“Artistic practice is equally rigorous, equally scientific, and equally worthy of airtime as, you know, a scientific graph or chart,” Professor Clarissa Chevalier said. Chevalier is the newest faculty member of Smith’s Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, which completed the hiring process for a feminist science and technology studies (STS) professor in the spring of 2026. Clarissa Chevalier. Courtesy of Clarissa Chevalier. Feminist STS is a multidisciplinary

High magnification micrograph of chorangiosis by user Nephron, available under Creative Commons license 3.0 at Wikimedia Commons The baby has arrived and finally, the room exhales. Months of anticipation give way to first cries and embraces. It is tempting to think that the hardest part is over, but for the body that has just carried a pregnancy, another chapter is only beginning. In the weeks after childbirth, blood sugar can remain dangerously high and blood loss can beco

Frankenstein, Jekyll, Doofenshmirtz, Doom. It seems the villains of our screens and pages all share one common prefix: Doctor. Eccentric men in their lab coats hunched over the workbench or screaming to the sky about their new discovery are often the image we associate with the character of the “mad scientist.” Why is a scientist always “mad,” though? Why must he–always a “he,” never a “she”–be obsessed with ruling the world and molding it to his will, conducting evil experim

Collage by Evie Tourtelot Special effects (SFX) makeup and prosthetics have been used to transform movie actors into their characters since the earliest days of cinema. Early SFX materials were oftentimes made with extremely toxic ingredients, like mercury and lead, and caused all sorts of medical problems for the actors. In the 1939 The Wizard of Oz movie, for example, The Tin Man was covered in actual aluminum powder which resulted in his hospitalization only nine days int

Artwork by Esme Ammons Nail polish has long been used as a decorative cosmetic, and common polish ingredients have changed drastically over the course of time. Today, there is a large variety of nail polishes on the market, such as traditional, gel, shellac, and more. Nail polish toxicity is a topic generally discussed, but seldom fully understood by regular users. In the United States, nail polishes are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and are treated li

Photographs and collage by Ashley Lang. These images were taken at the Devil’s Den and the Historic Dam Trail in Massachusetts. Devil’s Den is a small segment of the Mill River hidden down a walking path through the trees and often used for Boy Scouts training. The site is on the property of a logging company, but they have allowed the plants and mushrooms to grow wild in this area, creating a vibrant yet tiny world of fungi. By Ashley Lang