At his Worm Power facility 100 miles northwest of Ithaca in Avon, N.Y. Tom Herlihy feeds 20 tons of dairy cow manure to eight million earthworms each week. About 28 days after they are fed, the worms churn out “vermicompost” – a nutrient-rich organic fertilizer.  Allison Jack grad, plant pathology and plant-microbe biology, has shown that vermicompost can suppress disease in crop plants.

Most Americans feel the prick of a pertussis vaccination when they are as young as two months old.  While the medical community largely considered pertussis – or whooping cough – to be eliminated in 1976 (with less than 1,000 cases in the United States), the disease has resurged in Michigan, South Carolina, New York and California, where the outbreak has reached the level of an epidemic with 2,774 reported cases. 

Working as an intern in Bradfield hall for a month can be an exciting experience.  There are ups, there are downs, and there are certainly lessons to learn.