Tower of “Vietnam”: A Broader Version of “Tower of Hanoi”

The traditional problem, “Tower of Hanoi”, might seem familiar to you. The “game” is believed to have been invented in 1883 by the French mathematician Édouard Lucas, although this fact is still disputed. In Vietnam (or sometimes India), there is a legend of a very tall temple with so many floors, and the floor’s diameter gets smaller as the temple gets higher. Priests would then lift each floor up, and move from one peg to another, using another peg as an auxiliary, such that no lower floor is smaller than the upper one. The legend said that once the priests have managed to rearrange (transfer) the temple, then the world would end

Seafood Mislabeling: Molecular Strategies to Identify Fish Species and Rethinking Public Outreach in Taiwan and the U.S.

Swapping identical fish with substitutes has been a widespread issue across the globe. Despite the valiant efforts of policymakers, seafood misidentification continues to be pervasive among large and small vendors, from sushi venues to grocery stores in the United States

Not Human Enough: The Origins of the Uncanny Valley

Why do we feel creeped out when we see something almost human—like a lifelike robot or a bad CGI character? This phenomenon, known as the uncanny valley, describes the uncomfortable emotional response humans experience when encountering entities that appear nearly, but not quite, human. First introduced by Japanese robotics professor Masahiro Mori in 1970, the concept suggests that as objects become more humanlike in appearance, our emotional response to them becomes increasingly positive —until reaching a point where subtle imperfections trigger strong feelings of revulsion

Pollution in the James River: Fact or Fiction?

The University of Richmond receives water from the James River, part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed which covers 56% of the state. Despite UR\u27s rank of #1 Most Beautiful Campus in the Princeton Review, it is almost impossible to walk across the bridge over Westhampton Lake without noticing its opaque brown hue and circling duckweed patches. However, bodies of water do not necessarily have to have a pleasing color and clarity to be healthy

Osmosis Magazine - Fall 2022

Osmosis is a student read, led, and written publication from the University of Richmond, focusing on all aspects of healthcare and science

The Forgotten Heroes of Postman’s Park

The Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in Postman’s Park contains fifty-three memorial tablets, each dedicated to an act of life-risking bravery, undertaken by an otherwise ordinary individual, largely in the course of their everyday life, and within commonplace surroundings. The memorial’s creator, G. F. Watts, was a pivotal figure in the conception and promotion of the idea of ‘everyday’ heroism in Britain. Where he led, others followed. On this basis, the Watts Memorial has come to inform our understanding of how everyday heroism as a concept was constructed. Further research has now identified eighty-four individuals who were intended for commemoration on the memorial but who are missing. Incorporating these ‘forgotten heroes’ into the memorial radically alters how we understand it. It widens and deepens our understanding of Watts’ construction of everyday heroism and the characteristics that underpinned the Victorian conception of the idea