houck2040/artisci huggingface dataset:
in 1906 a new carol appeared in the english hymnal an influential collection of british church music with words by british poet christina rossetti set to a tune by composer gustav holst it became one of britains most beloved christmas songs now known as in the bleak midwinter it was voted the greatest carol of all time in a 2008 bbc survey of choral experts in the bleak midwinter began life as a poem which rossetti simply titled a christmas carol when the hymnal paired her words with music the poem took on a new identity in song a phenomenon documented by literature researcher emily mcconkey but it also became embedded into popular culture in nonmusical forms a christmas carol or parts of it has appeared on christmas cards ornaments tea towels* mugs and other household items it has inspired mystery novels and more recently became a recurring motif in the british television series peaky blinders as a scholar of rossetti ive long been fascinated by the afterlife of her poems in music the christina rossetti in music project a database of musical adaptations that incorporates my work now lists 185 versions of in the bleak midwinter but before it could be set to music a christmas carol had to make its way into print as a poem and that wasnt so easy though written by one of britains mostly highly regarded poets the poem failed to make its mark on british readers until holst set it to music instead it found its first and most enthusiastic audience in the united states
victorian music a christmas carol circulated during a carol revival in the united kingdom in december 1867 shortly before rossetti started offering her poem to british magazine publishers the centurys most influential collection of carols was published previously considered a folk tradition and not considered fit for worship given the revelry they were associated with and the mix of sacred and secular lyrics carols were coming into vogue and increasingly they were finding their way into church
at a time when women could not be ordained as preachers writing carols and more formal hymns was a rare opportunity for women to shape the church barred from the pulpit themselves female writers spoke from the pews including sarah flower adams she wrote nearer my god to thee and cecil frances alexander author of the beloved carol once in royal davids city rossetti a devout anglican and the author of a number of devotional poems was among them although 21st-century readers may know her primarily through her poem goblin market rossettis religious poetry was well known to her contemporaries by the 1870s several of her poems had been reprinted in british religious anthologies and hymnals a bleak beginning a christmas carol opens with a vivid description of the harsh physical and spiritual landscape into which jesus was born: in the bleak mid-winter frosty wind made moan; earth stood hard as iron water like a stone but it failed to impress george grove the new editor of macmillans magazine at the time according to scholar simon humphries in 1868 rossetti sent a christmas carol to the british magazine which had previously published her poetry in what might now be regarded as one of the worst editorial decisions of the century grove rejected her submission rossetti eventually placed a christmas carol in another british journal the peoples magazine in december 1873 but as luck would have it that was the very last issue and the poem was relegated to half a page sandwiched between an essay on the life and habits of wild animals and a now-forgotten poem titled the red cross knight a christmas carol was all but ignored in the uk for over a decade the american reception meanwhile a very different scenario was playing out in the us in november 1871 scribners monthly dropped a hint about its christmas issue which would include a little poem … sweet and clear and musical a christmas carol debuted two months later founded in 1870 scribners monthly sought to publish the best authors making their work accessible and attractive to a mass audience through illustrations the magazine paired rossettis poem with a striking half-page illustration of the nativity by the well-known british illustrator john leighton
scribners dramatic presentation of rossettis poem ensured that it would be noticed it was reprinted in anthologies and newspapers ultimately making the new york times on dec 25 1892 the first mass merchandising of rossettis poem also occurred in america in 1880 an artist named anne morse incorporated its first and last stanzas into her prize-winning design for a christmas card contest held by publisher louis prang who popularized the tradition of sending christmas cards in the us the company published morses card distributing rossettis words to homes across the country a mystery solved by the mid-1880s however a christmas carol was finally gaining traction in britain in 1885 it was included in a holiday-themed anthology titled a christmas garland the illustrated london news named rosettis poem the best modern carol in the collection even more visibility came when a christmas carol was chosen for a collection of religious poetry compiled by influential editor francis palgrave in 1889 in 2006 i discovered a letter in which rossetti claimed not to have known about scribners publication of a christmas carol: i do not know how it happened she wrote remembering only that the poem had come out in the peoples magazine at the time i was unable to locate a christmas carol in the peoples magazine and assumed rossettis memory was faulty it wasnt as the long-sought copy of the 1873 issue now perched on my desk proves but rossettis forgetting about scribners monthly unaware of the role it played in bringing her work to american readers and ultimately british ones too is perhaps the strangest twist in the story of the little poem that unbeknownst to her would become her most popular work * this link is no longer active and has been removed this story was originally published by the conversation
