Understanding electrical circuits can be difficult for novices of all ages (Grotzer & Sudbury, 2000; Osborne, 1983; Shipstone, 1984; Tarciso Borges, 1999). Research shows that novices tend to have inadequate understandings of what happens at the level of atoms and electrons, leading to difficulty predicting the outcomes of electrical circuits...
X-ray Fluorescence Microscopy (XFM) is a useful technique for study of biological samples. XFM was used to map and quantify endogenous biological elements as well as exogenous materials in biological samples, such as the distribution of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. TiO2 nanoparticles are produced for many different purposes, including development...
Totipotent cells have the highest developmental potential and can only be created by nuclear transfer into oocytes. Identities of maternal factors that can induce this reprogramming remain a mystery. In this report, we demonstrate induction of totipotency on mouse embryonic stem cells by introducing six factors, Hist1h2aa, H3f3b, H1foo, p-Npm2,...
Metabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce useful compounds from renewable substrates is a promising means for sustainable, on-demand production of chemicals. However, efforts to design and engineer microbial cell factories are constrained by costly and slow “build” times in which each genetic variation requires re-engineering a new strain for each...
The limits of miniaturization of electronic device components and the steady need for faster computation power have motivated the discovery and cultivation of low-dimensional materials. Among these, two-dimensional (2D) materials have exhibited a wide range of superlative optoelectronic, thermal and mechanical properties. The interest in 2D materials took-off with the...
Mechanisms for sensing fluid flow are well studied in arthropods and in some aquatic mammals, but we know very little about how terrestrial mammals detect and localize airflow (Chapter 1). In this thesis, I will describe a series of studies in rodents that investigate the behavioral, mechanical, and neural basis...
Wind pollination has evolved from animal pollination at least 65 times in flowering plants, but the reverse transition is rare. Wind pollination is usually accompanied by the loss of traits that attract pollinators, and re-evolving them may be difficult. This dissertation examines this rare transition using Artocarpus (ca. 70 spp.,...
Literary critics typically oppose chronological and anachronistic historiographical schemes. In paired readings of early modern and contemporary poets, my dissertation, “The Shock of the Old: Periodization, Poetics, and Diachronic Exchange between the Renaissance and the Avant-Garde” investigates a series of poetic texts that defy this opposition. The poetic objects I...
What follows is a strictly post-genomic dissertation. Over the past five years, I have strived to leave the nucleus behind, and even the endoplasmic reticulum and golgi apparatus. The human genome was sequenced over 15 years before the submission of this document, and the world changed somewhat less than anticipated—besides...