Author: The Novum

A large-beaked Dilophosaurus in the foreground, with water and flying creatures in the background.

Reality and Realism in Dinosaur Fiction

Film, STS Students

By Paul Roques

Did you know that the Dilophosaurus wasn’t actually able to spit venom and was about 8 feet tall in real life? I sure didn’t until I was around 14, when I started doing more research on dinosaurs. Growing up, dinosaurs were my biggest passion. The first movie I remember watching was Jurassic Park (1993). Until my freshman year of college, my dream was to be a paleontologist; that’s even how I ended up at South Dakota Mines. However, things changed during the 2nd semester of my freshman year, when that route didn’t really fit me. That’s when I discovered STS through a friend and then later found my passion for the law. However, I felt it would be poetic to bring my studies full circle and do a project on paleontology. Therefore, my project will be an analysis of the ethics behind the misrepresentation of paleontology in science fiction films. I want to research this because of my passion for dinosaurs and how I believe we should all learn to love the current interpretations of dinosaurs versus the monster movie showbiz they are portrayed as.

Restoration of Early Jurassic environment preserved at the SGDS, with the theropod Dilophosaurus wetherilli in bird-like resting pose, demonstrating the manufacture of SGDS.18.T1 resting trace. Heather Kyoht Luterman, CC BY 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, interest in dinosaur science increased. This was dubbed the “dinosaur renaissance” by Robert T. Bakker in 1975 (Chambers and McCahey, 2024). This then gave birth to a lot of dinosaur science fiction, the most famous being Jurassic Park. One of the things that these films have done is create a misrepresentation of the science and scientists behind them, such as portraying paleontologists as action heroes and depicting dinosaurs, like the Dilophosaurus, in a way that bears little resemblance to their real-life counterparts. To make the films more interesting, they have to add fictional details that would go against modern science, adding features that were never true. This has gotten to the point that a very select few people (that I have personally seen in comment sections) claim their favourite dinosaur is the Indominus Rex from Jurassic World (2015). For reference, the Indominus Rex was a hybrid of a few existing dinosaurs and does not exist in the scientific world.

Furthermore, there are many areas in the paleontological world where there hasn’t been great communication between scientists and the popular media. As a result, the media has grown to not always be able to distinguish between the speculative side of paleontology versus the factual side. For example, a species called the Troodon was classified as a dinosaur based on a single tooth. This species then got featured in movies and games alike due to its popularity among popculture. However, in 2017, Troodon was no longer seen as a valid species, as there was too little information to go on and too many similarities to other dinosaurs (University of Alberta, 2017). Even though this occurred, the news never reached the media and Troodon is still being used in the media and sold as toys.

Jurassic Park‘s venom-spitting Dilophosaurus.
Kids TV show Dinosaur Train, featuring Troodon as the train conductor.

Overall, I will be taking a look at prehistoric films to keep the project narrower, as expanding to other media like paleoarts or video games would make it too broad. However, this brings me back to my primary research question: why is the misrepresentation of dinosaur science important? It is important because these films can impact the public understanding of science, lead to an eventual lack of respect for scientific labor and credibility, and change the popular view of paleontology.

References

Chambers, A. C., & McCahey, D. (2024). 1990s dinomania: Public and popular cultures of palaeontology from Jurassic Park to Friends. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 49(3–4), 410–423. https://doi.org/10.1177/03080188241233121 

University of Alberta. (2017, August 8). Dino hips discovery unravels species riddle. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 30, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170808145519.html

Paul Roques is a senior Science, Technology, and Society major.

STS Costume Contest Winners: Halloween 2025

Events

By Christy Tidwell

For our third annual STS Halloween costume contest, we got some great entries! It’s always fun to see how creative South Dakota Mines students can be, and this year was no exception. We were also very pleased to get some entries from faculty and staff this year, too!

Our team of judges loved all of the entries and – based on the prizes we had available to give – selected winners in a variety of categories: Best Original Costume, Best Media Character Costume, Best Simple-But-Effective Costume, Best Group Costume, Best School Spirit, and Best Faculty/Staff Costume.

