Sashi Nallapati

Chemistry // Class of 2026

From urine to phosphorus: A depiction of the first modern elemental discovery

Chemistry, Culture / /

Alchemy, considered the embryonic stage of modern chemistry, has led to the discoveries of many basic elements like carbon and iron. But the discovery of the so-called philosopher’s stone was a central motivation for the alchemical field. The distillation of a common yet surprising bodily fluid, urine, led to its discovery in the 1600s.  Alchemists […]

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2021 Physics Nobel Laureate Klaus Hasselmann’s invaluable contribution to climate science

Culture, Physics / /

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics was a notable one, recognizing discoveries that constituted the beginnings of climate science for the 20th century. With scientists measuring record-high temperatures last summer,  the research provides a basis for understanding climate change, namely anthropogenic climate change, which demands our attention. The prize was split in two, with half

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Opinion: How fossil fuel corporations distorted the climate change conversation

Culture, Environment, Opinion / /

James E. Hansen’s congressional testimony in 1988 officially introduced American policymakers to the need for a climate intervention. In the same year, George H.W. Bush declared greenhouse gasses as the enemy, in response to Hansen, when he promised to fight the greenhouse gas effect with “the White House effect” on the campaign trail. However, a

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Opinion: A surface-level look into quantum states from a chemistry major fascinated by electrons

Chemistry, Opinion, Physics / /

The electron exists in a state of superposition: They inhabit multiple states simultaneously. For example, an electron can be in one quantum state as well as a different one. This doesn’t mean that it is in both states at once but that it is in a superposition of both states. It is both and none

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