dull crayons while microscopes
with good resolution draw with
fine-tipped pencils.
As
microscopes
were
improved, they hit a limit: The
resolution could never get better
than half a wavelength of light.
Since microscopes use light to
see, they can’t tell the differ-
ence between two objects closer
together to each other than a ray
of light. Because of this, micro-
scopes could easily see cells and
some of the larger objects inside.
But important interactions such
as viruses’ infecting a cell or the
aggregating of proteins that cause
Alzheimer’s were seen only very
blurrily, if at all. Betzig, however,
found a way around this physical
constraint through PALM.
PALM is a type of fluores-
cent microscopy. In fluorescent
microscopy,
the
microscope
doesn’t actually see the compo-
nents of a cell, but instead glow-
in-the-dark,
or
“fluorescent,”
molecules that attach themselves
to the features of interest. The
problem when attempting to look
at a super-high-resolution image
is that each fluorescent molecule
looks like a fuzzy blob — Betzig
calls these “fuzzballs” — and
these blobs start to overlap each
other.
Betzig found a way through
this problem by using fluorescent
molecules that don’t automati-
cally glow, but instead only glow
when exposed to a certain color
of light — hence the “photo-acti-
vated” component of PALM. He
found a way to ensure that only a
handful of these molecules would
glow in a given image.
After taking many images,
with only a few different mol-
ecules glowing in each one, he
would clean the images so only
the innermost cores of the fuzz-
balls were visible. Then, all of
the images would be overlaid
and the fuzzballs, now just bright
points of light, would no longer be
overlapping, thus surpassing the
theoretical limit for resolution.
Suddenly, a whole world of intra-
cellular interactions was visible.
Despite the novelty and power
of this approach, Betzig described
becoming quickly tired of PALM.
“And so, again, I worked on
PALM until 2008 and by that
time I was sick of it for two rea-
sons. One is that super-resolution
became a big bandwagon with
lots of people getting into it. And
usually when that happens I want
to run as far as possible in another
direction. The other thing is that,
like my earlier super-resolution
methods, it has a lot of really
intrinsic limitations,” Betzig said.
The
limitations
mainly
revolved around the fact that
PALM is optimized for cells on
a slide and isn’t adept at taking
three-dimensional videos.
“Basically, I got sick of looking
at dead things,” Betzig said.
In 2008, he was inspired by
his colleague Mats Gustafsson,
who developed structured illu-
mination microscopy, or SIM.
This technique also beat the theo-
retical resolution limitation, but
only by an order of two instead
of the almost unlimited resolu-
tion achieved by PALM. For this
reason, Gustafsson was not also
considered for the Nobel Prize, a
fact that Betzig takes issue with.
“Now, that was the reason
the Nobel Committee stated —
because it was only a factor of two
instead of theoretically unlimited
by … PALM — as to why SIM was
not part of the Nobel Prize. But,
in my opinion, that’s a tremen-
dous mistake. Honestly, I feel
that SIM is the technique that
has answered and will continue
to answer many biological ques-
tions,” Betzig said.
Despite the quickly evolving
nature of his field, he says that
the important reminder is to use
these technologies for practical
purposes.
“Winning a Nobel Prize is fine.
Publishing a bunch of cute papers
is fine. But it all means diddly-
squat if these tools don’t answer
biological questions. And I’m
really concerned about that. And
it’s very important to me to make
sure that these tools get into the
hands of biologists.”
Betzig said many challenges
remain. Preparing samples prop-
erly is more difficult than ever,
and the huge amount of data com-
ing out of the microscopes can be
overwhelming.
“The problem with this micro-
scope is each biologist comes for
a week and leaves with 10 tera-
bytes of data. And they have no
fucking clue how to deal with it.
You’ll never hear from them again
because they’re too embarrassed
to ask what to do,” he said.
Betzig hopes, however, that as
technologies and information sci-
ences advance, soon his main goal
will be achieved.
“Putting these pieces together
will get us closer than ever before
to studying cell physiology as it
actually happens.”
3-News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, October 2, 2015 — 3
internal survey released to rough-
ly 3,000 randomly selected stu-
dents on campus, and one survey
released through the American
Association of University to all
students on 28 college campuses.
The results of each survey
revealed both fairly high rates of
sexual assault and high rates of
disillusionment with the efficacy
of the adjudication process. The
University’s internal survey also
revealed that certain groups are
at higher risk for sexual assault;
for example, students in Greek
life are 2.5 times more likely to
experience sexual assault than
students not in Greek life.
