At the end of spring break, the Botanic Garden wrapped up its annual Bulb Show, where thousands of flowers contrasted dreary March skies.  The Bulb Show  is an annual two-week event that began over 100 years ago. It attracts visitors with precisely coordinated blooms and art installations, but to Botanic Garden Director John Berryhill, the show is more than just a colorful display. “I hope it's [an] invitation to see what we are the other 50 weeks of the year,” Berryhill said

The night before a snowstorm, as students across campus hunker down with hot chocolate and cross their fingers for a snow day, Smith Facilities Management gets to work. They roll out trucks pouring a sticky, sometimes smelly, brown substance onto Smith’s roads and walkways. This mysterious concoction is called Liquid Magic , and its contents have much to reveal about the science behind ice melts. The term ice melt is a bit of a misnomer; most ice melts actually work by preven

As Smith students headed home in late December, an ethereal visitor took up residence in Hampshire County: the Snowy Owl. The arrival of these rare owls brought enthusiastic crowds to Northampton and Hadley, along with questions about how to best appreciate birds without harming them. Snowy Owls  are an irruptive species in Hampshire County, meaning they are irregular visitors based on their unpredictable migratory patterns. They breed in remote areas in the Arctic and occasi

“Do you want someone else to live your life for you?” That question, posed by Senior Laboratory Instructor Joe Yeager of the Chemistry Department, reflects the heart of the discussions surrounding AI use in the classroom. When does AI go from being a tool to replacing the learning and living that should be done by students? As faculty attempt to draw this line in the sand through personal and departmental policies, students are left to navigate a shifting sea of expectations

Just five miles up Elm Street, the remains of a golf course can be spotted through the trees. Beaver Brook Golf Course closed its doors for the last time in July and is currently in the process of “rewilding” as it becomes a community park. The Trustees, a Massachusetts land conservation nonprofit, purchased the property in collaboration with Hilltown Land Trust (HLT), intending to transform the once exclusive space into something that would benefit Williamsburg and the surro

Survey results found that 22% of chemists made changes that they knew to be incorrect to their manuscript during the review process. The study, “On and off-the-record correction practices: A survey-based study of how chemistry researchers react to errors,” was published this October in the journal Accountability and Research. This alarming finding came from a survey with 1,135 respondents who had at least two recent publications in the American Chemical Society or the Royal S

Paradise Pond is a staple feature of the Smith College campus. But it wasn’t always there.

“The big takeaway is, I run a lab with full-time employees, and I do that by having federal grants. So I’m worried.”