Profile of Janet M. Thornton

Profile of Janet Hemingway.

As the wheels of a biplane approach a desolate airfield in the Solomon Islands, a man wearing only a loincloth breaks through the brush, brandishing a spear and a flail. From behind the plane’s windows four biologists watch with wary eyes and silently map an escape route. “You’re thinking, ‘What am I supposed to do here?’” recalls Janet Hemingway, Director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Me...

222-230 Thornton M/J 04

ducators who understand that schools are complex interdependent social systems can move their organizations forward. Unfortunately, many education leaders today fail to grasp the interconnectedness of these components, resulting in little or no progress. As such, many planned changes address only symptoms, not the underlying root causes, of the problems. Subsequently, meaningful improvements do...

Elliott Thornton Glenny

The Gray-Thornton Model of Granular Segregation

In this paper, we explore properties of the Gray-Thornton model for particle size segregation in granular avalanches. The model equation is a single conservation law expressing conservation of mass under shear for the concentration of the smaller of two types of particle in a bidisperse mixture. Sharp interfaces across which the concentration jumps are shock wave solutions of the partial differ...

Profile of Helen M. Blau.

The human ability to regenerate tissues is crucial to survival: wounds heal, broken bones knit, and livers regrow. However, the quality and length of life are constrained by limitations in this ability. Cardiac muscles do not regrow after infarction, and other damaged muscles rebuild with difficulty, especially with age. Stanford University stem cell biologist Helen M. Blau has devoted her care...