tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40362742304055369992011-10-24T11:20:03.503-04:00Local news, bon mots, rants and random walks about science from Duke University Research Communications.Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.comBlogger1581100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-3331202728586203762010-05-19T13:03:00.006-04:002010-05-21T10:47:49.845-04:00

We're changing channels here at Duke Research blog -- moving from the friendly confines of Blogger to a Duke server inside the Duke Research site.We'll have the same great action-news team, (well, minus Monte the Weatherman, who has retired) and the same great coverage. Please tune the RSS feeds on your mobile devices and neural implants accordingly.Vansh and Becca are off campus this summer,

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-9819789890453668532010-05-18T15:43:00.004-04:002010-05-18T15:58:47.079-04:00

Guest post from Jamese Slade, NCCU Summer internUnderage drinking and drug use may not be a big deal to most college students, but these behaviors can have effects that will last a lifetime.At a two-day forum on college student drinking and drug use sponsored by the Center for Child and Family Policy, drug abuse researchers touched on the issues of not only alcohol use, but also marijuana, and

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-31561863501709297552010-05-12T17:14:00.006-04:002010-05-12T17:40:57.273-04:00

That snap-crackle-pop sound you hear around a newborn human's head is the baby's brain being assembled at an alarming rate. The manufacturing of brain cells and getting them wired into meaningful circuits in the first months of life lays a foundation for abilities – and deficits – that seem to last a lifetime. And though the program is remarkably robust, parts of it can be derailed.A

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-40409649347637847072010-04-16T01:32:00.012-04:002010-04-30T00:01:30.434-04:00

Do you know what a bonobo is?Only about 10% of people do, according to Duke evolutionary anthropology professor Brian Hare. By comparison, roughly 90% of people know what a gorilla is.Bonobos have many remarkable qualities, including the fact they “are the only really peaceful ape,” according to Hare. “They don’t kill each other.” Bonobos are more closely related to humans than any other kind of

Beccanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-54981943840963785812010-04-15T09:35:00.009-04:002010-04-26T10:52:11.284-04:00

Guest post from Cara Bonnett, Office of Information Technology No, it’s not your imagination: Those clouds really are following you, and the sunflowers are waving.Students walking past the huge media wall at the Link in Perkins Library may not realize that the tiled display is responding to their movements. But thanks to Duke researchers and computer science students, they now can interact with

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-52116456026559053312010-04-09T03:46:00.010-04:002010-04-09T09:53:01.629-04:00

Al Gore -- "I used to be the next President of the United States" -- came to Duke Thursday to deliver the Duke Environment and Society Lecture, and lots of people, both receptive to his message on global climate change, and hostile to it, turned out to watch."If you are running a corporation, as long as you can drag your pollution into the air like an open sewer, then you have always have an

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-51562970753408363892010-04-04T23:16:00.020-04:002010-04-05T13:25:17.570-04:00

Duke biologist Sonke Johnson has made many trips underwater to study aquatic organisms. The direct observations enable his research, but he laments that any observation - whether via submersible, diving, or otherwise - causes some disturbance that impedes observation of normal behavior. At worst, with a schoolbus-sized submersible, “you film responses of stark terror,” Johnsen said.Johnsen’s

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-15537484458013693992010-04-02T03:04:00.010-04:002010-04-05T13:16:19.826-04:00

When one normally pictures wildlife conservation, protection of tigers, pandas and gorillas may come to mind. But what about alviniconcha, or “hairy snails”?Alvinicocha live near hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, where temperatures can range from 300-400 C over the course of a few meters. Hot water flowing from the vents contains high levels of dissolved minerals, which precipitate out when

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-9404884453747360352010-03-17T12:09:00.006-04:002010-03-17T13:45:27.466-04:00

It's a pretty safe assumption that behavior starts in the brain. But exactly where and how it happens is a little tougher.As part of "Brain Awareness Week" on Tuesday, neuroscientist Michael Platt gave an audience in Love Auditorium a quick tour of his work on identifying "the basic building blocks of 'other-regarding preferences' that lead to spite, envy, altruism -- you name it."The areas of

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-11535545264296239252010-03-11T19:46:00.004-05:002010-03-12T13:56:14.509-05:00

We've just redesigned Duke Research and relaunched it on March 11, 2010. It's the same broad coverage of Duke's research enterprise you've come to expect with great photos, videos and slideshows. But now it's built on a Drupal platform that allows us to update the content frequently with minimal hassle. We hope you enjoy it, but if you ever have concerns or questions, please drop us a line:

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-18634073407794091672010-03-06T21:50:00.012-05:002010-03-07T18:20:30.612-05:00

“Can’t the Internet control us just as easily as it can liberate us?” asked Jonathan Zittrain Wednesday night as part of the Provost’s 2010 lecture series. Zittrain is a law professor and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University,Zittrain explained that technology is changing the way we access and add to human knowledge. Our ever-increasing reliance on

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-54079766435882465622010-02-28T23:49:00.014-05:002010-03-02T21:13:34.896-05:00

Last Thursday, the Duke Career Center, the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & and Policy (IGSP) and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) sponsored a screening of the documentary “Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist,” the story of three PHD candidates working to establish their careers in a Columbia University lab. The students are working to isolate proteins and determine their

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-24796570498120545132010-02-24T16:11:00.011-05:002010-03-01T13:54:26.857-05:00

