University Communications · 147 Wallis Hall · P.O. Box 270033 · Rochester, New York 14627-0033 585.275.4118 · www.rochester.edu/news/ NEWS Selected Coverage March 2012 National New York Times (March 31) ABC News Overcoming ‘Physics Envy’ (opinion) The Atlantic Baltimore Sun By KEVIN A. CLARKE AND DAVID M. PRIMO BBC Economists, political scientists and sociologists have long suffered Bloomberg News Brisbane Times from an academic inferiority complex: physics envy. They often feel Buffalo News that their disciplines should be on a par with the “real” sciences and CBC self-consciously model their work on them, using language (“theory,” CBS News Charlotte Observer “experiment,” “law”) evocative of physics and chemistry. But we believe Chicago Tribune that this way of thinking is badly mistaken and detrimental to social Christian Science Monitor research. For the sake of everyone who stands to gain from a better CNN Fox News knowledge of politics, economics and society, the social sciences need to Globe and Mail overcome their inferiority complex, reject hypothetico-deductivism and Good Morning America The Guardian embrace the fact that they are mature disciplines with no need to emulate HealthDay other sciences. Huffington Post Kevin A. Clarke and David M. Primo, associate professors of political Inside Higher Ed Los Angeles Times science at the University of Rochester, are the authors of “A Model Marie Claire Discipline: Political Science and the Logic of Representations.” Men’s Health Miami Herald MSN Los Angeles Times (March 15) MSNBC Menopause fog? It’s real, but not what you think New Glasgow Newspaper Newsday The researchers, from the University of Rochester, N.Y., and University New York Daily News of Illinois in Chicago, recruited 75 women between 40 and 60 whose New York Times menstrual cycles were becoming erratic but who had menstruated in the Orlando Sentintel redOrbit past year. In addition to asking the subjects to assess changes in their Reuters cognitive functioning, researchers put the women through an exhaustive Sacramento Bee battery of tests to gauge their performance objectively. (Also Reported San Francisco Chronicle Science Daily in: CNN.com, Daily Mail, WebMD, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Science Magazine Huffington Post, CBSNews,com, and others) Scientific American Sydney Morning Herald The Telegraph ABC News (March 7) Time Magazine Survival at a Cost: Common Cancer Treatment Carries Huge Risks Times of India U.S. News & World Report “For many survivors, the cost of the cure of their cancer has been late, Wall Street Journal life-threatening effects of therapy,” said Dr. Lois B. Travis, director WAMC Northeast Public Radio of the Rubin Center for Cancer Survivorship at the James P. Wilmot Washington Post WebMD Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “We Winnipeg Free Press recognized that secondary malignant neoplasms and cardiovascular Wired UK Yahoo! News disease are among the most serious adverse effects experienced by the growing number of survivors worldwide,” she added. (Also Reported in: Local AkronNewsNow) 8WROC-TV 10WHEC-TV 13WHAM-TV Rochester Business Journal Rochester Democrat and Chronicle WHAM AM 1180 YNN 1 UPI (March 15) reality in the first place”. “The roots of cosmology ‘Wireless’ message sent using neutrinos cannot be reworked without a new conception of A wireless message has been sent using a beam time, including its origins and its physical nature,” of neutrinos, nearly massless particles that travel argues Frank in this excellent book. at near the speed of light, U.S. researchers say. The message – sent by a group of scientists led U.S. News & World Report (March 13) by researchers from the University of Rochester It’s Not the Economy, Stupid – It’s Entitlement and North Carolina State University on a beam of Spending neutrinos 00 traveled through nearly 800 feet of By David Primo stone and said simply, “Neutrino.” (Also Reported No president – President Obama included – is in: MSNBC, NPR, ArsTechnica, Science Daily, e! captain of the USS Economy. Presidential actions Science News, TG Daily, The Verge, Gizmodo) rarely have dramatic effects on the macro-economy in the short run (and almost never in a positive UPI (March 3) direction). But voters tend to believe otherwise, Older Adults Who Sleep Poorly React to Stress in part due to the promises of candidates and the With Increased Inflammation media’s portrayal of presidential power. As a result, The immune system of an older adult who a president’s electoral fortunes are closely linked to doesn’t get enough sleep responds to stress with the state of the economy come election time. inflammation, increasing the risk for mental and David M. Primo, a senior scholar at George physical health problems, according to researchers Mason University’s Mercatus Center and associate at the University of Rochester Medical Center. professor of political science and business In the study, stress led to a far greater increase administration at the University of Rochester, is in an inflammation