October 22, 2009
Peer Portfolio
MP3 ART: About 300 students wearing red, blue, green and yellow shirts gathered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, and plugged into their MP3 players. The University Gazette takes the story from here: “As they followed the downloaded instructions, the students spent the next 45 minutes transforming themselves into a game of human Twister, engaging in thumb wrestling, taking part in synchronized dancing, charging into battle with inflated balloons and scattering themselves along the ground, among other activities.” It was part of an experiment sponsored by the UNC to show that art is not only about filling seats in an auditorium, but also can also be a shared experience.
CALIFORNIA CUTBACKS: With severe shortfalls last year and this, the University of California, Davis, has announced what it calls the Administrative Process Redesign Initiative. The university’s newspaper, Dateline UCDavis, quoted Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Enrique Lavernia saying, “This initiative is necessarily aggressive in its goals for improvement and change” because “the financial crisis is well upon us.” The initiative calls for combining certain administrative offices, restructuring the library, streamlining academic personnel processes and other reorganizations aimed at saving costs.
OUTGROWING BIPOLAR?: Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, may not be a lifelong disorder, according to researchers at the University of Missouri. The university’s newspaper, Mizzou Weekly, reported that “MU researchers have found evidence that nearly half of those diagnosed between the ages of 18 and 25 may outgrow the disorder by the time they reach 30.” One researcher noted, “The maturing of the prefrontal cortex of the brain around 25 years of age could biologically explain the developmentally limited aspect of bipolar disorder. Other researchers have found a similar pattern in young adults with alcohol or substance abuse disorders.”
40,000 GENERATIONS: Forty thousand generations of bacteria can’t be wrong. That’s how many were produced and monitored in a 21-year experiment at Michigan State University recently published in Nature. The university Web site MSU news says the long-term experiment “not only demonstrates natural selection at work, but could lead to biotechnology and medical research advances.” Richard Lenski, MSU professor of microbial ecology, started growing the cultures in 1988, occasionally freezing and studying the bacteria along the way. “It’s extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations,” Lenski said. Read the article here.
VAUDEVILLE LIVES: Early in 2009 the University of Arizona‘s Special Collections department became home to the elements of the American Vaudeville Museum, the world’s largest collection of vaudeville memorabilia and artifacts. The university’s Web site stated, “The collection of recordings, photographs, correspondence, costumes, posters and more offers an unmatched opportunity for students and scholars from around the globe (to) discover, hands-on, this uniquely American expression that even today shapes how we reflect our world.” Check it out here.
SHORT SHOWERS: Students at a University of Florida residence hall are learning to take five-minute showers in a pilot program to save water and energy. “Water conservation messages are posted throughout the area including reminders about turning off water while brushing teeth or shaving as well as reminders to report leaking faucets and shower heads and ‘running’ toilets,” wrote the University of Florida News. Timers on suction cups called Shower Coaches have been placed in the 86 showers in the area — “a fun way to remind residents about water and energy conservation while they are actively using resources,” said an assistant director of housing. A five-minute shower uses about 12.5 gallons of water, and each additional minute uses another 2.5 gallons.
Peer Portfolio is an occasional column reporting on activities at the UW’s peer institutions.
