Yale Scientific Magazine Issue 85.2 March 2012 by Yale Scientific Magazine

everyday

Q&A

Q&a

Do Men Have Biological Clocks?

Recent studies show that the “biological clock,” traditionally marking the decline of a woman’s fertility over time, may exist for men as well. BY MAYA FISHBACH

The biological clock, traditionally decisions, may apply to men as well. Courtesy of fundivacoaching.com

American.

Q&A Can Generic Drugs Do the Job?

Due to economic hardship, more people are turning to cheaper generic medications. But are they as effective and safe as their expensive brand-name counterparts? BY WALTER HSIANG

With the current economic recession, people are turning to the less expensive generic counterparts of brand-name

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contents March 2012 / Vol. 85 / Issue No. 2

NEWS 4

Letter from the Editor

Laurie Santos Honored by the APA

Antarctic Glaciation Linked to Ancient Carbio Dioxide Levels

Saving Lives with Smartphones

Nanobolometer Set to Uncover Deep Space

Center for Science and Social Science Information

Resurrecting Extinct Tortoise Species

ON THE COVER

10 Solar Cells: Nanoscale Organization for 11 Flouride Riboswitches

FEATURES Review 27 Book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

28 Mathematics

Counting on Gender

Yale researcher Katie Prudic discovers that Bicyclus anynana, a species of the temperature in which it is raised.

Why Boys are Not Girls: A Molecular Perspective

Boys and girls are different, but how different are we really? By analyzing the molecular expressivity differences between male and female mice using 1,500,000 microarray data points, Yale research scientist Joel Rozowsky reveals the true character of the molecular differences of gender.

29 Psychology 30 Health

Baby Got . . . Birth Control? The Impact of Hormonal Contraception on Sexual Attraction

33 Music

The Mozart Effect: Not So Noteworthy?

34 History of Science

The Story of Science at Yale Part I: Science Education at Yale in the Past

35 Linguistics

The Secret Life of Pronouns

36 37

Helen Jack, Yale '12, Oxford '14 Carl Zimmer, B.A. '87

38 Medicine

Gender and Changing Perspective of Infectious Diseases

39 Cartoon

Tunnel of Love

Howmanywordsisthis: How Children Learn Word Boundaries Word boundaries are not obvious in oral speech, so how are children able to learn them? Dr. Gaja Jarosz, associate professor of computational linguistics at Yale, compares the variety of distributional cues that contribute to this learning process in English, Turkish, and Polish.

Breaking the Stem Ceiling: What It Will Take to Retain Women in Science

The Subtle Smile: The Effect of Smiling and Gestures on Gender Roles The consequences of a single smile can be powerful. Professor Marianne LaFrance explains the role of smiles within our society and what it means for gender dynamics.

Finding the Proper Dose of Anesthesia: What fMRI Tells Us About the Effects of Anesthesia on the Brain March 2012 |

THEME

The average male life expectancy is 76.0 years. 90% of test subjects think men are funnier. Men have a 71.2% obesity prevalence, compared to 57% in females.

The average female life expectancy is 81.2 years. Women are 1.8x more likely to suffer from neurodegenerative disorders than men. Women account for 80% of autoimmune diseases cases.

Science and the Sexes 4

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ethical research on the biology of sex differences is essential to the advancement of human health and should not be constrained.â&#x20AC;? -Institute of Medicine (U.S.)

M A G A Z I N E Established 1894 March 2012

Volume 85 No. 2

Editor-in-Chief Publisher

William Zhang Elizabeth Asai

Managing Editors

Jonathan Hwang Robyn Shaffer Nancy Huynh Shirlee Wohl Mansur Ghani Renee Wu Ike Lee Jessica Hahne

Articles Editors News Editor Features Editor Copy Editors Production Manager Layout Editors

Li Boynton Somin Lee Jessica Schmerler Jeremy Puthumana Jonathan Liang Chukwuma Onyebeke

Arts Editor Online Editor Multimedia Editor Advertising Manager Distribution Manager Subscriptions Manager