marker in people who didn’t the author of an award-winning book on budget sleep well compared to good sleepers. “This study rules, Rules and Restraint: Government Spending offers more evidence that better sleep not only the Design of Institutions, and several papers can improve overall well-being but also may help on the subject, including “Making Budget Rules prevent poor physiological and psychological Work.” outcomes associated with inflammation,” said Kathi L. Heffner, Ph.D., assistant professor of New York Times (March 12) Psychiatry at the Medical Center. Reasons to Place a Bet on Vitamin D (blog) At least once a week, someone, usually a The Telegraph (March 21) woman over 50, asks me about vitamin D. About Time: From Sun Dials to Quantum Perhaps a routine checkup has revealed a Clocks – How the Cosmos Shapes Our Lives by deficiency, prompting the doctor to recommend Adam Frank: review an over-the-counter supplement or, in severe Today there are many books on the nature of time cases, large prescription doses to correct the as we experience it and even more on cosmic time problem. Nonetheless, Dr. Kevin A. Fiscella, a as revealed by science. Yet few attempt to recount public health specialist and family physician at the the entwined narratives of cosmic history and University of Rochester, has decided to take 1,000 human time as a unified whole.Adam Frank’s international units of vitamin D each day, based on About Time does just that. An astrophysicist at data from his studies linking racial disparities in the University of Rochester, he and many of vitamin D levels to disease risk and his belief that his colleagues believe that “the Big Bang is all “it can’t hurt and it may help.” but dead”. Frank and the others do not doubt the scientific narrative of cosmic evolution over the Wall Street Journal (March 6) last 13.7 billion years, only the “bang” in Big When Gaming Is Good for You Bang. The moment of creation with no before is A growing body of university research suggests being questioned because of the very precision that gaming improves creativity, decision-making of the science that gave the notion “a measure of and perception. The specific benefits are wide 2 ranging, from improved hand-eye coordination you remember our name!” The lyrics above come in surgeons to vision changes that boost night from a new music video created by the University driving ability. People who played action-based of Rochester’s admissions office. This original rap video and computer games made decisions 25% song, “Remember oUR Name,” delivers the usual faster than others without sacrificing accuracy, facts and figures, along with pop culture references according to a study. Indeed, the most adept gamers and plenty of cheekiness. You may love it, you may can make choices and act on them up to six times hate it, but either way you’ve got to hand it to the a second – four times faster than most people, Midnight Ramblers, an all-male a cappella group other researchers found. Moreover, practiced at Rochester, for their straight-faced deliveries. game players can pay attention to more than six (Also Reported in: Washington Post, Huffington things at once without getting confused, compared Post, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, with the four that someone can normally keep in 10WHEC-TV, 13WHAM-TV, WXXI) mind, said University of Rochester researchers. The studies were conducted independently of the Chicago Tribune (March 29) companies that sell video and computer games. Postpartum depression tied to domestic violence The violent action games that often worry parents Mothers with postpartum depression are more most had the strongest beneficial effect on the likely to be in a violent relationship than moms brain. “These are not the games you would think without depression, and new mothers in abusive are mind-enhancing,” said cognitive neuroscientist relationships are more likely to suffer postpartum Daphne Bavelier, who studies the effect of action depression, according to a new survey of women games at Switzerland’s University of Geneva and with infants. “I think intuitively and clinically the University of Rochester in New York. (Also it’s not surprising that there would be an overlap Reported in: Fox News, Yahoo! News) between depression and intimate partner violence,” said Dr. Linda Chaudron, a psychiatry professor UPI (March 6) at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Social media can find you and spot friends who was not involved in this study. (Also Reported A lot can be learned about individuals from their in: Baltimore Sun, Fox News, MSNBC) interactions in online social media, even when they hide their messages and posts, U.S. researchers PBS (March 30) say. In a study at the University of Rochester Autism’s Prevalence Grows: ‘This Is a Big in New York, researchers said they were able to Problem’ determine a person’s location within a 100-yard In a 2006 government study, an estimated one in radius with 85 percent accuracy by using only 110 children were diagnosed with autism.