We’re looking forward to seeing more creative, fun, and spooky costumes next Halloween!

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Science communication in the community: Trinity Eco Prayer Park

Classes, communication, Environment

By Erica Haugtvedt

Students in ENGL 289: STEM Communication for Public and Technical Audiences are partnering with Trinity Eco Prayer Park to leverage their science expertise and science communication skills to help the park face real-world problems. Trinity Eco Prayer Park is a private park owned by the Trinity Lutheran Church Foundation that models sustainable stewardship of the environment. The park naturally filters stormwater for 2/3 of its concrete-heavy city block through native plant species that represent five local biomes from the Great Plains and Black Hills. 

Director Ken Steinken stands in front of students and rests his hand on a sign about native plant restoration.
Director Ken Steinken stands next to a sign about native prairie restoration.
Buffalo grass with a small sign labeling it.
Buffalo grass.
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Climber on top of a peak, with snowy mountains extending into the background.

Historical Ascent: Mines Professor Part of First All-Women Team to Summit Alaska’s Devil’s Thumb

STS Faculty

Our STS professors do cool things both inside and outside the classroom! This press release features one of Dr. Mary Witlacil’s recent climbing accomplishments.

RAPID CITY, SD (Sept. 30, 2025) – Rising nearly 9,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, Alaska’s Devil’s Thumb is as infamous as it is remote—a jagged peak known for brutal weather, frequent avalanches, sheer ice walls and a history of turning climbers back. Few have ever stood on its summit. None had done so as an all-women team.

Until this summer.

Mary Witlacil, Ph. D., a South Dakota Mines assistant professor of political science, and her climbing partner, Sarah Malone, etched their names into mountaineering history when they conquered the mountain’s eastern ridge.

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How to Look at the World: Poetry, Science, and Creativity

art, Events, Humanities, Poetry, STS Faculty

By Christy Tidwell

Last week, Matt Whitehead and I gave a presentation about the relationship between poetry and science for National Poetry Month as part of the STEAM Cafe series at Hay Camp Brewing. If you were not able to attend, this is a brief version of what we presented.

As members of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences department, Matt and I (as Art and English faculty, respectively) spend a lot of time thinking about how to get students thinking creatively and engaging in creative projects. Given our work with the Science, Technology, & Society degree, we also work with connections between humanities/arts and science/technology, and we encourage our students to see creativity as something that they don’t do only in our classes but that is a part of their scientific and engineering work, too.

Our core question grows out of this work: What does poetry have to do with science?

The two might seem fundamentally dissimilar, belonging to different realms, but both offer opportunities to look carefully, communicate observations, make connections, and understand the world more fully – piece by piece, experience by experience.

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Zinefest: World-Making, Creativity, & Technology

Apex Gallery, Arts, Classes, communication, Events, Humanities

By Christy Tidwell

“[Zines] are practices of ‘poetic world-making’—poetic not in the sense of a poem on the page (although they can be this too),
but in the sense of poesis: the process of creating something that did not exist before.” 
– Gwen Allen

The classes I teach create communities. Students get to know each other as they learn the course material, and they share ideas and work with each other. This is a form of world-making, even if temporary, and I love this about my classes. But I don’t want the connections and sharing to stop at the classroom door or to be forgotten when the semester ends. The goal is for my students to connect what they’re learning in class with the rest of the world, to share what they’ve learned with others, to hear what others have learned, and to join and build other communities.

Finding ways to do this can be challenging, but it’s not impossible.

This semester, as a way for students to connect across classes and share work with broader audiences, a few of us in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences department (myself, Matt Whitehead, Evan Thomas, Erica Haugtvedt, and Mary Witlacil) put on a series of zinemaking events that culminated in a Zinefest in the Apex Gallery on December 4th. Zinefest was an all-day come-and-go event that displayed the zines students made in classes (and, in a few cases, just for fun!), provided some examples of interesting zines made by others, and gave visitors a chance to make their own zines. (If you missed it this year, watch out for another event next year!)

