Brett Clifton, a lecturer in public policy who has studied Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian advocacy group, comments on advocacy groups’ efforts to pressure companies over social issues, particularly gay rights.

Tara Nummedal, assistant professor of history, is “one of a new generation of academics interested in the field” of alchemy. Nummedal's interest was piqued by Sir Isaac Newton: "When I learned that the father of modern science was an alchemist, I thought: How can that be?"

A Brown University program that provides stipends to help undergraduates accept unpaid internships is mentioned in this article.

Brian O'Neill, an associate professor of international relations and environmental studies, comments on the Mapping the Future project and its new, high-resolution global map that predicts how human populations are likely to change between now and 2025.

National AIDS prevention plans that are large-scale and science-based must be put into action in Eastern Europe and Asia, writes Josiah D. Rich, M.D., a professor of medicine and community health at Brown. If such plans are not implemented, he writes, “localized HIV epidemics will expand into the general public. Rich is adviser to the Health Action AIDS Campaign of Physicians for Human Rights.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Melani Cammett discusses her escape from Beirut in the wake of Israeli bombings. Cammett had been in Lebanon to conduct research for a book. Providence and Boston radio and TV stations, as well as MSNBC, also aired interviews with Cammett about her experience.

In the wake of Hezbollah-Israeli fighting, Brown junior Rebecca Mintz, who went to Israel this summer to study Hebrew, has moved from city to city to remain safe.

The “sensational research” led by neuroscience professor John Donoghue spells the beginning of a radical change in how we interact with computers.

Watson Institute Visiting Fellow Eugene Jarecki, director of the documentary "Why We Fight," has interviewed nearly 200 Americans about their thoughts and feelings on war and security. Excerpts from the article are available on the Watson Institute Web site.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is working with several universities, including Brown, to collect oral histories of braceros - migrant workers who traveled from Mexico to work on California farms between 1942 and 1964. Matthew Garcia, associate professor of American civilization, helped conduct the research. In this article, he notes that it is important to document the braceros’ experiences in order to inform national discussion about a new guest worker program.

For its “Happiest Students” list in its 2006 edition of “The Best 361 Colleges,” the Princeton Review asked more than a hundred thousand students to rate their schools and report on their campus experience. Brown University ranked third, after Stanford University and Whitman College, and ahead of Southern Methodist University and Rhodes College. KFMB mentioned the top five in its 11 p.m. newscast.

On its “Across the USA” page, Rhode Island’s entry features the announcement that Brown University is relocating its public-health program to the 11-story South Main Street office purchased by the University last year.

A research team from Brown University and Boston College is the first to use DNA to construct and grow complex zinc-oxide nanowires. The new structures were created in the lab of Jimmy Xu, a Brown professor of engineering and physics, and are the first example of DNA-directed self-assembly and synthesis in nanomaterials.

Brown University received a $2-million grant to strengthen physicians’ geriatrics training. The grant was made by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.