June 28, 2007

Carolina in the News

Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:

National Coverage

DNA team transforms one bacterium into another
The Los Angeles Times
Biologists have converted one species of bacterium into another by replacing all of its DNA, a critical step toward their ultimate goal of designing entire organisms from scratch, according to a study published today. ...But as synthetic biologists design more complex genomes, the technique may need significant adjustments, said study co-author Clyde Hutchison of the Venter Institute. "We don't have any idea yet really how widely applicable this would be," said Hutchison, who is also a professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Another Shark, Another Virgin Birth
U.S. News & World Report
What's up with the sharks? First, there was the news last month that a baby hammerhead born to an apparently celibate mother in a Nebraska aquarium did not possess any DNA evidence of a male parent. ...But neither example of parthenogenesis elsewhere in the tree of life explains how sharks ended up with the ability to reproduce without partners. If parthenogenesis were necessary at some point during the shark's evolutionary trajectory, says Frank Schwartz, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Institute of Marine Sciences, then marine biologists should be seeing it crop up in other related species.

Childproof Your Summer: Sunscreen
U.S. News & World Report
Get serious about sunscreen. If you haven't yet succeeded at training the kids to use sunscreen, new research adds some heat. A team at the University of North Carolina has linked a high cumulative level of sun exposure between infancy and age 20 with the development of a mutation known as braf in the skin cancer gene, which accounts for about half of all melanomas.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may07/skincancer053007.html

State & Local Coverage

Dean appointed for Summer School
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Jan Johnson Yopp, senior associate dean and Walter Spearman professor in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been appointed dean of the Summer School beginning in January.
Related link: http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-860628.cfm
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun07/summerdean062707.html

3 UNC students receive Fulbright Program awards
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Three UNC students have received 2007-08 awards from the Fulbright Program for U.S. Students, enabling them to participate in the country's largest international exchange program. ..."The Fulbright program is first and foremost a cultural exchange," said Beth-Ann Kutchma, the Fulbright program adviser at the university. "Students will often bring that experience back to the U.S., and that seems to be the main goal of the Fulbright."
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun07/fulbright062607.html

Postcards from North Carolina
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
All of us have sent and received a postcard at some time in our lives, but did you know that postcard collecting is the third most popular collecting hobby in the world? Guest Durwood Barbour donated his collection of almost 8,000 North Carolina themed postcards to his alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill and joins host Frank Stasio to discuss his collection.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun07/antartica061807.html

UNC professor puts Antarctica to music
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Antarctica, with its wild, vast expanse of ice, has been a calling for flutist Brooks de Wetter-Smith for nearly 50 years. The music professor at UNC-Chapel Hill realized his dream in December, when he boarded a National Geographic ship to the southernmost continent on Earth. His mission: to capture the spectacular beauty of Antarctica in music, sound and pictures.

UNC says two centers involving Edwards are separate entities
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
The recent ABC News story was about Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards defending the activities of his nonprofit anti-poverty Center for Promise and Opportunity as "completely legal." ...The questions about the center have not affected the UNC organization, said Marion Crain, a law professor who replaced Edwards as the center's head.

Mental health insurance clears panel
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Workers in North Carolina are as close as they've ever been to benefiting from mental health insurance coverage required in most other states. ...But the proposal has deficiencies, said Dr. Jack Naftel, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine. He warned that children would be shortchanged under the proposed limits, because mental illnesses most often diagnosed in children such as ADHD, separation anxiety and disruptive behavior are not included among the nine main mental disorders.
Related link: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770627117

School land purchase defended
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Realtor and developers involved in a derailed deal to sell land to the Wake schools at twice the property's appraised value said Wednesday they think elected officials passed on a good deal. ...Professors at the UNC-CH Institute of Government said Thursday that no state law bars Redmond from doing business with the school system because the advisory board on which she sits does not have the power to award government contracts.

Latino banks see revenue potential
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Triangle doesn't have a single bank dedicated solely to the rapidly expanding Latino market. That's about to change. ...A UNC-Chapel Hill study released last year showed that Hispanics fill one in three new jobs in the state and pumped $9.2 billion into the economy in 2004. It estimated that the Hispanic population jumped a third from 2000 through 2004, to about 600,000, or 7 percent of the state's population.

Interviews, transcripts keep black history alive in Pamlico
The Sun News (New Bern)
Black history will endure in Pamlico County. Six months of oral interviews produced a collection of memories and reflections by more than 35 Pamlico County blacks. The effort will culminate at a Saturday ceremony at Pamlico Middle School. ...Copies of the interview tapes and transcripts will be presented to the Pamlico County Library and to the oral history collection at the University of North Carolina.

Transit, northward (Letter to the editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The current plans for UNC's proposed Carolina North campus on the Horace Williams Airport grounds, as reported in a June 22 news story, constitute a declaration of war against the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The weapons of mass destruction these plans would deploy are many thousands of automobiles going to and from the campus every day.

Carolina “champ” and “priceless gem” Hyatt succumbs to cancer at 73
The Carrboro Citizen
Officially, Ronald Wesley Hyatt was a professor, coach and faculty marshal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for nearly 40 years, and a winner of the state’s highest honor, the Order of the Long-Leaf Pine from the governor, in 2004.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun07/hyatt061507.html

Audit: UNC Hospitals Official Had Discrepancies in Expense Reports
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
An audit released Thursday found the pharmacy director at UNC Hospitals, which also provides service to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, received travel and phone reimbursements from the hospital and the school for the same expenses.
Related link: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2007/06/25/daily33.html

Produced by News Services, Carolina in the News is an e-mail sampling of current news media coverage about Carolina people and programs, as well as issues and trends that affect the university. Stories usually will be online and available free for a limited time - often one to two weeks. Expiration dates before stories move to archives vary by media outlet. Some outlets require free user registration or a subscription.

Carolina in the News is also posted daily to the News Services Web page, http://www.unc.edu/news/clips/index.shtml.

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