Stella Cao Naaman Mehta Karthikeyan Ardhanareeswaran

Outreach Chair Special Events Coordinator Staff Kara Brower Matthew Chalkley Sunny Chung Andrew Goldstein Frank Han Spencer Katz Sunny Kumar Contributors Cynthia Deng Wendy DeWolf Kimi Goldstein Soonwook Hong Jennifer Ky Katie Leiby Liya Lomadsze

Lara Boyle Mary Labowsky Jonathan Setiabrata Kevin Shen Dennis Wang Jonathan Greco John Urwin Quinn Zhang Katherine Zhou

Kaitlin McLean Grace Paquelet Achyut Patil Natalie Villa Clinton Wang Henry Zheng Linda Zhou

Advisory Board Sean Barrett, Chair Physics Priyamvada Natarajan Astronomy Kurt Zilm Chemistry Fred Volkmar Child Study Center Stanley Eisenstat Computer Science James Duncan Diagnostic Radiology Melinda Smith Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Peter Kindlmann Electrical Engineering Werner Wolf Emeritus John Wettlaufer Geology & Geophysics William Summers History of Science & History of Medicine Jeremiah Quinlan Undergraduate Admissions Carl Seefried Yale Science & Engineering Association The

(YSM) is published four times a year by

for May 19, 1927 under the act of August 1912. ISN:0091-287. We reserve the right to edit any submissions, solicited or unsolicited, for publication. This magazine is published by Yale College students, and Yale University is not responsible for its contents. opinions of YSM. We retain the right to reprint contributions, both text and graphics, in future issues as well as a non-exclusive right to reproduce these in electronic form. The YSM welcomes comments and feedback. Letters to the editor should be under 200 words and should include the author’s name and contact information. We reserve the right to edit letters before publication. Please send questions and comments to ysm@yale.edu.

FROM THE EDITOR

Science And the SexeS Welcome to Issue 85.2 of the ! Continuing our 118-year legacy of high-quality science journalism as the nation’s oldest college science publication, the new 2012 masthead has been working diligently to introduce many improvements to the publication. Our new series, “Science Education at Yale,” will explore the past, present,

Mentorship Program Competition. In addition, our magazine, as you may have noticed, is now in all color, and along with this update, we have introduced stylistic changes to our design and layout, a “theme” page with quick facts and stats, and new outreach initia-

to consider the relationship between science and gender. Though it may seem like a trivial fact, it is actually quite astounding to think that a single chromosome is what originally differentiates man from woman — that by the luck of the draw, a certain sperm cell will then-nascent embryo. This initial contrast eventually develops into drastic differences from the obvious physiological and anatomical features to more subtle distinctions in white and gray matter of the brain and even varying susceptibility to infectious diseases. efforts of researchers such as Michael Synder, the Lewis B. Cullman Professor of Molecular Cellular and Molecular Biology at Yale, who has conducted a comprehensive and groundbreaking investigation of gene expression differences between male and female mammals with promising implications for human health and medicine. And, of course, the matter of gender and science remains a restless topic as female scientists, including Meg Urry, the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Yale, continue to analyze sex-based disparities in the sciences, shining light on contentious issues of education, We hope that the science presented in this issue can perhaps offer another perspective and demonstrate just how multifaceted the issue of sex and gender are.

William Zhang Editor-in-Chief

About the Art The cover, designed by Arts Editor Jeremy Puthumana and Editor-in-Chief William Zhang, depicts the wet seasonal form of Bicyclus anynana (image courtesy of Dr. Antónia Monteiro). Yale researcher Katie Prudic discovered that B. anynana, a species based upon the temperature in which it is raised, thus challenging established evolutionary gender expectations. The graphic on page 4 was designed by Jeremy Puthumana. Art on pages 12 and 22 were designed by Spencer Katz. The header on page 19 was designed by Nicole Tsai, and the header designs on pages 15 and 24 were designed by Vaidhy Murti.

YALE IN SCIENCE

Laurie SantoS Honored by tHe aPa BY GIANNA FOTE

Professor Santos with a Rhesus monkey at Rico. Courtesy of Professor Santos -

scientists.

