This semester, students in Modern Physics (Physics 13) were given an unorthodox assignment: make a video explaining a concept from the course to a 10th grade audience. Without missing a beat, Beau Coker, E13, Dan Fortunato, A13, Ellen Garven, A14, and Benji Hansen, A14, came up with a #nerdybutawesome way to explain the twin paradox with the help of their friends Louie Zong, E13, and Zach Himes, A13. Never taken a physics class? No worries, you’ll still love the 2001: A Space Odyssey reference and Fortunato’s N64 powered space suit while learning why the Space Twin ages less than the Earth Twin.

Dr. Edith “Edie” Widder, A73, “is a biologist and deep-sea explorer who is applying her expertise in oceanographic research and technological innovation to reversing the worldwide trend of marine ecosystem degradation.” On Sept. 23, 2011, she spoke about bioluminescence at TEDxThePineSchool in Hobe Sound, Fla.

Widder received a MacArthur Foundation Genius grant in 2006 (the same year as fellow Tufts graduate David Carroll, A65). You can read a profile of her in the 2005 Tufts magazine or see her essay and photographs about bioluminescence from the Fall 2007 edition of Tufts magazine.

Gonzo Labs’ annual “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest provides a fun and creative way for Ph.D. students across the world to show off their theses through interpretive dance.

Lara Park, a current Friedman School Ph.D. student, recently became one of 16 2011 contest finalists. The 55 dance submissions provided the largest pool of contestants in the contest’s history. With her dance to “The Effect of Western Style Diet Consumption on Epigenetic Patterns,” Park hopes to win a cash prize and a trip to Belgium in order to attend the TEDxBrussels November event.

Dance Your Ph.D. 2011: The Effect of Western Style Diet Consumption on Epigenetic Patterns. Lara Park et al from Liza Voll on Vimeo.

To get a better idea about the “Dance your Ph.D.” competition, take a look at the 2010 winner here. You can also like the 2011 “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest on Facebook.

Dr. Miriam Nelson, professor of nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and founder and director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention at Tufts University, has embarked on her StrongWomen Across America Tour.

Nelson describes her aims for the tour on the StrongWomen website:

Beginning in Kenai, Alaska and traveling east to Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, the StrongWomen Across America tour will focus on eight small communities with active StrongWomen programs.  Each community has developed what I call a Change Club – a group of 15 to 20 motivated women who will work to change the physical activity and food environments in their own communities.  It is my hope that this work will not only impact those individual communities, but will create a ripple effect that will reach communities across the nation.

Check out her Twitter account, Facebook page and most recent book, The Social Network Diet, which gives an interesting spin on how to perpetuate a healthy lifestyle through innovative social networking.

Rising junior Sarah Hartman (A13) and her father Dr. Lester Hartman were the subjects of a father’s day feature on Thrive, Children’s Hospital Boston’s pediatric health blog. In an extreme version of “take your daughter to work day,” Dr. Hartman invited Sarah to spend a spring break with him in Cambodia, helping survivors of land mines. This experience, and additional service trips to Haiti, spurred in Sarah an interest in public health and medicine.

From a relatively early age our dad wanted us to see first hand what other parts of the world were like and what people who lived there had to deal with on a daily basis,” says Sarah. “He set a real example for me in wanting to reach out to help people and learn more about global health in the process.”

That’s the question. The answer is: This school was referenced during Final Jeopardy! in the episode of “Jeopardy!” that aired May 23.

The question read as follows:

The answer?

Watch video from the Final Jeopardy! round.

Now, bonus round…. who was the Tufts School of Medicine Dean to rewrite the Hippocratic Oath? Dr. Louis Lasagna, who passed away in 2003. (Watch this video tribute to Dr. Lasagna.)

A new study in the Institute of Physics journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics by Tufts doctoral student Huai-Ti Lin and researchers Gary Leisk and Barry Trimmer details the creation of the GoQBot, a soft-bodied robot inspired by a natural defense mechanism found in some caterpillars called “ballistic rolling.” According to a press release by the Institute of Physics, ballistic rolling is “one of the fastest wheeling behaviours in nature”

The below video shows both a caterpillar engaging in ballistic rolling and the GoQBot in action:

The science blog PopSci featured the GoQBot, the latest product of the ongoing biomimetic research at Tufts.

“GoQBot demonstrates a solution by reconfiguring its body and could therefore enhance several robotic applications such as urban rescue, building inspection, and environmental monitoring,” Lin was quoted as saying in the press release. “Due to the increased speed and range, limbless crawling robots with ballistic rolling capability could be deployed more generally at a disaster site such as a tsunami aftermath. The robot can wheel to a debris field and wiggle into the danger for us.”

This past fall, Tufts undergraduates enrolled in BIO7: Environmental Biology were given a rather unusual assignment: “to create a video project, using open-source materials that described a current topic in environmental biology.” In this video, “Chernobyl: Nature and Mankind,” student filmmakers aim to teach other students and the general public about the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and the environmental implications of harnessing nuclear power:

EDIT, 8/24/11: Sheril Kirshenbaum, A02, highlighted one of the class videos on her blog, Culture of Science.

See all of the videos on the Environmental Studies YouTube channel.

Medical students and doctors of the Tufts University School of Medicine are providing free health care to under-served communities in the Boston area through The Sharewood Project. Sharewood, located in the First Church in Malden, operates Tuesday nights from 6:30 to 9 PM and provides clinical care, case management, laboratory work, and other health care services for free and without a scheduled appointment.

Recently, the AsianBoston‘s radio station conducted an interview with representatives from the Tufts Medical School about the Project.

Randi Rotjan (G’07), an alum of the Tufts Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, is a marine biologist blogging for the New England Aquarium’s Global Explorers Blog. Rotjan is currently a professor of Northeastern University’s Three Seas Program in Panama, where she researches the interface between ecology, symbiosis and behavior.

In a recent post entitled “Pencils…Down!,” Rotjan explains how her marine biology students in Panama take exams. She writes:

Taking a test is not typically a fun experience. Stress. Anxiety. GRADES.
But in any class experience, test-taking is a necessary assessment of knowledge and here in Bocas del Toro, we have a different approach. A FUN approach! We feel that the best way to test fish knowledge is… to go where the fish are. Have you ever taken an underwater exam before? For us, the easiest way to learn our fish identification is to take our pencils… down!