This event let students share some of what they have learned this semester, giving them a broader audience, and it also connected them to students in other classes and to the audiences who came to Zinefest. While I did not count the number of visitors during Zinefest, the gallery filled several times and was rarely empty. Some people walked through relatively quickly and took in only a few zines; others stayed for quite a while, standing and reading multiple zines before finally deciding on some they wanted to keep. One student – who will remain nameless for obvious reasons – wrote in a reflection afterward, “I spent almost 2 hours there and accidentally missed class, so I would say I had a good time.” Although I would (of course) never encourage a student to miss class, this indicates that Zinefest offered this student something meaningful.

Because most students were asked to bring multiple copies of their zines, visitors could take a copy of one if they were particularly interested in its ideas or really loved it. Hopefully, they will re-read any zines they took, remember the event, and maybe even be inspired to make their own! Leaving with a material artifact helps the experience and community created through this event extend past Zinefest itself.

Two rows of zines displayed on the wall, with a handwritten sign above them: See a zine you like? Feel free to take it. Just don't take the last one! Thanks for stopping by.
Student zines on display with an invitation to take a zine.

As an event, Zinefest promoted connections and community; as a practice, making zines (even without an event like Zinefest) provides us all with an opportunity to create something new – to engage in world-making – and to share that something with others, without requiring elaborate technology or infrastructure, refined skills, or many resources. Anyone can make a zine, and that’s what’s so beautiful about them.

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Hail no! Making Hailstones Smaller One Cloud Seed at a Time

Atmospheric Science Students

By Ashley Walker

Every year the United States suffers from millions of dollars of hail damage to crops, homes, businesses, etc. In 2023, hail resulted in $2.3 billion in damage in the United States alone (NOAA, 2024). Figuring out if we can minimize hail size could make a huge difference. My research focuses on the physics involved in cloud seeding and how this might influence hail formation.

Cloud seeding is a weather modification tool where substances like silver iodide are added to the atmosphere to produce precipitation if moisture is present in that atmosphere. The substances act as cloud condensation nuclei, which helps the formation of ice crystals. If the number of ice crystals were to increase, they would be competing to absorb water. As the water attaches to these particles, it freezes and combines with other droplets to form hail. This increased competition can result in smaller hailstones, which could cause less damage and help communities that are impacted by severe hailstorms. While a lot of research has been done on cloud seedings overall effects, like increasing rainfall, its ability to reduce hail size is not consistent in research. Studies have shown mixed results, some suggesting that cloud seeding does limit hail size, while other studies suggest that cloud seeding has no impact on hail size. These findings emphasize the need to further research to see if cloud seeding is a good tool to reduce hail size.

A very large hailstone cut in half revealing its “rings of growth.” This likely caused severe damage to the surrounding environment. Photo credit: NOAA Legacy Photo; OAR/ERL/Wave Propagation Laboratory (via Flickr).

To explore this, I am using the CM1 Model (Cloud Model 1) to simulate thunderstorms and study how cloud seeding might influence hail formation. CM1 is a numerical model that allows us to simulate weather like thunderstorms, squall lines, and other systems. The model allows the user to adjust different variables like temperature, moisture, and microphysics. This is an ideal tool to study the processes behind hail formation.

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Laws Below the Surface

Environment, STS Students

By Parker Smith

Land rights and mineral rights are a big issue in the mining industry. Mineral rights apply to most solids and liquids beneath the surface of the Earth, like coal, gold, and oil. The distinctions are more complex when you start to look at the laws. Materials like gravel and sand can be mined but are under a “materials” label. Other things are listed under “locatable minerals,” which includes metallic minerals (e.g., gold and silver) and non-metallic minerals (e.g., mica and asbestos). 

Mining companies don’t usually own mineral rights to the land they mine. Depending on how the mineral rights are owned, a mining company has to go through different means to get them. If they’re privately owned, they have to discuss leasing or purchase with the owner. If the government owns them, they can request to mine them out. 

Haul truck dumping overburden. Photo by Parker Smith.

