Tag Archives: yale university

Sun Safety: Facts about Skin Cancer and Tips on Preventing It

With summer upon us, Yale Medical Group physicians have an urgent warning: Be sun smart. Practicing good sun protection, including the use of sunscreen, could save your life, they say.

“You don’t want to go crawl under a rock or hide in the basement,” says dermatologist Dr. David Leffell, CEO of Yale Medical Group and a member of Yale Cancer Center. “You want to be active and that usually is best done outdoors — simply use moderation and common sense.” (more…)

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In Summer Session, Students can Take a Yale Course From Afar

Students from around the world will have the opportunity to take a Yale course this summer even if they are unable to come to campus.

The University is embarking on an experimental pilot program to offer Yale Summer Session courses, all taught by noted Yale faculty members, through an online platform. The overall program involves four Yale Summer Session courses, with two of the four courses available for credit. The five-week, for-credit courses are open to current college students and others beyond college. Students apply for admission to the courses as they would for any in-resident Yale Summer Session course. (more…)

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Yale Researchers Identify Four Key Weapons in Immune System’s Arsenal

Yale University researchers have identified four unique host defense proteins among thousands that seem to play a crucial role in mobilizing the immune system’s response to bacterial infections, they report in the May 6 issue of the journal Science.

The findings suggest it may be possible to find new ways to assist immune-compromised patients to fight off a variety of pathogens, the authors say.

“We can start to think about how to mimic these chemical processes and deliver them in drug form,” said John D. MacMicking, associate professor of microbial pathogenesis at Yale School of Medicine and senior author the study. (more…)

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Bringing more Power to African Farmers Through Simple Technology

In a room in the basement of Hillhouse Avenue, 18 Yale students have spent the past 12 weeks transforming gears, wing nuts and sprockets into energy solutions for farmers working thousands of miles away in sub-Saharan Africa.

The class, called “Appropriate Technology for the Developing World,” was inspired by a trip that faculty member John Morrell took to Africa in 2009 with an international team of scientists, after learning that African farmers often earn just $1 to $2 a day. (more…)

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Scientists Build the World’s First Anti-laser

More than 50 years after the invention of the laser, scientists at Yale University have built the world’s first anti-laser, in which incoming beams of light interfere with one another in such a way as to perfectly cancel each other out. The discovery could pave the way for a number of novel technologies with applications in everything from optical computing to radiology.

Conventional lasers, which were first invented in 1960, use a so-called “gain medium,” usually a semiconductor like gallium arsenide, to produce a focused beam of coherent light-light waves with the same frequency and amplitude that are in step with one another. (more…)

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Yale Scientists Find Molecular Glue Needed To Wire the Brain

Yale University researchers have found that a single molecule not only connects brain cells but also changes how we learn. The findings, reported in the December 9 issue of the journal Neuron, may help researchers discover ways to improve memory and could lead to new therapies to correct neurological disorders.

The junctions between brain cells over which nerve pulses pass — called synapses — are crucial for regulating learning and memory and how we think. Aberrations in the structure and function of synapses have been linked to mental retardation and autism, while synapses are lost in the aging brains of Alzheimer’s patients. (more…)

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Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Teens Singled Out for Punishment

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents are about 40 percent more likely than other teens to be punished by school authorities, police and the courts, according to a study by Yale University researchers. Published in the January 2011 issue of the journal Pediatrics, the study is the first to document excessive punishment of LGB youth nationwide.

“We found that virtually all types of punishment—including school expulsions, arrests, juvenile convictions, adult convictions and especially police stops—were more frequently meted out to LGB youth,” said lead author Kathryn Himmelstein, who initiated the study while she was a Yale undergraduate. The research was supervised by Hannah Brueckner, professor of sociology and co-director of the Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course at Yale. (more…)

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Video: Bob Woodward Discusses Investigative Journalism in the New Century

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Bob Woodward ’65 discussed “Secrets: Uncovering Mysteries in the 21st Century” during a conversation with Steven Brill ’72, LAW ’75, founder of the Yale Journalism Initiative, and Paul Needham ’11, journalism scholar and former editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News. (more…)

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