science wire

Archive Chronicling History of San Diego’s Chicano Movement to Go Digital
In 2004, the University of California, San Diego Libraries acquired one of the region's most significant archives - the papers of Chicano activist Herman Baca - documenting the struggles and achievements of the Chicano Movement in San Diego from 1964 to 2006.

‘Picture This #17′ – Ezra Pound by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Kettle’s Yard
Jim Ede, creator of Kettle's Yard, acquired the estate of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska after his death and Kettle's Yard now contains one of the largest collections of his work.

Rare Judeo-Spanish memoir gives a voice to the people of a lost culture
Historians Aron Rodrigue and Sarah Abrevaya Stein bring the history of Ottoman Jews to life in a text published by Stanford University Press.

Journal boycott gaining steam at UW-Madison
They are mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore. That describes an emerging response from more than 6,000 scientists to Elsevier , publisher of more than 2,500 scientific journals, including Cell and The Lancet. As the largest journal publisher in the world, Elsevier is able to command hefty subscription fees at university libraries.

Online Archive Explores One Man’s Scrapbooks of African American Life
L.S. Alexander Gumby may be one of the most influential historians of early 20th century African American life in New York—even though he never wrote a traditional volume of history.

Stanford scholar chronicles evolution of Chinese love through texts
Stanford Professor Haiyan Lee chronicles the Chinese "love revolution" through a study of cultural changes influenced by Western ideals.

Lovelorn liars leave linguistic leads
Online daters intent on fudging their personal information have a big advantage: most people are terrible at identifying a liar.

Grass huts and Androids: preserving language and culture in New Guinea
An ambitious experiment involving the use of mobile phones in a remote corner of Papua New Guinea, is about to be launched by researchers from the University of Melbourne.

The Subversive Poetics of Alfred Jarry
Dr Marieke Dubbelboer in the Department of French has recently published a book on Alfred Jarry's experimental and satirical Almanachs du Père Ubu, works which to date have received little critical attention.

Pilgrims and Boys arrive at the ADC
Dramatised and adapted by Mike Poulton, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales offers a humours and familiar collection of characters.

BBC Chinese broadcast from Leeds explores the city’s Olympic connection
With Leeds preparing to host the Chinese Olympic team as its training camp for the London Olympics, BBC Chinese will broadcast from the University of Leeds Refectory at 14.00 GMT on Sunday 5 February.

Science writer ’wastes’ time in university library
Science writer 'wastes' time in university library In a book that comes out tomorrow (Saturday 4 February) on National Libraries Day, a local author tells of his frequent research visits to the University of Sussex Library.

Got creative block? Get out of your office and go for a walk
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The next time you're in need of creative inspiration, try thinking outside the box - or cubicle. New research by Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks and Suntae Kim of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business shows that engaging in physical acts and experiences enhances creative problem-solving.

"Year of Proof" Is Penn Academic Theme for 2012-13
The University of Pennsylvania's academic theme for 2012-13 will be the "Year of Proof." Beginning in September at new student orientation and throughout the year, the University will hold events

Durst Gift Helps Launch New Center on Urban Real Estate
Vishaan Chakrabarti, Carole Ann Fabian and Helena Durst talk about the Durst gift and the new Center for Urban Real Estate.

Life extinguished, life rekindled
This year's Darwin Lectures address the theme of life. Tonight's speaker, Cambridge academic Robert Macfarlane, will discuss "Life in Ruins" in art and literature.

Rare Posters, Drawings From the Spanish Civil War on View at Geisel Library Through May 11, 2012
All images from the Southworth Spanish Civil War Collection in the UC San Diego Mandeville Special Collections Library "So There Will Be No Forgetting: Images from the Spanish Civil War," an exhib

’Timely and welcome’ report on women’s empowerment presented at the House Of Commons
'Timely and welcome' report on women's empowerment presented at the House Of Commons The Pathways of Women's Empowerment research and programme, headed by Sussex Professor Andrea Cornwall, held

China in perspective
Professor David Goodman, Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Sydney, will speak about Chinese perspectives on globalisation at Leeds on 1 February 2012.

