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Learn how you can benefit
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2015 Texas A&M Campus Directory
Convenient listings of administrative offices, departments
and other information about A&M.
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a Student Media Work Order. Call 845-2646 for info.
^"TUDENTS AND OTHERS may purchase directories
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REVIEW
Imagine Dragons challenges itself
'Smoke + Mirrors' another move by
band to conform to nonconformity
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Jennifer Reiley
@jreiley1
In a music world of blatant sexual mes
sages or songs reliant on a catchy choms,
Imagine Dragons continues to write nar
ratives. The band’s second album, “Smoke
+ Mirrors,” hit shelves and iTunes early
Tuesday morning.
I fell in love with Imagine Dragons from
the moment I heard “It’s Time” on the way
to school my junior year of high school.
From then, I’ve listened to and bought most
of their songs and seen them once in concert.
In a word, the new album is experimental.
The first three songs test a new, more tribal
style. “Gold” especially uses a distincdy un
even rhythm and accompanies the customary
drums with heavier guitar chords. Even so,
the album carries the intensity Imagine Drag
ons has had since its EP came out in 2010.
Like the first album, there aren’t a ton of
songs that I could see becoming radio hits. “I
Bet My Life,” which was released as a single
back in December, “I’m So Sorry” and “Po
laroid” all have the most potential. For casual
fans, the album may come as a disappoint
ment. It’s a bit all over the place. Ranging
from heavier tones that echo “Radioactive”
to songs with a lighter edge, there is no clear
narrative to the album. But each song is a
narrative on its own.
Outside of the experimentation, Imagine
Dragons needs to be given some points for
its nonconformity in today’s pop mainstream.
The band has been producing music officially
for five years, and so far I haven’t heard a
song that falls outside its style or quirks. And
the songs mean something. “I Bet My Life”
is an ode to lead singer Dan Reynold’s par
ents. The band writes about struggles of life,
of finding oneself. As college students, this
message can resonate.
SCIENCE
Symposium sprouts at A&M
By Connor Paetzold
People around the world
^ will be exposed to new
plant breeding techniques,
thanks to the efforts of sev
eral Texas A&M graduate
students.
The Texas A&M Plant
Breeding Symposium will
be at the MSC Thursday to
educate people on new and
modern plant breeding tech
nologies. Five guest speak
ers will complement a stu
dent research poster contest.
The symposium will also be
streamed online, and organiz
ers say a sizeable audience is
registered to tune in from as
far as South America, Canada
and Europe.
Brian Pfeiffer, plant breed
ing doctoral student and sym
posium cormnittee member,
said attendees will have the
chance to hear about plant
breeding knowledge that is
too new for textbooks.
“Plant breeding is a dy
namic field,” Pfeiffer said.
“The toolbox or the tech
nologies that we’ll be able to
use are changing rapidly, so
we wanted to bring people in
MONARCH CONTINUED
that we thought were work
ing on some pretty cutting
edge stuff, cutting edge tech
niques.”
The symposium will cover
a broad range of topics to
cater to a wider audience.
Laura Masor, molecular and
environmental plant sciences
doctoral student and sym
posium committee member,
said one of the benefits of
having a wide audience is
the exposure for the students
who will showcase their re
search. The online webi
nar will feature information
about the student researchers
and their work, which could
help them network and find
jobs with people in the plant
breeding field, Masor said.
Although the students’
research will mostly be spe
cific to Texas agriculture,
the technology and science
behind their work can be ap
plied to many crops.
“I think everybody, even if
they’re not from Texas or not
from the United States, will
think it’s still very relevant to
the direction plant breeding is
going,” Laura Ann Mcloud,
a doctoral student in plant
breeding and an organizing
committee member, said.
This is the first year and
the organizing committee
members are optimistic.
“I think we’ve probably
outdone ourselves, we’ve
gone above and beyond the
minimum trying to make our
school look good, trying to
make our department look
good, trying to make our
sponsors proud,” Masor said.
