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Duke in the News: Aug. 9, 2007

Bridge Collapse May Be Warning Signal of Infrastructure | Trees Can't Offset Greenhouse Effect | The Truth About Denial, and more!

BRIDGE COLLAPSE MAY BE WARNING SIGNAL OF U.S. INFRASTRUCTURE PBS NewsHour Extra, Aug. 8 -- Reflecting on the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minnesota, Duke engineering professor Henry Petroski says engineers may be using computers that seem to analyze bridge stressors better, "but they're really only doing the old stuff faster." ... Full story --Also, (Roanoke) WSLS-TV, Richmond Times-Dispatch: State Workers to Reinspect Deck-Truss Bridges ... Full story

TREES CAN'T OFFSET GREENHOUSE EFFECT Winston-Salem Journal, AP, Aug. 9 -- A 10-year experiment led by Duke scientists indicates that trees provide little help in offsetting increased levels of the greenhouse-gas carbon dioxide. ... Full story --Also, LiveScience: Trees Won't Fix Global Warming ... Full story

THE TRUTH ABOUT DENIAL Newsweek, Aug. 13 -- Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke, shares his perspective on climate change denial and its pervasiveness. (See page five.) ... Full story

COMMENTARY: INNER STRENGTH The Globalist, Aug. 8 -- In a three-part series, Duke public policy professor Bruce Jentleson examines what he sees as the erosion of core domestic foundations during the Bush years and how he believes it has undermined the inner strength on which U.S. global leadership must rest. ... Full story

OP-ED: FAIR TRADE -- INTERSTATE VOTE SWAPS (Raleigh) News & Observer, Aug. 9 -- Michael Munger, chairman of the political science department at Duke and a Libertarian running for governor in North Carolina, explains how a ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court this week is a victory for increased competition "in our insulated political system." ... Full story

ARE HEALTH REGULATORS TOO CAUTIOUS? BBC World Service "Business Daily," Aug. 7 -- Chris Conover, a Duke health policy professor, debates the efficiency and value of FDA drug trial regulations with the FDA's Theresa Mullin. (See link to audio of Tuesday's edition.) ... Listen

5-YEAR-OLDS LEARN ROPES FOR KINDERGARTEN (Durham) Herald-Sun, Aug. 9 -- Funded by a grant from the Duke/Triangle United Way Community Partnership, a program brings pre-kindergartners to a Durham elementary school all this week to learn what to do once kindergarten officially starts. ... Full story

WARMING THREATENS CRUCIAL FRASER HABITAT, STUDY SAYS Vancouver Sun, Aug. 9 -- The Fraser River delta could lose up to one-third of its tidal marshes during this century due to rising sea levels resulting from global warming, warns Duke graduate student Matthew Kirwan, who has co-authored a new study. ... Full story

PLASTIC CHANGES TO A DIET Nature, Aug. 9 -- Experiments in animals conducted by Duke researchers have provided additional evidence that what a pregnant mother eats can make her offspring more susceptible to disease later in life. ... Full story

ON THE AIR North Carolina Public Radio's "The State of Things" today features the work of Student Action for Farm Workers (SAF) and its "Into the Fields" internship program, which has been building relationships between students and migrant laborers in the Carolinas for 15 years. The nonprofit SAF grew out of a project at the Center for Documentary Studies, where the SAF offices are still located. ... Details/listen