The Johns Hopkins Gazette: October 26, 1998

Oct. 26, 1998
VOL. 28, NO. 9

NEWS
Montgomery County campus ready to grow
Hopkins sacrifices telescope, safeguards sky-mapping
DEPARTMENTS
In Brief
Employment Opportunities
Classified Advertisements
Weekly Notices
Weekly Calendar
Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

Grace Brush's field of streams
When 18th-century trappers trekked through the forests of what is now Baltimore, their minds were on money. They collected beaver pelts because the fur fetched high prices from clothing makers in Europe. At the same time, their hunting habits may have dramatically changed the landscape, altering the flow of local streams and the mix of vegetation nearby.
   Today, more than two centuries after the decimation of the beaver population, Hopkins scientist Grace Brush is digging into the mud beside Baltimore-area streams to find signs of how humans changed the ecology of a region once dominated by dense forests and meandering waterways. By studying the pollen, seeds, tiny animals and chemicals preserved in sediment, Brush hopes to learn how natural resources were affected by the people who hunted animals, farmed the land and finally turned Baltimore into a bustling metropolis. Full story...

Reaching out to the community
Before construction began on the new Cancer Research Building in East Baltimore, Sean Hackett and his fellow employees on the eighth floor of Wilmer had an unobstructed view of downtown and the Inner Harbor.
   But even with the new structure taking away some of the scenery, from almost anywhere on his floor Hackett can't help but notice the city that lives and breathes beneath him--both the parts that shine and those that have fallen on hard times. Full story...

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