standing at a podium roaming the stairs of a large lecture hall during class or teaming with student volunteers to build and showcase exciting physics demonstrations these are a few of texas a&m university physicist tatiana erukhimova's favorite things during the past year erukhimova herself has become a favorite thing endearing a global audience to her charismatic brand of science education through viral physics demonstration videos that have drawn a massive following to the department of physics and astronomy's social media accounts each new video averages more than a million views along with untold numbers of likes shares and comments from people who are drawn to her energetic teaching style and infectious enthusiasm for all things science this week erukhimova takes her trademark flair for stem education and science outreach to hollywood appearing today (tuesday jan 3) on the syndicated daytime talk-variety program the jennifer hudson show the segment is set to air on abc affiliates across texas and the nation including dallas-fort worth houston and san antonio
when i received the invitation i was hesitant at first because it seemed so far outside of my regular responsibilities and comfort zone erukhimova said however i changed my mind during the first minutes of my initial meeting with the producer in addition to being willing to accommodate my schedule his excitement about science and appreciation for the importance of science outreach to the public was so clear and genuine i realized that my appearance in fact would fit perfectly into our core mission here at texas a&m: to educate and serve to make people excited about science and to help them appreciate science erukhimova who moved from russia to college station in 1999 for a research position at texas a&m credits her departments marketing staff for her newfound viral fame but for decades now she and her mesmerizing method of communicating science concepts have been wowing audiences at the annual texas a&m physics and engineering festival that attracts thousands of visitors from across the country each spring along with several additional outreach programs she's either founded or organized including the popular physics show she's hosted from more than 30 000 people since 2007 and the deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program that engages texas a&m graduate and undergraduate physics and engineering students in hands-on teamwork and outreach activities
simply put the world and all its science-based wonders is erukhimovas classroom for students of all ages and she's proven to be a master of it she readily admits that dominance didn't come naturally and that irony of ironies her first foray into teaching large introductory physics classes back in 2006 was an unmitigated disaster nowadays however she's revered by students and colleagues alike for her teaching style that true to her own mantra leaves no student behind as testament to erukhimova's success in that critical regard she's earned nearly every major teaching award at texas a&m including the perpetual title of presidential professor of teaching excellence in 2017 appointment in 2021 to a university professorship in undergraduate teaching excellence and texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement awards for both teaching (2012) and extension and outreach (2019) in addition she was a plenary presenter for texas a&ms inaugural transformational teaching & learning conference in 2018 as well as a 2016 tedxtamu speaker and a 2019 fish camp namesake beyond her teaching accomplishments erukhimova also excels in research leading pivotal studies on the benefits of science outreach participation and gender performance stereotypes in introductory physics classes
in june erukhimova was appointed as the inaugural holder of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair for physics outreach established in november 2021 by the schillings due in large part to their admiration for erukhimova and her devotion to physics education and outreach with their second chair created within texas a&m physics and astronomy the couple wanted to support erukhimovas efforts to encourage interest in the same type of stem careers that ralph schilling himself forged 34 years creating and constructing space systems from technical contributions to two of nasas great observatories to its most recent crown jewel the james webb space telescope while erukhimova acknowledges that being an ambassador for science and texas a&m created some degree of pressure she describes it as a privilege to work with such a professional jhud team and wonderful host in hudson ultimately she sums up her recent hollywood experience as somewhat overwhelming but highly rewarding i made some nontrivial requests such as finding me liquid nitrogen and creating a big mess on a beautifully arranged show stage she added the team helped in every step and made it all happen in addition to a signature texas a&m experiment featuring a big cloud the one that created the aforementioned big mess erukhimova says she and hudson paired up to showcase potato physics experiments carbon dioxide bubbles and the bike wheel gyroscope the audience was warm and responsive although physics is certainly not something that you encounter in such shows often erukhimova said they really enjoyed the experiments and were very enthusiastic it was effortless to connect with them it showed me what i already knew from our previous outreach projects: people will respond wonderfully and enthusiastically to science if you have the right tools and find the right way to explain even complicated concepts looking back it was a one-of-a-kind unforgettable experience see a related recap meet texas a&m physics professor dr tatiana erukhimova from the jhud show
