There’s more to Columbia faculty than cute nicknames and good music taste. They also invent, prod, design and destroy all kinds of nifty things. In our newest feature, Bwog takes a moment to look back at this week’s science news, from the ultra-specific to the just-plain wacky. The headlines were compiled by our Northern Side of Campus Correspondent Ricky Raudales.

Tuesday

A scientist!

• Still can’t connect to Times Square’s wifi? You can now ping Columbia’s Rachel Sterne, the city’s first chief digital officer.
• Columbia’s Dr. Mukherjee has published a book chronicling the history of cancer and providing a six-point formula to help battle humanity’s killjoy in India.

Wednesday

• H1N1 hates itself—A team which included Columbia researchers found swine flu survivors have super immunity to multiple strains of influenza.
• Researchers at Columbia successfully extracted stem cells from healthy teeth. British not amused.

Thursday

• Obama reminded Americans that Sputnik was just a shiny quadripod.
• Columbia’s Richard Sloan explained why skipping along to “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” won’t solve your health issues. Sorry Kingsmen.

Friday

• Columbia launched its Bamboo Bike Project, providing cheap, reliable transportation in sub-Saharan Africa. Bwog wonders how long we have until hipsters start buying them.

Saturday

• Thanks to a Columbia scientist, iPads now have a purpose—exploring deep-ocean trenches.

Photo via wikimedia.