A recent survey suggests that, on average, first-semester freshmen spend more time drinking than studying. The survey, conducted by the Boston-based group Outside the Classroom, found that 10.2 hours per week were spent on drinking, and only 8.4 hours on studying. These figures were calculated using replies by 14,331 students at 76 colleges and universities across the United States.
Harvard researchers recently constructed the first synthetic ribosome, one of the key components of protein synthesis. “Ribosomes…allow us to connect the dots between the origins of life and the modern organism,” said one of the researchers. Also the ability to create unique proteins holds potential for vaccines and pharmaceuticals.
The Obama administration has become involved in a file-sharing case pitting the Recording Industry Association of America against a Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum. Upon being sued by the RIAA for $1 million after illegally sharing seven songs, Tenenbaum filed a counterclaim, on the grounds that pursuing statutory damages (damages beyond lost profit) is unconstitutional. The current position of the U.S. department of Justice, which has two former RIAA lawyers in top positions, is that the statute is constitutional, but is based on cases not related to digital file-sharing.
Almost 40 percent of college-age women have an eating disorder, according to estimates released by the Massachusetts Eating Disorders Association. College students cited the ability to eat, or not eat, whatever and whenever they wanted as a factor leading to eating disorders.
A project by students at California State-Long Beach has led to the estimation that the value of a housewife’s yearly work is roughly $120,000, given current hourly wages. Students in the course United States Women and Economy: Money, Sex, and Power undertook the project as a way to draw attention to the contribution housewives’ unpaid work makes to the economy.
Alan Kors, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania delivered a speech including the argument that mandatory diversity and sensitivity training on college campuses lead to “a coerced appreciation of difference”. Kors also stated that higher education over-emphasizes the victimization of some groups—African-Americans, females and homosexuals—in a way that ultimately stifles political or ideological diversity.
On March 12, Congressman Bill Foster, D-Illinois introduced legislation that would require federal institutions—those spending more than $10 million per year on science education — to provide funding for open-source online course materials in math, chemistry, and physics, which would be available free to professors and students. In addition to lowering costs for students, this legislation would give professors greater choice in course materials for each unit of their course.
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