Back from the real world
The early morning traffic jam on June 1 allowed Jeffrey Shiu to survey the bustle that is Shanghai. From the vantage point of his taxi seat, Shiu, a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences, observed old shops caught in the shadow of burgeoning skyscrapers, double-decker buses crowded with people standing neck to neck, groups of elderly women strolling the sidewalks with plastic umbrellas, and hundreds of others cranking along on bicycles. His home in Scarsdale, New York, he says, felt a million miles away.
   Shiu was not merely sightseeing, however; he was en route to his first day of work. Understandably anxious, the rush-hour congestion did little to calm his nerves. Full story...

Ira Remsen: The chemistry was right
This is the third of an occasional series of historical pieces that will appear in the year leading up to the 125th anniversary of the founding of Johns Hopkins. Two previous biographical sketches--on Henry Augustus Rowland and James Joseph Sylvester--can be found at www.jhu.edu/~125th.
   Ira Remsen was born Feb. 10, 1846, in New York City, of Dutch and Huguenot ancestry. Following education in the public schools, he attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1867. Although briefly a practicing physician, he had studied medicine only to please his parents. After satisfying this family obligation, Remsen left for Munich to pursue his real interest: chemistry. He spent a year in Munich and then transferred to Gottingen, where he studied under the prominent chemist Rudolph Fittig and earned his doctorate in 1870. He then followed Fittig to Tubingen, where he was an assistant for two years. Full story...

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