In the News at Binghamton University


	January 11, 2004 Liz Rosenberg, professor of English, reviewed the young adult book, Sonata #1 for Riley Red, for the Boston Globe. The book is about a 13-year-old girl who thinks she leads an ordinary, dull life until she meets an eccentric girl and her older brother, Riley. Rosenberg said about the novel, ?Literature doesn’t get much better than this.? She also reviewed ?Millicent Min, Girl Genius,? noting that ?Millie is the most likeable unlikable heroine since Jane Austen’s Emma?? January 5, 2004 Steven Lynn, professor of psychology, was quoted in an article in the Los Angeles Times about using hypnosis to help patients recover from phobias. The article discussed the prospect of teaching people how to fall into a hypnotic trance more easily. “Now the idea is to find what is most effective in getting them there, from a low level of suggestibility to a higher one,” Lynn said. “You do that and you not only increase the number of people who would benefit, but also widen the range of its applications.” December 18, 2003 Thomas Kelly, vice president for external affairs, was featured in an Associated Press article about the rise in donations to colleges. Kelly said Binghamton had received a $1 million gift from the estate of a deceased faculty member, but ?Even without the donation, contributions from alumni and other sources have accounted for a 15 percent increase in giving.? The article was featured in several newspapers across the country, including the Boston Globe, and was also posted on the CNN.com web site. December 11, 2003 Ronald Miles, professor of mechanical engineering, was featured in an article in The New York Times Circuits section. His recent $6.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop small, highly-sensitive directional microphones for the next generation of hearing aids was the focus of the article. Lynn Luethke, a program director at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, said Miles’ microphone could help prevent unwanted noise. ?Lots of people that could use hearing aids don’t, and for good reason,? she said. ?There’s this sense of noise and some distortion of the sound.? November 17, 2003 Bernard Rosenthal, professor of English, was featured in an Associated Press article about the Salem witch trials. A project to update the transcripts of the trials to correct errors is underway. The project was started in 1998 by Rosenthal after he discovered he had inadvertently included an erroneously transcribed court date in his book, Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. “In writing the book,” he said, “I was starting to get an inkling that I couldn’t trust the sources. It was that particular thing that said, ‘Hey, we really have to go through all the transcripts.’” November 16, 2003 Liz Rosenberg, professor of English, reviewed the book, Eragon, for The New York Times. Written by 19-year-old Christopher Paolini, the book is the first of a planned trilogy. While calling it a “fundamentally gloomy book,” Rosenberg said it “never falters in its velocity. Its plot is episodic rather than climactic; it is clearly part of a larger work…” and “Like countless other readers, I am waiting to see what happens next, with wonder, with admiration and with hope.” Library Journal Reviews November 15, 2003 Kathryn Kish Sklar, distinguished professor of history, and Thomas Dublin, professor of history, had their work cited in Library Journal Reviews. Their web site, Women and Social Movements, is being used as the basis for a new collaborative model between Alexander Street Press and scholars that will keep a women’s studies project alive.
Archives Katie Ellis Media Relations Director Gail Glover Assistant Director of Media Relations 607-777-2174		November 11, 2003 David Sloan Wilson, professor of biological sciences, was quoted in a New York Times special feature celebrating the anniversary of the Science Times section. The feature addressed what the newspaper saw as the 10 major questions scientists face. Wilson was quoted in the article “Is War Our Biological Destiny?” He said, “When you consider it was only about 13,000 years ago that we discovered agriculture, and that most of what we’re calling human history occurred since then, you see what a short amount of time we’ve had to work toward global peace.” The article was also reprinted in the December 14, 2003, Edmonton Journal in Alberta, Canada. November 4, 2003 Anna Klintsova, assistant professor of psychology, was featured in a New York Times article that suggests that improvements can be made in children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome if therapy is started early in life. Klinstsova is the lead author in a study that indicated trained alcohol-exposed rats did equally as well as trained unexposed rats on an obstacle course they had never seen. The trained alcohol-exposed rats also did better than untrained unexposed rats. October 16, 2003 Susan Bane, professor of chemistry, was featured in an Associated Press article about her research into creating a new cancer drug with fewer side effects than the commonly used Taxol. Bane is working with colleagues from Virginia Polytechnic Institute to develop a new molecule that works like Taxol. They have been working with a $406,835 grant from the National Institutes of Health. BBC News October 14, 2003 Linda Spear, distinguished professor of chemistry, was mentioned in a BBC News article about a study that says teenagers may be causing long-term damage to their bodies and brains by binge drinking. According to the article, Spear said little was known about long-term effects of alcohol consumption on teenagers, but “she said a substantial number of studies had shown that the earlier individuals started using alcohol, the more likely they were to have alcohol-related problems in adulthood.” Her work into the effects of alcohol on rats was also mentioned in an October 20 Health 24 website article. October 9, 2003 Ronald Miles, professor of mechanical engineering, was featured in an Associated Press article about a $6.5 million federal research grant to improve hearing aid quality. Miles will lead the study to design sensors for directional hearing aids. “The vast, vast majority of people who are hearing-impaired have great difficulty when they get into a noisy place,” he said. “This will lead to a significant improvement in the ability of the hearing-impaired to understand speech. It helps filter out unwanted noises.” Philadelphia Inquirer October 3, 2003 Bernard Bass, professor emeritus in the School of Management, was quoted in a Philadelphia Inquirer article about Rush Limbaugh’s comments concerning Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and McNabb’s calm response to the comments. “Limbaugh just shoots off his mouth on a continuing basis,” he said. “But a good leader monitors himself. I guess McNabb is sufficiently secure and avoids getting into conflicts without merit.” August 16, 2003 Ali A. Mazrui, Albert Schweitzer professor of the Humanities and director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies, was quoted in a Global News Wire account about efforts to establish a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission for Kenya. Mazrui, who is also chancellor of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya, said “The whole concept of the South and Truth Commission and Reconciliation was a trade off between truth and reconciliation on one side and justice on the other side.”
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