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Forget politics, partisanship, prejudice and any of the other things that lately may have made you angry or depressed, and consider for a moment some of the successes in our little corner of higher education.
The most recent one is Frank Varriale, King’s College assistant biology professor and paleo-geek extraordinaire. His story is bound to tickle the imaginations of anyone who ever revelled as a child in the image of mammoth dinosaurs once roaming the earth.
It seems kind of cool and possibly ironic that he discovered something new regarding long-extinct, house-high beasts by looking at the tiniest scratches on their teeth with a scanning electron microscope.
Varriale found strong evidence that the common belief dinosaurs only chomped jaws up and down may not always be true, and that at least one group — leptoceratops — chewed more like mammals, with the lower jaw moving forward and back as well as up and down.
He discovered this the old fashioned way: Painstakingly scrutinizing microwear — tiny scratches and pits — in fossil records of teeth, for hours that turned into days and then into months. It’s the mind-numbing nuts-and-bolts reality behind most scientific breakthroughs.
And while he did most of this research in quest of his PhD at Johns Hopkins University, he landed here in Luzerne County, where he plans to stay.
As noted, Varriale is just the latest example of some substantial intellectual contributions created by having so many small but successful colleges and universities in our midst. On Tuesday night, the United Nations ambassador from Vanuatu came to Wilkes-Barre courtesy of Wilkes University.
Odo Tevi talked about something he knows firsthand — the impact of rising sea levels on small island nations like his own.
The talent being drawn here by our institutions of higher education runs deep. Consider Wilkes University Pharmaceutical Sciences Chair Zbigniew Witczak, a prominent figure in the study of carbohydrates in medicine.
Earlier this month, Misericordia hosted state Secretary of Health Karen Murphy in a very timely discussion on opioid abuse.
It is not uncommon for our colleges and universities to showcase art of prominent talent — last fall’s Masterworks of Ansel Adams photos at Misericordia comes to mind. The decision by Wilkes to invest in expansion and relocation of the Sordoni Art Gallery, soon to be on Main Street in Wilkes-Barre, holds substantial promise for even bigger exhibits.
And if you haven’t gotten into the habit of scanning college lists of upcoming live entertainment, consider doing so. There are times they rival other venues in quality of productions.
The prime job of area colleges and universities is, of course, to prepare students to compete and contribute upon graduation. We are blessed with institutions that do much more, making our area more competitive in brainpower while boosting the quality of life for all of us.