Using only data from an fMRI scan, researchers led by a Yale University undergraduate have accurately reconstructed images of human faces as viewed by other people.
“It is a form of mind reading,” said Marvin Chun, professor of psychology, cognitive science and neurobiology and an author of the paper in the journal Neuroimage. (more…)
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale has announced the winners of the Windham Campbell Literature Prizes. This year’s recipients illustrate the global scale of the prizes, with the eight winning writers hailing from seven countries. The winners in the three categories — fiction, non-fiction, and drama — will receive $150,000 each in recognition of their achievements and to support their ongoing work. (more…)
Prof. Young-Kee Kim leads conference for aspiring female scientists
On a mid-January Friday night, Savannah Thais stood at the podium in International House’s Assembly Hall and shared some of her experiences as a female student in physics. She described the refusal of some male students to work with her, the difficulty in finding a female professor or mentor in math or physics, and the common message from adults that “I can’t be ‘girly’ and good at physics.” (more…)
Yale University has begun a multi-phase renovation of the former Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory that will reinvent the landmark nuclear physics lab for a new era in physics research.
Expected to take at least three years, the project will transform the bunker-like home of what once was the world’s most powerful atom smasher of its kind into a site for teaching, research, and development related to two of the hottest topics in 21st-century physics — the study of neutrinos and the hunt for dark matter. (more…)
Health interventions can contribute to academic achievement
There is a strong relationship between a student’s personal health and their academic achievement in school, new research by Yale University suggests. The study found that school, home and community environments that promote good personal health contribute to higher levels of achievement.
The study examines the relationship between a variety of health factors and students’ standardized test scores. The most important predictors of academic achievement were having no television in the bedroom, maintaining a healthy weight, being physically fit, having a secure source of healthy food, and rarely eating at fast-food restaurants. Other significant factors were not drinking soda or other sweetened drinks and getting enough sleep. (more…)
Stroke hospitalization rates appear to rise and fall with sharp changes in outdoor temperature and dew point, a pilot study led by the Yale School of Public Health has found. The research, presented this week at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2014, shows an association of stroke hospitalizations with exposure to extreme daily temperature and dew point fluctuations.
The study examined Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance data from hospitals across the United States. The researchers looked at 157,130 hospital discharges in 2010-2011 for ischemic stroke (caused by a blood clot that blocks blood flow in or leading to the brain). The researchers also obtained temperature and dew point data during the same period and localized it to the county level. (more…)
It wasn’t until he began taking a more artistic approach that Richard Mosse felt his photographs were truly capturing the horror of the conflict in the Congo, the artist told a group of undergraduates and graduates on Feb. 5.
Mosse spoke about the process behind his most recent project, “The Enclave,” at the Yale School of Art. The talk was sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. (more…)
The release of volatile organic compounds from Earth’s forests and smoke from wildfires 3 million years ago had a far greater impact on global warming than ancient atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, a new Yale study finds.
The research provides evidence that dynamic atmospheric chemistry played an important role in past warm climates, underscoring the complexity of climate change and the relevance of natural components, according to the authors. They do not address or dispute the significant role in climate change of human-generated CO2 emissions. (more…)
