Mostly Cloudy with a 20% chance of rain HIGH LOW 65 42
UT football kicks off spring practice
PAGE 8 T H E
Thursday, March 18, 2010 Issue 41
E D I T O R I A L L Y
It’s all about country and... Venezuela? Entertainment Briefs on PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://dailybeacon.utk.edu
Vol. 113
I N D E P E N D E N T
S T U D E N T
N E W S P A P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
PAGE 6 O F
T E N N E S S E E
NPR reporter discusses climate change Nathan Berger Staff Writer
N.J. Walmart worker makes racist slur WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — An announcement at a Walmart store in New Jersey ordering black people to leave brought chagrin and apologies Wednesday from leaders of the company, which has built a fragile trust among minority communities. A male voice came over the public-address system Sunday evening at a store in Washington Township in southern New Jersey and calmly announced: “Attention Walmart customers: All black people leave the store now.” Shoppers in the store at the time said a manager quickly got on the public address system and apologized for the remark. And while it wasn’t clear whether a rogue patron or an employee was responsible for the comment, many customers expressed their anger to store management. Smithsonian opens $21 million human evolution hall WASHINGTON — Hundreds of early human fossils, artifacts and forensically recreated faces of our prehistoric relatives went on display Wednesday, exploring 6 million years of evolution at the National Museum of Natural History. The nearly $21 million Hall of Human Origins marks the 100th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution museum and represents the most comprehensive look at human evolution since its opening. The massive hall includes rare specimens, including the only original fossil of a Neanderthal skeleton in the United States. Two skulls discovered more than a century ago of a Neanderthal and a Cro-Magnon are on loan from the Musee de l’Homme in Paris.
National Public Radio journalist Richard Harris discussed how climate change has evolved in both the scientific community and the media Tuesday. Harris has reported on science topics for NPR the last 24 years, covering stories from the South Pole to the Amazon rainforest. Harris described the initial reaction to climate change within the scientific community. “In the beginning, their attitude was: ‘Wow, this is really scary. Wow, this is really going to happen. This is 50 years from now.’ And end of story because they couldn’t believe that they really could grasp it or deal with it in any serious way,” Harris said. In the late 1980s, the United Nations funded an international research team to conduct a report on climate change. The report said there was some evidence that human influence had led to increased global temperatures. Over the past 30 years, confidence in climate change has increased among climate change researchers. A UN report from earlier this year declared there to be unequivocal climate change since the mid-20th century due to human involvement, Harris said. Harris believes public opinion of climate change has taken a different course. Up until 2006, public interest had risen with steadying scientific assurance. At that time, 77 percent of Americans believed in solid evidence of global warming. A Gallup Organization poll this year showed that 49 percent of Americans are unconcerned about global warming, and 20 percent say there is no evidence of it. “This is especially hard for me, as somebody who had spent so many years trying to report about the facts, tell people what’s going on and then to see public opinion go in the opposite direction,” Harris said. Harris explained how it can be hard to get a clear story on climate change with so many media sources, including the recent arrival of the blogosphere. “It’s not about the science; it’s about the messenger,” Harris said. Another deterrent for the public acceptance of climate change is the matter of responsibility. Efforts to curb the sources of climate change can be seen by some as an assault on the American way of life. Harris concluded his presentation on the global economy’s effect on climate change. “We’ve been using the atmosphere as a sewer for our carbon dioxide,” he said. “This isn’t going to change until we can make clean energy cheaper than dirty energy.” Mark Littmann, professor of journalism and electronic media, remarked on the value of trustworthy information in reports for the public regarding the science of climate change. “I hope not only that people understand what Richard Harris has said but that they see how hard he is working to figure out how to bring the people information about climate change that they can trust,” Littmann said.
UT researchers develop new Alzheimer’s test Donesha Aldridge Staff Writer
Staffer suspected of poisoning soup at UK school LONDON — A kitchen worker at an exclusive English boarding school has been arrested for trying to poison a batch of soup being prepared for students, administrators said Wednesday. The director of the Stowe School in Buckingham 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of London said a household cleaning agent was put into the carrot and coriander soup, but no one was injured because the soup wasn’t served to students. Kitchen staff became suspicious of the soup because of an acrid smell, head teacher Anthony Wallersteiner said.
Hayley DeBusk • The Daily Beacon
Award-winning National Public Radio coorespondent Richard Harris spoke Wednesday night on “Covering Climate Change in a Changing Media Climate.” The speaker was a part of the Hill Lecture series, which brings in distinguished science journalists to campus this semester.
Hayley DeBusk • The Daily Beacon
Alan Zweibel spoke to students Wednesday night in the UC auditorium. Zweibel, a writer for Saturday Night Live, has won five Emmies. He discussed some of his books, including Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner, Our Tree Named Steve, and The Other Shulman. After the presentation, Zweibel signed autographs for the students.
A team of researchers at UT developed a new test that is more efficient in detecting early stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia. The computerized self test (CST) has been proven to be 96-percent accurate; this is a higher percentage than past tests. “The CST is a brief screening instrument for cognitive domains shown to be affected by Alzheimer’s and milder forms of cognitive impairment,” Rex Cannon, assistant professor of research in psychology, said. Andrew Dougherty, CEO of Medinteract, a company founded by Dr. John Dougherty. Jr., to increase the awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and aid in early detection, said there are several known stages of Alzheimer’s. “Mild cognitive impairment usually is the first thing that is noticed to take effect on shortterm memory,” Dougherty said. “This is when a person can remember something that happened 40 years ago but can’t remember what happened to them in the last 10 minutes.” Cannon said medicines aid when Alzheimer’s begins to
affect patients, but it cannot help previous damage. “We cannot undo damage that might be done in the earliest stages. Early detection is vital,” he said. “It is extremely important to optimize the primary care setting, and it is very important to test cognition frequently.” Dougherty said it is recommended to take the test around the ages of 50 and 55. He said that CST is a series of questions that people can take online. “There is no need for a trained administrator of the test,” he said. “This test helps you screen the brain earlier, and it also gives techniques to delay symptoms of cognitive impairment.” Dougherty said the test costs $19.95 and can be purchased and taken online at http://www.alzselftest.com. The Web site listed that one of every eight people have Alzheimer’s disease after the age of 55, and half of those over 85 years of age develop Alzheimer’s. Cannon said this test is important because by the time a patient goes to a specialty clinic after noticing severe differences in memory or daily functioning, their cognitive scores will be much lower than what would be predicted at the earliest onset of symptoms.
Cannon said this type of research is important because it can provide a way to help people afflicted by the disease. “It is important that the University of Tennessee be noted for its commitment to excellence in academic research and the development of technologies that can be adapted to practical application,” he said. “Our research involves several disciplines, including clinical psychology, biological psychology, neuroscience and neurocognitive testing.” Besides Cannon, Dougherty, and his father, the research team includes Travis Haynes and Jennifer Roth. “This type of program will attract a number of bright, innovative graduate and undergraduate students,” Cannon said. “We also utilized undergraduate researcher assistants in our research.” Dougherty said this technology took four years to develop. “The research started off with a paper test and statistical studying,” he said. Cannon said this research is very important to him. “It demonstrates that instruments developed in a research setting can be applied to a real-world application,” he said. “This is often the criticism science faces.”