As of Monday the sympo
sium had around 300 people
registered to attend, Masor
said, and that number should
continue to go up as the event
gets closer. The uniqueness of
the event should also help to
increase the number of at
tendees.
“We’re lucky that we’re in
a huge geographic area and
we’re not next to anything
like this,” Masor said.
The event runs from 8:30
a.m. to 5 p.m. in the MSC
Bethancourt Grand Ball
room. To register for the on
line webinar, go to pbsympo-
sium.tamu.edu.
monarch’s population surge might be prema
ture.
“The increase from the previous year
sounds like a lot, but it was of a population of
only 33 million last winter to about 56 million
this winter,” Wilson said. “The number has to
get much larger to sustain a recovery.”
The monarch’s journey from Mexico to
Canada takes six months to complete. The
butterflies take pit stops along the way to birth
an entirely new generation that will complete
the journey. Bryan-College Station falls right
on their route.
“About 50 percent of monarchs take this
route,” Wilson said. “The
others move further to the east ^
but all funnel through Texas
first.”
Wilson said weather con
ditions had improved from
last year and allowed the but
terflies to migrate south suc
cessfully. A typical monarch
migration spans three to four
generations annually.
“Migratory monarchs live
up to nine months while non-
migratory monarchs live up to
two to three weeks,” Wilson
said. “During the spring equi
nox, monarchs leave their warmer haven in
Mexico and begin migrating north to Canada.
Along the way, they lay their eggs on milk
weed and then die. The third generation of
monarchs makes it all the way up north to
Canada.”
The existence of milkweed — a plant in
tegral to the monarch’s reproduction and sur
vival —- has been threatened for many years
now. Monarchs depend on milkweed to rest,
birth and dine upon, but extensive pesticide
use by the farming community turns milk
weed into a toxic breeding ground for the
monarch and renders it inhabitable.
Matthew Markert, a biology graduate stu
dent researching migratory monarch popula
tions, said Midwestern farmers have been in
discriminately treating their crops with toxic
weed killer, causing a drastic decline in milk
weed. Another factor responsible for the de
clining monarchs is climate change.
“Climate change is beginning to shift and
shrink environments capable of supporting
milkweed,” Markert said. “The increasing
urbanization of rural environments, such as
mowing and real estate development, contrib
ute to reducing the viable areas that still exist.”
Wilson said an initiative overseen by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will facilitate
the monarch’s migration.
“[The initiative] proposes planting about
200,000 acres of Interstate-35 North from
Texas to Minnesota with milkweeds to act as
a food source and corridor for the migrating
monarchs,” Wilson said.
Andrew Payne, history senior, • is the
founder of the Aggieland Monarch Project.
The organization works to encourage Texas
A&M to incorporate milkweed and other
r native pollen-friendly plants
into landscape designs. Be
cause B-CS is a through route
for the monarchs, Payne said
it is imperative for the com
munity to plant milkweed in
gardens where the plant is safe
from pesticides and landscap
ing efforts. An abundance of
milkweed will yield greater
survival rates for the monarch.
“We plan to plant a butter
fly garden with lots of milk
weed in the plaza between
Cushing Library and the Aca
demic Building,” Payne said.
Payne said viewing the monarch popula
tion’s decrease as a national issue is accurate,
but futile. He said imagining the crisis in such
broad terms shifts the responsibility from in
dividual action to national or global powers.
“Instead, let us be concerned with Texas,
with the Brazos Valley, with Aggieland,”
Payne said. “What can we, Aggies, do to re
sponsibly steward our corner of creation?”
Wilson and his team have been working on
planting healthy milkweed and eliminating the
spores from parasitic plants, which transfer dis
ease onto an otherwise healthy monarch. Al
though dangers for the butterfly’s population
are imminent, Wilson said he beheves the spe
cies will not be endangered and, with proper
care and attention, could flourish once again.
“[The population surge] is a step, one small
step, in the right direction,” Wilson said.
“There is a very long, long, long way to go,
but it is a positive step.”
What can we,
Aggies, do to
responsibly
steward our
corner of
creation?
ANDREW PAYNE,
Aggieland Monarch Project