Guest post from Cara Bonnett, Office of Information Technology Kouros Owzar analyzes huge datasets to identify key genetic markers associated with cancer survival. For him, time is of the essence.A new Duke computing resource that taps the power of graphics processors commonly used to render pixels in video games is going to enable Owzar and other researchers to complete complex statistical

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-23199801744902819322010-02-19T19:34:00.007-05:002010-02-22T10:16:23.107-05:00

"Environmental innovation is a good business strategy in the current scenario," said Kirk Hourdajian,Project Manager at the Environment Defense Fund, at the Duke Conference on Sustainable Business and Social Impact held at the Fuqua School of Business on the 17th of February. This conference aimed at promoting social and environmental sustainability in all industry sectors, and explored the most

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-86638819172255838682010-02-05T16:06:00.018-05:002010-02-08T13:53:53.549-05:00

If you've paid any attention to the green movement, you'll know that global carbon emissions have far outpaced natural levels, and that numerous efforts are underway to reduce emissions and the climate change they will cause.But in spite of these efforts, “we are not on track to reduce global climate emissions,” Thomas Halsey of ExxonMobil Upstream Research said during a public lecture Wednesday.

Beccanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-35999251371531507562010-02-02T04:25:00.006-05:002010-02-02T09:27:44.330-05:00

Ion channels, the small tunnels that allow charged particles to flow through the cell membrane, play a significant role in various physiological functions. For neurobiologists, measuring the electric current associated with these ion channels proved to be a hard task, as a vast amount of information was lost due to noise.The technique that was developed to overcome the loss of electric signals is

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-13255760906727081162010-01-26T10:19:00.007-05:002010-01-26T10:34:40.843-05:00

Guest post from James Todd, host of Duke's online "Office Hours" program. Just when you thought you had a grip on genetics and genomics, there's this new thing called "epigenetics” that is becoming increasingly prominent. One of the pioneers of this new field is Duke's Randy Jirtle. (visit his lab’s website) Two years ago, the National Institutes of Health announced that it planned to provided

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-16187679810025750412010-01-24T22:10:00.010-05:002010-01-25T10:51:47.727-05:00

Human enhancement has many forms: medication, caffeine, braces, contact lenses, steroids... but also education and science -- a collective intellectual enhancement. According to philosophy and public policy professor Allen Buchanan, “human beings have been enhancing themselves as long as they have been humans.”Buchanan kicked off the 2010 A. B. Duke lecture series last week with his thoughts

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-12597290256555158592010-01-22T15:15:00.009-05:002010-01-25T10:00:19.570-05:00

Guest Post from Cara Bonnett of Duke's Office of Information Technology: Instead of clicking through a series of hyperlinked websites, imagine moving through a three-dimensional Web of interconnected virtual worlds.That’s the idea behind OpenCobalt, a toolkit of open-source software in development at Duke.The free toolkit allows developers to build and share their own virtual 3-D environments,

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-31083326529116609402010-01-19T10:47:00.004-05:002010-01-19T10:51:50.991-05:00

Guest post from Scottee Cantrell at the Nicholas School of Environment: If you could make the environment better, what would you do? Can you show us in three words? That’s the challenge posed by a new, nationwide video contest, “Green in 3,” sponsored by Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment that starts today. The 15 best videos will each be awarded a $500 prize.The contest, which runs

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-26784545814968826742010-01-15T14:43:00.012-05:002010-01-15T16:09:34.175-05:00

Day 1 of the inaugural Winter Forum witnessed an impressive range of activities, from lectures to thoughtful deliberation and passionate debate. Day 2 would promise no less.At a meeting before winter break, law school professor Bill Brown introduced a special component of the Winter Forum: a startup business competition. He charged students with the task of creating a ‘green’ business that would

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-66154512296365966122010-01-14T19:46:00.020-05:002010-01-15T08:49:21.436-05:00

Last October the Pew Research Center surveyed Americans’ opinions about global warming, and found that 57% believed that solid evidence of global warming existed. Only 36% thought that global warming was due to human activity. These percentages mark a sharp decrease from the Pew Center’s earlier poll in April 2008. At that time, 71% of Americans believed there was solid evidence of global warming

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-53568621596080625302010-01-13T15:41:00.006-05:002010-01-13T16:00:41.841-05:00

Duke mathematician and physicist Arlie Petters was recently recognized by his hometown of Dangriga, Belize with a street named in his honor.When he's not applying new math to astronomical questions about gravity, space and time, Petters devotes significant time and resources to improving educational opportunties for children in Belize. "I am truly thankful to the Duke leadership for setting the

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-53850770286563924592010-01-07T14:03:00.004-05:002010-01-07T14:17:12.522-05:00

What if you lost the roof over your head? It'd probably be a pretty significant change in your lifestyle.If you were an organism living on the bottom of the sea under the massive Larsen Ice Shelf of Antarctica, this would be more than a rhetorical question. Duke Graduate Student David Honig is on a ship just off the ice shelf right now with a team that is exploring those questions. All sorts of

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-8121167938190358282010-01-04T14:17:00.009-05:002010-01-04T14:48:06.022-05:00

Duke anthropologist Brian Hare is one of the stars of an upcoming three-part PBS documentary on the links between humans and other primates: The Human Spark.In a nutshell, the show asks, what makes us so different from our nearest relatives? What makes us special? Hare studies chimps, bonobos and domestic dogs in an effort to figure out some of these questions.Yes, Brian got to meet host Alan

