Yale Bulletin and Calendar

August 26, 2005|Volume 34, Number 1

In the News
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"Identity is a process. Narratives and stories about family and kinship are always to some extent people making meaning out of their experiences with whatever tools they have."

-- Alondra Nelson, assistant professor of sociology and African American studies, "Blacks Pin Hope on DNA To Fill Slavery's Gaps in Family Tree," The New York Times, July 25, 2005.

"I think every parent needs to understand that what we need to do for our kids is love them, hold them, touch them, give them a safe environment, give them all the opportunities they can have, and they will reach the best potential they have. But there are certain things that we can't change and are built in. And maybe parents have to take less credit for their children's successes but also less blame for their children's failures."

-- Dr. Harvey Kliman, research scientist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, "Twins: Identical, But Different; Guests Discuss Being Twins, But Also Being Radically Different From Each Other," The Montel Williams Show, July 1, 2005.

"One of my greatest irritations about modern medicine is the degree to which it devalues old knowledge. My young colleagues and students, as bright and thoughtful as they are, don't bother to look at papers that are more than five years old -- it's as if that's Neanderthal work."

-- Dr. Sydney Spiesel, associate clinical professor of pediatrics and clinical professor of nursing, "Your Health This Month," Slate Magazine, July 1, 2005.

"For the last couple of decades, mainly in English-speaking nations, summer brings with it an increasing number of ever-more-elaborate pictures made in large fields of wheat and other crops. Crop circle season exactly coincides -- amazingly -- with the end of school and the beginning of summer vacation."

-- Dr. Steven Novella, assistant professor of neurology, in his article "Cereal Killers," Hartford Courant, July 15, 2005.

"Milk chocolate and white chocolate do not offer any known health benefits, and provide more calories, sugar and potentially harmful oils than dark chocolate, [but] dark chocolate may well prove to be health food."

-- Dr. David Katz, associate clinical professor of epidemiology and public health, on a study showing that eating dark chocolate can help reduce high blood pressure, "Dark Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure, Study Shows," Arizona Republic, July 20, 2005.

"While people have criticized the pharmaceutical industry for promoting less-than-desirable drugs, the fact is that for every dangerous or inappropriate drug prescribed, there is a prescribing physician -- one who may have been unduly or unconsciously influenced by these quiet billions in gifts [from drug companies]."

-- Dr. Stephen Sung-ki Cha, postdoctoral fellow in internal medicine, on the gifts doctors receive from pharmaceutical companies' marketing representatives, in his article "These Gifts Are Bad for Our Health," The Washington Post, July 24, 2005.

''People are extremely passive. They can be pushed around quite a bit, even when there are no formal restrictions on what they can do.''

-- James J. Choi, assistant professor at the School of Management, on why people tend to accept "package deals" even when they don't want some of the options, "Why Do So Many Consumers Choose Frills When Plain-Old Will Do? Pure Laziness," The New York Times, July 11, 2005.

"Affirmative action has turned the United States into an aristocracy. British aristocrats have enjoyed their own kind of reverse discrimination for a thousand years. America's affirmative-action aristocrats were only created a generation ago; until then, they were targets of bigotry themselves. So what? No aristocracy is acceptable in the United States."

-- David Gelernter, professor of computer science, in his article "Affirmative Action's Preferences Are Passé," Hartford Courant, July 29, 2005.

"Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that claimed to make us beautiful but didn't. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: making us stupid, degrading the quality and credibility of our communication, turning us into bores, wasting our colleagues' time. These side effects, and the resulting unsatisfactory cost/benefit ratio, would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall."

-- Edward Tufte, professor emeritus of political science, computer science and statistics and senior critic in graphic design, on the dangers of PowerPoint presentations, "The Phluff Factor," Australian Financial Review, July 2005.

"Even if [a mosquito repellent] reduces malaria by 0.1 percent, that means it helps 600,000 people."

-- John R. Carlson, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, "Yale Researcher Hopes To Find Out How To Keep Mosquitoes From Biting," New Haven Register, July 24, 2005.

"The amazing thing about [magnetic resonance imaging] is that every time you've reached a plateau and it can't get any better, it's astounding. It's better. It's still magical to me. It's amazing to me that it works."

-- Dr. Jeffrey C. Weinreb, professor of diagnostic radiology, "Yale-New Haven Hospital Installs Powerful MRI Machine," New Haven Register, July 31, 2005.

