In the News

“It was a tennis match in 1986 that changed the focus of Trinity College chemistry Professor Henry DePhillips' work. And his life. Really, it was a substitute playing in the regular match, Stephen H. Kornhauser, conservator of art for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, who triggered all that change when, after a couple of post-match beers, he asked DePhillips to analyze some paint chips from art in the museum's collection … In his labs filled with specialized microscopes, DePhillips analyzes samples of paint and other materials. His findings help identify the origin of the paint, such as a region along the ancient Silk Route that ran from China to Spain using camel caravans, and the time period when the materials were available.”

“Scientist Stumbles Into His Passion For Art By Using Chemical Analysis”
Hartford Courant, September 13, 2004

“It's not your typical theatrical experience. You don't enter a theater. You board a bus. Which winds up at a barn. Jeffry Walker will be presenting a most unusual - and free - theater piece beginning this weekend with a new work, "Shoot the Messenger," that is a kind of experimental, site-specific theater not often seen … ‘The piece is a meditation about the vacuity of a consumer society,’ says Walker, ‘as well as about a man trying to reclaim a simple and dignified role in society. He feels he is now just a pack mule for Madison Avenue.’ The theater piece is also a love letter, as it were, to the power of the written word on paper as representing an honest and emotional form of communication.”

“Get on the bus: `Shoot the Messenger'”
Hartford Courant, September 23, 2004

“Coincidence for sure, but Trinity College says its library just acquired its one millionth volume - a first American edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," dating from 1860 - just in time for national Banned Books Week. Not only is Darwin's work ‘perhaps the most influential scientific work of all time,’ as Trinity head [sic] librarian Jeffrey Kaimowitz noted, but it also was hugely controversial because its theory of evolution had far-reaching religious ramifications. When Darwin's book was first published … it was banned at Trinity College at Cambridge, England, even though Darwin was a graduate, Kaimowitz said. The acquisition coincides with a new exhibition at Trinity's Watkinson Library, which is within its main library, called "The Evolution of Evolution: From the Pre-Socratics to the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis," prepared by Kaimowitz and running … through Dec. 31.”

“Evolution' Pushes Trinity Library To Million Volumes,”
Hartford Courant, October 2, 2004

“Do South American knife fish hold one of the keys to our understanding the development of the human brain? They might, according to Dr. Kent Dunlap, associate professor of biology at Trinity College. Research recently completed by one of Dunlap's students, James Castellano '05, demonstrates that social interaction between the weakly-electric South American knife fish increases the rate at which cells are produced in their brains … ‘This study could ultimately have important implications for the study of human behavior,’ notes Dunlap. ‘It's common knowledge that social interaction is important for emotional and physical health. But it may also influence how the brain works and develops.’ He adds, ‘If we can understand this, we may be able to understand how new cells in the human brain affect behavior.’”

“The Knife Fish may hold keys to our understanding of human brain development” www.medicalnewstoday.com, October 5, 2004

“… woe to the politician who discounts the significance of religion. According to an August poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, about 85 percent of Americans said religion is important in their lives. Moreover, in the same poll, 72 percent of registered voters told Pew that "it is important to them that a president have strong religious beliefs." Said Mark Silk, director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.: ‘There seems to be a much larger and more focused effort to mobilize voters by religious grouping. I think this really comes out of Republican Party politics, and the Democrats and progressives are perhaps belatedly waking up to this and trying to put on a show of their own.’"

“Religion playing key political role this year”
Belleville News Democrat (IL), October 10, 2004

“A South American electric knife fish raised alone in a tank has something missing: a full complement of brain cells. But put two knife fish in a tank where they are free to exchange electrically charged pleasantries, and they will grow plenty of the specialized cells that make up fish brains, according to Trinity College students who won an international award for their experiment. The research reinforces theories about the importance of social contact in the development of the brains of animals and may help explain why older people who remain socially and intellectually active seem to have some protection against dementia. ‘Aloof as it seems from cellular happenings, social interaction is involved in [brain] development,’ said James Castellano, a Trinity senior and lead author of the research project. In August, a poster that detailed the research was one of five to win awards for best presentation by non-doctoral students at the seventh International Congress of Neuroethology held in Nyborg, Denmark … [Associate Professor of Biology Kent] Dunlap asked Castellano, who as a sophomore had been torn between majoring in engineering or biology, and fellow undergraduates Mark Witt and Doris Kuk to work on the project.”

“Brain Gain A Social Study”
Hartford Courant, October 12, 2004

“Did the radium girls dance? There's no way to know whether these young women did the Charleston or the Foxtrot in their free hours away from the Waterbury Clock Co., where they daubed time pieces with glowing radioactive paint long before the atom bomb was built. But seeing them step today, brought back to life by choreographer Judy Dworin, helps to swallow the tragedy that cut down or killed the real radium girls in their prime. Dworin, a Trinity College theater and dance professor and a mainstay of Hartford's art world for more than 15 years, often mines the historical record for inspiration. Previous pieces have dealt with the witch hunts in early America, the aftermath of Chernobyl and the "disappeared" of Argentina. ‘My work sources itself in real stories, stories that are universal,’ Dworin says. ‘I'm using history as a metaphor for the present.’"
 

“Victims Of The Time: Dance Performance Tells Story Of Women
Contaminated By Radium In Waterbury Clock Factory”
Hartford Courant, October 11, 2004

“Trinity College has inaugurated a new president, beginning an era that students and faculty hope will usher in a period of stability following a brief but contentious administration of his predecessor. James F. Jones Jr., a scholar of French literature, took office in a ceremony Sunday before more than 1,500 alumni, students and guests … In his inaugural speech, Jones said Trinity is ‘one of the very few highly esteemed residential liberal arts colleges located in a major urban landscape. … What better place to nurture civility and stewardship than an urban liberal arts college that is ‘a vital part with, and a good neighbor to, the city itself?’ he asked … Margaret Lindsey, director of Trinity's first-year program for freshmen, said she was impressed by the speech, calling Jones ‘an orator and an educator.’ ‘When I listen to him, he inspires,’ she said. ‘And that's one of the things we need right now.’ ‘He's a strong leader, a strong personality with first-class academic credentials,’ Paul E. Raether, chairman of the college's board of trustees, said after the ceremony. ‘We were looking for someone we knew would be here for a period of time, because we clearly need stability.’”

“New president at Trinity seen as ushering in stability”
Newsday, October 18, 2004

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