9/11 spurred thankful end to radical theatre
A study of British contemporary theatre has found that the radicalism of the 1980s and 90s has been largely replaced by small c conservatism.

New approach to combat intractable bacterial infections
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‘Picture This #13′ Mary Anning’s Ichthyosaur, Sedgwick Museum
Mary Anning's fossil discoveries revealed an 'ancient Dorset', and were influential contributions to the blossoming science of palaeontology during the early 19th century.

Exhibition tells 'a detective story about obsession&apos
An exhibition curated at the Bodleian Library by an English academic and a Music professor uncovers the story behind the largest donation ever made to the library.

It’s all about the space at Stanford’s design school
Stanford's d.school space is the stage for creative collaboration. A new book by two of its leaders provides direction for design spaces elsewhere.

University Library’s greatest treasures on show
An unpublished Rupert Brooke poem will sit alongside some of Cambridge University Library's greatest treasures when a free exhibition of highlights from its priceless collections opens to the public today.

’The Social Network’: Charles Dickens wrote the script
He looked at the technological revolution unfolding around him and recognized the possibility for new kinds of social networks, and the insight catapulted him to the pinnacle of his field and changed popular culture forever.

Holocaust Living History Workshop to Present "Witnessing History" Events During Winter 2012
The UC San Diego Holocaust Living History Workshop (HLHW) launches a new series of events this winter, the "Witnessing History" series, focused on the topic of experiencing history in the making.

On the New York veggie forefront: Tatsoi, shiso, maxixe and other ethnic delectables
Komatsuna. Shiso. Winged beans. Maxixe. They're not your garden-variety vegetables. But while they may be relatively unknown outside of their home countries, a project by Cornell Cooperative Extension is trying to give these crops their time in the sun.

Large and in charge: Powerful people overestimate their own height
The psychological experience of power makes people feel taller than they are, according to research by ILR School associate professor of organizational behavior Jack Goncalo and a Washington University colleague. "Although a great deal of research has shown that physically imposing individuals are more likely to acquire power, this work is the first to show that the powerful may actually feel taller than they are," Goncalo and Michelle Duguid write in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science.

A click up the Eighties: Archive’s digital project opens up our recent past to a wider audience
A click up the Eighties: Archive's digital project opens up our recent past to a wider audience The words and voices of ordinary people commenting on the extraordinary events of the 1980s as the

Papers of Europe’s first female professor to become available online, with help from Stanford’s libraries
Courtesy of Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio Laura Bassi (1711-1778) was the first woman to be offered an official teaching position at a European university.

Bodleian Libraries book move completed
The Bodleian Libraries' Swindon Book Storage Facility has taken delivery of its seven millionth book – just over a year after opening its doors.

Star images helping to save Vatican books
Star images helping to save Vatican books Antique books in the Vatican Library are being digitised to preserve them for future generations using a technique developed through ESA to store satellite images of the sky.

Curator in the Classroom: The Artistic Eye of Prof. Kellie Jones
Kellie Jones talks about her new book, EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art . (4:27) It's been a busy year for Kellie Jones.

Shakespeare works on show
An exhibition of rare works by William Shakespeare is illustrating the importance of the bard north of the border.

People More Motivated to Give When They See Others Volunteering Abroad
AUSTIN, Texas — People are more inspired to give when they see others contributing their time and money to a good cause outside their home state, according to a new psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin.

Playback: 130-Year-Old Sounds Revealed
(Adapted from a news release issued Dec. 14 by the Smithsonian Institution) In the early 1880s, three inventors - Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter, collectively making up the Volta Laboratory Associates - brought together their creativity and expertise in a laboratory on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., to record sound.

Sussex and Cambridge help to share Newton treasures with the world
Sussex and Cambridge help to share Newton treasures with the world The original works of one of the greatest ever scientists – Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) – have been made available to the world online thanks to a special project that involved the University of Sussex.