PALEOCLIMATOLOGY

antarctic GLaciation Linked to ancient co2 LeveLS BY CYNTHIA TSAY -

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Locations from where deep-sea cores were harvested. Courtesy of Professor Pagani

SUBJE

GLOBAL HEALTH

SavinG LiveS witH SmartPHoneS -

ECT

ASTRONOMY

nanoboLometer Set to uncover deeP SPace -

A design of a space observatory

- Courtesy of Dr. Prober -

March 2012 |

ENERGY

Center for SCienCe and SoCial SCienCe information BY JONATHAN SETIABRATA

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BIOLOGY

Yale attemptS to reSurreCt extinCt tortoiSe SpeCieS

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ENERGY

Solar CellS: NaNoSCale orgaNizatioN for HigHer effiCieNCy BY CAROL HSIN -

Candice examines tubes of polymer in water solution (black) and cobalt-doped ZnO wires (blue). These substances are used to construct the electron donating/accepting hybrid nanowire composites. Courtesy of Carol Hsin -

Samples of nanowire composites prepared for electron microscopy imaging. These composites are designed to maximize the speed of electron conductivity. Courtesy of Carol Hsin 10

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BIOCHEMISTRY

yale reSearCHerS aCCideNtally diSCover fluoride geNetiC reSpoNSe MeCHaNiSM whether the RNA -

30 P3 UG CU C AU A C A 20 A G G U C 40 terminator 50 A U C A A U G A C U C C U A C C A G U A UC C G U G G U C A U CA CU 60 U pseudoknot 10 GA 5´ g g U A G G C G A U GG

No Fluoride

30 G P3 UG CU G

Plus Fluoride

A C C AU U G G 60 C AA U C A A U U C A C C A A G C U GU C U A 40 U A pseudoknot 10 GA CU P1 50 U G C G CUACCA 5´ g g U A G G C G A U G

B. subtilis bacterial cells were transformed with a plasmid lacZ, and this gene is

riboswitch. Courtesy of Professor Breaker

of Professor Breaker

crcB

domains of life. Courtesy of Professor Breaker March 2012 |

oys are not girls; their external differences are obvious. Yet, what permeates the trillions of cells in the human body underneath the skin are not sexes, but molplex interactions do we emerge. So, while we all appear different on the outside, how different

gene expression in the tissues of male and female mice to investigate sexual difference at the fundamental level using DNA microarrays. Through their pioneering work, the character of the molecular differences between males and females can begin to be appreciated. Discovering Our Differences

what level do we begin to sexually differentiate? The evolutionary perspective satisfactorily answers the why behind sex differentiation by by exponentially increasing genetic diversity. However, evolution does not adequately answer how sexes differ physically, and so a different explanation is needed. Many studies have analyzed the macroscopic anatomical distinctions between males and females, focusing on what is found in men but not in women and vice versa, but little light has been shone on the root cause of our differential structural and physiological characteristics: the differential gene expression of proteins. With the help of Yale research scientist Dr. Joel Rozowsky and his laboratory for computational analysis, former Yale Professor Dr. Michael Snyder and his then graduate student John Rinn conducted a methodical survey of 12

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To investigate the molecular differences between males and females, Rinn began by extracting and analyzing the mRNA present in four types of tissues of adult mice to correspond to a wide breadth of functional categories: liver and kidney for physiology, hypothalamus for behavior, and gonads for reproduction. Once excised, these tissuesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mRNAs were isolated, pooled together, and run on a microarray, culminating with a data set of over 1,500,000 gene expression data points. Despite the daunting mass of data collected, the technique behind all the numbers and points is fairly straightforward. Anchoring firmly onto the central dogma of molecular biology, the microarray technique deduces protein abundance by scanning for the presence or absence of their precursor molecules, mRNA. Fluorescent-labeled sample mRNA is added

to a microarray plate containing hundreds to thousands of wells of cDNA molecules. Through complementary base pairing and hybridization, the extracted mRNA molecules bind to complementary sequences on the array, causing the well to change color. Because the magnitude of the color change is proportional to the abundance of the strand, researchers can deduce not only which mRNA strands are present in the sample but also how much. After performing a total of 72 microarrays, Professor Snyder and Rinn compiled and normalized the data to observe the differences in sexes. While this preliminary examination gave a broad overview of the results, bioinformatics specialist Joel Rozowskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analysis would reveal