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-65326767253119371952009-11-24T14:30:00.007-05:002009-11-30T14:04:38.344-05:00

Recently I visited the Duke Lemur Center, which is home to 200 lemurs of various species. During the winter, the lemurs' enclosures are covered by a tent to keep them warm. (During warmer weather, they're allowed to play outside)The Lemur Center is adding a new facility to better accommodate its lemurs. [ See video ]

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-50992190589154174672009-11-16T17:06:00.007-05:002009-11-17T09:54:30.988-05:00

A U.S. Forest Service-funded research project that took advantage of a modern-day controlled burn provides a glimpse at how Native Americans might have used flame to manage forests of the Appalachian mountains before European settlers re-rearranged the landscape.At a Nov. 13 University Program in Ecology seminar at Duke, Norm Christensen, former Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment,

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-48878777168821044892009-11-13T09:22:00.006-05:002009-11-13T09:52:13.247-05:00

Most laboratories at Duke are described in terms of square feet. But the Duke Forest, which performs about $3 million worth of research every year, is best appreciated in square miles -- more than 11 of them -- scattered across three counties.(image: Professor James Clark works on his soil warming experiment| Megan Morr, Duke Photo)Resource manager Judd Edeburn brought the forest's friends and

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-55234542349690421992009-11-04T01:16:00.026-05:002009-11-08T17:58:26.335-05:00

Because the anonymity of the web might allow a major chunk of social network users to be dishonest, an algorithm being developed by a Duke graduate student is trying to estimate a given user's credibility by asking their friends if they're legit.Michael Sirivianos, a PhD student in Computer Science presented FaceTrust in a talk on Tuesday.It's a unique system he and his fellow researchers

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-11330389163742579602009-11-01T15:30:00.015-05:002009-11-02T10:37:22.378-05:00

As an audience filed into a Duke Hospital auditorium last week to hear Philip M. Rosoff talk about the ethical difficulties of apportioning scarce resources to fight a pandemic, a line of people waiting for flu shots in the hallway outside stretched out of sight.Rosoff, a professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities and History of Medicine, raised the same

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-89166793549967517972009-10-26T11:06:00.008-04:002009-10-26T13:37:04.961-04:00

A pair of British researchers, veterinarian Zoe Jewell and biologist Sky Alibhai, are out to save some of the planet's most well-known species, using both local knowledge and state-of-the-art computer science to identify individual animals by their dusty footprints.(image: a 25-centimeter black rhino footprint, courtesy of WildTrack)Describing their efforts at Duke's weekly Visualization Friday

Montenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-36479237059952995712009-10-15T14:24:00.012-04:002009-10-15T18:10:59.030-04:00

(image: C Emergence game project, 2009/Philip Lin)It’s the 22nd century, and future generations have built vast numbers of artificial androids to alleviate worldwide labor problems and global economic crises.In the process, these “arties” have created a sophisticated world of beautifully surreal, well-constructed and environmentally advanced buildings under the control of a computer network.But a

Montenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-69607880499373426032009-10-13T01:41:00.008-04:002009-10-13T15:04:50.943-04:00

Luis von Ahn, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon and a Duke University graduate in Mathematics was here to deliver the first of the Distinguished ComputerScience Alumni Lectures. Luis von Ahn is the inventor of CAPTCHAs, the squiggly random letters/numbers that one finds at the end of an online form to verify that you're a real person. He went on to develop RECAPTCHA,

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-89918676107341067382009-10-12T16:09:00.009-04:002009-10-12T16:31:28.703-04:00

As a crucial part of their training, graduate professional students in the Nicholas School for the Environment need to have some experience with giant, expensive software packages like those used for statistical analysis, data modeling and GIS mapping.It's more than a four-year-old laptop can handle, let's put it that way. But while the school's computer labs have managed to stay state-of-the-art

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-71679098497174610282009-10-09T17:31:00.018-04:002009-10-13T19:10:28.812-04:00

Five to seven hours by bus, and up to three days by canoe. Not your average commute, but that’s how long it took for Duke undergraduate Varsha Vijay to reach the site of her research in the Ecuadorian Amazon, January through August of this year. Vijay would stay with the Waorani people in that region for one to three weeks at a time.“They’re known as the fiercest tribe of the Amazon. It’s not

Beccanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-65844998651850854592009-10-09T10:23:00.006-04:002009-10-09T12:54:48.340-04:00

A research pediatrician and an ecologist are joining forces at Duke to improve the prospects for very premature infants by exploring which bacteria first colonize their intestines."We hope this will allow us to ask if there are organisms that, when acquired early, provide early warning or reduce the risk of serious disease," said Patrick Seed, an assistant professor of pediatrics, molecular

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-41409760651177891052009-10-02T10:07:00.010-04:002009-10-02T16:44:55.296-04:00

A top-flight research hospital like Duke has the ability to pour tremendous resources and technology into saving the lives of newborn children who might otherwise have died within days, weeks, or months.And it often does.How does a family torn between hope, grief, guilt and despair sort out all the probabilities and technicalities? Do faith and hope make a difference? How do they live with the

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-7277194398929844282009-09-28T02:35:00.020-04:002009-09-28T12:52:10.165-04:00