an international team of scientists led by texas a&m university oceanographer yige zhang has developed a new approach to using organic carbon preserved within ocean sediment to predict the earths future with regard to climate change organic carbon the organic remains of once-living organisms found buried within global marine sediments effectively sequesters carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and therefore plays a key role in altering earths co2 levels for decades zhang says experts have used a system of isotopic calculations to estimate organic carbon burial because photosynthesis prefers the lighter isotope of carbon isotope measurements can be used to differentiate between organic or inorganic carbon burial in the global ocean but this method is known to be very uncertain zhang and his colleagues at the university of bremen rice university and the university of leeds decided to challenge themselves to find a more accurate method capitalizing on the plethora of deep-ocean drilling data collected by the national science foundation-funded international ocean discovery program (iodp) during its decades-worth of seagoing expeditions by the joides resolution aimed at studying the history of the earth as recorded in sediments and rocks beneath the ocean floor the team used data amassed over 50-plus years from more than 1 500 scientific drilling missions by iodp and its predecessors to make first-of-their-kind calculations of global organic carbon burial rates directly from the material in the ocean floor their results are published today (jan 4) in the current issue of nature we had this idea of compiling a huge global database and calculating the organic carbon burial rate in each location to come up with the global carbon burial rate zhang said we wanted to see if thisbottom-up method agreed with the traditional method of isotopic calculations which is moretop down what they discovered zhang says was shocking our new results are very different theyre the opposite of what the isotope calculations are suggesting he said
the papers first author ziye li of the bremen-based center for marine environmental sciences was a visiting student in the texas a&m department of oceanography at the time she conducted her research under zhangs supervision mark torres an assistant professor in the department of earth environmental and planetary sciences at rice and benjamin mills an associate professor in the school of earth and environment at leeds also collaborated in the research and served as co-authors of the study this is possible thanks to the standardized measurements of toc [total organic carbon] and dry bulk density onboard of the jr alongside well-constrained age models of a large number of iodp sites li said we have a lot of scientists and crew members to thank for these results as an expert on the established isotope methods mills echoes zhangs astonishment in the wake of the teams findings i was really surprised how wrong our current ideas might be he shared zhang cites a particularly noteworthy case during a period called the mid-miocene about 15 million years ago popular belief is that a large amount of organic carbon was buried around this interval exemplified by the organic-rich monterey formation found in california the teams new result however suggests instead that the smallest amount of organic carbon was buried during this interval over the last 23 million years or so quantified organic carbon burial rates of themonterey period from ei capitán state beach in california are in fact on par with our open-ocean data li said if our new records turn out to be right then theyre going to change a lot of our understanding about the organic carbon cycle zhang added
zhang says that higher organic carbon burial rates can be directly correlated to the sequestration of large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere burying it as organic carbon and thereby forming organic-rich rocks including petroleum or gas is a potential solution to the broader environmental problem of anthropogenic co2 emission however the team found that warming of the earth does not bode well for burying organic carbon zhang says warmer ocean temperatures allow bacterias metabolic rates to increase resulting in the degradation of organic matter returning it to carbon dioxide the process zhang adds is like respiration the opposite of the lucrative process of photosynthesis as we warm up the ocean it will make it harder for organic carbon to find its way to be buried in the marine sediment system and that is what we have found in our study that the lowest rates of carbon sequestration happen when the planet was warm zhang said so thats not helping from this perspective in terms of the issues that were facing in the present day the teams research suggests this respiration-like process is stopping the sequestration of organic carbon from reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere when bacteria process the organic carbon it is returned to its original form as co2 making the entire process inherently useless with regard to the rising emissions crisis zhang describes the teams paper as the beginning of a potentially impactful new way to analyze data that may aid in our understanding of climate change and how to curb its effects its peoples curiosity but i also want to make it more informative about whats going to happen in the future zhang said were doing several things quite creatively to really use paleo data to inform us about the present and future the teams research was funded by the american chemical societys petroleum research fund (grant no 59797-dni2) their paper neogene burial of organic carbon in the global ocean can be viewed online along with related figures and captions zhang joined the texas a&m faculty in 2016 after receiving both his masters (2011) and phd (2014) in geology and geophysics from yale university and completing postdoctoral study as a ziff environmental fellow at harvard university (2014-2016) his lab uses geochemistry and paleoceanography tools to better understand how the earth evolved chemically and to study past changes in climate with the goal of learning lessons for our future texas a&m has served as science operator of the joides resolution on behalf of the nsf for the past 36 years as part of the largest federal research grant currently managed by the university see a related feature from jade boyd '88 with rice university's office of public affairs
