{"id":6474,"date":"2017-11-01T19:22:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T23:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=6474"},"modified":"2017-11-01T19:23:20","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T23:23:20","slug":"the-mystery-of-the-musser-moles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2017\/11\/01\/the-mystery-of-the-musser-moles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of the Musser Moles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Merriam Webster lists several, little (and not so little) definitions for the word \u201cmole\u201d that range from \u201cburrowing insectivores\u201d to \u201cdouble agents\u201d to \u201cthe base unit in the International System of Units for the amount of pure substance that contains the same number of elementary entities as there are atoms in exactly 12 grams of the isotope carbon 12.\u201d (Um, deep breath)\u2026<\/p>\n

Luckily, for Elizabethtown College, it happens to have its own moles that just happen to be a little bit of all of the above \u2013 yes, even the rummaging rat-like rodent!<\/p>\n

Each year, the Department of Chemistry at E-town invites four students — one from each class year — to become a Musser Mole. And, while they don\u2019t spend their time eating earthworms or funneling top-secret information from government organizations, they are informants of sorts for current and prospective E-town students.<\/p>\n

Musser Moles catalogue experiences in Chemistry about lab experiments and departmental social events by posting once a week to the department\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Junior chemistry education major Ryan Thomas, who has been a Musser Mole since his first year at E-town, said he enjoys the work as well as the group\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

The Musser Moles name not only relates to the scientific mole but to the info-leaking mole, as well. The icing (or earthworm) on the cake is that the American Chemical Society\u2019s mascot is\u2014you guessed it\u2014a furry mole.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cIt has multiple layers. It\u2019s the kind of humor we like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Moles introduce themselves and their classes online every year, and links to the site are shared at some open house events.<\/p>\n

Gary Hoffman, professor of chemistry and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry said he was happy to continue the Musser Mole project, which had been started by previous chair Kristi Kneas, professor of chemistry and now dean for academic affairs and faculty development. Hoffman said he enjoyed the interaction between current students, prospective students and chemistry grads.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of alumni will comment on the posts that are made,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cIt keeps them engaged and interested in the College.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he heads up the department, Hoffman said he does not regulate the Musser Moles too heavily. \u201cI leave things up to them,\u201d he said. \u201cI would rather it was from their perspective, because I want people to see what the students are thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cited recent posts by a mole currently abroad in Ecuador as some of his favorites, as they feature interesting pictures of animals and wildlife. Thomas agreed that pictures can make for unique posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy the fact that as a lab student, I have permission from my professors to pull out my phone and take pictures,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cCapturing the reactions and experiments is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the job of a Musser Mole is not as exciting as uncovering and sharing government secrets, the ability for these students to share their love of science is fun\u2014and dangerous\u2014enough for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merriam Webster lists several, little (and not so little) definitions for the word \u201cmole\u201d that range from \u201cburrowing insectivores\u201d to \u201cdouble agents\u201d to \u201cthe base unit in the International System of Units for the amount of pure substance that contains the same number of elementary entities as there are atoms in exactly 12 grams of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":6475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[775,7],"tags":[490,1123,1128],"class_list":["post-6474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-campus-community","tag-achievements-2","tag-chemistry","tag-feature","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6476,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6474\/revisions\/6476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}