In Short

Amid the campaign rhetoric about building a wall along the Mexican border, there’s been little examination of current enforcement. A new study by professor of sociology and public affairs Douglas Massey *78 and Office of Population Research project manager Karen Pren explores how, in spite of 25 years of increasing border security, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRATION from Latin America has increased fourfold. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Sociology, finds that enforcement has changed behavior, turning a flow of workers into and out of the United States into the permanent settlement of families across the country.

Peter Arkle

The moment at which water freezes has been difficult to calculate. But a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in August has determined the speed at which FREEZING WATER forms a solid “critical nucleus” that will become ice. The study, conducted by postdoctoral research associate Amir Haji-Akbari and chemical and biological engineering professor Pablo Debenedetti, found that at negative 43 degrees Celsius, freezing took about a millionth of a second for every cubic meter of water.