Saumil Bandyopadhyay, a senior at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School has been named a Davidson Fellow by the Davidson Institute. The Davidson Fellowship is rated one of the seven most prestigious undergraduate scholarships by the US News and World Report. Each year, the Institute selects twenty students nationwide in areas of science, technology, engineering, literature, mathematics, music and philosophy, and awards them college scholarships in recognition of their achievements. WCVE Public Radio’s John Ogle has more in this Science Matters report below.

Two yard panthers and a little good wolf patrol the edge of the Dawnwood forest that is our backyard. We never know what is going to turn up out there so every day is apt to be a learning experience in my backyard laboratory.  

It amazes me how and where some critters choose to raise their young. Two little Carolina wrens (thryohorus ludovicianus) built a nest in a precariously perched bird barn on our back porch. This despite the whisker licking yard panthers periodically circling below. The wren parents work incredibly hard to keep their babies fed. Every ten minutes or so, one of them brings an insect or a worm to the bird barn for the tiny chicks, whose beaks look bigger than their bodies.

Their formal names were slide rules, and folks called them “slip-sticks.” They were literally analog computers. Many years ago, slide rules were de rigeur for engineers and scientists, and especially several generations of high school and college students.

Not only that, but Neil Armstrong used one, according to a recent Wall Street Journal blog.

Join other curious minds this Tuesday, September 4th for another Science Pub RVA event. Enjoy food, drink and conversation with Dr. Matthew R. Francis as he demystifies black holes. Dr.