EUREKA!

EUREKA!

NEW FINDINGSAND RESEARCH

Goodbye to Scrapers

A quicker way to de-ice your windshield.

Researchers at the College’s Ice Research Lab at Thayer have worked with Betterfrost, an Ontario, Canada-based company, to develop a way to use sensors, pulsed power, and a direct application of heat to quickly defrost ice on windshields.

Most cars use engine coolant heat to blast up from dashboard vents and melt windshield ice, but Betterfrost’s process melts just a thin layer of ice to break the bond between the ice and the surface it’s on. Once just a thin layer of the ice on a windshield is melted, larger chunks slough off much more easily.

labor Matters

Elective C-sections may have lasting effects on kids.

>» Although some women decide to schedule caesarean sections to skip labor, a new study led by anthropology prof Zaneta Thayer ’08 suggests that doing so can have lasting effects on their children’s stress hormones. In a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers found that babies born via C-section before labor had begun had lower levels of hair cortisol compared with babies born vaginally—or by C-section after labor started.

Cortisol, known as a stress hormone, plays an important role in regulating growth, metabolism, immune function, and behavior. During labor, babies experience contractions and surges of hormones that help prepare them for life. C-sections that bypass these cues may have lasting effects on children’s stress hormones, leading to unintended biological consequences such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the researchers found.

Nancy Schoeffler