unc.edu/news

International Coverage

Silica smart bombs deliver knock-out to bacteria
Innovations Report (Germany)
Bacteria mutate for a living, evading antibiotic drugs while killing tens of thousands of people in the United States each year. But as concern about drug-resistant bacteria grows, one novel approach under way at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seeks to thwart the bug without a drug by taking a cue from nature.
Related Link:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/02/26/nitric_oxide_useful_ in_fighting_bacteria/5143/
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/
silica-smart-bombs-deliver-knock-out-to-bacteria.html

National Coverage

Is That Stomach Pain All in Your Head?
WebMD Feature from Health Magazine
When bathroom issues put a cramp in your life, the most effective treatment may target both your gut and your mood. A Boston University study found that people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) were 40 percent more likely than those who didn’t have IBS to suffer from depression, too. ...Depression doesn’t bring on IBS, experts say, and IBS doesn’t cause depression. “But often the two conditions travel together,” says Olafur Palsson, PsyD, an associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.

Nonprofit Digitization Project Attracts N. Carolina Universities
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Three campus libraries in the Triangle Research Libraries Network, in North Carolina, announced last week that they are contributing some of their public-domain books to the Open Content Alliance, a nonprofit book-digitization project. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University will help pay for a scanning machine and will contribute thousands of books in the project’s first year. Duke University also will contribute some of its holdings to the project.

Regional Coverage

Dollar Plunges as Bernanke Goes to Hill
The New York Sun
This morning, the Federal Reserve chairman is scheduled to begin the first of a two-day, mandatory testimony on Capitol Hill, during which he will likely be hit with a barrage of difficult questions on the state of the economy. ... As for concerns over inflation, Mr. Kohn, speaking to students and faculty at the University of North Carolina, called the data "disappointing," but added, "I do not expect the recent elevated inflation rates to persist." He argued that the slowing economy would dampen demand for goods, putting downward pressure on prices, which would in turn offset inflation.

USC Sumter works to keep journalism alive
The Item (Sumter, S.C.)
...Philip Meyer, a professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, makes some salient comments about the current state of today’s newspaper industry in his book, “The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age.” The current trends offer a doomsday portrait for community newspapers. He cogently writes about these nationwide trends as the general managers of dailies desperately attempt to address the challenges of the Internet and the declining readership.

State & Local Coverage

Doctorow to speak at UNC March 27
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Award-winning novelist E.L. Doctorow will give a free public lecture, "Notes on the History of Fiction," at 6:30 p.m., March 27, on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill, the university said today. Doctorow's most recent novel, "The March," had its genesis in the history "The March to the Sea and Beyond," by UNC historian Joseph Glatthaar.
UNC News release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/humanities-and-social-sciences/novelist-e.l
.-doctorow-to-speak-at-unc.html

Cheating students draw suspensions, zeros
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Four students caught cheating on a social studies midterm exam received a zero on the test and were suspended, a punishment that typically lasts one to five days, a Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools spokeswoman said Tuesday. ... UNC-Chapel Hill obligates incoming freshmen to notify the admissions office of any disciplinary action taken after they've submitted their college applications. "Your failure to do so will be grounds to deny or withdraw your admission, or to dismiss you after enrollment," the policy says. Both the student and the school are required to provide a statement to the admissions office when a student is suspended, Stephen Farmer, vice provost and director of undergraduate admissions, wrote in an e-mail message.
Related Link:
http://news14.com/content/top_stories/593311/chapel-hill-cheating--
isolated--incident/Default.aspx

Some NC business leaders blog to tell their side of story
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Angry customers swarmed Burt's Bees in November as soon as the all-natural cosmetics maker announced plans to sell itself. Critics consider the buyer, bleach maker Clorox, to be far from environmentally friendly. So Burt's Bees CEO John Replogle knew he needed to defend his Morrisville company's decision. He wanted to reach out to skeptics, read their fears and respond directly and conversationally to their objections. He decided to blog. ... That can seem like sanitizing, and it's also disingenuous and defeats the purpose of starting a dialogue, said Tim Flood, a professor of management communication at UNC-Chapel Hill. "The blog is a counterculture vibe that gives executives a chance to be regular people. It personalizes and humanizes the corporation," Flood said.

