Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Why salmon manage to find their way home
"The World Tonight" BBC
How do salmon find their way back to their birthplace to spawn, often travelling hundreds of miles to do so? How do some species of sea turtle manage to do the same thing …. According to a paper published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the answer could be magnetic imaging … the theory comes from a study conducted by Kenneth Lohmann at the University of North Carolina…
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/no-place-like-home-
new-theory-for-how-salmon-sea-turtles-find-their-birthplace.html
Magnetic fields clue to migration
The Press Association (Wire Service)
One of nature's greatest mysteries could be about to be solved after scientists revealed a new theory on how salmon find their way home. …Kenneth Lohmann, professor of biology at the University of North Carolina, US, said: "What we are proposing is that natal homing can be explained in terms of animals learning the unique magnetic signature of their home area early in life and then retaining that information."
Related Links:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/environment/display.var.2472243.0.
Salmons_magnetism_may_be_its_saviour.php
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/New-theory-on-how-Salmon.4750204.jp
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/science/marine-animal-magnetism-homing-
salmons-secret-$1252369.htm
Exercise may prevent brain aging
United Press International
Exercise may help older adults prevent age-related brain changes, researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill said. The researchers said brain scans showed older adults who did not exercise had more unpredictable cerebral blood flow than those who did exercise. "The active adults had more small blood vessels and improved cerebral blood flow," study senior author Dr. J. Keith Smith said in a statement. "These findings further point out the importance of regular exercise to healthy aging."
National Coverage
Report: Mass media harms kids
USA Today
Parents and policymakers need to take action to protect children from being harmed by TV, the Internet and other types of media, a report says. …Keeping an eye on children's media use is tougher today, says Jane Brown, a journalism and mass communication professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who was not involved in the report.
Older Adults Who Exercise Boost Blood Flow in Brain
HealthDay News
Older adults who exercise regularly have increased blood flow and more small blood vessels in the brain, a new study shows. The University of North Carolina (UNC) study, expected to be presented Monday at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting, in Chicago, may help explain other studies that exercise prevents cognitive decline in the elderly.
Car Cell Phone Use More Hazardous Than Chat With Passengers
HealthDay News
Drivers talking on a cell phone are more distracted and more prone to error than if they were speaking with a friend sitting next to them in the car, a new report finds. …"The public and, to a lesser extent, the research community has had this question for some time: What's the difference between talking on a cell phone and talking to a passenger?" said Robert D. Foss, director of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers at the Highway Safety Research Center, at the University of North Carolina.
Regional Coverage
YOU Docs: When vitamins become bad
The Banner-Herald (Athens, Ga.)
Like running with scissors, skimping on folate – an important B vitamin found in beans, greens, and fortified breads, breakfast cereal and noodles – is a health accident waiting to happen. …In fact, it might have even have raised the odds for advanced and multiple tumors, reports the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UT gets $15 million gift for history center
The American-Statesman (Austin, Texas)
…Richard Szary, director of the Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said a gift of this size would be transformative for any institution except for perhaps the largest ones, such as the Library of Congress. But even for the largest institutions, Szary said, it would allow an expansion and acceleration of their work. Few repositories have collections on the scale of the UT center's, he added.
State and Local Coverage
UNC-CH student is Rhodes Scholar
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A UNC-Chapel Hill senior from Canada has won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Elisabeth "Lisette" Yorke, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the women's ice hockey team, is the second UNC-CH student to win the honor this year and the fourth with North Carolina ties.
Related Links:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/another-rhodes-scholar-for-unc
http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=8750
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/students/uncs-yorke-wins-rhodes-scholarship.html
Study: Animals find their way magnetically
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have proposed a new theory to explain how sea turtles and salmon find their way back to their birthplace after journeys of thousands of miles. Migratory animals such as sea turtles and salmon imprint on the Earth’s unique magnetic signature of a stretch of coast and retain that information to guide them back there, according to the theory developed by Kenneth Lohmann, a professor of biology at UNC-Chapel Hill and others.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/no-place-like-home-
new-theory-for-how-salmon-sea-turtles-find-their-birthplace.html
Call it 'economic opportunity'
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…Amid the gloom and doom over the current economic crisis are voices proclaiming this isn't such a bad thing. In fact, they say, it may actually be the start of a long overdue correction of consumerism gone wild. …Cynthia Bulik, director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program, says within the past two months she has seen the economy take a toll on binge eaters.