On Friday, September 25th, Lucinda Buhs, Director, Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis, FDA, delivered a talk on "Raman Microscopic Imaging of Pharmaceuticals" for the Visualization Friday Forum.Raman microscopic imaging is a spectroscopic technique that utilizes the concept of Raman scattering of monochromatic light. It is based on the interaction of laser (monochromatic) light with vibrations

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-50832206903799088202009-09-24T09:59:00.010-04:002009-09-24T17:26:41.332-04:00

This semester I’m taking a class called Integrating Environmental Science and Policy, taught by Professor Charlotte Clark. I’ve enjoyed our in-depth examination environmental issues, as well as the numerous guest lecturers.Last Monday, Nicholas School alumna Tobin Freid spoke to our class about her role as the first-ever Sustainability Manager for Durham City and County.Durham’s Greenhouse Gas

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-15869724558346768242009-09-15T09:48:00.013-04:002009-09-21T13:53:27.629-04:00

(Post Updated Monday, Sept. 21 with new image and links)“Can we assure the safety of myriads of molecules? Can we use technological innovations in information science to learn from a legacy of scientific minds?” former Duke graduate student Rocky Goldsmith asked at the Sept. 11 Visualization Friday Forum.Goldsmith currently works with The Exposure Dose Research Branch of the EPA's National

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-34426133219637607372009-09-14T02:52:00.010-04:002009-09-14T23:14:14.346-04:00

Duke sophomore Ilka Felsen did not want to do summer school, but instead really wanted to put what she learned in class to practical use. "I came into the experience wondering how long does it take to answer a question in science. Like, why do we need 10 weeks to answer a question that doesn't even look that complicated?"Ilka was one among the 15 students selected as IGSP (Institute of Genome

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-31686545614341668562009-09-10T08:55:00.006-04:002009-09-10T09:07:19.820-04:00

Guest post from Mischa-von-Derek Aikman, age 15 (second from right in photo)Duke University, in conjunction with Dr. Arlie Petters’ Research Institute (Dangriga, Belize), facilitated the Talent Identification Program (TIP) for the first time here in Belize.This year was the first that the student intake was selected not only from the United States, but as well, from Belize and the United

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-75081102117101342932009-09-06T18:05:00.009-04:002009-09-08T11:29:57.861-04:00

Summer is done with, and school has started again- probably not the most satisfying feeling. And I am back to blogging about all the really smart research happening in and around Duke. Just as a memory refresher- I am Vansh Muttreja, an international sophomore at Duke and a Computer Engineering and Economics major. I have been writing for the Duke Research blog for a year now, and its been an

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-91919492487333008562009-09-01T15:07:00.005-04:002009-09-01T15:12:51.919-04:00

Hope is the single most important therapy against cancer, says Dr. Henry Friedman of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke. Viral therapies to "rev up the immune system" against microscopic metastases are promising too. See Dr. Friedman discuss these and other things in a 5-minute video from CBS News.

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-55619067356928979392009-08-26T13:10:00.005-04:002009-08-26T14:52:40.963-04:00

For the last quarter-century, through fair weather and foul, Duke geologist Orrin Pilkey has been warning that it's a bad idea to build on vulnerable barrier islands like North Carolina's Outer Banks.Development pins the islands in place, rather than allowing them to move shoreward in response to rising sea levels, his many books and guest editorials have argued.In his latest book, The Rising Sea

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-27159253701275049752009-08-24T13:21:00.005-04:002009-08-24T13:28:54.989-04:00

David Goldstein of the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy did a live one-hour web stream last week to discuss genetics, genomics, racial disparities and his latest work on Hepatitis C treatments.He's an interesting guy, written up last year in a New York Times article which pointed out that he “does not shy away from unpopular positions or research.” He's also the author of a 2008 book Jacob

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-3328430341959642562009-07-10T14:32:00.006-04:002009-07-10T14:42:27.506-04:00

Marine scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum, a research associate in Stuart Pimm's group at the Nicholas School of the Environment, is the co-author of a provocative new book that has just come out, "UNSCIENTIFIC AMERICA: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future."She argues that in an age of global warming, energy crisis, nuclear proliferation, and health pandemics, we probably need science and

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-71969826011528769442009-07-08T17:11:00.003-04:002009-07-08T17:15:32.536-04:00

Rising sophomore Tiff Shao has been in Costa Rica on a summer semester with the Organization for Tropical Studies, and she's keeping a blog with great writing and beautiful images. Today she posted a passel of short videos, including some spectacular bug life. View Costa Rica - OTS in a larger map

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-8431609865793613642009-07-02T08:34:00.007-04:002009-07-02T08:48:23.383-04:00

Guest Post from Maheen Shermohammed, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate fellow in the neurobiology lab of Nicole Calakos: I got back from lab today at 8PM. 8PM... and I started at 9AM. There have been very few times in my life that I have come home as exhausted as I have some of the days in these past two weeks. Now granted, I've never really had a job before. Still, this

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-31164340301789379532009-06-18T15:31:00.005-04:002009-06-18T15:50:39.565-04:00

Anne Yoder, director of the Duke Lemur Center, is giving the next in a series of lectures commemorating the 150th anniversary of the publication of “The Origin of Species” and the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth.At 6:30 p.m on Thursday, July 9 at the Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh, Yoder presents “Madagascar’s magnificent biodiversity: What would Darwin say?”Yoder’s

