1. Smaller, Faster, Cheaper Computers Likely with Organic Transistors
2. U.S. Youths Feel Invulnerable to AIDS, New MTV-Yale Study Reveals
3. “Not By Chance” Report Aims at Improving Child Care by Year 2010
4. Next Generation of Environmental Policies Outlined in Yale Book
5. Inadequate State Regulations Compromise U.S. Child-care Quality
6. “Kinship to Mastery” Explores Human Roots in the Natural World
7. Yale Psychologist Offers Fun and Safety Tips for Carpooling Parents
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1. Smaller, Faster, Cheaper Computers Likely with Organic Transistors
Yale scientists have succeeded for the first time in measuring an electric current flowing through a single organic molecule sandwiched between metal electrodes. The feat could pave the way for a radically new generation of organic transistors so small that a beaker full would contain more transistors than exist in the world today. Computers and sensors that are smaller, faster and cheaper than today’s silicon-based computers are the goal. “Scientists have gone from one transistor on a single chip to tens of millions. Now we are ready to go to billions of transistors on a single chip,” says electrical engineer Mark A. Reed. The next step is to design computer chips with wires made of self-assembling strings of organic molecules that grow in a beaker, since the wires would be far too small to produce any other way. The organic wires would adhere to metal electrodes. (Science, Vol. 278, No. 5336: 252-254, Oct. 10, 1997). News release.
2. U.S. Youths Feel Invulnerable to AIDS, New MTV-Yale Study Reveals
Nearly 9 out of 10 young people ages 12 to 34 believe they are invulnerable to getting the AIDS virus, despite the fact that more than 20 percent of them have had a friend or acquaintance die of AIDS, according to a new national survey by MTV: Music Television and Yale University. “This study tells us that, regardless of the information that’s out there, young people have not internalized the dangers of AIDS, drugs, alcohol and other health-related risks,” says Dr. Michael H. Merson, Dean of Public Health at the Yale School of Medicine and director of the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS. MTV spokesman Todd Cunningham says the survey “gives us key information we need to create programs that will give viewers some answers” about sex, health and AIDS. Only half of unmarried survey respondents used a condom the last time they had sex, and 45 percent have had sex at least once without using condoms. (The 1997 MTV/Yale University Health Behavior Study, released Dec. 16, 1997). News release.
3. “Not By Chance” Report Aims at Improving Child Care by Year 2010
On the heels of the recent White House Conference on Child Care, a major report released at Yale University offers hard-hitting solutions for improving the quality of child care and early education. “Not By Chance” presents a vision to be achieved by the year 2010 for making high-quality programs available and accessible to all children under age 5 whose parents want to enroll them. The system would engage families and communities in assessing results and holding programs accountable. In turn, all programs would be licensed and staffed with well-trained, credentialed and appropriately compensated employees, says Yale developmental psychologist Sharon L. Kagan. The report culminates an in-depth, four-year research and review initiative called “Quality 2000.” (Not By Chance: Creating an Early Care and Education System for America’s Children, by Sharon L. Kagan and Nancy E. Cohen, with major funding from the Carnegie Corp, released Nov. 5, 1997). News release.
4. Next Generation of Environmental Policies Outlined in Yale Book
Today’s environmental threats — ozone layer depletion, global warming and endocrine disrupters, for example — are less visible, more subtle and more difficult to address than the black skies or orange rivers of a generation ago. While the first generation of environmental reform targeted big business, the next generation must include thousands of smaller companies and millions of consumers, say the authors of “Thinking Ecologically.” The book, which also contains recommendations for global cooperation, is the final product of “The Next Generation Project,” a two-year environmental-reform effort sponsored by Yale. The project brought together about 500 scientists, environmental activists and industrialists for two international conferences and 14 regional workshops, each resulting in a book chapter. (Thinking Ecologically: The Next Generation of Environmental Policy, co-edited by Marian R. Chertow and Daniel C. Esty. New Haven: Yale University Press, October 1997). News release.
5. Inadequate State Regulations Compromise U.S. Child-care Quality
American child care regulations are mediocre or poor in every state because state legislators are setting standards far too low, thus posing a threat to children’s development. That is the finding of a Yale study rating the quality of regulations governing center-based child care for infants and toddlers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It joins a spate of recent reports that paint a gloomy picture of child-care quality nationwide. Not one state had regulations that earned a combined quality score of good or very good. Only one-third had minimally acceptable standards while two-thirds were rated poor or very poor, said psychologist Edward Zigler, director of Yale’s Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy. Scientists evaluated staff-to-child ratio, group size, caregiver education and training, and program quality (facilities, equipment, and approach to children). (American Journal of Ortho-psychiatry, Vol. 67, No. 4: 535-544, October 1997). News release.
6. “Kinship to Mastery” Explores Human Roots in the Natural World
No matter how much we may have become urban dwellers, we continue to rely physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually on the quality and richness of our natural surroundings. That is the basic hypothesis of Stephen R. Kellert’s latest book, a hypothesis first explored by Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson in his controversial book “Biophilia,” describing our inherent biological need to affiliate with the world of plants and animals. That need is believed to be the driving force behind the current environmental movement. Kellert builds his biophilia hypothesis on nine principles, making his case by quoting seminal writers such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Carl Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche, and by citing scores of studies. (Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in Human Evolution and Development, by Stephen R. Kellert. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, September 1997). News release.
7. Yale Psychologist Offers Fun and Safety Tips for Carpooling Parents
The average carpool parent is 40 years old and shuttles three children. The most frequent destination is school, followed by sports, music lessons and scouts, in that order. Carpool parents also do a lot of waiting, spending an average of seven hours a week in the car yet driving only 15 miles. “Plan some games to keep active children entertained, just as you would for a cross-country trip,” says Yale psychologist Dorothy Singer, who recently developed carpooling tips at the request of Nissan Motor Corp. U.S.A. Nissan’s random survey last spring of 300 parents and 300 children revealed that safety ranked as the highest priority, even among children. Parents should meet informally before a carpool begins to talk about safety procedures, discipline, snacks, being on time, emergency phone numbers and food allergies. News release.