With these numbers in hand,
the University is developing a
number of programs to target
at-risk groups and expand their
prevention programming for the
entire student body.
The context: In his first year,
Schlissel and the University’s
Sexual Assault Prevention and
Awareness Center worked to
raise awareness of sexual assault
through the “I Will” campaign
and through both surveys, seek-
ing data on campus climate sur-
rounding sexual misconduct.
In October 2014, students
took it upon themselves to bring
the issue to his attention. Stu-
dents held a protest on campus,
before issuing seven demands
for the administration related to
addressing sexual misconduct.
“This protest seeks to actively
disrupt the University of Michi-
gan’s complacency in handling
issues of sexual assault on this
campus,” an anonymous group
of survivors and allies stated in a
viewpoint for the Daily. “To the
administration: Students are tak-
ing action because it is time our
voices are heard.”
However, Schlissel said he was
frustrated by the way the stu-
dents framed the conversation.
“The one thing I will object
to, which drives me a little nutty,
is framing things as demands,”
Schlissel told the Daily. “I think
that makes it really difficult to
have discussions.”
At the time, Schlissel said he
was concerned that many of the
demands made by the student
protesters were actually cov-
ered by policies and procedures
already in place, illustrating a
lack of awareness among the stu-
dent body at large.
***
The University administration
plays a large role in promoting
sexual assault prevention — pro-
viding resources during New Stu-
dent Orientation and in residence
halls such as Relationship Remix,
Change it Up! and an orientation
skit performed by the Education-
al Theatre Company. However,
there’s some disagreement about
the extent to which these pro-
grams are successfully contrib-
uting shifting the culture around
sexual assault on campus.
Change it Up!, a bystander
intervention program mandatory
for freshmen during their first
months at school, has recently
expanded to cater to students
of all years at the University.
The program, which underwent
its pilot year during Schlissel’s
first year, prominently features
sketches from the ETC to illus-
trate
methods
for
bystander
intervention.
ETC Director Callie McKee
says the theater company part-
ners with Change it Up! to teach
students
the
importance
of
bystander
intervention
when
dealing with difficult situations,
as well as dispel misinformation
on sexual assault.
“With this sketch, we seek
to send a message that sexual
assault is a community issue —
that it is everyone’s responsibility
to make sure everyone can feel
safe and respected,” McKee said.
According to research con-
ducted at the University of New
Hampshire, one of the schools
tapped by Vice President Joe
Biden to aid the White House
Task Force to Protect Students
from Sexual Assault, freshmen
learn University policies and prac-
tices best when given activities to
review and think critically about
the material they learn.
“It may not be enough to read
students the campus policies in a
class OR ask them to watch a video
on their own time,” the report con-
cluded. “Rather, there may need to
be an activity following the reading
so that students can have help pro-
cessing the information in a way
that will give them more in-depth
understanding of the policy.”
However, McKee says the play,
which is developed in part through
the input of students, is meant to
teach students about a variety of
topics, such as mental health, alco-
hol and community living.
Pre- and post-survey data from
the first iteration of Change it Up!
show that the program has had an
overall positive effect on its stu-
dents.
While 15.76 percent of students
said they “strongly agreed” it was
their business to intervene in
harmful situations before the pro-
gram, 24.18 percent said they felt
that way afterward. Overall, the
total percentage of students who
answered with “agree” or “strong-
ly agree” when asked if it was their
business to intervene was 93.89
percent by the workshop’s end.
Similarly, while 14.72 percent
of students said they “strongly
agreed” that they have confidence
in their ability to intervene in
harmful situations before complet-
ing the program, 24.49 percent said
they felt that way afterward. Over-
all, the total percentage of students
who felt confident enough in their
intervention abilities to answer
with “agree” or above was 93.41
percent by the workshop’s end.
Business
sophomore
Maria
Malinowski, who saw the ETC
show last fall, pointed to Relation-
ship Remix as a better educational
means of preventing sexual assault
though she said she already knew
much of the information provided.
“In the Relationship Remix pre-
sentation, we spent a significant
amount of time learning about how
to properly put on a condom,” she
said. “While I think it’s important
information, I feel that many stu-
dents have already had this lesson
in high school health classes and
don’t need to spend 15 minutes
reviewing how to do so.”