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-44100719165271854182009-06-15T11:40:00.004-04:002009-06-15T11:48:26.289-04:00

Guest post from NCCU summer intern David L. Fitts Jr.--Millions of Americans are providing at-home care for a loved one with cancer, yet few feel up to the task. Cristina Hendrix, assistant professor in the school of nursing, conducted a study that examined how a one-to-one training might help family caregivers of cancer patients improve their confidence and preparedness in caregiving. Having

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-20407782867461005012009-06-04T12:20:00.005-04:002009-06-04T12:31:38.720-04:00

Guest post from Jennifer Lansford, Associate Research Professor, Social Science Research Institute:Sir Michael Rutter of King's College London provided a thought-provoking opening talk in the recent Center for Child and Family Policy conference “Gene-Environment Interactions in Developmental Psychopathology: So What?”Professor Rutter, who has been described as the “father of child psychology,”

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-74790470034635054092009-06-03T12:52:00.007-04:002009-06-04T12:52:43.247-04:00

Guest post from NCCU summer intern David L. Fitts Jr.--Social networking sites, online gaming, and instant messengers are cool but isn’t there something else missing from the online universe? Despite the power of YouTube and Facebook, entertainment seems to be the only thing to come from them.A pair of Rutgers University professors are trying to use these new technologies to teach as well as

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-57167478386812992622009-05-28T14:41:00.005-04:002009-05-28T14:53:43.630-04:00

Never mind nature versus nurture, the real question we should be asking about human origins is "hardware or software?" argues Duke biologist Greg Wray. Wray gave a pizza lunch seminar at Sigma Xi's headquarters in the research triangle on Wednesday to share his view that biology's fixation on the "hardware," the coding sequences of DNA that carry blueprints for specific proteins, has obscured

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-37257502255353389622009-04-27T15:23:00.011-04:002009-04-27T16:35:52.790-04:00

Even humans who aren't naturally phobic about spiders and snakes can be provoked into a certain "fear avoidance" towards them, tests in a Duke Department of Psychology and Neuroscience laboratory show. But, just one day later, most of those bad "contextual" memories seem to dissipate, unless...!Unless those memories are formed in the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE), the university's

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-21065424310182461802009-04-21T15:48:00.002-04:002009-04-21T15:57:14.516-04:00

The Duke Lemur Center has added a webcam that overlooks an indoor enclosure shared by several Coquerel's sifakas, the striking brown and white leapers.You can tilt and pan to your heart's delight, unless a thousand other users are in there too.

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-78680895889847814732009-04-21T08:46:00.012-04:002009-04-21T16:33:45.012-04:00

The global level of carbon in the atmosphere is beyond the tipping point proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (350 ppm), according to Thomas Lovejoy, founder of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. “Four hundred and fifty parts per million is not an acceptable target,” Lovejoy said at Duke's 2009 Oosting Memorial Lecture and Student Symposium

Beccanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-77118993661074306562009-04-21T00:14:00.004-04:002009-04-21T09:53:27.730-04:00

Duke Senior Megan Kuhfeld wanted to know if starting class later in the morning helps the teenaged brain work better. To find out, she surveyed principals and school district officials across the country about their opinions, before and after their high schools switched to a late-start system.Last week, she was one of dozens of Duke students presenting their senior theses in posters during

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-74226518475388604852009-04-17T08:54:00.003-04:002009-04-17T09:01:44.932-04:00

Duke Primate technician Samantha Trull (pictured here with a juvenile Aye-Aye) is among the Duke Lemur Center staff featured in a Nature documentary this Sunday on PBS. The show is called "The Loneliest Animals" and it asks: what if you were the last of your species on Earth?A poignant question which certainly applies to our prosimian lodgers at the DLC.Look for the show at 8 p.m., Sunday April

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-68387501615979247622009-04-13T14:44:00.014-04:002009-04-14T10:01:02.074-04:00

Duke is doing what it can to be greener, with LEED building standards, materials recycling and incentives to carpool.But the bar has been set still higher.President Brodhead has signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, pledging to eliminate or offset Duke’s carbon emissions at some point in the future, maybe 2024, Duke's 100th birthday.A number of efforts are

Beccanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-54819519280265378702009-04-13T10:18:00.010-04:002009-04-14T08:36:22.105-04:00

Thomas Kepler, Director of Duke's Laboratory of Computational Immunology, sure doesn't sound like a physicist, but he is, or rather was. At Friday's Visualization Friday Forum, Kepler shared his group's latest work on modeling immune system behavior in a session called "Vaccines (the Movie)." It's a collaboration within the Human Vaccine Institute that pulls together statistics and math,

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-54408634608757271772009-04-06T16:55:00.005-04:002009-04-06T17:04:57.520-04:00

From Cara Bonnett of Duke’s Office of Information Technology: Home to Facebook, Twitter and more than 57 million blogs – about 100,000 created each day – the Internet offers endless opportunities for self-expression and communication. It also makes instantly available a permanent chronicle of our private lives that isn’t always flattering or accurate.“Reputation is much more accessible,” says

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-35159673280349046002009-04-03T15:09:00.007-04:002009-04-03T19:29:42.124-04:00

"I want to share my time as a scientist by turning the pages in my scientific notebook", Oliver Smithies, 2007 Nobel Laureate for Medicine, said in front of a packed Love Auditorium in LSRC at Duke.Oliver Smithies, a graduate of Oxford University, is the Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at University of North Carolina.On Thursday, as part of The Duke MD-PhD Program Annual

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-69516384371981879652009-04-03T14:34:00.006-04:002009-04-03T15:12:00.178-04:00

The models being used to predict and quantify the effects of environmental change fall short when it comes to understanding time, according to MacArthur award winner Alan Hastings, a professor of environmental science and policy at UC-Davis. He spoke Thursday at the French Family Science Center.According to Hastings, time and space are essential to our understanding of ecological systems.