The General Mining Act of 1872 allowed the federal government to give private citizens and companies the “right to locate.” This right isn’t a transfer of mineral rights but instead gives private citizens and companies a right to mine out the materials and use, sell, or modify them. The only updates to this mining legislation have been for workplace safety and minor edits, nothing that would change the structure of mining or the system of claims. 

Claims are sorted into two most common categories: lode claims and placer claims. Lode claims are characterized by their well-defined boundaries including one main mineral, whereas placer claims provide for all the minerals in the area affected by the claim. For example, gravel mines are usually placer claims because they aren’t characterized by one distinct vein. This system is also managed and overseen by two separate government organizations: the US Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service. If the leasable minerals are on National Forest Service land, then the two organizations work together to decide if and how to lease them. 

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In Hot Water: The Global Change in Hurricane Intensity

Atmospheric Science Students

By Joshua Rowe

Since I was a kid, I have always had an interest in coastal weather. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time when I was four years old, and I was in awe of the immense size and natural harmony of the ocean. What sparked my interest in research in this field was the recent global change in tropical cyclone intensity. The warming of the oceans globally has led to an increase in the proportion of intense hurricanes (Holland, 2013). This struck me as immensely important because of the catastrophic impact that tropical storms can have on the lives and properties of anyone living in a coastal region. It is estimated that the average tropical storm in the US causes between seven and eleven thousand deaths per storm, and tropical storms have accounted for between 3.6 to 5.2 million deaths since 1930 in the U.S. (Garthwaite, 2024).

Dramatic View of Hurricane Florence from the International Space Station. Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 2024 (CC by 2.0).

The United States is no stranger to tropical storms, and their unpredictability and aggression makes them a daunting task for coastal meteorologists to forecast. Hurricanes are formed as a result of a large amount of water vapor condensing and circulating over warm oceanic areas (Holland, 2014). When water vapor condenses into clouds, it releases large amounts of latent heat, which contributes to the available convective energy in the atmosphere. As the sea surface temperatures rise, the amount of evaporation over the ocean increases and subsequently the amount of available water vapor increases as well. This rise in available water vapor allows for more condensation and latent heat release, which creates a positive feedback relationship that is theorized to be the cause for the increased frequency, intensity, and location of intense hurricanes (Lackman, 2011).

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An aerial view of a city showing a smoggy sky above the buildings.

Models: How accurate are they?

Atmospheric Science Students

By Ryleigh Czajkowski

I have always been curious about the weather and climate, as my dad was a pilot and used to teach me little things about the atmosphere. When I entered college, I decided to follow that curiosity by majoring in atmospheric sciences and developed a new interest in air quality along the way. Air quality is an issue that has global effects with potential detrimental impacts, and I would like to find a job that uses scientific understanding of air pollution to make impactful actions and policies. Specifically, I would like to go into pollution modeling and management to help mitigate the effects of pollution on communities and ecosystems.

This interest was sparked during an internship I had last summer as part of NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program (SARP). This experience allowed me to use airborne data to validate the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ), to see how accurately the model predicts the concentrations of different pollutants. The CMAQ model works by incorporating meteorological (wind, temperature, etc.), emission, and chemical models to simulate the concentrations of trace gases, particulate matter, and atmospheric pollutants both spatially and temporally (EPA, 2022). 

A group of people standing outside near the tail of a plane with NASA on the tail.
Property of NASA SARP. Credit: Madison Landi.

For my senior capstone project, I will be expanding on my previous research to build a better understanding of the capabilities of the model, as it recently underwent an update in 2022 to improve the meteorological processes and emissions. I will focus on the South Coast Air Basin in California, an area with known, notable air quality issues (Chen, et al., 2020) and the levels of formaldehyde and methane there. Both methane and formaldehyde act as active gases in the atmosphere. With methane concentrations on the rise (Feng, et al., 2023) and formaldehyde as a health and environmental irritant (Lucken, et al., 2018), they are important gases to study and understand. I will be assessing how well the CMAQ model can simulate the concentrations of formaldehyde and methane in the atmosphere, as well as the accuracy of  the meteorological inputs (i.e., wind) as they greatly affect the behavior and amounts of those gasses. (Barsanti, et al., 2019). 

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