This insect grows from a red-striped "woolly bear" caterpillar to a white-spotted moth large enough to fit comfortably in an adult's hand.

Undergraduate physics students generally don’t delve into string theory until they take upper-level courses. And it’s rare, at best, to find them doing highly esoteric research in a field that explores the very essence of physical reality. But Jim Gates, one of the world’s premier string theory scholars, has been using undergraduate research assistants for over a decade, and their work has contributed to papers published in refereed journals.