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-29027637688954323512009-03-30T01:20:00.011-04:002009-03-30T13:00:10.461-04:00

If eight percent of women ages 18-49 -- child-bearing age -- have mercury levels exceeding federal health guidelines, how many children have potentially inherited high levels of mercury from their mothers?“Tens to hundreds of thousands," says Helen Hsu-Kim, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke.Hsu-Kim discussed all aspects of mercury pollution during a March 26 talk in Giles,

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-80764091099343139402009-03-26T14:56:00.003-04:002009-03-26T20:09:33.761-04:00

Probing for the Higgs Boson may be the greatest quest in high energy physics. But two Duke-led efforts are narrowing the search. As a result, the Higgs may be discovered sooner at a particle smasher outside Chicago rather than later at its replacement, the CERN Large Hadron Collider spanning the Swiss and French borders.Scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill. are

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-52045905990628406562009-03-22T00:43:00.012-04:002009-03-23T10:13:35.951-04:00

"Durham is a fascinating place in post civil war history," Trudi J.Abel, developer of the Digital Durham website, told the Visualization Friday Forum on March 20.The Digital Durham website is a repository of maps, census data, photographs, personal and public records from post civil war Durham, built with grant support from the Center of Instructional Technology at Duke."The attempt for Digital

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-44212127585588489762009-03-20T16:35:00.006-04:002009-03-23T09:55:30.881-04:00

“The land use choices we make can cause significant differences in our climate,” Gordon Bonan of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said to a crowded room in the Nicholas School, Thursday.Depending on deforestation and agricultural expansion in the coming decades, the Earth’s climate will be impacted in various ways because different types of land cover interact with the environment

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-41137396230685007412009-03-18T15:49:00.004-04:002009-03-20T10:18:56.424-04:00

So many times, after genocide, people and governments say “never again.” But according to Homi Bhabha, the 2009 Andrew W. Mellon/FHI Distinguished Lecturer, “Ethically, even aesthetically, we will lose our way if we don’t believe that it will happen again.”Bhabha, a professor of the humanities at Harvard University, spoke Tuesday at the Nasher about Time, Agency, and the Banality of Evil. “I know

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-68838016307380177342009-03-17T15:53:00.003-04:002009-03-17T16:23:11.746-04:00

Dan Ariely, the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics in the Fuqua School of Business and a senior fellow in Duke's Kenan Institute for Ethics, has done some provocative research on the gray areas in which people feel just a teensy bit comfortable cheating. At the most recent TED conference, he wowed the invitation-only audience on this topic.We profiled Dan about a year ago in Duke

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-15089966966058433092009-03-13T13:25:00.009-04:002009-03-13T14:34:17.305-04:00

Many molecules in biology come in either left- or right-handed -- so-called "chiral" -- forms. But scientists were surprised to learn from a 1999 report in the research journal Science that electrons, in special circumstances, might move at different rates through those mirror-image structures.Those "special circumstances" involve using circularly polarized light to get the electrons moving

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-10626254433581844562009-03-05T09:00:00.006-05:002009-03-05T12:49:33.269-05:00

Duke students joined 12,000 other people at PowerShift 09, a four-day conference about the environmental issues affecting our planet, and how they can be addressed. PowerShift had speeches, panels, workshops, rallies, and Lobby Day, when participants converged on Capitol Hill to demand change from their representatives.The first and second night (Feb. 27 and 28), keynote speakers gave stirring

Beccanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-35839946930852579652009-03-05T03:12:00.008-05:002009-03-05T09:07:43.343-05:00

Entrepreneurship, even though not a specific Grand Challenge itself, is the driving force for the proper implementation of every solution to the challenges, according to a panel of entrepreneurs and business leaders who conducted a panel discussion at the Grand Challenges Summit hosted by the Pratt School of Engineering on March 2 and 3.The Entrepreneurship panel discussed the most important

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-63955907511503297912009-03-03T16:37:00.007-05:002009-03-03T16:43:45.913-05:00

The Grand Challenges summit in Durham was a great meeting with attendees from all over the country and beyond, but what it lacked was a big swag-filled convention hall.Not to worry! The good folks at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California have cooked up some virtual swag -- a downloadable commemorative icosahedron. How cool is that?

