In the News

The Chronicle’s biweekly column In the News offers a digest of commentary and quotations by a few of the University faculty members, students and alumni who have been headlining the news in recent weeks. Chicago faculty members are some of the most frequently quoted experts, so space allows publishing references to only selected examples. To read many of the full newspaper articles mentioned in this column, visit the In the News column at the University News Office Web site at: http://www-news.uchicago.edu/.

Research conducted by Larry Gray, Instructor in Pediatrics, was the subject of stories published Tuesday, April 2, in the National Post of Toronto, and Wednesday, April 3, in the Chicago Sun-Times. Gray’s study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics, showed that infants who are breast-fed experience less pain from needle pricks performed to draw blood. Breast-fed babies in the study cried less and had calmer heartbeats while undergoing a heel lance than did babies who were not breast-fed. “Breast-feeding is a potent analgesic intervention in newborns during a standard blood collection,” said Gray in the National Post article.

David Galenson, Professor in Economics and the College, was interviewed about his book Painting Outside the Lines for the New York-based arts and culture program called Studio 360, hosted by journalist and novelist Kurt Andersen. Galenson’s research challenges a long-held belief by artist historians “that creativity cannot be quantified, that great artists are isolated geniuses with nothing in common.” Galenson applied regression analysis, a standard tool for the study of labor economics, to complete his research on artists.

Douglas MacAyeal, Professor in Geophysical Sciences and the College, was interviewed for a story that appeared in the Wednesday, March 20 Chicago Tribune on climatic warming and the disintegration of nearly two-thirds of Antarctica’s Larsen Ice Shelf. He also was a guest on WGN-TV on Tuesday, April 2, for a segment on its 9 p.m. newscast. In the Tribune story, he described the Larsen Ice Shelf thawing, saying: “This is the big story. This is related to global warming and annual average temperature rates. It’s one of the major ice events of the last century.”

A new English translation by Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Iliade Distinguished Service Professor in the Divinity School, and Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst, of the Sanskrit text called the Kamasutra, was the subject of two stories published last month: one Tuesday, March 19, in The Guardian, and another carried by the Associated Press Newswires Thursday, March 28. Considered one of the most explicit texts on sexual psychology, Doniger said of the original: “It is always said to be a book about man’s manipulation of women, but a great deal of it is about women’s manipulation of men. It’s really about power, politics and sex.”

Rashid Khalidi, Director of the Center for International Studies and Professor in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and the College, wrote an op-ed that appeared in the Wednesday, April 3 issue of the Chicago Tribune. Khalidi, a Middle East historian and an adviser to Palestinian negotiators in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, argued for U.S. intervention. Khalidi wrote that the United States, as “the world’s sole superpower,” must intervene to put an end to the Israeli occupation and support the creation of a Palestinian state.

Charles Lipson, Director of the Program on International Politics, Economics and Security and Associate Professor in Political Science and the College, wrote an op-ed that appeared in the Sunday, April 7 issue of the Chicago Sun-Times. Lipson wrote that the Palestinian terror tactics have backfired on their cause. “If Israel yields under terrorist pressure, it will only prove that terrorism pays, and that will spark still more assaults.”

Bernard Meltzer, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Law School, was named in a Thursday, March 21 New York Times story as one of the outside experts sought by the Bush administration to set the rules for conducting military tribunals for prisoners from the war in Afghanistan.

The University’s Graduate School of Business’ campus in Singapore was the subject of a Wall Street Journal story published Wednesday, March 20. Beth Bader, Managing Director of the Executive M.B.A. Program in Asia, was interviewed for the piece. Executive education, the story reported, is targeted at seasoned senior managers with extensive industry experience. Bader said the program was traditionally designed “to give people the formal conceptual tools to act on their business instincts.”

Kristina Orfali, Assistant Director of the Maclean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and Assistant Professor in Medicine, was a guest on National Public Radio’s WBEZ on Tuesday, April 2. Orfali discussed the results of her study comparing parental involvement and decision-making in neonatal intensive care units in the United States and France.

Gary Becker, University Professor in Economics and Sociology, was quoted in a Wall Street Journal story that reported on Ticketmaster’s new online reseller system that has been developed to compete with scalpers, ticket brokers and online auction houses, such as eBay Inc., all sources used for last-minute ticket purchases for sporting and musical events. “The use of the Internet is a way of making a market more perfect, in the sense of getting the tickets into the hands of people who at any moment are willing to pay the most for them,” said Becker.

Alumnus David Auburn (A.B., ’91) and his Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play Proof were the focus of articles and critical reviews in both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune, as the play began and ended its run at the Shubert Theatre.

Gidon Eshel, Assistant Professor in Geophysical Sciences, was a guest on WLS-TV’s News Views program on Sunday, March 31. Eshel discussed long-term weather patterns in the Chicago area.

The University Press’ short-run digital printing system was the topic of a Friday, April 5 Wall Street Journal story. Paula Barker Duffy, Director of the University Press, was quoted in the story, which described the Chicago Digital Distribution Center, which allows the Press to publish booksówhich might otherwise have gone out of printóin press runs as small as 25 copies.