Where You Read It First Sunny 52/35 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LX, NUMBER 31 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2010 TUFTSDAILY.COM Somerville named one of 100 top communities for youth BY SMRITI CHOUDHURY Somerville Superintendent of Daily Staff Writer Schools Tony Pierantozzi. America’s Promise Alliance, Somerville last month a nation-wide partnership nabbed a top spot in a nation- organization of business- wide competition seeking es and non-profits aimed the best neighborhoods for at improving youths’ lives, youth. spearheaded the competi- The 100 Best Communities tion. The group received for Young People list, spon- more than 350 community sored by financial institution nominations from across the ING, is designed to recognize nation. The winning commu- communities that concen- nities demonstrated efforts to trate on the future of youth improve educational oppor- by decreasing high school tunities for youth and imple- dropout rates and prepar- mented initiatives focused on ing youth for college and the youth health care and civic workforce. engagement. This marks the second time Somerville spokesperson that Somerville came out as Jaclyn Rossetti said the city’s one of the nation’s “100 Best.” second recognition in the The city also earned the dis- tinction in 2008, according to see SOMERVILLE, page 3 DILYS ONG/TUFTS DAILY The MBTA is increasing its presence at a number of trouble stations, including Kendall and Central Square on the Red Line. Above, the Red Line’s Harvard Square station. MBTA cracks down on fare evaders, steps up enforcement across system BY LAINA PIERA can be at any gate at any time.” “While Davis is not high on Contributing Writer Fare evasion most often our list, problem stations in occurs when individuals follow the area include Kendall and The Massachusetts Bay other riders through the turn- Central,” Lenehan said. “There Transportation Authority (MBTA) stiles, MacMillan said. Others are more entrances there than is cracking down on would-be may attempt to run through an at Davis, and some have unat- free riders who try to use the T open gate or use reduced fare tended areas. We try to rely on without paying their fares. passes for which they are not the honor system, but it doesn’t More uniformed officers will eligible. always happen, which is why we be on watch for fare evaders on While fare evasion is not lim- put police officers there.” the subway system, and there ited to certain stations, there MacMillan said that the Green will be an increase in plain- are some locations that will be Line — an easy target for fare clothes officers standing near receiving more attention. evaders on its trolley cars — the gates, according to MBTA “We try to have a strong will also feature a personnel Chief of Police Paul MacMillan. uniform presence, especial- increase. “Our goal is to do selective ly in places with a problem,” “They have to open the rear enforcement and obtain volun- Robert Lenehan, Lieutenant doors, and there’s no fare box, tary compliance,” MacMillan Commander at MBTA Transit so people can just get on with- told the Daily. “We do it on dif- Police Service Area 2, told the out tapping their CharlieCards,” ferent days and different loca- Daily. Area 2 contains all Red MacMillan said. tions. We realize we can’t be at Line stops from Alewife to VIRGINIA BLEDSOE/TUFTS DAILY every gate all the time, but we Kendall, including Davis Square. see MBTA, page 2 Somerville last month earned the designation as one of the nation’s best communities for children and young adults. Electrical work leaves Hodgdon Hall without Ad agencies embrace female power for longer than expected on Saturday empowerment as sales tactic BY CORINNE SEGAL ers reconnected the main service was not a routine occurrence,” BY EMILIA LUNA same cell phone reception they Daily Editorial Board cables. Afternoon maintenance Reynolds said. “It was unplanned Daily Editorial Board offer males really “empowering,” work lasted one hour longer than work that was done to avert an and if not, why are so many brands Hodgdon Hall residents faced a expected, however, due to the need emergency.” Open up a magazine or flip on latching on to a similar concept? longer-than-expected power shut- for other electrical work, according Reynolds said the quick the television, and odds are you’ll Professor Nancy Bauer, chair down on Saturday when sched- to Vice President for Operations response was largely a preventa- come across an ad that brands its of the Department of Philosophy uled maintenance repairs were Dick Reynolds. tive measure. product as “empowering,” particu- and expert in feminist philoso- compounded by the discovery of “It went about an hour longer “We immediately ordered a new larly for women. Dove’s Campaign phy, explained that the concept of electrical problems. in the afternoon because it turned transformer and wanted to get for Real Beauty displays women