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-1218740001718965222009-03-03T12:19:00.004-05:002009-03-03T16:24:10.390-05:00

It took the 2003 Slammer worm just 30 minutes to propagate internationally in the United States, Europe and elsewhere though the Internet. And cyber criminals can exploit online systems to obtain the tax records of people who are downloading music. Clearly, the public is "concerned about the digital infrastructure," said North Carolina State University computer science professor Annie Antón. "

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-14662516383908450142009-03-02T16:43:00.007-05:002009-03-04T11:33:20.367-05:00

Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Robert Langer gave a National Academy of Engineering summit focused on addressing worldwide needs a primer on how engineers can aid medicine.One big challenge is figuring how to get "drugs of the future" into the human body in a way that can do some good, said the chemical engineer who won the 800,000 Euro 2008 Millenium Technology Prize for some of

Montenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-24840675149258991922009-03-02T13:24:00.006-05:002009-03-02T17:25:41.363-05:00

Engineers and scientists -- including social scientists -- need to work together and urgently to address 14 engineering challenges identified as crucial to Earth's future last year by the National Academy of Engineering, said academy director Charles Vest in a March 2 kickoff address at the Durham Performance Arts Center during the first session of a summit on those problems.Panels of experts

Montenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-9597261490740762282009-02-27T00:23:00.006-05:002009-02-27T10:10:25.541-05:00

Why is your heart in the left side of your body? How does ultrasound technology work? Most importantly, what are the chemical properties of goo?Certainly, these are thought-provoking questions. Last Saturday, over 200 girls in grades 4-6 got the chance to discover the answers. Duke hosted the girls for the FEMMES (Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science) capstone event, an

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-63444260375829231982009-02-25T11:06:00.004-05:002009-11-06T10:40:24.105-05:00

Brian Hare is launching a "Duke Canine Cognition Center" to investigate the unique cognitive abilities in domestic dogs.He needs help from the public -- and their dogs.The DCCC will be enrolling pet dogs to participate in fun problem-solving experiments that the dogs will enjoy. Experiments will be starting in March/April.UPDATE (Nov. 2009) -- Here is the website for the Canine Cognition Lab:To

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-64577484161125927672009-02-23T15:46:00.007-05:002009-02-24T08:56:07.331-05:00

Clean air, safe food, and pure water were the focus of Friday’s symposium, entitled Managing Toxic Risks for Global Health. Presented by the Global Health Institute, the Superfund Basic Research Center and the Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health program, the event drew attendees from across the region.Following an introduction by Dr. Edward Levin and Dr. Michael Merson, scientists and

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-79948188957358757092009-02-22T12:10:00.012-05:002009-02-23T10:40:32.206-05:00

"Green roofs are built in America just because they are green roofs, without knowing why they are being built," says Charlie Miller, President and Founder, Roofscapes Inc.On February 9th, Miller was invited to Duke to talk about the current research and industry trends in sustainable green roofs as part of the Smart Talk Series.Roofscapes Inc. is widely recognized in North America as a technical

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-24121105624562114382009-02-18T12:49:00.009-05:002009-02-18T13:09:18.825-05:00

A guest-post from Andrea Fereshteh, senior writer in Duke's office of news and communications:Re-reading physician-turned author Abraham Verghese’s first book My Own Country last month, I was struck by his raw, revealing look at treating AIDS in East Tennessee during the late 1980s. My father went to work with Verghese when I was just seven years old and though I identified them as doctors by

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-50697522227685391232009-02-16T12:03:00.017-05:002009-02-16T13:41:30.220-05:00

“Global warming was quaint,” according to one speaker at Friday’s “World in Conflict” conference, held at Duke’s French Family Science Center. He meant that global warming was only the start of the various environmental problems that will soon plague our planet.These problems were the focus of the conference, which dealt with the issues of water, energy, and biodiversity specifically. Each was

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-58677820813088981302009-02-13T08:35:00.010-05:002009-02-16T13:38:36.551-05:00

Duke's Mohamed Noor, a self-described "evolutionary geneticist" was honored in London yesterday by the Linnean Society with the prestigious and exceedingly rare Darwin-Wallace Medal for his work on speciation.Noor, 38, was chosen to speak briefly on behalf of the dozen honorees, which included the late Stephen Jay Gould and the late John Maynard-Smith, Rosemary and Peter Grant of Galapagos finch

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-51822252078495551702009-02-09T15:20:00.012-05:002009-02-09T15:43:08.185-05:00

On Saturday, Duke Smart Home students hosted Iowa State professor Mikesch Muecke to share his knowledge of sustainable building techniques. Muecke’s presentation focused on passive housing. A passive house can maintain a comfortable indoor climate without relying upon active heating and cooling systems. Specialized designs make this possible, utilizing the natural light and heat of the sun, as

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-32371166590363110252009-02-08T11:42:00.017-05:002009-02-09T13:09:26.919-05:00

Strengthening control sensing capabilities and artificial intelligence of robots is a prime objective for a lot of the current ongoing research in robotics.Duke's Robotics and Manufacturing Automation Laboratory (RAMA labs), headed by Professor Devendra P. Garg, conducts excessive research in various fields, including mobile sensor development and robot-World Wide Web interfacing.The focus of the

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-36764013449128335172009-02-01T23:46:00.016-05:002009-02-16T12:08:17.856-05:00

“There’s a music in ideas, a poetry in justice.”So said Justice Albie Sachs last Wednesday, as the Nasher Museum of Art hosted him for a presentation and discussion entitled “The Place of Art in Rendering Justice.” The design of South Africa’s Constitutional Court building was the focus of the event. Srinivas Aravamudan, soon-to-be Dean of Humanities, gave a thought-provoking introduction.

