Tags: Human Nature

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Women's roles in the sciences

Very interesting, topical and timely conference coming up next week at the Georgia Center: Top women who study topics in medicine, global hunger and obesity will share their experiences at the ninth annual Global Educational Forum on March 19 at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. This year's conference theme, "Women in Science and Medicine: Challenges, Achievements and Way Forward," brings experts from around the globe to…

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Happy Holi, and Spring Break

Apno ka pyar, yhi to hai HOLI ka tyohar. And next week the UGA campus will be under strict observance of Spring Break! A much deserved pause from courses, exams, papers and planning for faculty and students. Time to rest and re-charge, and prepare to come back ready for the great run of festivals, conferences (and more studying!) on campus through the end of the semester.

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Brain Structure and Trust

Compelling new research from the department of psychology on how brain structure in people differs according to how trusting people are of others: The research may have implications for future treatments of psychological conditions such as autism, said the study's lead author Brian Haas, an assistant professor in the department of psychology. Each autism diagnosis is on a spectrum and varies, but some diagnosed with the condition exhibit…


The Trans-Atlantic Choctaw Irish Exchange

In 1847, the Choctaw Indians at Skullyville, Indian Territory, were saddened to hear the news of the starvation in Ireland due to the potato famine. The Choctaw had experienced starvation only sixteen years earlier, when the entire Choctaw nation of people were forced to walk west by Andrew Jackson's government. On the mass forced migraiton known as the Trail of Tears, Choctaws were the first to be "removed" out of the Southeast and their…

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Editing genome sequences to correct mutations

Extraordinary new research on how the bacterial immune system provides a way forward on correcting genetic mutations:  [UGA] researchers Michael and Rebecca Terns were among the first to begin to study the bacterial immune system. They now have identified a key link in how bacteria respond and adapt to foreign invaders. The new study, authored by the Terns and postdoctoral research associate Yunzhou Wei in the Franklin College of Arts and…

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Kudos, February 2015

Our congratulations and appreciation for the awards, presentations, new books and professional honors that distinguish Frankln faculty and their scholarship at home and abroad. A few recent examples: Assistant professor of history Jennifer Palmer and associate professor in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music Peter Jutras are 2015 recipients of the Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Noel Fallows, professor of…


Conference on Holocaust theatre Feb. 26-28

In conjunction with the ongoing performances of "Mein Kampf" we mentioned yesterday (performances continung this weekend and Tues. through Sat. next week), the departments of theatre and film studies & German and Slavic studies will host of an international conference on Holocaust theatre featuring the work of playwright George Tabori: [The] international conference on "George Tabori and the Theatre of the Holocaust" Feb. 26-28. The…

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Allin p’unchay - Indigenous languages of Latin America

This we learn from the new, and very first, issue of Allin p’unchay - the newsletter from the department of Romances Languages dedicated to Indigenous Languages and Cultures of Latin America:  The Quechua language is most popularly recognized as being the language of the Incan Empire, which was located in what is now Peru and had spread across the Andean region (referring to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), expanding from…

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Global Georgia 2015: Loung Ung

The Willson Center for Humanities and Arts' Global Georgia Initiative brings author and human rights activist Loung Ung to campus for a public lecture on Thursday January 29 at 4 p.m. in the Larry Walker Room on the 4th floor of the Rusk Center. Her lecture is titled, "First They Killed My Father," Loung Ung was only 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge soldiers stormed into her native city of Phnom Penh. Four years later, in one of the bloodiest…

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Georgia Debate Union takes 2nd at US naval Academy

The University of Georgia Debate Union recently placed 2nd in the Crowe-Warken intercollegiate debate tournament, held annually at the United States Naval Academy.  The Crowe-Warken debates featured 100 individual debate teams from across the East Coast and Midwest, including teams from Boston College, Northwestern University, Georgetown University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Florida, the University of Minnesota, and both the…

diagram of carbon cycle
Science advances: the marine carbon cycle

The amount of dissolved carbon in the world's oceans is roughly equivalent, and likely greater, than atmospheric concentrations of CO2. Some of it gets semi-permanently sequestered, some gets released up into the atmospheric in a process that has been in place for millions of years. But with the global carbon picture changing, understanding the details of these processes has become more urgent: the slightest changes in ocean temperature or…


Welcome to the newly re-designed Chronicles!

