By News and Communications Staff

April 01, 2024

 

Brad Dowden (Philosophy, emeritus) published the encyclopedia article “The Arrow of Time” in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, an online encyclopedia of 880 peer-reviewed and double-blind refereed articles by university faculty. Many philosophers and physicists have claimed that time has an arrow that points in a special direction. The Roman poet Ovid may have referred to this one-way property of time when he said, “Time itself glides on with constant motion, ever as a flowing river.” However, understanding this arrow is not as straightforward as some believe. For instance, many researchers say a better illustration of time’s arrow should not mention “time itself,” as Ovid did, because time itself has no arrow, just as space itself has no arrow. Experts divide into two broad camps on the question of the arrow’s foundation. Members of the intrinsic camp say time’s arrow is an intrinsic feature of time itself, its uninterrupted passage or flow from the past to the future. Members of the extrinsic camp say, instead, that the arrow is all the processes that go regularly in only one time direction such as balloons exploding but not unexploding, and people getting biologically older, not younger.

Mary Mackey (English, Emerita) was recently interviewed by experimental filmmaker Gerry Fialka about how she became a writer, how she comes up with ideas, her creative process and much more in this first of a two-part series. Watch via YouTube.

Kimberly Mulligan (Biological Sciences), Mikkel Herholdt Jensen (Physics and Astronomy), Eliza J. Morris (Physics and Astronomy) and Robert Crawford (Biological Sciences) published an article “Kismet/CHD7/CHD8 affects gut microbiota, mechanics, and gut-brain axis in Drosophila melanogaster,” in the peer-reviewed research journal "Biophysical Journal." The interdisciplinary study, which also involved faculty from San Jose State University’s computer science department, focused on investigating the so-called “gut-brain axis,” a reciprocal communication loop in which the bacteria naturally living in our gut affects our brain and neuronal development. The researchers used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster carrying a mutation in the gene kismet, which is similar to a gene in humans which is linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. They found that flies carrying a mutation in the kismet gene exhibited reduced diversity of the bacteria naturally inhabiting their gut. Mutant flies also performed worse at innate behaviors sensitive to changes in neuronal functioning. Intestinal tissue dissected from mutant flies also exhibited distinctly altered mechanical properties. These findings suggest that the kismet gene contributes to the gut-brain axis and demonstrate that the mechanics of the intestinal is a potentially novel and hitherto unappreciated element of the gut-brain communication loop.

The study, which was originally undertaken in 2019, has involved several Sac State students through the years, and the article features over a dozen Sac State student authors from both Biological Sciences and Physics and Astronomy. The article will be available online, and can be viewed here. 

George I. Paganelis (University Library), who is the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection curator, has published a book chapter “Modern Greek Studies” in the new Handbook for European Studies Librarians. This new open-access book published by the University of Minnesota Libraries consists of 30 chapters about aspects of European studies librarianship, including collection development tools, core materials, domestic and international vendors, strategies and materials for diversifying collections, as well as current issues and trends in the European Studies librarianship field.

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