Flu shots are for adults, too
WRAL.com
In a country where vaccinations have wiped out diseases from smallpox and polio to measles, many adult Americans don't get a shot that could save their lives: the flu shot. …"The new big push this year is … not only for young children, 6 months to 2 years of age, but for all children and adolescents" to get vaccinated, said Dr. David Weber, an infectious-disease expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Keeping The Holidays Stress Free About Eating
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
Are you still in a turkey coma from your Thanksgiving meal? A UNC doctor has some tips to keep your holidays free from stress about eating. Dr. Cynthia Bulik, director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program said Thanksgiving through New Years can be torture for those with eating disorders.
Pay limits raised for disabled workers
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…An outgrowth of the Clinton-era "Ticket to Work" legislation, the new Medicaid guidelines will affect an estimated 1,200 North Carolinians and cost $1.2 million statewide in the first year. …"The bottom line is that people feel that it is the right thing to do," said Kathleen Thomas, a researcher at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-Chapel Hill who studied the program as it developed.
Human Rights Week kicks off
The Chapel Hill Herald
A slate of activities, panels and speaking engagements kicks off Human Rights Week in Chapel Hill and Carrboro on Wednesday, an eight-day stretch that recognizes the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. …Judith Blau, a member of the Human Rights Week steering committee and UNC sociology professor, said the issues facing Chapel Hill and Carrboro are similar to those facing other parts of the country.
Deer collisions on the rise
The Shelby Star
The months leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas can get pretty hectic. And that's true for more than human residents in Cleveland County – things are on the wild side for area deer as well. This time of year, deer get a little nutty: they run into the road and into the path of oncoming motorists. More than 200 were reported in Cleveland County in 2007, according to the University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center.
The man who understands where N.C. has been (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
This is going to embarrass a good man, but he's got it coming. A couple of decades ago, Ferrel Guillory was a reporter, a good one, and then an editorial writer, editor and columnist at The News & Observer. …That's just one reason why the good folks over in Chapel Hill listened to his suggestion for a center of study about the South and eventually hired him to run what is now called the Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The news from Iraq (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Department of Defense recently awarded up to $300 million in contracts to produce news stories, public service ads and entertainment programs that support the U.S. occupation of Iraq. …During a recent workshop in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill, some Arab journalists expressed dismay with the Department of Defense's initiative to produce news for Iraq. (Napoleon B. Byars is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Trusted health info (Letter to the Editor)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Many thanks to Tim Rogers, NC Live director, for his endorsement of NC Health Info (www.nchealthinfo.org). …Medical librarians recommend beginning searches at trusted sites like NC Health Info, a statewide digital library based at the Health Sciences Library at UNC Chapel Hill and advised by a collaborative group of academic, public and other librarians. (Christie Salbajoris, Chapel Hill. The writer is the director of NC Health Info.)
Issues and Trends
Exception to the Rule
Inside Higher Ed
The percentage of faculty members who are off the tenure track keeps going up, and they are quite possibly in the majority in American higher education. Administrators have justified the hiring pattern — even before the current economic downturn — by saying that they gain flexibility and talent without tenure, and end up saving money as well. …The impetus for the shift came from faculty members who worked in the mid-1990s on developing a strategic plan for Elon that would distinguish it from other institutions. Elon wouldn’t try to compete with research powerhouses like nearby Duke University or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Bonnie Hauser: On paring progress, sustainability (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
I was surprised to read your recent editorial, "The dangers of saying no" (Nov. 20). Anyone familiar with the community response to the airport and the waste transfer station quickly learns that the community is offering creative and forward-looking options that are strongly superior to short sighted ideas that both projects present. …We cherish the community that we share and hope to walk side by side with our elected officials and UNC into a genuinely progressive and sustainable future.
Atwater pleads not guilty to charges in Carson case
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Demario Atwater pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Federal Court to a series of charges related to the murder of UNC Student Body President Eve Carson.
Related Link:
http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/4059502/
Lawyers in Carson case seek records
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Defense attorneys for the suspects accused of killing UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson want complete access to Crime Stoppers files — a request that gives police pause about the long-term effect on anonymous tipsters.