Richard Holbrooke’s monthly column takes a look at Russia’s plans in regard to a proposal for phased independence for Kosovo. Holbrooke is a Brown University professor-at-large based at the Watson Institute for International Studies.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200972.html

Coverage of a panel discussion about how and where anthropologists should draw ethical lines when engaging with national-security agencies. The Watson Institute for International Studies webcast the discussion, which featured members of an ad hoc committee of the American Anthropological Association.
chronicle.com/daily/2007/03/2007031301n.htm

Scott Allard, assistant professor of political science and public policy, comments on a new study reporting that a demographic shift in where the poor live has implications for access to health care.
jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/297/10/1047

The New York City Council will consider banning the use of metal bats in high school athletics. The article about the bill includes comment from Richard M. Greenwald, one of the Brown researchers who found in 2001 that baseballs hit with a metal bat traveled faster than those hit with a wood bat.
www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/nyregion/13bat.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

Economics Professor Glenn Loury participates in a roundtable discussion about the FBI's alleged misuse of the Patriot Act, an appellate court's decision to lift the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., and a movement by some in hip hop to promote financial responsibility.
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7850837

Chromium 6, the cancer-causing compound that sparked the legal crusade by Erin Brockovich, can be toxic in tiny doses. Brown University scientists have uncovered the unlikely culprit: vitamin C. In new research, the Brown team shows that when vitamin C reacts with even low doses of chromium 6 inside human cells, it creates high levels of cancer-causing DNA damage and mutations. This press release was republished on several science Web sites around the world.
www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2006-07/06-115.html

The state Supreme Court has upheld a $455,000 judgment awarded to a former Brown University professor who sued after he was denied tenure, but the court said the college doesn’t have to reinstate him or pay $100,000 in punitive damages.
www.projo.com/news/courts/content/brown_ruling_03-13-07_634QMDN.3449fb0.html

Brown IT security engineer Paul Asadoorian is among those interviewed for an article about the end of Patch Tuesday, the day on which Microsoft releases security patches and bulletins.
www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/03/how_will_you_sp.html

Researchers led by Mayank Mehta, assistant professor of neuroscience, found that the electrical activity in the brain cells of sleeping mice isn't completely random. They observed a “dialogue” between the hippocampus and the neocortex areas of the brain where memories are made and stored. This wire-service article appeared in several media outlets in India.
www.indiaenews.com/america/20070314/42973.htm
See news release: www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2006-07/06-109.html

A former Brown admission officer urges colleges and universities to make their admission decision process more transparent to prospective students and their parents.
blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/03/post_34.html