16 January 2013

Tree of Science, January 16

Few scenes are as beautiful as a fresh snow in New England.
Barely plowed, the campus is slow to wake this morning.  Few people are out, even at 9am.  The unusual architecture of Morgan Hall is to the right, and Thompson Chapel is off in the distance.  Each of these buildings is built from the local stone which, in years to come, will be hard pressed to fight off our local acid rain. Recent work published in Nature by researchers from Cardiff University and the University of Iowa suggest that olive oil may help to combat the damaging effects.  The research laboratory: the stunning, eight century old York Minster Cathedral.  We may have more time left.

Not quite visible from the science quad are the gargoyles that try to annoy those who enter Morgan.  Two of these creatures are obvious, guarding the entries to the two halves of the building that, for many years, were not internally connected.