructuring of its layout.

A classroom is empty before class in Joseph Warren Bartlett Hall on the campus of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. The building is planned to be demolished as part of an ongoing plan to restructure the school’s footprint. The building currently houses a few academic departments, including English and Journalism, and classrooms.

A view of Joseph Warren Bartlett Hall on the campus of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. The building is planned to be demolished as part of an ongoing plan to restructure the school’s footprint. The building currently houses a few academic departments, including English and Journalism, and classrooms.

Elaine Scarry, photographed here in at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts, is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. She has just written a book called Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom, published by W. W. Norton & Company to be released on February 17, 2014.The book presents a case for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Elaine Scarry, photographed here in her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. She has just written a book called Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom, published by W. W. Norton & Company to be released on February 17, 2014.The book presents a case for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Elaine Scarry, photographed here in at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts, is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. She has just written a book called Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom, published by W. W. Norton & Company to be released on February 17, 2014.The book presents a case for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Arielle Schilit Nitenson is a Ph.D. candidate graduate student at Brown University’s Department of Neuroscience in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. She is part of a pilot program called the Open Graduate Education Program, which provides the opportunity for grad students to study two different disciplines, one for their Master’s degree and the other for their doctorate. She received a Masters of Art in Teaching in Biology Secondary Education and is studying neuroscience for her doctorate. Her research now focuses on adult neurogenesis and olfactory behavior in mice.

Arielle Schilit Nitenson is a Ph.D. candidate graduate student at Brown University’s Department of Neuroscience in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. She is part of a pilot program called the Open Graduate Education Program, which provides the opportunity for grad students to study two different disciplines, one for their Master’s degree and the other for their doctorate. She received a Masters of Art in Teaching in Biology Secondary Education and is studying neuroscience for her doctorate. Her research now focuses on adult neurogenesis and olfactory behavior in mice. She is seen here in a room that houses a few hundred mice.