Duke in the News: Nov. 14, 2003

BABOON BONDING MAKES FOR BETTER MOTHERS (South Africa) Independent Online, AP, Nov. 14 -- Baboon mothers who make lots of friends among other females have better luck raising their young than less sociable mothers, according to a new Duke/UCLA study that supports the idea that primates, including humans, need a strong social network. ...Full story --Also, New Scientist: Sociable Baboons Make Better Mums Full story National Geographic News: Baboon Study: Sociable Moms Have Healthier Young Full story Los Angeles Times: Study: Social Baboon Moms Are Good Moms Full story

SCORE ANOTHER WIN FOR ALBERT EINSTEIN Discover, Nov. 6 -- Physicists (and everyone vexed by time-travel paradoxes) can breathe a sigh of relief. A recent series of experiments by experimental physicist Dan Gauthier of Duke University confirm that information cannot outrun light's fastest pace. ... Full story

DUKE TO SELL LAND FOR PRESERVE (Raleigh) News & Observer, Nov. 14 -- Duke University has agreed to sell more than 850 acres of forest along the Haw River to the state Division of Parks and Recreation, which will ensure that a valley popular with hikers and boaters will remain free of development. ... Full story

PEDIATRIC SAFETY INCREASES (Duke) Chronicle, Nov. 14 -- More than a month after Duke University Hospital pledged to improve patient safety, the Pediatric Patient Safety Program is fully under way. ... Full story --Also, Chronicle: Overall Patient Safety Up Full story

WHAT SLEEPS IN CLASS, STAYS UP VERY LATE AND LOVES SWEETS? Wall Street Journal, Nov. 14 -- A pocket-size marsupial is the new pet on campus. "People think they're either heinous or really, really cute," says Toni Kwan, who lived with two "sugar gliders" in her Duke University dorm room last year. (Link provided for subscribers; full text e-mailed upon request.) ... Full story/subscribers

ROUGEMONT AMONG TOPICS OF DUKE FILM FEST (Durham, N.C.) Herald-Sun, Nov. 14 -- This weekend's festival films will examine subjects ranging from North Carolina potters and Roanoke Valley auctioneers to snakes that won't eat and New Jersey tap dancers. ...Full story

THE YALE RUSSIAN CHORUS, DIPLOMATS OF SONG Wall Street Journal, Oct. 23 -- The Yale Russian Chorus was born in 1953 when Denis Mickiewicz, a charismatic Latvian-born Yale Music School student (now professor emeritus at Duke University), was invited to speak to the Yale Russian Club on Russian choral music. (Link provided for subscribers; full text e-mailed upon request.) ... Full story/subscribers

HYPERTENSION HARDER TO CONTROL IN WOMEN DrKoop.com, Nov. 12 -- While women often receive more aggressive treatment for high blood pressure, those medications don't lower their blood pressure readings as much as they do for men, according to a study by Dr. Kristin Newby, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center. ... Full story

VERBATIM: EXPLAINING THE GENDER GAP IN CONTRACEPTION Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 14 -- In "The Male Pill: A Biography of a Technology in the Making" (Duke University Press), Nelly Oudshoorn, a professor in the Netherlands, seeks to explain the gender gap in contraception. ...Full story