Guest Writer Siria Solorio explores how mankind’s vain quest for meaning and symbolism has significantly neglected our planet and left her in critical condition. If we are to ensure life remains on this planet, then we must learn to rekindle our reverence for nature and engage with our universe through scientific literacy.

Just as you realize that watching all those Breaking Bad episodes reading all your chemistry textbooks during break still doesn’t shake that feeling that you’re not quite so ready for another semester, your professors made another round of funny comments to get you back into the swing of things. Professor Richard Bulliet, History of America in the Muslim World  […]

Cash-strapped urbanites may soon find work in the new convenience economy, which crowdsources temporary personal assistant tasks. Among the guinea pigs is an Arts Initiative coordinator, who claims its merits are more than monetary. (Observer) Whoever said field trips were dead? One visiting professor at GSAPP took his class to a banana ripening plant and […]

Last night, Miller Theater was transformed yet again into a realm of mystique and wonder, courtesy of PBS, and Bwog’s favorite physicist, Brian Greene. A sizable crowd assembled to watch the premiere of the new NOVA special, The Fabric of the Cosmos, based on Greene’s book of the same title. The real treat, however, was […]

The physics community’s collective world was recently rocked by the latest results from CERN, with some now claiming that they have measured neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. While the discrepancy is small (only 60 nanoseconds), it could force physicists to reconsider Einstein’s theory of relativity. Columbia’s go-to physics rock star, Brain Greene, […]

If you give a mouse a Tevatron, and that mouse is an experimental physicist, it will ask for more money to build an enormous super collider beneath Switzerland and France, telling you that it needs more energy to confirm its theory on what makes the Universe do its thing. At least, that’s roughly how it […]

We continue to respect our heritage/amorous affair with our mother-magazine, The Blue & White by posting each issue of the magazine online. The latest issue, available this week around campus, is a cornucopia of delights: a harrowing (and fictional) account of the muscles that guard the cheeses at Westside , the shockingly sincere history of Barnard’s Greek Games, and a […]

Prospies currently attempting to get a perspective into life at Columbia may be flustered as their peers rattle the names of their other college acceptances. But remember—it’s all about perspective. The salutatorian of Bronx Science got into six Ivies and is “just trying to refrain from any hubris,” but an acceptance to Columbia is still an […]

Congress avoids a full government shutdown and passes a last-minute budget deal that plans to cut $38 million from federal spending. While Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortions should go relatively unharmed, President Obama admits that “some of the cuts accepted by Democrats ‘will be painful.'” (NYT) Columbia superstar professor of mathematics and […]

UWS residents blame Columbia’s recent construction for rats the size of “cats and kittens.” Columbia they’re culpable, but will offer a pest-taming workshop. (PIX 11) Big deal physics prof Brian Greene will make a cameo appearance in the Big Bang Theory as himself! (Digital Spy) NYC Councilwoman Gale Brewer introduced a bill which would prohibit cars […]

Have you ever noticed how time seems to run so much more slowly when you’re not drinking 9 cups of coffee a day and putting half of that energy into being passively aggressive? Bwoglines leisurely returns with a first installment: a feast of not-strictly-topical links, and context—something we all wish we had more time for. […]

In which Bwog newcomer Anish Bramhandkar keeps you up to date on the latest news in the strange and quirky happenings of the lives of Columbia’s finest.  Beware, in some cases connections to our fair alma mater may be otherwise dubious or somewhat circumspect. UPDATE: Columbia Economics professors hijack today’s New York Times Op-Ed page […]

Two Columbia-related articles of interest in the New York Times recently: First up, an op-ed from physics professor/Colbert Report interviewee Brian Greene sent to Bwog from tipster Lucy Tang. In a piece currently #1 on the Times‘ Most Emailed list, Greene recounts receiving from a letter from a soldier stationed overseas from whom Greene’s book […]

Tipster Michael Wymbs alerted us to last night’s episode of the Colbert Report, on which Physicas Professor Brian Greene was a guest. Greene was promoting the World Science Festival (of which he is host), which will take place this weekend in all over the city. As part of the festival, Greene will be a panelist […]

A gadfly, according to Billy Goldstein (CC’ 09), is “some big-ass fly,” and also the only non-defunct undergraduate philosophy magazine at Columbia University. The Gadfly has so far printed one issue with a medley of contributions: a letter of explanation, a few art pieces, a fictional work, a quasi-Socratic dialogue, a lecture review, and–as a […]