Yale scientists use light energy to drive nanomachines
A team of researchers at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science have shown that the force of light can be used to power machines that operate at the nanoscale. (A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.) “While the force of light is far too weak for us to feel in everyday life,” lead researcher Hong Tang, an assistant professor at Yale, said, “we have found that it can be harnessed and used at the nanoscale.” The work builds upon previous research showing that light can be used to move individual molecules to demonstrate that it can also be harnessed to move semiconductors.
Tony Blair Faith Foundation Concert to raise money for malaria
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation Malaria Relief Concert, an event organized by Anna Stirgwolt Brady-Estevez. a graduate student in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, will be held in Woolsey Hall on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 8 p.m. Each $10 ticket will pay for a mosquito bed net, to be purchased through the nonprofit organization Malaria No More. A goal of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation is the elimination of malaria, which kills 1 million people annually.
Rudd Center to study childhood obesity
The Rudd Center on Food and Obesity will study the link between the childhood obesity epidemic and food marketing, thanks to a $6.4 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The project aims to identify the effects of food marketing practices on youth eating behaviors. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16.3 percent of children and adolescents between the ages of 2 to 19 years were obese in 2006.
Yale report finds organizations are not adapting to climate change
According to a recent Yale report released by the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the national organizations at greatest risk of damage from climate change are not changing their practices fast enough. The report found that such organizations lack up-to-date and accurate data for planning and forecasting climate change. Many also have rules and regulations in place that impede the process of change, lack clear directions to respond to the crisis and are primarily preoccupied with challenges in the immediate future.
Yale establishes kidney center
The University will establish the George M. O’Brien Kidney Center to help provide renal investigators with the highly specialized tools not regularly available to support their research. The Center is funded by the $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Heath.
Jack Harris named among Discover’s “20 Under 40”
Yale physicist Jack Harris has been named among the top “20 Under 40” minds in science in the December issue of the magazine Discover. Harris, a member of the Yale faculty since 2004, studies quantum motion.