After Rozowsky performed an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test, a total of 39 somatic (p < 0.001), at least three-fold differences in expression. Of these, 20 were expressed in higher rate in one gender, and 19 were present

BIOLOGY in only one gender. Five exhibited gender bias in all tissues, 27 were differentially expressed in the kidney, six in the liver, and only one in the hypothalamus. In the kidney, most of the 27 genes were involved in drug and steroid metabolism, with a strong plurality encoding cytochrome p450 proteins. Of the others, six had functions relating to osmotic regulation, one was a corticosteroid binding globulin, and most of the rest had largely undetermined functions. In the liver, again a majority of the genes discovered related to drug and steroid metabolism with a few others having undetermined functions. Taken together, these results indicate that most of the molecular differences between genders in physiological tissues relate to either metabolism or osmotic regulation. In contrast to the physiological tissues, only a

few differences were observed in the behavioral tissues of the hypothalamus. In fact, only one unique gene, TSIX, was found to be differentially expressed. Beyond simply indicating the molecular similarity between behavioral tissues, this result is especially interesting because male and female hypothalami have several wellknown anatomical differences. The paucity of molecular differences suggests that the underlying processes in the behavioral tissues are quite similar. than 39 genes were found to be differentially expressed â&#x20AC;&#x201D; over 4,000, in fact. Still, this was entirely expected, as the tissues themselves are fundamentally different. Besides having entirely different structures, these organs produce different molecules and perform different chemistry. Even so, after increasing the stringency of the ANOVA to p > 0.000001, 882 differentially of which had increased expression in the testes, 358 in the ovaries). Three interesting observations can be made. First, DNA polymerase II (pol II) genes were highly enriched in the testes. Second, immune response genes showed little gender differsignal transduction genes showed enriched expression in the testes. Taken together with the somatic tissue results, Rozowskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analysis clearly demonstrates the presence of multiple differentially expressed genes based on gender in mammalian tissues.

A diagram of the genes found to be male and female kidneys. Courtesy of Dr. Rozowsky compositions are expected to be drastically different because of their different functions, the vast majority of molecules were expressed at similar levels in both sexes. Perhaps puzzling at first, this discovery intuition. Because the organ systems of both sexes have similar functions, it makes sense that they should each have similar structures and compositions. Just as the male pancreas needs to produce insulin, so too does the female

How Different Are We, Really? cant molecular expressivity differences between male and female mice that are convincingly generalized to other organisms, including humans, these differences are relatively few in number. Beyond the sex organ tissues, whose molecular

revealed that we are much more similar than expected. On the molecular level at least, males and females seem to differ more in details than in composition. Males and females are obviously not biologically equivalent, as evidenced by our divergent anatomy. However, this analysis lends support

In BrIef How different are the sexes? At what point do we begin to truly see gender?

Rinn. Courtesy of Dr. Rozowsky

By systematically analyzing the molecular expressivity differences between male and female mice using 1,500,000 microarray data points, Yale Research Scientist Joel Rozowsky reveals the true character of the molecular differences of gender. March 2012 |

BIOLOGY

information by running the prematurely of Abizar Lakdawalla to the general conclusion that the differences between sexes result primarily not from a fundamentally different molecular composition of organs themselves but from differences in gene expression in developmental pathways, ultimately precipitating large-scale anatomical differences rather than microscopic variations. So, returning to the questions posed: How different are we? Are we simply variations on a theme or fundamentally different? While neither has an absolute answer, the molecular data collected thus far strongly supports the notion that we are much more alike than is commonly presumed. While we undoubtedly differ, these differences largely emerge at a higher level of composition than at the molecular one. On the Cutting Edge Even just a few years removed from the groundbreaking work itself, the techniques used have fallen out of fashion. While microarrays continue to be a central (and in many sequence-based approaches has come into vogue. Rather than identifying the mRNA through complementary base pairing on a grid, Before the Human Genome Project (HGP) sequencing was conducted using the Sanger method, also known as the chain-termination 14

March 2012 |

method, which relied on replication termination upon incorporation of a radioactive di-deoxynucleotide and fragment separation on a gel. While this method could reliably sequence continuous segments of ~800 bp, it was slow. With modern sequencing methods, what used to take ten years can now be done in a few days with a small desktop machine. This unprecedented rapidity allows researchers interested in gene expression to quickly and cheaply sequence the

tion of expected strands, as microarray analysis does, this direct sequencing approach allows or unexpected mRNA strands, as well as those nology, perhaps even more expansive studies in more tissues can be conducted to uncover more about how boys are not girls — or how boys and girls are both humans.

