X
"This research [suggesting that meditation increases compassion and positive thoughts] is a first pass on a new topic, and you just can't do perfect science the first time through. You get curious about something and you mess around. That's what science is in the beginning, you mess around."
-- Robert Wyman, professor of molecular, cellular
and developmental biology, "Lecture Plan for
Dalai Lama Has Some Scientists Bridling,"
The New York Times, Oct. 19, 2005.
§
"Historically, there has been concern about psychiatric disorders occurring during the postpartum period, but this has been coupled with the notion that pregnancy protects mothers from becoming ill with a psychiatric illness, including a depressive, anxiety or psychotic disorder. ... [W]e found that the rate of depression was 20% among pregnant women in New Haven prenatal clinics. Moreover, of those depressed women, about 20% had suicidal thoughts."
-- Kimberly Yonkers, associate professor of psychiatry and lecturer in epidemiology and public health, "Yale Pregnancy Study," NBC News Channel 30, Oct. 13, 2005.
§
"I never expected to go to college. Nobody in my high school [in China] went to college. We had half-pound rations of meat and of cooking oil. Matches were rationed. Toilet paper was rationed. ... I saw that Fudan [University] offered genetics, so I asked my family what is genetics, and they had no clue. I asked my neighbors, and they had no clue, so I thought genetics must not be very popular. Maybe I'll have a chance."
-- Tian Xu, professor of genetics, on how he became involved in the field, "A Scholar's Prescription for Getting to Next Level; Letter from China," The International Herald Tribune, Oct. 15, 2005.
§
"When did you last read a book of literary criticism? Not recently, most people who do not write criticism themselves will answer. Criticism today is impenetrable and irrelevant, since it is jargon-ridden and no longer interested in literature. Or so people have said. There may have been some truth in this caricature a few years ago, but the Age of Theory is over in America, for better or worse, and plenty of literary critics go on with their work."
-- Langdon Hammer, professor of English and chair of the Department of English, in his review of Helen Vendler's book "Invisible Listeners; Lyric Intimacy in Herbert, Whitman and Ashbery," "Overheard Speech," The New York Times, Oct. 16, 2005.
§
"The best way to prevent the next firestorm is to deal with the cause, and that is fuel. ... [T]here are too many crowded trees and too much old brush, and most of it is on national forest land. Until the Forest Service restores the national forests in Southern California and the Sierra Nevada to a more natural healthy condition, future insect infestations and firestorms are inevitable."
-- Chadwick D. Oliver, the Pinchot Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Thomas M. Bonnicksen, in their article "Preventing the Next Firestorm," The Daily Independent (California), Oct. 16, 2005.
§
"I thought it was a historical accident [that she had so few female classmates studying physics] and, if you just waited, more would come in."
-- Meg Urry, professor of physics and astronomy, noting that there has been no increase in the number of female physicists in subsequent years, "The Hardest Path," New Scientist, Oct. 15, 2005.
§
"[V]ery often we say with pride when we hire outside directors that we adhere to all Equity work rules. It's like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. The work rules are livable; they work. Someone has to draw the line on how things are done."
-- Victoria Nolan, adjunct professor and deputy dean of the School of Drama and managing director of the Yale Repertory Theatre, "Equity For All; The Theater Union Still Matters, Nationwide and in Connecticut!" New Haven Advocate, Oct. 13, 2005.
§
"But if Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission really want to protect individual investors, they should prohibit unsophisticated players from participating in hedge funds."
-- David Swensen, chief investment officer, adjunct professor at the School of Management and lecturer in economics, in his article "Invest at Your Own Risk," The New York Times, Oct. 19, 2005.
§
"What is going on across the Middle East is of as great significance for international peace and security as were World War II and the Cold War. Those wars also were waged by terror-using dictators and ideologues against the established international state system. Hitler's Reich and Imperial Japan lost. The Soviet Union lost. The rogues and radicals and tyrants that have held down the Middle East for decades are going to lose as well."
-- Charles Hill, lecturer in international affairs and distinguished fellow in International Security Studies, in his article "The Rogues Are Losing," Hartford Courant, Oct. 16, 2005.
§
"How you are perceived is very much a function of who you end up hanging out with. In the same way that applies for individuals, it applies to firms. So a small start-up that is able to associate it[self] with a prominent firm in an industry is typically able to get much greater access to financial capital. It finds it easier to hire people and that's because at the end of the day, status is a signal of the underlying quality of whomever we happen to be talking about, whether or not that's an individual, young, grown-up or a firm."
-- Joel M. Podolny, the William S. Beinecke Professor of Management and dean of the School of Management, "Keeping Up with the Jonses Inc.," "Marketplace," National Public Radio, Oct. 19, 2005.
§
"Illegal trade is not new, of course. But it remains a tumor on the global economy that could easily metastasize into a worldwide cancer that corrodes law and order, leads to other crimes and violence, and even finances terrorism. ... The extent of money laundering can be seen as a rough proxy for total global contraband activity. It has grown to 10 times its 1990 level, to well over $1 trillion today -- equivalent to about 10% of legitimate global trade. Most of this is narcotics smuggling, which comes to some $900 billion annually."
-- Jeffrey E. Garten, the Juan Trippe Professor of the Practice of International Trade, Finance and Business, in his article "The Pirates of Global Trade; A New Book, 'Illicit,' Calls for a Global Assault on Contraband Traffickers," BusinessWeek, Oct. 10, 2005.
§
"It starts to become downright unconscionable for adults to keep turning to silly, quick-fix diets for themselves while their kids are developing chronic diseases [due to obesity]. There may be some [adults] willing to eat nothing but bacon for two weeks, but I don't see too many people doing that with their seven-year-old."
-- Dr. David Katz, associate clinical professor of epidemiology and public health, "Experts See Demise of Fad Diets; Fat Kids Are the 'Second-Hand Smoke' of the Obesity Epidemic," Hartford Courant, Oct. 12, 2005.
§
"Our stores have become cheap, windowless, concrete boxes that offer the viewer nothing of value."
-- Dolores Hayden, professor of architecture and of American studies, "Americans Still Seek the Authentic," The San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 20, 2005.
T H I S
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
School of Music receives gift of $100 million
Class of 1954 Chemistry Building officially opened
IOM elects six from Yale
Yale will mark Veterans Day with salute to alumnus, flag rededication
University dedicates new Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity
World Fellow Ibrahim honored for her human rights work in Nigeria
Today's press fails to get 'to the bottom of things,' journalist says
Activist calls for cohesive global response to international migration
Yale's matching gift to United Way supports school readiness
Wife's illness inspires pathologist to investigate Alzheimer's
Yale employee lends skills to help animals after the hurricane
Doctor's career spent researching body's 'master chemical director'
MEDICAL CENTER NEWS
Researchers find strong link between gene and dyslexia
Study casts light on nature and spread of lethal brain diseaes
Innovative therapy curbs effects of loss of oxygen during birth
Study finds true reason that lymph nodes swell
Helping breast cancer patients find best online information . . .
Merson speaks at launch of Russia's first M.P.H. program
New Yorker humorist to give public reading
Veterans Day concert will feature School of Music alumni
Alumni innovators to discuss 'Entrepreneurship and the Law'
Vignery to conduct pharmaceutical research as Yale-Pfizer Visiting Fellow
Cell biologist Ira Mellman elected to prestigious EMBO
Richard Lalli to perform at benefit gala for the Neighborhood Music School
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