Departments
In the News
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Week of 11 September 1998 |
Vol. II, No. 5 |
In the News
Roscoe Giles, ENG associate professor of engineering and computer science, describes Boston University's participation in the National Science Foundation- funded Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program in a page one story in the August 23 Boston Globe. The story is about efforts to attract minorities and women to the fields of science and engineering. Under the auspices of the program, whose goal is to develop prototypes for 21st century high-tech computing, Giles spearheads outreach, education, and training efforts for individuals in underserved populations. The article also mentions CityLab, a program at the BU School of Medicine designed to expose high school students to scientific research.
Jeffrey Heisler, SMG assistant professor of finance and economics, says in the August 30 Boston Globe that investors were frozen with indecision "like deer in the headlights" during the recent stock market gyrations. "What no one knows is whether no one bailed because everyone stuck to their discipline or because the worst was over by the time people recovered from being blindsided by it," he says.
In its latest issue, Boston Magazine profiles Richard Landes, CAS associate professor of history and cofounder and director of the Center for Millennial Studies. Noting the growing interest in the work of the Center, Landes says, "This is a hot field. It's at the intersection of academia and the larger culture, and it's right under our noses." Dedicated to studying the period before and after the millennium, the Center investigates and monitors groups, prophecies, and apocalyptic expectations.
When Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire admitted using androstenedione -- the controversial "power pill" -- Roger Fielding, assistant professor of health science at Sargent College, was asked to comment on its significance. "In normal men, it's unlikely that it has any muscle-building or performance-enhancing effects because it really doesn't increase the levels of circulating or free testosterone," he explains in one television interview. The substance has been banned in some sports, but not in baseball.
A study from the Center for BioDynamics and Biomedical Engineering on enhancing sensory perception through stochastic resonance has drawn attention from Physics News as well as the HealthScout Web site. The study, published in this month's issue of the journal Chaos by a team under the direction of College of Engineering Professor James Collins, reports on the use of electrical "noise" signals to improve nerve response. Although still in its preliminary stages, the work has the potential to restore a sense of touch to people whose sensory nerves have been damaged.
"In the News" is compiled by the Office of Public Relations.