Research Magazine 2010
Table of Contents
Features
Confronting CancerAbout half of all men and one third of all women in the United States will get cancer at some point in their lives. The disease kills more than half a million Americans every year, and within two decades it will surpass heart disease as the nation’s leading cause of death, according to the American Cancer Society. Read More…
Family MattersBy the end of the 20th century—a century that saw women secure the right to vote, begin to follow educational and professional pathways long blocked to them, and gain control over their fertility—it was easy to think that the “Woman Question” raised by Victorian-era suffragists had at last been resolved. Read More…
All About AsiaThe world’s largest and most populous continent, Asia may also be the most diverse, with subregions containing vastly different cultures, environments, historical ties, and government systems. For centuries it has captivated the imagination of visitors from around the world. Read More…
New and NoteworthyA bold strategic plan in 2007 called for the creation of 100 new faculty positions over the next decade. Boston University is continuing to move forward with this goal today, even as the global economy has slowed. Read More…
Undaunted by DiabetesThe U.S. Surgeon General’s report, Healthy People 2010, lists diabetes mellitus as a major health challenge—and with good reason: as many as a million and a half new cases of diabetes are diagnosed each year, bringing the number of American children and adults with the disorder to 23.6 million. Read More…
Highlights
Here, There, and EverywhereWith a diverse student body on campus, representing more than 135 nations, and well-established study abroad programs in 30 countries on six continents, BU has a strong tradition of global engagement. Read More…
In the FieldAcademic research at major universities—an exciting world of excavations, sediment sampling, and high-level lab tests—is typically reserved for graduate-level work. But at Boston University, a significant number of faculty members are giving undergraduates a key role to play in ongoing research projects—in some cases, as early as freshman year. Read More…
Snapshots
Massachusetts: Health Care Reform’s Guinea Pig?Ever since Massachusetts became the first state to mandate health insurance in 2006, the nation has been watching to see how the reforms would impact patients and hospitals. A recent study conducted by School of Medicine faculty members Amresh Hanchate and Nancy Kressin may offer some clues. Read More…
Building a Better VaccineStreptococcus pneumoniae—a bacterium that can cause pneumonia, meningitis, and a host of other invasive infections, resulting in the deaths of between two and three million children each year—is a master of disguise. Its outermost surface is covered by a capsule made up of sugars, and can come in any of 91 different capsular variants, or serotypes, depending on the composition of the sugars. Read More…
Orchestrating SuccessFreedom of expression. Freedom to travel. Freedom to live an intellectually stimulating, professionally challenging life. That quest for freedom impelled Yuri Mazurkevich, professor of music, and his wife, Dana, associate professor of music, to leave the Soviet Union in the mid-1970s and head west. Read More…
Recollection of Things PastNature Morte, the title of a recent exhibition that included nine photogravures by School of Visual Arts Director Lynne Allen, is the French term for still life. But the literal translation is more grim: “dead nature.” For Allen, the two connotations are equally apt. Read More…
The Neuroscientist and the TheologianFor the philosopher and theologian Wesley Wildman, considering religion through the lens of science comes naturally. An associate professor of philosophy, theology, and ethics in the School of Theology, Wildman trained as a mathematician and physicist before becoming a scholar of religion, and he has continued to study and write about the intersection of the two fields. Read More…
Traffic CopThere is a good chance you own a zombie. It could have been infected by a website you visited, or a link you clicked in an email from a trusted friend. Or maybe you didn’t do anything at all to compromise your computer, and still an attacker slipped past your firewalls and turned your computer into a virulent drone. Read More…
A Breath of Fresh AirOne of the first scientific facts that schoolchildren learn is that human respiration involves the intake of oxygen and the exhalation of carbon dioxide. Scientists have long understood that respiration works in the reverse for vegetation: growing plants take in carbon dioxide—carbon, for short—and release oxygen. Read More…
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