of empowerment is one that that has The Department of Facilities out that some of the old cables that in as soon as possible, rather all races, shapes and sizes show- become culturally trendy. Services informed residents in were corroded and they had to be than waiting for the next holiday ing off their natural, Dove-smooth “Even if people don’t talk about an e-mail earlier this month that replaced,” Reynolds said. period, because there’d be risk of bodies. Verizon Wireless’s “Rule it, I think it is in the air, culturally,” Hodgdon’s power would be shut Reynolds said that a trans- more serious damage if we lost it,” the Air” campaign touts that air, she said. off on Saturday morning and after- former replacement was unusual. he said. the particular medium of its ser- But feminine empowerment, noon while workers replaced a Facilities, he said, discovered a Reynolds said he had not vice, “has no prejudice” against Bauer said, does not necessarily defunct transformer. problem with the transformer over received complaints from students women. Even Victoria Secret’s Very manifest in the disappearance of The e-mail specified that power the summer during routine testing regarding the maintenance. Sexy campaign markets female conventional female objectifica- would be shut off again from 7 to of electrical equipment and want- Sophomore Zara Fishkin, a sexuality as a source of girl power. tion or sexualization in advertis- 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 16 while Facilities ed to install a new transformer Hodgdon resident, said that since But is Verizon’s promise to pro- installed generator cables, and quickly before it caused problems. vide female customers with the see ADVERTISING, page 3 from 2 to 2:30 p.m. while work- “What happened on Saturday see HODGDON, page 3 Inside this issue Today’s Sections Tufts and MIT research- The Tisch Gallery plays News | Features 1 Classifieds 9 ers have developed a host to an exhibi- cost-effective way to tion bridging the gap Arts | Living 5Sports Back produce a compound between art viewer and Comics 8 in an anti-cancer drug. participant. see page 2 see ARTS, page 5 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS | FEATURES Friday, October 22, 2010 THE TUFTS DAILY Tufts researchers engineer new way to BENJAMIN D. GITTLESON Editor-in-Chief produce compound for anti-cancer drug EDITORIAL BY MINYOUNG SONG Managing Editors Senior Staff Writer Ellen Kan Carter Rogers Researchers from Tufts and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Matt Repka Executive News Editor (MIT) have come one step closer to mak- Alexandra Bogus News Editors Michael Del Moro ing strides against cancer with the recent Nina Ford discovery of a more efficient and cost-ef- Amelie Hecht fective method of producing taxadiene, the Corinne Segal precursor to the anti-cancer drug Taxol. Martha Shanahan Brent Yarnell Taxol, also known as Paclitaxel, has pow- Jenny White erful medicinal properties and is used as Daphne Kolios Assistant News Editors a treatment for many types of cancers, Kathryn Olson including lung, ovarian and breast can- Romy Oltuski Executive Features Editor cers, according to Blaine Pfeifer, the lead Sarah Korones Features Editors Alison Lisnow researcher on the project and an assis- Emilia Luna tant professor of Chemical and Biological Alexa Sasanow Engineering at Tufts. Derek Schlom Jon Cheng Assistant Features Editors The new technique, which creates the Maya Kohli molecule taxadiene using E. coli bacteria, Amelia Quinn allows scientists to produce 1,000 times more of the molecule than previous engi- Emma Bushnell Executive Arts Editor Zach Drucker Arts Editors neered microbial techniques. Mitchell Geller Researchers published the results of Rebecca Goldberg the project in the Oct. 1 issue of the jour- Benjamin Phelps Anna Majeski Assistant Arts Editors nal Science. Rebecca Santiago Taxadiene was originally procured from Matthew Welch the bark of the yew tree, but this tech- nique was inefficient, according to Greg Rachel Oldfield Executive Op-Ed Editor Larissa Gibbs Assistant Op-Ed Editors Stephanopoulos, a professor of Chemical Elaine Sun Engineering and Biotechnology at MIT, Seth Teleky who led the team of project researchers. Devon Colmer Cartoonists Erin Marshall “It was inefficient because two to four Lorrayne Shen fully grown trees of [the] age of 100 years Louie Zong had to be destroyed in order to extract Rebekah Liebermann Editorialists Ashish Malhotra enough materials for the treatment of one Josh Molofsky patient,” he said. Alexandra Siegel The 1990s saw progress as bioengineers resorted to extracting molecules from the Philip Dear Executive Sports Editor needles of the decorative yew instead of Lauren Flament Sports Editors relying on fully grown trees to produce Jeremy Greenhouse Claire Kemp Taxol, according to Stephanopoulos. Ben Kochman The overall yield, however, was nev- Alex Lach ertheless modest and uneconomical.