Disparate methods involving pencils and computer software each had their place as students explored new ways of studying artifacts.

Combing through volume after volume of archival records, the lives of artists in colonial Quito, Ecuador, started to take shape. That’s how Susan Verdi Webster, Jane W. Mahoney Professor of Art and Art History and American Studies at William & Mary, did the groundbreaking research for her new book.

Shelle Butler is going to Amsterdam this summer to work with some of the world’s most highly valued works of art. “But I won’t be actually touching the Rembrandts,” she said, affecting a little wide-eyed shudder of horror. “I’ll be back over there in the corner with my lasers.”

Chuck Bailey says it is some of the ugliest stone he’s ever seen. Bailey has looked at a lot of stone. He’s professor and chair of William & Mary’s Department of Geology.

The methods of inquiry for science and philosophy may be different, but sometimes their questions align. And if there were a Venn diagram of both, two William & Mary philosophers would be settled smack in the middle.

There is a bit of a mystery surrounding a book at William & Mary.

Environmental change is nothing new in Polynesia. For centuries, the inhabitants of the volcanic, sea-battered islands have been employing a variety of strategies to adapt to their changing landscapes.

All signs indicate that a brew house once stood in the shadow of the Wren Building, but those inclined to toast the rediscovery of a facility that slaked thirsts at William & Mary 300 years ago should really wait until the lab results are in.

Archaeologists have a month to find the smoking lunchbox of the Bray School, and Terry Meyers has lost none of his optimism.

The hyper-rational world of science has always made a bit of room to accommodate legend and William & Mary will soon be home to a living piece of one of the most well known scientific legends: a descendant of Isaac Newton’s apple tree.