With displays of precious gems, a wall of skulls, and interactive exhibit of Colgate's very own dinosaur egg, the Robert M. Linsley Geology Museum educates visitors, while inspiring them with the wonder of its objects.

A large green sign reading "Geology is the study of the Earth" welcomes visitors when they first enter the museum, which recently moved from Lathrop Hall to its new home in the Robert H.N. Ho Science Center.

It has been a cool summer at Colgate, but students working in biology professor Nancy Pruitt's lab were prepared with handmade hats and scarves after Pruitt introduced them to knitting.

Wendy Joo '11 and Vickie Cadestin '12 are on campus investigating whether proteins called dehydrins, produced by many plants to prevent dehydration, might also be produced in the animal kingdom, which has never been proven before.

Even though school is out for the summer, inquisitive high school students from upstate New York and New York City are keeping their minds sharp at a unique camp on Colgate's campus.

Colgate's Science and Sports Camp was featured this week on the front page of the Observer-Dispatch (Utica).

Most days on the Academic Quad, you'll find students carrying backpacks and occasional care packages from home.

On Tuesday, though, you would have seen volunteer geology students carefully toting two large fossils: a mastodon tusk that is more than 10 feet long and approximately 200 pounds and a whale jaw bone that also tips the scales at about 200 lbs.

Vic Mansfield, a longtime professor of physics and astronomy who helped lead an insightful workshop during the recent campus visit by the Dalai Lama, died Tuesday after a two-year battle with lymphoma. He was 67.

Mansfield joined the Colgate faculty in 1973, armed with a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics from Cornell University and burning interests in cosmology, computational methods, and the conjunction of science and spirituality.

In his 35 years at Colgate, he lectured in physics, astronomy, numerical analysis, and in all components of the core curriculum, inspiring students with his eloquence, enthusiasm, expertise and high expectations.

On the second day of his Colgate visit, the Dalai Lama was given a glimpse of home when he was treated to a presentation on the constellations of the night sky over Lhaso, Tibet, in the visualization lab of the Robert H.N. Ho Science Center.

His Holiness then participated in "A Dialogue on Science and Religion" in the center's Meyerhoff Auditorium with faculty panelists Lyle Roelofs, Vic Mansfield, Harvey Sindima, and David Dudrick.

Mansfield, professor of physics and astronomy, presented his new book Tibetan Buddhism and Modern Physics to the Dalai Lama, who had written the book's foreword.

When Bryce Gadway '07 looked through his e-mails recently, he read the usual notes from friends and family, but little did he expect to come across a message that would declare him the winner of one of the nation's most prestigious physics awards.

"It was quite a surprise to get the message; I couldn't believe it. I'd been nominated by Colgate's physics department, but I didn't know when I would actually find out if I'd won," said Gadway, who graduated last May with a physics-astronomy degree.