Cambridge gives Newton papers to the world
Isaac Newton's own annotated copy of his Principia Mathematica is among his notebooks and manuscripts being made available online by Cambridge University Library.

"Everyday Dogs" book depicts allure of man’s best friend
A new book from the University of California, Berkeley's Bancroft Library now hitting the holiday bookstore shelves gives fresh meaning to the term "dog days" by celebrating the powerful connections between people and their canine companions.

University poet one of Irish Times top five
06 Dec 2011 A collection of poetry by a creative writing lecturer based at The University of Manchester has been named as one of the top five books of 2011 by a group of top writers in the Irish Times.

Stunning edition of Dickens’ Christmas classic available on iBookstore
05 Dec 2011 An exquisite handwritten edition of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, kept at The John Rylands Library, is now available on the iBookstore.

Enticing words on bags of potato chips have a lot to say about social class, Stanford researchers find
Like politicians who adopt regional accents to appeal to local audiences, the manufacturers of potato chips vary the wording on their bags to convey their products' authenticity in different ways to different buyers.

Wake-up call for coffee drinkers over caffeine toxicity
One of the largest collections of old Bibles in the UK is currently being showcased at Glasgow's Mitchell Library in an exhibition to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the production of the King James Bible in 1611.

Academics shed new light on old links between classical, African and Middle Eastern cultures
Academics from the Universities of Warwick and Oxford have shed new light on the history of interactions between the classical world, Africa and the Middle East.

Interactions between classical, African and Middle Eastern cultures explored
Academics from the Universities of Oxford and Warwick have shed new light on the history of interactions between the classical world, Africa and the Middle East.

Renowned poet publishes first book in English
An anthology of poetry by one of Latin America's most acclaimed writers has for the first time been made available to English speakers thanks to academics at The University of Manchester.

‘Picture This #10’ – The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 lines, University Library
The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 lines is the oldest dated and illustrated Sanskrit manuscript known worldwide.

Columbia University Acquires Archives of X-Men Writer Chris Claremont
NEW YORK, November 15, 2011 – Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired the archives of renowned comic book writer and novelist, Chris Claremont.

Young Australians engaged and active theatre-goers
A major study into young Australians' attendance at live theatre, launched 14 November, shows a love of theatre remains alive in our youth.

Adventures in science writing
For many scientists writing about science either in their spare time or as a career can seem attractive: but what does it take to be a successful science writer?

Powerful words
Ancient manuscripts that hold important clues to India’s intellectual and religious traditions will be the focus of a new study.

Faculty fellow studies sound art of old recordings
Brian Hanrahan has a special appreciation for the crackle, fuzz and background chatter that characterize old radio broadcasts.

Original Lord of the Flies manuscript on display for first time
The original Lord of the Flies manuscript will go on public display for the first time, in an exhibition at the Bodleian Library.

’Chronicling Trauma’: New book explores intersection of journalism, fiction, traumatic violence
Some items about some British and American authors: Poet and essayist Charles Lamb had a sister who stabbed their mother to death.

New social media Same old, same old, say Stanford experts
Two scholars of the 17th and 18th centuries say the earlier era prefigured the "information overload," with its own equivalents of Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Postcard from Xinjiang: Dr Peter Jia
Sandstorms, wolves, hail, altitude sickness and accommodation in a Mongolian yurt were all part of a recent field trip to China for University of Sydney archaeologist Peter Jia, during which he helped make two important discoveries.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant helps sustain DARE to completion
Whenever she appears on a popular statewide Wisconsin Public Radio offering, Joan Houston Hall can sense the hunger people have for regional sayings and their meanings.

Dr. Livingstone’s lost 1871 ’massacre’ diary recovered; discovery rewrites history
In Africa 140 years ago, David Livingstone, the Victorian explorer, met Henry M. Stanley of the New York Herald and gave him a harrowing account of a massacre he witnessed, in which slave traders slaughtered 400 innocent people.

It’s All About the Hair
It's not every day that computer science students get invited to a Hollywood premiere to recognize the work they have done.