"We're going to see a continuing outpouring of really frightening information about the [global warming] situation. It will continue more and more. No matter what we do now, we'll change the climate in a variety of very unpleasant ways."

-- James Gustave Speth, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and professor in the practice of sustainable development, "Warnings Grow on Global Warming," New Haven Register, July 21, 2005.

"Politicians always feel pressure to speak in ways that please the majority; if they can use government to endorse religion, they will enforce the sort of religion they think the majority of people in their constituency will like. ... To gain power, and to keep it, they will divide our citizens and stoke their anger, imposing costs on our democracy that they won't have to pay. As a result, our public discourse will become more bitter and polarized, and political opponents will become more self-righteous and uncompromising, until they damage the foundations of good government and do things that we will all live to regret."

-- Jack M. Balkin, the Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, in his article "Justice O'Connor's Final Defense," Hartford Courant, July 8, 2005.

"The pattern for total prohibition of a dangerous drug had been set by heroin. When it became an extreme concern in the decade after World War I, the goal of alarmed legislators was to wipe out any use of this pernicious substance. That was feasible because other opiates, codeine and morphine, could take the place of heroin. Cannabis had a different circumstance in the 1930s: It had no important medical use."

-- Dr. David F. Musto, professor of child psychiatry and of the history of medicine, lecturer in history and curator of historic scientific instruments at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, in his article "A Hampered History," Hartford Courant, July 12, 2005.

"The rich can pay for a more expensive car, they can get better healthcare and better housing. ... In a democratic, capitalist society, why shouldn't we treat eggs [from human donors] like any other commodity?"

-- Kenneth Baum, lecturer in Yale College, on the high fees infertile couples will pay for eggs from certain donors, "How Much Would You Pay for This?" The Guardian (London), July 25, 2005.

"The nose naturally warms and humidifies air. But most people tend to breathe through their mouths during exercise, which means that dry air reaches the lower airways, having bypassed the nasal passages."

-- Dr. Christopher Randolph, associate clinical professor of pediatrics, citing one cause of exercise-induced asthma, "Summertime Outdoor Exercise Can Take Your Breath Away," The Times (London), July 19, 2005.

"There are tens of millions of old-fashioned conservatives who cherish the right of parents to send their children to parochial schools. ... There are also plenty of Republicans who would be appalled by a [Supreme] Court that strikes down key environmental legislation. True conservatives have as much to fear from the neoconservative revolution as racial minorities or labor unions or defenders of the right to privacy."

-- Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, arguing that appointing "neoconservative revolutionaries" to the Supreme Court would undermine "the hard-won gains of 20th-century constitutionalism," "High Court, High Stakes; On Morality, Regulation and Privacy, the Right Seeks a Supreme Court Revolution; Senate Hearings Have One Job: To Block It," The American Prospect, Aug. 1, 2005.

"It wasn't that long ago that the tobacco industry was making the same argument, that it was natural, just leaves in a field. Natural doesn't always mean better."

-- Derek Yach, professor of epidemiology and public health, on the sugar industry's campaign touting sugar as a "natural sweetener," "Sugar Industry Reveals Distaste for Foes, Rivals," The Sacramento Bee, July 31, 2005.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Margaret Grey is named dean of School of Nursing

Benson to step down as dean of School of Art after this year

Team discovers new planet in the outer solar system

Grant will fund center for study of nervous system

Study: Alligator eggs show effect of oxygen on development

Yale Librarian Prochaska appointed to a second term

New master's program prepares nurses for leadership roles

Exhibit explores the 18th-century 'worlds' of Francis Wheatley

Private portrait miniatures showcase the faces of public figures

Gallery hosting festive open house . . .

Architecture gallery to feature traveling art show 'Ant Farm'

Sterling Library launches new academic year with two exhibits

Researchers create powerful tool for decoding gene functions

Galapagos tortoises more diverse than once believed, say scientists

Team identifies 'signatures' of protons in water

'Canary Database' shows animals offer health warnings for humans

Team digitally reconstructs long-extinct 'Lamp Shell'

'Gene trapping' reveals how flower development is controlled

Discovery may aid development of treatment for melanoma

Drinking alcohol may lower risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Lyme disease prevention program launched in Connecticut

For 35 students, summer was a time of service in New Haven

IN MEMORIAM

John Ostrom: He revolutionized field of paleontology

Robert Abelson: Psychologist was adviser to presidential candidates

Greer Allen: University printer was inspiration to School of Art students