President George Bush will be meeting in the White House with the latest “American Idol” winner and nine “Idol” competitors - a meeting that, given the political situation in the Middle East, may send mixed signals to voters, according to Professor of Political Science Darrell West. This article also appeared in several other U.S. newspapers and news Web sites; West’s quotes were mentioned on MSNBC’s MSN2 network the afternoon of July 28.

One key to dieting success is to change just one eating habit at a time. That's one finding of The National Weight Control Registry, the largest study of successful weight control maintenance. The registry was developed in 1994 at Brown University Medical School to identify and investigate the characteristics and strategies of individuals who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for more than one year. This article was distributed to U.S. media through Copley News Service.

Russ Fiore, head athletic trainer, discusses precautions for exercising when the heat and humidity are high.

This article explores how the hidden past of blacks in America keeps the nation divided. Associate Professor James Campbell, who chairs the University’s Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, notes that when Americans “begin to discuss slavery, its legacy and what responsibilities if any that history implies for us in the present,” the conversation quickly “gets short-circuited on to the narrow and inflammatory terrain of monetary reparations." He predicts that the information his committee unearthed will make its way into school curriculums around the country.

Michael P. Riccards reviews history Professor Gordon Wood’s book, “Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different.”

Reconstruction of post-Katrina New Orleans and post-9/11 World Trade Center seem to be caught between two conflicting political agendas that plague so many projects in the public space. Political science Professor Jim Morone offers his perspective about why it is so difficult to get projects under way.

After six years at two universities, and about $10 million in grants, Associate Professor of Engineering Thomas J. Webster’s research to use microscopic structures to simulate human tissue is nearing commercialization. He said a deal is in the works with a private investor from Indiana to form a company that licenses his research, which he started at Purdue University in 2000. The professor believes that the arrangement’s involving two universities, rather than one, makes it unique. “Faculty move around all the time,” he said, “but I’ve never heard of a situation where two universities get together in this way for the sake of technology. ...It’s really happened seamlessly.”

This article by Adeline Goss is one in a series written by Brown students in an advanced feature writing class taught by Tracy Breton, visiting professor of journalism. The students were assigned to write a story that conveyed a sense of place. They drew from a hat names of Providence streets and were told to search for someone or something on their designated streets that had never been written about in the same way before. The project, in its eighth year, presents aspects of city life from the perspective of college journalists.