Cybertools and Sinhala archive will improve analysis of world’s 7,000 languages
A new generation of cybertools developed at Cornell will help researchers share and analyze rare Sri Lankan language recordings important for studying language acquisition in children.

Research on Education and Employment Outcomes for Deaf and Hard of Hearing to be Funded by $1.3 Million Grant
AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas at Austin educational psychologist Stephanie Cawthon has received $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Education to spearhead a nationwide effort t

Literary detectives unravel famous Ben Jonson mystery
PA 331/11 The amazing chance discovery of a manuscript hidden among papers in an ancient family archive is shedding new light on the legendary career of William Shakespeare's biggest rival, the poet and playwright, Ben Jonson. As portrayed in the new Hollywood Shakespeare movie Anonymous, out in cinemas this Friday 28th October, Jonson was the leading wit of his time and lived a life full of notoriety and intrigue.

Celebrating 400 years of King James Bible
The Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham is to give the first in a series of free talks at The University of Nottingham's Great Hall to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible.

Publisher, Author and Artist Fleur Cowles’s Archive Donated to Harry Ransom Center
AUSTIN, Texas — The personal archive of publisher, author and artist Fleur Cowles has been donated to the Harry Ransom Center , a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin.

Calling on local childhood memories of street and playground games with a media twist
24 October 2011 Calling on local childhood memories of street and playground games with a media twist Former pupils from Ecclesfield Grammar School in Sheffield, who contributed to a nationa

Happy birthday, Harvard!
A photo slideshow from the SEAS celebration of Harvard's 375th birthday Harvard celebrated its 375th birthday on October 14, 2011.

Computer Scientist Seeks the Real Meaning of Language
Better be careful about telling a lie to Julia Hirschberg. The computer science professor, an expert in spoken language, examines what people unconsciously communicate through such things as intonation, accent and phrasing. One of the enduring questions she studies is whether it's possible to detect a lie.

Edgy Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin is writer-in-residence at Stanford
Sadism‘ Savagery? Cannibalism' The man who has been called Russia's greatest living writer turns our nightmares into art – and now he's at Stanford.

Wisconsin poverty measure informs anti-poverty conference
A researcher with the Wisconsin Poverty Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) is sharing project findings at an upcoming antipoverty summit.

Almost a criminalistic task - Averroes and the search for the true text
Verantwortlich: Patrick Honecker International conference of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Arts and the University of Cologne "The true text perhaps is lost."

Professor James Shapiro Examines the Question of Who Wrote Shakespeare
(Editor's note: This story on English professor James Shapiro was originally published in the May 14, 2010, Vol.

Funny Finding: Men Win Humor Test (by a Hair)
Funny Finding: Men Win Humor Test (by a Hair) UC San Diego Researchers Used New Yorker Cartoons to Explore Gender Stereotype October 19, 2011 By Inga Kiderra Huffington Post ABC News and "Good Morning America" TIME Slate Scientific American Men are funnier than women, but only just barely and mostly to other men.

3D operating theatre
I stand in the operating theatre and look around. There’s the operating table and the large anaesthetic machine.

Researchers assist reforms in Vietnam
13 October 2011 The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is investing in a new type of aid in cooperation with Vietnam. In a project which has received SEK 9.8 million of funding, researchers at Lund University will help the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture to prevent a human and environmental disaster as a large proportion of Vietnam’s population leave rural areas to move to the cities.

When science meets séance
PA 307/11 Four would-be ghost hunters are being sought to face their darkest fears and spend the evening in one of Nottingham's most notorious haunted venues as part of a live experiment into the paranormal.

Dig no more: Just till 2 inches for tulip bulbs, study finds
Just till and fill, and toil no more when planting tulip bulbs. A Cornell study shows that a much easier method of planting tulip bulbs is just as effective as digging the traditional 6 to 8 inch holes for each bulb. Gardeners need only "top plant": Till (loosen the soil) about 2 inches deep, place the bulbs on top of the soil and then cover them with a 2 to 4 inch layer of mulch and water to achieve successful tulips that will thrive year after year.