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-42334549440672539422009-01-26T13:25:00.011-05:002009-01-27T08:46:29.472-05:00

Friday’s Visualization Forum featured former Duke students David McMullen and Marcel Yang unveiling their innovative virtual-reality learning tool for teaching how alcohol is absorbed by the body. The project is an independent study with Duke professors Rochelle Schwartz-Bloom and Rachael Brady. Aimed toward college students, the program utilizes Duke’s Immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) to

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-29691601381608527242009-01-21T09:31:00.009-05:002009-01-21T10:27:56.934-05:00

The practice of blogging about science -- writing short, informal little items about science news, the process of science, the interesting people doing science -- is more than a fad at this point. It's become a full-on movement.Witness the third international gathering of science bloggers in the Triangle this past weekend, now called ScienceOnline(insert year here).Several Duke bloggers were on

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-13748662898658965252009-01-20T14:11:00.007-05:002009-01-20T15:50:32.650-05:00

According to Evolutionary Anthropology Department chairman Daniel Schmitt, something special happened in humans' family tree about 2 million years ago. Long before that, our line already had become the only mammals to walk fully erect. But fossilized bones from our ancestor Homo erectus suggest that by 2 million years ago we were also walking in the modern way.Even toddlers do that spontaneously,

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-83005383080337602952009-01-18T15:43:00.011-05:002009-01-20T10:29:12.623-05:00

Smart Home, a live-in laboratory at Duke University, is a place where inter-disciplinary research meets practical needs. After having won one of the most prestigious ratings in green buildings, called the Platinum LEED rating (given by the US Green Building Council), Smart Home has established itself as a foremost example of focusing holistic research on sustainable building techniques. Students

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-48941028645490637652009-01-12T23:24:00.020-05:002009-01-13T14:17:48.165-05:00

Kapil Ramachandran, 17, is a freshman at Duke who's scientific career has already won him national acclaim. At age 16, his research about alcohol addiction won him a prestigious award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. According to Kapil, his innovative research was inspired by his experiences while working in the emergency room of a hospital."I saw a patient come in who had

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-31963749338159797362008-12-21T00:15:00.012-05:002008-12-30T12:32:14.152-05:00

Biomedical engineers and cancer specialists at Duke have long been collaborating to discover ways to detect and treat cancer at all its stages. One of the recent major breakthroughs is the ability to observe and examine a live body tissue in three dimensions using a technique called Multi-photon microscopy.According to researchers, more than 50% of all detected cancers arise in squamous

Vanshnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-86851394601168765322008-12-17T09:14:00.004-05:002008-12-17T09:27:25.525-05:00

Go ahead and ask anybody who has lost a third to a half of their retirement nest egg or college fund in the last six months and they'll tell you things are bad. But what do the professional money guys think? The CFO Survey, a 12-year-old collaborative effort of the Fuqua School of Business and CFO Magazine, has been doing just that. And the bottom line from the latest quarterly data is not

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-47078765841139947692008-12-04T11:56:00.009-05:002008-12-05T08:47:09.549-05:00

When social science researchers look at a public policy issue, they usually find a number so telling or shocking that you have to stop and think about the stories behind it. For sociologist Linda Burton, one such number stood out in a three-city study she directed that looked at how illness and disparities in access to health care and health insurance affect the poor’s ability to get and hold

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-71017361629504667422008-12-03T11:35:00.003-05:002008-12-03T13:49:23.422-05:00

We have some very sad news from the Duke Lemur Center this morning: Titus, a 25-year-old Golden-crowned sifaka -- the last of his kind in captivity and one of the very last in the world -- died yesterday after surgery for a tumor.The entire staff had turned out to say goodbye to him, as he had been at DLC for 15 years. His species is highly endangered because their entire habitat is smaller than

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-77225291437565397592008-12-01T13:46:00.003-05:002008-12-01T14:34:56.875-05:00

Monday was the 20th World AIDS Day, but "celebration is such an odd word for it," assistant dean Michael Relf told a small brown bag session at the School of Nursing.Today, an estimated 33 million people carry HIV, of which two-thirds are in sub-Saharan Africa, where Relf does much of his research. As the virus spreads most viciously among the poor, the uneducated, the young and the female, "

Karl Leif Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592092926008131614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-12366764424300587622008-11-24T13:17:00.005-05:002008-11-24T15:00:51.470-05:00

A Duke physicist is helping sort out a scientific mystery in the debris of some high energy subatomic particle smashups at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. An unexpectedly large number of muons are appearing in ways that can't be explained by known physics.The excess muons, which are heavier versions of electrons, could be evidence for some form of mysterious dark matter, acknowledges

Montenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-85413633684037415432008-11-24T11:24:00.015-05:002008-11-24T15:01:44.625-05:00

Becca Writes:Last week I visited the NOAA / EPA Fluid Modeling Facility with my Focus Program group. The purpose of this facility is to better understand atmospheric dispersion of pollutants. For that reason, the scientists at the FMF build huge scale models of buildings, towns, and cities to evaluate atmospheric dispersion under very specific conditions. They place a model in a large wind tunnel

Beccanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4036274230405536999.post-14699460423915852562008-11-20T11:40:00.007-05:002008-11-20T13:47:18.711-05:00

Stuart Kauffman, a philosophy major who became a physician, biochemist and a well known biology and complexity theorist, told a Duke Physics Building audience on Nov. 18 that the universe's own inherent uncertainties make it an unpredictable, "lawless" place.In a talk sponsored by Duke's Center for Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences, the director of the University of Calgary's Institute for

Montenoreply@blogger.com0