Citations
Great
balls of fire!
Fireballs piercing the atmosphere of a neutron star, shock waves
racing across its surface at supersonic speeds, and sheets of
lava splashing to heights of nine miles. The computer simulations
(below) of the X-ray bursts emitted by exploding neutron stars
are the most detailed ever produced and are the work of Michael
Zingale, AM'98, a doctoral student in astronomy
& astrophysics, and his colleagues at the U of C's Center for
Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes. At a June meeting of the
American Astronomical Society, Zingale said that the studies-motivated
by the flickering oscillations discovered by the Rossi X-ray Timing
Explorer satellite in 1996-point to specific X-ray emission characteristics
that astronomers should be able to find in future observations.
Although the Rossi satellite makes extremely precise measurements
of a neutron star's X-ray emissions, it can't make direct images
of the surface: hence the need for simulations to test researchers'
theories.
Meaning,
not cause?
Should we care about why some people are gay? In The Course of
Gay and Lesbian Lives (University of Chicago Press, 2000), social-sciences
professor Bertram
Cohler, AB'61, and psychiatry lecturer Robert
Galatzer-Levy examine the ways in which social and historical
changes across generations have contributed to how humans think
about and explain homosexuality. Arguing that there is little
support for the notion that homosexuality has a biological basis,
the authors instead suggest that there are many pathways leading
to same-gender orientation, and that the cause is far less important
than understanding the meaning of being homosexual.
Green
space to greenbacks
A new study by Harris School professor Don Coursey and Ph.D. candidate
Doug Noonan, AM'99,
has answers to the question, "Is it possible for economists to
put a value on a community's environmental resources?" Looking
at two southwest suburban Cook County, IL, communities, Palos
Park and Orland Park, the two economists concluded that land preservation
that enhances the quality of life also significantly raises home
values. Using a ten-year time frame, Coursey and Noonan found
that residents would see an average drop of $13,000 in home values,
approximately 6.3 percent, if population density grew by 50 percent
with a corresponding loss of preserved green space.
Truer
to life
In his upcoming book, Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life
(Harvard University Press), Jonathan Lear, a professor in the
Committee on Social Thought and in philosophy, argues that both
Aristotle and Sigmund Freud erred in trying to explain human behavior
via a single principle. Aristotle attempted to ground ethics in
the striving for happiness without giving a tangible definition
of that happiness. Likewise, Freud's attempts to source human
striving, aggression, and destructiveness in the death drive attributed
purpose where none exists. Neither thinkers' overarching principles
can guide or govern "the remainder of life," argues Lear, in which
our inherently disruptive unconscious moves us toward new directions
and possibilities.
A
healthy form of destruction
Using experimental techniques rarely applied to biomedical problems,
University of Chicago scientists have begun to learn exactly how
a promising class of bacteria-destroying agents called protegrins
go about their deadly task. The research, conducted in collaboration
with medical professors from the University of California, Los
Angeles, aims to develop more potent antibiotic drugs. "Clinical
studies have shown that protegrins are active against E. coli
and other bacteria and viruses, including HIV, but the mechanism
of action has been essentially unknown," said David Gidalevitz,
a chemistry research associate who presented new details regarding
the molecular basis of this action during the American Chemical
Society's national meeting last spring -Q.J. & M.R.Y.