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Swarthmore College today announced a gift totaling $50 million, the largest gift in its nearly 150-year history, from renowned alumnus and philanthropist Eugene Lang ’38, a generous supporter of the College for more than four decades. This gift, his largest to the College, will result in new engineering and science facilities and help to extend connections between the College’s engineering program and many of the other disciplines that comprise liberal arts education, a critical aspect of the College’s strategic plan, adopted in December 2011.

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In a new biology class at Swarthmore College this fall, students are able to conduct research using embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from mice. Taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology William Anderson, "Stem Cells and Cloning" is believed to be the first and only course of its kind in the country.

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Ayub Nuri, an Iraqi journalist with extensive experience working for Western media, joined Swarthmore College's student-run War News Radio (WNR), now carried by over 50 stations around the country. As WNR's journalist-in-residence, Nuri helps students report and produce the weekly 29-minute program that has covered the conflict in Iraq since 2005. The program expanded to include Afghanistan last year.

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The Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College is the new home for a rare collection of papers belonging to a central yet largely unknown figure in the effort to win women the right to vote.

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This month, Swarthmore College Professor of Biology Amy Cheng Vollmer will assume the presidency of the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology.

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Swarthmore College's sustainability efforts are featured in a new Web site, The Greening of Swarthmore.

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Swarthmore College President Alfred H. Bloom will award honorary degrees to Marcia A. Grant '60, educator and founding dean of the first liberal arts college in Saudi Arabia, civil rights leader and Algebra Project founder Robert Parris Moses, and J. Robert Prichard '71, president and CEO of Torstar Corporation, at the College's 135th commencement on Sunday, June 3.

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A research team at Swarthmore College discovered a previously unknown companion to the bright star, beta Crucis, in the Southern Cross. As a prominent member of the well-known constellation Crux, or the Southern Cross, it appears on five national flags: Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa. The discovery was announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting held in Seattle January 5-10.

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Swarthmore College President Alfred H. Bloom will award honorary degrees to philosopher and Africana studies scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah, renowned scientist and inventor Neil Gershenfeld '81, and distinguished jurist Mary Murphy Schroeder '62 at the College's 134th commencement on Sunday, May 28.

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Saving money on wedding does not mean you have to settle for second-best.

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News on the war in Iraq often focuses on the latest body counts, with little time for context or connection to the Iraqi people. Since last spring, Swarthmore College students have tried to change that by producing the country's only student-run news radio program on the war.

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Americans will likely judge the war in Iraq as a failure, says Dominic Tierney, a political science professor at Swarthmore College, even if Al-Qaeda's back is eventually broken and a fairly stable Iraqi government is in place.

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What made Rosa Parks the rallying point for the civil rights movement was her unusual moral integrity, says Herbert Kohl, a visiting professor at Swarthmore College and the author of a new book on Parks. "Literally and figuratively, Rosa Parks would not be moved."

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Scott Gilbert's "˜Bioethics and the New Embryology' lays out the science of stem cells and other issues.

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Data from Europe suggests that national recognition of same-sex partnerships leads to significant reductions in syphilis rates, according to a new study by a Swarthmore College economist.

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"Evolution is a "˜theory' like gravity is a "˜theory,'" says Associate Professor of Biology Colin Purrington. "The low-budget remake of the Scopes trial that is currently taking place in Kansas will make educated Kansans want to flee the state so that their children will not be subjected to quack scientific ideas such as intelligent design."

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If you thought the 2000 election was a mess, wait until you see what next week's presidential contest might have in store. So says Swarthmore College political scientist Carol Nackenoff, who believes weeks could pass before the winner of Tuesday's election is established.

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What does the flu vaccine shortage have in common with the September 11 terrorist attacks? They are both the consequence of America's aversion to "big government," says Swarthmore College economist Mark Kuperberg.

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The voting rights of some African Americans are still partially abridged, contrary to the 15th Amendment, now more than 130 years old. The problem will affect the 2004 presidential election and raises the possibility yet again of a presidential election outcome being connected to some rate of minority vote suppression.

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Swarthmore College is hosting two students from Belarus this year whose university was recently closed by the former Soviet republic's government. More than a dozen colleges and universities around the country are hosting a total of 19 such students.

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Several issues that could affect the outcome of the presidential election hinge at least in part on religion, says Swarthmore College Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion Amy Lorion, who studies Christianity in American society.

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The debate in pro baseball over a new way of evaluating talent and building teams is getting nasty. But statistics professor and baseball maven Steve Wang thinks the debate is healthy -- not just for baseball, but for the scholarly field of statistics.

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Under pressure from the College, two Fortune 500 companies have agreed to broaden their equal opportunity polices to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This mirrors successful efforts last year for Lockheed Martin to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policies.

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Although the exact number of human languages spoken today remains unknown, most estimates put the number at about 6,800. A linguist has found another one that was previously unknown to the scientific community and says its approaching extinction illustrates the problem of language endangerment.

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Momentum is building across the country for more widespread use of Internet voting. But a Swarthmore College voting expert says online voting systems are probably insecure and will discourage turnout.

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At the height of the holiday season, consumers often feel depressed, anxious, and stressed. A psychologist says this is largely due to the paralyzing effects of a marketplace that offers a bewildering and ultimately debilitating array of choices.

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The United States has a great deal riding on the upcoming election in the former Soviet state of Georgia "” namely, an interest in keeping the region stabile and preventing an insurgency from neighboring Chechnya, says an expert on the region's politics.

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People need not worry that an increase in foul language on primetime television signals a decline in morals, says an expert on language use, including slang. "I don't think we're losing any sense of morality," says Professor of Linguistics Donna Jo Napoli.