Smoking Survey
The North Carolina News Network (Raleigh)
A new survey finds parents are on board with efforts to reduce teen smoking, even if it means raising cigarette taxes. The North Carolina Center for Health Statistics questioned parents about smoking policies as part of larger survey on various topics. UNC-Chapel Hill Research associate Shelley Summerlin-Long says the highest level of support was for limits on where people can smoke.

Students practice CSI technology
The Mebane Enterprise
Mysteries of the investigative lab became less mysterious and more a simple lab task for students at Eastern Alamance High School last Wednesday. ... A University of North Carolina traveling learning program made the lab services available to the students. The lab services also provided a look into the future, a potential and expanding source of employment in the region.
UNC Media Advisory:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/destiny-science-bus/uncs-destiny-science-
buses-to-visit-orange-chatham-alamance-counties.html

Frostbite tour draws hundreds
The Herald (Smithfield)
... It happened quickly. Brumitt had had some problems with acid reflux, but he didn't suspect it was anything so serious. But then came the diagnosis. While any type of cancer can seem overwhelming, esophageal cancer brings an especially gloomy forecast. It's hard to treat, said Dr. Luke Chen, a researcher at N.C. Central University in Durham. Chen and a clinician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are doing research together on how to prevent esophageal cancer. ... Most people with the cancer die within one or two years, said Chen, who was at the bike tour Saturday. The cancer mostly affects middle-aged white men, he said. Heartburn, obesity and smoking can increase the chances of getting it.

Choosing to value life in all forms (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
I've followed with great interest the flap over UNC-Chapel Hill biology professor Albert Harris' remark that, in his opinion, abortion is the moral option for parents whose fetus has Down syndrome. Harris was fully within his rights to express his opinion. As an academic, however, he should have known better than to spend valuable and expensive class time to express a view seemingly based on little if any real expertise. Dr. Harris is an embryologist, not an ethicist.
Related Link: http://www.chapelhillnews.com/opinion/story/12945.html

Young people ready to cast first ballots
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
North Carolina election workers are bracing for a wave of new voters -- many of them young people casting their first ballots -- who may inundate polling places during the May 6 primary. ... At UNC-Chapel Hill, Democratic candidates have been drawing large crowds, according to George Drometer, co-president of UNC Young Democrats. U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan spoke to the group on Monday. The group frequently has a voter registration table in The Pit, a central outdoor gathering place on campus.

Issues & Trends

ECSU tests emergency preparedness plan
WAVY-TV (NBC/Norfolk)
Elizabeth City State University is one of many universities in the University of North Carolina system using the Public Information Emergency Response System (PIER). The system is one of many communication tools ECSU uses to relay messages during emergencies or events that interrupt the normal operating hours. ... "ECSU is located on the coast of North Carolina so we are subject to far more hurricanes, tropical storms and evacuations than other University of North Carolina universities. We want to prepare students, staff and faculty for emergencies but emergencies are not always related to the weather," Gilchrist said. "We made every effort to inform our students, staff and faculty five days in advance that a drill would be conducted."

Utility may declare Stage 3 water rules
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Orange Water and Sewer Authority will discuss declaring a Stage 3 Water Shortage on Thursday. ... OWASA serves 80,000 people in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community including UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Hospitals.
Related Link: http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/2490776/

State short on lawyers, report says
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
North Carolina needs more lawyers, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. The report says North Carolina has fewer private-sector lawyers per capita than any other state (758 people for each lawyer). ... The report, available online at www.popecenter.org, also found: * Forty-six percent of UNC-Chapel Hill law graduates leave the state for their first job. * The median starting salary for a Duke law graduate is $110,000; for UNC-CH graduates, it's $100,000; for Wake Forest grads, it's $70,000.

Ivy League’s Director to Step Down After an Era of Change
The New York Times
... Orleans’s career has been marked by efforts to break down barriers in academic environments. He was heavily involved in the University of North Carolina system’s desegregation plan when he served as a special assistant to the university president from 1975 to 1984.