LSA sophomore Rohin Patel
said he also learned more from
residence hall workshops like Rela-
tionship Remix and Change it Up!
due to the ability to discuss the top-
ics in detail with small groups.
“I learned a good amount about
sexual assault freshman year, but
I feel that it wasn’t enough,” Patel
said. “During orientation there
are a lot of things students need to
worry about, so oftentimes people
can overlook this very important
topic.”
***
Another educational method
the University uses to educate stu-
dents is AlcoholEdu, an online quiz
on alcohol abuse. Before arriving to
campus, students are asked to take
an online alcohol training program
that indirectly addresses sexual
assault prevention. According to
Rider-Milkovich, this program has
a 99-percent participation rate.
However, some students still
were not aware of the campus
resources for survivors of sexu-
al assault. Malinowski said she
recalled the alcohol awareness
quiz touching on sexual assault,
though she did not learn about
SAPAC or the University’s sexual
assault policy.
“If those modules we had to
complete mentioned SAPAC or
other resources, I don’t remember
them having a strong emphasis on
them,” she said.
LSA sophomore Megan Mack-
enzie also said she was not aware of
any University resources for sexual
assault prevention before coming
to campus, only Blue Light Emer-
gency Phones around campus.
During her freshman year, she said,
she learned the most from the ETC
play in regard to sexual assault pre-
vention, but found Change it Up!
“unnecessary.”
“At the time, I was 18 years old
and I felt that if we had to be rein-
forced this common knowledge at
the University level, then some-
thing was very wrong,” Mackenzie
said.
As far as learning about the
SAPAC policy on sexual assault,
Patel and Malinowski both said
they learned about it through
non-administrative ways — Patel
through running for CSG repre-
sentative position and Malinowski
through a women’s studies class.
Malinowski said SAPAC repre-
sentatives came to talk to her class
about resources and the impor-
tance of consent, and said she
wishes she received a similar pre-
sentation during orientation.
“Although we talked about
SAPAC in our dorm presentation,
people do skip those and would
miss this information,” she said. “I
feel like if the University stressed
this issue more during orientation,
where people generally don’t skip
events they’re supposed to attend
or are significantly less likely
to skip, more students would be
aware of these resources.”
***
To gather data on the subject,
Schlissel issued a survey last win-
ter to gauge campus climate in
the beginning his second semes-
ter as University president.
“Learning about the experi-
ences of students and the degree
to which students feel safe and
respected will help us better
understand how we can more
effectively address and prevent
sexual
misconduct,”
Schlissel
wrote in a January 2015 e-mail
sent to the student body to intro-
duce the survey.
Schlissel said a campus-specif-
ic survey would give the Univer-
sity better data to use in creating
programs and interventions to
reduce sexual violence on cam-
pus.
“Learning about the experi-
ences of students and the degree
to which students feel safe and
respected will help us better
understand how we can more
effectively address and prevent
sexual
misconduct,”
Schlissel
wrote in the e-mail.
Schlissel said in a September
interview with the Daily that the
survey results, released in June,
were disheartening. The results
showed 11 percent of students
reported experiencing some form
of unwanted sexual behavior in
the past year, and 12 percent of
undergraduate females reported
experiencing nonconsensual sex-
ual penetration — yet 89 percent
of all students reported feeling
relatively safe from sexual mis-
conduct on campus.
“Anything that involves 20 or 30
percent of a population, that’s not
a rare event — this is everyday life,
this is culture,” Schlissel told the
Daily.
Furthermore, the survey found
though nearly 86 percent of all stu-
dents know the University has a
Student Sexual Misconduct Policy,
only 55 percent of students report-
ed receiving training or attending
programs on sexual assault preven-
tion and reporting.
A separate survey in which the
University participated, adminis-
tered by the Association of Ameri-
can Universities in March, showed
of University students who said
they experienced nonconsensual
penetration
involving
physical
force, 76.8 percent did not report
the crime. Many who did not
report said they did so because they
did not consider it serious enough
or because they thought nothing
would be done about it.
Schlissel and other administra-
tors have stressed their continued
dedication to preventing sexual
misconduct on campus, but they
have acknowledged that some stu-
dents may be unaware or feel skep-
tical of these efforts.
“We take every report of poten-
tial assault or misconduct of any
kind very seriously,” Schlissel said.
“So the obvious problem is that we
are not getting that message across
in a way that the students either
hear or believe.”