In a major step forward in confirming once and for all that the arts and sciences do matter - and how! - the Franklin Chronicles - Arts and Sciences Matters - presents its newest iteration. In fact, an entire suite of newly designed Franklin College sites were launched on Friday, January 16. Just look at all those new pages, now with better organization, easier-to-find information for all of our audiences. All to serve you better. Enormous…


Treating worms, teaching screenwriting

To prove we're not [always] Franklin College centric, here is some other cool news from around UGA: Treating animals for worms can be good, but also help spread infectious disease: Parasitic worms, which infect millions of people and animals around the world, have been shown to influence how the immune system responds to diseases like HIV and tuberculosis. In a new study of African buffalo, University of Georgia ecologist Vanessa Ezenwa found…


New UGA study on marriage

Somewhat counter-intuitive findings from a new study led by psychologist Justin Lavner, though they also remind us what is probably most obvious about relationships: the severity and number of couples' overall problems stay stable over time, even as their relationship dissatisfaction grows. The research, published in the December issue of the Journal of Family Psychology, suggests a departure from conventional wisdom, both on the part of the…


UGA-Emory collaborations in Infectious Disease research

The Provost's Office highlighted some research collaborations in the state of Georgia among our premier institutions, the cummulative extramural support awarded these efforts and its effects. The summary included work by Franklin College professor of genetics, Jessica Kissinger: Kissinger, who directs the UGA Institute of Bioinformatics, is leading a team that is organizing, distributing and mining the massive quantities of data produced by the…


CCRC-Franklin researchers target cancer stem cells

A new paper by research scientists at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center focuses on cancer stem cells: the research team demonstrates that the sugar molecule, made by an enzyme known as GnT-V, regulates the development of a particular subset of cancerous cells known as cancer stem cells. Much like normal stem cells that sustain organs and tissues, cancer stem cells can self-renew, and their cellular offspring clump together to form tumors…


Linguistics PhD grad wins international dissertation prize

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Wenthe, currently a parttime instructor at UGA and also a recent PhD alumnus in linguistics in the department of classics, who won an international competition for best dissertation for the year 2013 from the Society of Indo-European Studies (Indogermanische Gesellschaft). Wenthe's dissertation, ISSUES IN THE PLACEMENT OF ENCLITIC PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN THE RIGVEDA, among the four canonical sacred texts (…


Baldwin Hall expansion underway

Shovels hit the ground last week as an expansion project began on one of our venerable North Campus buildings, Baldwin Hall: Built in 1938, Baldwin Hall has served as a Navy pre-flight school during World War II and home to several UGA academic programs. The building currently houses the School of Public and International Affairs as well as the departments of sociology and anthropology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. ... The…


Dorsey, Garfinkel and Joye elected to AAAS

Fantastic news for the Franklin College and UGA, as three faculty members including Franklin dean Alan Dorsey were elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science: an honor bestowed upon them by their peers for "scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications." These three faculty members are among 401 new AAAS Fellows who will be presented with an official certificate and a gold…


New funding for ECOGIG-2

Samantha Joye's tireless work in the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of the 2010 Macondo well blowout will continue thanks to a major new support stream: Joye has received a new grant to continue its studies of natural oil seeps and to track the impacts of the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. The project, known as ECOGIG-2 or "Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs to the Gulf," is a collaborative, multi-…


Taking a closer look at workaholism

What does it mean when work becomes our life, our identity, our primary devotion? The question itself is a function only of higher considerations, a luxury hopefully of which we become availed as society advances. One of the fundamental spilts between the approach to social policy in the U.S. and Europe is over how we see this very question: Workaholism - how does it work? workaholism tends to produce negative impacts for employers and employees…


Examining the history of plants

It sounds like the title of a cable documentary (a good one! And maybe it is) but scientists from North America, Europe and China have published a paper in PNAS that reveals important details about key transitions in the evolution of plant life on Earth: From strange and exotic algae, mosses, ferns, trees and flowers growing deep in steamy rainforests to the grains and vegetables humans eat and the ornamental plants adorning people's homes, all…


Four Thirty-Three: Spotlight on Scholarship

In 1952, American experimental composer John Cale composed a three-movement composition, Four minutes, thirty-three seconds, or Four thirty-three. Written for any instrument or combination of instruments, the score instructs the performer(s) not to play their instrument(s) during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements. The piece purports to consist of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is…


$1.44 million NIH grant to statistics researcher

One form of epigenetic change known as DNA methylation is particularly understudied in this area. "There's a large amount of evidence that a process known as DNA methylation is a key player in cancer development," Zhong said. "Today's next-generation sequencing techniques give us the data we need to close the gap in this area of research." Zhong and her team will develop a suite of statistical models to broaden the understanding of how…


Shepherd: Lessons on climate from Ebola outbreak

Athletics Association Professor in the Social Sciences and nationally-recognized expert on climate Marshall Shepherd took to the pages of the Washingtom Post last week to point out connections between the latest Ebola outbreak and the challenges presented by climate change: However, before I mention these parallels, I want to establish that I trust the expertise and knowledge of those in the infectious disease and public health communities,…
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