Yale Bulletin and Calendar

December 15, 2006|Volume 35, Number 13|Four-Week Issue

In the News
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"[Microbes] fight animals and other microbes for food, and, since they don't have teeth and claws, they use chemical warfare to do it. These interactions happen in our refrigerators every day. When we throw away the fuzzy strawberries or the moldy steak, it's because the microbes have won and successfully staked a claim to their food."

-- Deron Burkepile, postdoctoral associate in ecology and evolutionary biology, on a study showing that microbes make rotting food stink so they can compete with bigger scavengers, "Microbes' Scent Knocks Out Competitors," SeedMagazine.com, Nov. 21, 2006.

"Over the last generation, problems once confined to the working poor -- lack of health insurance and guaranteed pensions, job insecurity and staggering personal debt, bankruptcy and home foreclosure -- have crept up the income ladder to become an increasingly normal part of middle-class life."

-- Jacob Hacker, professor of political science, in his article, "Loosen the Vise Grip; Middle-Class Workers Need Relief from Rising Economic Insecurity," New York Daily News, Nov. 13, 2006.

"We need to provide services to enable children and adolescents to deal with such intense painful feelings, rather than waiting until severe defensive reactions are established, like oppositional and destructive behavior, and then devoting energy to trying to classify such defense reactions and searching for medications that might control them."

-- Sidney J. Blatt, professor of psychiatry and psychology, in his letter to the editor, "The Storm in the Mind of a Child," The New York Times, Nov. 15, 2006.

"I work for a law school and my wife is a lawyer for legal aid. I can honestly say that if we had a million dollars to give away, we would give it to those organizations. Preservation and enrichment of the rule of law, and representation of those who lack access to the legal system, should be our highest priorities, particularly when legal-aid funding is under assault and legal rules are short-sightedly bent for the war on terror. We give our lives to these organizations, so why not our money?"

-- Harold H. Koh, the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law and dean of the Law School, "How To Give Away a Million Dollars," Slate Magazine, Nov. 10, 2006.

"There is a medical-thinking myth that women were supposedly protected against depression when pregnant. Pregnancy would temporarily cure them. Society's influences say that pregnancy is a wonderful time. ... The estimates of women who develop depression while pregnant are between 12% to 18%. These are based on measures of distress, both minor and major."

-- Dr. Kimberly Yonkers, associate professor of psychiatry, lecturer in epidemiology and public health, and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, "Redding's Dr. Kimberly Yonkers Studies Pregnancy and Depression," Redding Pilot (CT), Nov. 22, 2006.

"Our minds are always learning the relevant statistics of what is and is not important. Attending to things is not without cost. The whole lesson of inattentional blindness [in which people can't see things in front of their noses because they're focused on something else] is you can't attend to everything."

-- Brian Scholl, associate professor of psychology, on why many people are paying less attention to repeated terrorist warnings, "Repeated Warnings Have Diminishing Returns," Washington Post, Nov. 20, 2006.

"It's stunning; [the conflict in Iraq] should have been called a civil war a long time ago, but now I don't see how people can avoid calling it a civil war. The level of violence is so extreme that it far surpasses most civil wars since 1945."

-- Nicholas Sambanis, associate professor of political science, "Defining the Conflict: What Makes a Civil War? Criteria Vary; Scholars, Leaders Say Iraq War Meets Test, but Bush Disagrees," Seattle Times, Nov. 26, 2006.

"Despite its many dietary pitfalls, the holiday season typically contributes less than you might think to our waistline. The average person gains about a pound between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, although some of us, of course, gain more."

-- Dr. David L. Katz, associate professor adjunct in public health practice in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, in his article, "Some Tips for Holiday Munching," New Haven Register, Nov. 27, 2006.