Stanford scholar finds the origins of Western poetry in troubadour’s songs
Stanford Assistant Professor Marisa Galvez has written a book about medieval songbooks, pointing to troubadours as the models for modern poets.

Great speeches: How to know one if we hear one
Oct. 12, 2011 Great speeches: How to know one if we hear one Listen to podcast ANN ARBOR, Mich.—With the season for political oratory hard upon us, how does the rhetoric of this year's crop of presidential contenders measure up?

Global broadcasters need strategies to combat Internet censorship
Broadcasters seeking to deliver online news to countries where blocking is widespread must be prepared to create strategies tailored to those countries, says a new report from the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs.

New Publication in Organization Science
Marc Gruber's recent paper entitled „Escaping the Prior Knowledge Corridor: What shapes the Number and Variety of Market Opportunities identified before Market Entry of Technology Start-ups?” (with. I.C. MacMillan, J. Thompson) has been accepted for publication in Organization Science.

Statement Regarding Recent Incident on University of Minnesota Duluth Campus
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (09/27/2011) —Freedom of expression, fostering diverse views and opinions, and promoting civil debate are core to our democracy, and are an important part of the tradition of this country's public universities and of the University of Minnesota.

Black talk, blue thoughts
As a budding "black journalista," UCLA alumna Erin Aubry Kaplan couldn't believe her luck when the Los Angeles Times asked her to cover South Central Los Angeles after the 1992 riots.

After 150 years, rebel hymns finally hit right note
A selection from what has been identified by a University of Manchester academic as the only surviving Chartist hymn book is to be performed in public for the first time since 1854.

English Professor Makes a Place for Disability
English professor Rachel Adams doesn't exactly know when or why she became interested in freaks, but when it came time to write her dissertation—later her first book—the topic she chose was freak shows and the American cultural imagination.

10 writers are Stanford’s newest Stegner Fellows
Five poets and five fiction writers are entering Stanford this fall as the 2011-13 Stanford Creative Writing Program's Wallace Stegner Fellows.

New Psycholinguistics Research
Cecile De Cat (School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Linguistics and Phonetics) has been awarded Faculty of Arts pump-priming funds for a collaborative pilot study into language processing.

More than a sign of sleepiness, yawning may cool the brain
by Morgan Kelly Though considered a mark of boredom or fatigue, yawning might also be a trait of the hot-headed. Literally. A study led by Andrew Gallup, a postdoctoral research associate in Princeton University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , is the first involving humans to show that yawning frequency varies with the season and that people are less likely to yawn when the heat outdoors exceeds body temperature.

Cornell library receives gay-related photo collection
In the early 1980s, with the gay community in the terrifying grip of an unidentified new disease, New York City lawyer Harry Weintraub started collecting photographs. "I began this collection in earnest because of the AIDS crisis," he said. "Men were dying all around me. ... I was intent on trying to preserve not only their histories, but the histories of those who came before." Many families were embarrassed by their gay relatives and would throw out their personal effects, Weintraub said, because "they just wanted to get rid of everything.

UCLA’s Clark Library announces 2011-12 chamber music season
The winners of the 2011 Grammy Award for chamber music number among the top performers scheduled to appear over the coming year at UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.

Leeds art libraries on the map
Librarians around Leeds have developed the Art Researchers' Guide to Leeds, a new book that features treasures such as centuries-old sketches of Kirkstall Abbey and photos of the Cottingley Fairies.

Latin American Focused Library Collection and Institute Pilot Joint Endeavor
Aug. 31, 2011 AUSTIN, Texas — The Benson Latin American Collection (BLAC) and the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies (LLILAS) are joining efforts in an inventive approach to achieving common goals.

‘Missing’ Renaissance manuscript acquired for Rylands
The University of Manchester's John Rylands University Library has acquired the ‘missing' seventh volume of a celebrated Renaissance manuscript.