Vol 5, No 2

For the full PDF version of the Spring 2008 Edition, click here.

"The Relationship between Breast Cancer Resistance Protein
and the Anticancer Drug Clofarabine"
by Kali Domoney

Chemotherapy is one of the most common and effective forms of cancer treatment today. The purine nucleoside analog clofarabine is a newer chemotherapy agent used prior to hematopoietic transplant. Our research finds that the presence of Breast Cancer Resistance Protein reduces the accumulation of clofarabine, thus reducing its cytotoxic effect on cells.

"The Leadership Challenge in Russian Higher Education"
by Gary Guadagnolo

In analyzing how higher education has historically responded to and facilitated social change in Russia, the relevance of key leaders emerges throughout the three eras of modern Russian history: tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet. Each of these periods represents certain challenges for the creation of civil society, but the autonomy and diversity of the post-Soviet era presents the greatest hope for higher education in Russia today.

"Benito Feijoo and Gaspar Jovellanos:
Critics of Intellectual Stagnation in Eighteenth-Century Spain"
by Martin Hechanova

Benito Feijoo and Gaspar Jovellanos, two influential thinkers in eighteenth century Spain, witnessed and commented on their society’s stagnated intellectual activity. While the rest of Europe flourished intellectually during the Enlightenment, Spain remained a step behind. This paper examines the concerns raised in key works by Feijoo and Jovellanos, revealing the various factors contributing to Spain’s lack of scientific progress in the eighteenth century.

"Advancing Progressively Backwards:
From Progress to Purgatory in T. S. Eliot’s East Coker IV"
by Courtney Micksch

In Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot implicitly critiques a basic assumption of modernity: that human happiness consists in the alleviation of suffering through scientific progress. In contrast, Eliot invites the modern human to embrace life as purgatorial and endure suffering in order to be refined. This close reading of East Coker IV connects Eliot’s poetry with his prose criticism to excavate Eliot’s critique of modernist notions of progress.

"Engineering Babel:
Law, Mathematics, and God in Newton’s Physics"
by Matthew Newell

Sir Isaac Newton’s mathematical mechanics transformed the scientific universe of the seventeenth century; however, Newton’s theories also contained metaphysical and theological innovations which were equally revolutionary. The widespread acceptance of Newtonian physics ensured that these metaphysical and theological presuppositions would continue to influence the development of modern science thereafter.

Congratulations to each of these outstanding writers!