in addition to serving as science operator of the joides resolution texas a&m university also houses one of iodps three main ocean sediment core repositories the facility which is located on texas a&ms west campus includes vast cold storage accommodations for thousands of core samples taken from beneath ocean floors around the world with scientists from throughout the nation and abroad coming to college station to study the extractions
a national institutes of health-funded effort involving researchers from texas a&m university the perelman school of medicine at the university of pennsylvania and childrens hospital of philadelphia (chop) has used human genomics to identify a new genetic pathway involved in regulating sleep from fruit flies to humans novel insight that could pave the way for new treatments for insomnia and other sleep-related disorders texas a&m geneticist and evolutionary biologist alex keene collaborated with penn's allan pack and philip gehrman and chops struan grant on the groundbreaking research which is published today (jan 6) in science advances there have been enormous amounts of effort to use human genomic studies to find sleep genes keene said some studies have hundreds of thousands of individuals but validation and testing in animal models is critical to understanding function we have achieved this here largely because we each bring a different area of expertise that allowed for this collaboration's ultimate effectiveness
keene says the most exciting thing about the teams work is that they developed a pipeline starting not with a model organism but with actual human genomics data there is an abundance of human genome-wide association studies (gwas) that identify genetic variants associated with sleep in humans keene said however validating them has been an enormous challenge our team used a genomics approach called variant-to-gene mapping to predict the genes impacted by each genetic variant then we screened the effect of these genes in fruit flies our studies found that mutations in the gene pig-q which is required for the biosynthesis of a modifier of protein function increased sleep we then tested this in a vertebrate model zebrafish and found a similar effect therefore in humans flies and zebrafish pig-q is associated with sleep regulation keene says the team's next step is to study the role of a common protein modification gpi-anchor biosynthesis on sleep regulation in addition he notes that the human-to-fruit flies-to-zebrafish pipeline the team developed will allow them to functionally assess not only sleep genes but also other traits commonly studied using human gwas including neurodegeneration aging and memory understanding how genes regulate sleep and the role of this pathway in sleep regulation can help unlock future findings on sleep and sleep disorders such as insomnia said gehrman an associate professor of clinical psychology in psychiatry at penn and a clinical psychologist with the penn chronobiology and sleep institute moving forward we will continue to use and study this system to identify more genes regulating sleep which could point in the direction of new treatments for sleep disorders the resulting paper detailing the team's nih-funded research (grant no 5r01hl143790-03 among others) can be viewed online along with related figures and captions
keene who was honored as a kavli fellow by the national academy of sciences in 2019 joined the texas a&m faculty as head of the department of biology in august 2019 his research within his center for biological clocks research-affiliated laboratory lies at the intersection of evolution and neuroscience with primary focus on understanding the neural mechanisms and evolutionary underpinnings of sleep memory formation and other behavioral functions in fly and fish models specifically he studies fruit flies (drosophila melanogaster) and mexican cavefish that have lost both their eyesight and ability to sleep with the goal of identifying the genetic basis of behavioral choices which factor into human disease including obesity diabetes and heart disease keene earned his phd in biomedical sciences from the university of massachusetts medical school in 2006 and completed consecutive postdoctoral research stints at the institute of molecular pathology in vienna (2006-2007) and new york university (2008-2011) prior to beginning his independent academic career in 2011 as an assistant professor of biology at the university of nevada reno four years later he moved to florida atlantic university as an associate professor of biological sciences in the charles e schmidt college of science earning promotion to full professor in 2020 and recognition with florida atlantics researcher of the year award in 2019 he served as a member of the institutional research council and also helped develop the jupiter life science initiative into a leading research group within the university see a related feature from the battalion