JYI's Research Department would like to recognize the following individuals who have been awarded first, runner-up, and honorable mention prizes respectively: Rose Li, Gurmeen Kaur, and Bryan Ngo. Their biographical sketches are available below.
Profile of André Martel, a Malacologist
When I first spoke to scientist André Martel, our conversation lasted so long that my laptop batteries died, my tape recorder ran out of space, and it was well over an hour before I got a word in edgewise. Our topic? You couldn’t be blamed for guessing it was some super-thrilling science subject like cosmic collisions, erupting volcanoes or long lost secrets of the dinosaurs. But we actually talked about mussels. Specifically, the taxonomy of mussels.
Social Anxiety and Word Use: How Environments Can Influence Words
Language provides insight into individuals' perceptions, needs, and desires; in addition, stress has been shown to influence how others perceive an individual. In the current study, we investigated the impact of stress on language. The ninety-four participants enrolled were asked to complete a speech about the body part of theirs that they liked the least. Speeches were transcribed and entered into linguistic software where a percentage of specific word use of the whole speech sample was analyzed.