Moving forward: So far, Schlis-
sel has emphasized data collection
as a means for approaching sexual
assault at the University. And with
the survey results in, it appears
that the University has room to
improve.
In an interview with the Daily
following the AAU survey results’
release,
Rider-Milkovich
said
teachings from programs like Rela-
tionship Remix seem to “wear off
over time.” Subsequently, the Uni-
versity is working to make assault
prevention a more continuous and
visible topic of discussion on cam-
pus.
For example, SAPAC has been
working with Recreational Sports
to create a poster campaign to
appear in facilities across campus.
“We want to be reinforcing that
healthy relationships are a part
of an overall wellness,” Rider-
Milkovich said. “So those kinds
of messaging, specific to the ways
that students engage in sports on
our campus ... is an example of
those targeted kinds of education
efforts that need to complement
the big-scale work that we’re doing.
And all of that has to happen on
many different levels.”
In an e-mail to the student body
Thursday, E. Royster Harper, vice
president for student life, invit-
ed students to provide feedback
regarding the University’s sexual
misconduct policy through a vari-
ety of student-led focus groups.
Overall, administrators have
made it clear that sexual assault is
not an issue unique to the Universi-
ty — and struggling to find success-
ful ways to mitigate the problem is
not an challenge unique to the Uni-
versity either.
SCHLISSEL
From Page 1
subject is being discussed in class.
LSA senior Chris James, BSU
executive board member, said
there should be no definition or
stereotype of what it means to be
Black at the University.
“There is no fit definition of
what Black is,” he said. “When
you go into the real world, the
first thing people are going to see
is that you’re Black. They’re not
going to see what comes along
with that. Being Black can encom-
pass so many other cultures and
heritages and identities.”
LSA
junior
Travis
Jones
III recounted the shootings of
unarmed Black men by police
officers in Staten Island, N.Y., and
Ferguson, Mo. last year. After
those incidents, he said, Black
men were often painted as thugs.
“That is a major stereotype in
which people who are not in (the)
culture have now used to describe
us,” he said. “It’s really important
that we understand these stereo-
types because they’re using them
against us and we don’t do any-
thing about it. We all need to take
action.”
A portion of the discussion was
also dedicated to thinking about
how diverse sexualities fit within
the Black community.
BSU Speaker Capri’Nara Ken-
dall, a Kinesiology senior, said
she believes the Black community
is generally not accepting of the
LGBTQ community.
“I feel sometimes people that
identify as LGBTQ are often
outcasted in the Black com-
munity,” she said. “I feel like
heterosexual Black men tend
to shy away from gay Black
men because they don’t want
to be associated with it. We as
a community need to be more
embracive of it so people that
are afraid to come out feel com-
fortable and know that even
though they are different, they
will be accepted, because we
all have differences that set us
apart.”
LSA senior Lawrielle West said
it’s important to remember that
attacks against the Black LGBTQ
community can also come in the
form of microaggressions.
“Discrimination
and
mak-
ing people uncomfortable isn’t
always blatant,” she said. “We just
have to be careful in our language
and be aware that not everyone in
our community will have hetero-
normative identities.”
Trey Boynton, director of the
Office of Multi-Ethnic Student
Affairs, said learning to listen to
the LGBTQ community is vital in
building connections with them.
“What it would be like if we
said, ‘Trans community, come
on. Let’s do this together, let’s
talk about gayness and gay mar-
riage’?” she asked. “This inter-
sectionality conversation is so
important because it’s all con-
nected, the hate, the laws, the
systems. If we approach this issue
from that way, we can all con-
nect.”
LSA senior Cooper Charlton,
Central
Student
Government
president, was also present at
the discussion Thursday. In an
interview with the Daily after the
forum, Charlton said the event
was helpful in forming individual
connections.
“I think that last year, the Cen-
tral Student Government didn’t
do the best job of reaching out,”
Charlton said. “It’s all about con-
nections. I think the connec-
tions and getting to know people
through personal relationships
really comes down to personal
interaction. I don’t think it’s fair
for me to sit in chambers and
make these constrictions of what
the campus needs. I want to do
that with others.”
In an interview after the
forum, McKinney said she hopes
students will now take more own-
ership over their own identities.
“I hope that students take
away that can be who they are,”
she said. “We fill in what we
want to be and we can defy ste-
reotypes, we decide our presents
and our futures.”
BSU
From Page 1
NOBEL
From Page 1