University of Massachusetts scientist, Dr. Craig C. Mello, PhD., won the Nobel Prize for medicine on October 2nd. Both Mello and his collaborator, Dr. Andrew Fire from Stanford University, were awarded the medal in distinction of their discovery of RNA interference, and gene silencing by double-stranded RNA. The discovery, made by Drs. Mello and Fire in 1998 while conducting research at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, could potentially block negative affects of a person’s RNA. Mello will share the honor and the $1.4 million in prize money with Dr. Fire. ***MassPIRG’s New Voters Project registered 400 UMB voters by soliciting students at the UMass bus stop. The group’s student voter effort has recorded a nationwide tally of 40,000 student registrations so far, and hopes to gain another 30,000 before the end of the voter registration period of October 18th. UMass-Boston is one of more than seventy colleges and universities in more than twenty states running a News Voters Project. MassPirg’s original goal for UMass was 600 voters by the deadline, so hurry up you 200 apathetic UMB citizens…there’s only a couple of days left.***UMass-Boston professor Meng Zhou returned from Antarctica, where he and a group of four other UMass scientists and students researched the continent’s environmental and climate change. Professor Zhou has made these voyages for more than twelve years, and has noticed a disturbing rate of melting glaciers. Zhou works as an assistant professor at UMB’s department of Environmental, Earth, and Ocean Sciences, but could possibly not be at his desk… like, say in Antarctica.