"Iranians have bruised memories after encounters with the Western world over the past century and a half. Part of it is that Iran is in a very strategic location, basically sandwiched between the Russian empire in the north and the British empire in the south in the 19th century, and then during the Cold War in the 20th century, between the Soviet Union and the Western powers in the Persian Gulf. ... You see Iranians caught in this complex game of power, which has made them feel at times very disempowered. Their land, their resources, their government, their sovereignty -- they feel that for a very long time all of this has been compromised. And this has become part of the collective memory of people in Iran. ... [And] the very unfortunate mistake that the United States and its allies committed in engaging in the invasion of Iraq, has made Iranians even more paranoiac than before."

-- Abbas Amanat, professor of history, "Iran Seeks Nuclear Energy, Not Arms, Yale Scholar Says: Country Wants Self-Sufficiency, According to Professor Lecturing Here," Vancouver Sun, Nov. 23, 2006.

"Frankly, I regard [the debate over whether to describe the conflict in Iraq as a civil war] as a frivolous discussion on the one hand, and on the other hand it is a calculated effort on the part of those people who would like to see the United States flee from its responsibilities in Iraq, to use a term that is more frightening, more dangerous-sounding than simply the kind of uprising that they've been dealing with, and decide that it's a civil war, in order to make it a more frightening prospect to try to win this thing and to persuade Americans that it's hopeless and that they should go away. ... I think most people regard civil wars as bigger things, more difficult, more complicated, more hard to resolve without a long, hard war than does the alternative term. And I think that's why people are using it."

-- Donald Kagan, Sterling Professor of Classics and History, "Americans Debate Whether to Call Conflict in Iraq 'Civil War,'" "Jim Lehrer Newshour," PBS TV, Nov. 29, 2006.

"Plato's list of the sensations of man included heaviness, bigness, hotness, color, pitch and roughness. Each of these developed into a chapter of physics, except for roughness, which remained a backwater. There was no agreed way of measuring it, and science can begin only when a notion is quantified. Fractals have provided the first proper measure of roughness."

-- Benoit Mandelbrot, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and senior research scientist in mathematics, on fractal geometry, which he created, in his article, "50th Anniversary Forecasts," New Scientist, Nov. 18, 2006.

"Over the past year, many national leaders have sounded warnings about the threat of rising protectionism. ... But protectionism in the form of tariffs and obstructionist regulation is likely a lesser threat than mercantilism, which amounts to closer collusion between governments and companies to sell more abroad. Rather than closing borders to commerce, which clearly violates international codes, governments may push commercial deals, which does not."

-- Jeffrey E. Garten, the Juan Trippe Professor in the Practice of International Trade, Finance and Business, in his article, "Global Investor: Beware the Road Shows," Newsweek International, Nov. 20, 2006.

"Gay marriage remains an emotionally divisive issue because it involves intense identity politics on each side. Many lesbians and gay men feel like second-class citizens if the state does not recognize gay marriage. Many traditionalists are just as invested in being members of a society that considers gay marriage morally problematic."

-- William N. Eskridge Jr., the John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence, and Darren R. Spedale, in their article, "Wise Strategy on Same-Sex Unions -- The Court Orders Equality but Won't Push Marriage Before Society Is Ready," The Star-Ledger, Nov. 21, 2006.

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

Gift from alumni to expand Grand Strategy Program

State gives Yale $7.8 million for stem cell research

Environmental activist named Marshall Scholar

Yale scientist helps keep museum's trains chugging along

Project will consider how to develop 'pastoral imagination'

Human Resources department to pilot STARS . . .

Yale researchers share expertise with Ethiopian health care . . .

Global Citizenship Initiative awarded Hewlett Foundation grant

Child psychiatrist wins award for contributions to education

Alan Kazdin named president of American Psychological Association

Thomas Steitz honored by Japanese university

The Duke's Men make holiday appearances

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWS

HIV testing should be a routine part of health exams, say scientists

Discovery has implications for treatment of herpes

Study: Cancer gene mutations more common than expected

Aortic aneurysms often run in families, say researchers

Study: Decreased genital sensation likely in competitive women cyclists

Retinopathy of prematurity may be due to genetic factors

Research shows benefits of exercise programs for elderly

Asian Indian men found to be more susceptible to diabetes

Yale School of Medicine joins national consortium