Autumn 2009: Of Note

Perfect Pitch

Emory in the news

Compiled by Beverly Clark

Surviving H1N1: When suspected cases of H1N1 flu emerged on campus this fall, NBC’s Nightly News, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s The Early Show, MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times (in a front page article), the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other outlets took note of the University’s proactive efforts to aid sick students and reduce the spread of the illness. Ill students are encouraged to go to the reopened Turman South residence hall where they receive deliveries of food and meds until they are well enough to return to their regular routines. For the latest campus updates, visit www.emory.edu/home/flu.

New ethical frontiers: “Imagine you had a severely injured astronaut on the surface of Mars—or a dead body. American soldiers will put themselves at great risk to retrieve a dead body. On Mars, you have a different situation. You might be endangering the entire mission by trying to retrieve the body. In that case, you might recommend that it be left behind, even if that is against our ethical traditions,” said Paul Root Wolpe, director of the Emory Center for Ethics and the first chief bioethicist for NASA, in an interview with the New York Times on the unique ethical questions space travel can pose.

Finding a home: NPR’s Weekend Edition spoke with Michael Rich, associate professor of political science and director of the Office of University-Community Partnerships, about the radical changes, for better and for worse, that Atlanta has made to its public housing.

Monks with microscopes: The initiatives of Emory faculty to teach math, philosophy, cosmology, life sciences, and neuroscience to Tibetan monks and nuns in Dharamsala, India, were noted by the New York Times in a comprehensive profile of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative.

Celebrity mourning: In the wake of the deaths of several high-profile celebrities this summer, including Michael Jackson, religion professor Gary Laderman told USA Today there is “a new kind of sacred attachment, one based on fame and looks, personality and stardom.”

Parenting 101: Sending a child to college can be “emotional and overwhelming,” said psychology professor Marshall Duke, who shared his words of wisdom on parenting a college student with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more than twenty years, Duke has given a popular talk to parents during student orientation on how families approach this next stage of life.

Life lesson: Emory’s student-run EMS trained nearly 1,200 of this year’s incoming class in basic CPR. The Associated Press and Inside Higher Education interviewed EMS Chief Alexandra Amaducci 10C.