ABout the Author John Urwin is a sophomore Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry major in and has worked in Professor Colón-Ramos’ lab studying nervous system development in C. elegans.

Acknowledgements The author would like to especially thank Joel Rozowsky for his time and expertise.

extrA reAding Tae Oh and Jong Yun, “DNA microarray analysis reveals differential gene expression in the soleus muscle between male and female rats exposed to a high fat diet,” Molecular Biology Reports (2012): 1-12. PD Dimusto et al, “Increased PAI-1 in females compared to males is protective for abdominal aortic aneurysm formation in a rodent model,” American Journal of Physiology (2012).

Howmanywordsisthis How children learn word boundaries Word boundaries are not at all obvious in oral speech, so how are children linguistics at Yale, compares the variety of distributional cues that contribute to this learning process in English, Turkish, and Polish. BY NANCY HUYNH

s you read this sentence, it is easy to tell where one word ends and another begins — it is shown by the spaces between them. But what about in spoken language? Although pauses exist in speech, usually at the ends of sentences, the vast majority of oral communication occurs without stopping. Turn on the television or radio to a station in an unfamiliar language miscellaneous noises running together. An acoustic signal, in fact, will show no pauses. However, to a native speaker, that continuous stream sounds perfectly understandable. Certain oral clues help identify the separation between words. While adults may learn to pick out words that translate to meaningful terms in their own language, young children cannot depend on this method when learning professor of linguistics at Yale, investigates the various types of cues used for word segmentation. Previous linguistic studies have speech stream to investigate possible cues to to discover to what extent these properties are present in natural language input, as well as how informative they are for children learning languages.

What is Computational Linguistics? While researchers can take various approaches, including fieldwork and the study of language systems in explicit detail, seems more akin to computer science than any other so-called “softer” science. In particular, computational linguistics involves creation of statistical and computer models to simulate certain aspects of language such aries. It is the study of the “machinery,” as that underlies our knowledge of language … how we acquire it and how we process it.” This encompasses sound structure, syntax, combinations of words, and meanings of utterances. employed computational linguistics to look at various properties of speech when adults speak to children, because this is the input puter models helped to discover how well these signals could predict and identify word compared the different cues present across

these three languages and their involvement in learning. Differences in Language ferent depends on how they are compared. English based on certain distinctive structural characteristics, particularly their morphology and syllable complexity. The morpheme is the basic unit of morphology, which is the grammatical structure of a language. For example, in English, the morpheme “–s” denotes singular versus plural (e.g. dog versus dogs), and the morpheme “–ed” is indicative of the past tense (e.g. play vs. played), but these indicators vary in different languages. Polish and Turkish, for example, both have more complicated morphologies than English, involving cases, verb endings, and other changes dependent on grammatical context — and Turkish has the most complicated morphology of all three language have to parse these complexities and determine the distinction between words and morphemes, it would hypothetically be more cated language like Turkish. In contrast, Turkish has the simplest sylMarch 2012 |

LINGUISTICS lables, which should be easier to pronounce. guages are alike in this respect. English contains rather complex syllables, with multiple consonants at the beginnings or ends of words while Polish and Slavic languages in general, Within languages, child-directed speech contains important differences from adult-toadult speech. The formation of vowel sounds, for example, can be plotted acoustically in a is made by putting a measurement of how far forward the tongue is (from the front to back of the mouth) on one axis and its height on the the space gets stretched out more toward the opposed to ordinary speech, because it is the to during the language acquisition process. In spite of all these possible variations in morphology, syllable complexity, and other linguistic properties of languages, multilingual children seem to have no problem learning multiple languages, even if they are morphologically different. After a certain point, however, it becomes harder to learn a language pronounced a pair of very similar-sounding Polish syllables that young children can distinguish easily. “Children learning English after about a year or even less will learn not to distinguish them,” she says. “They will unlearn this difference and start to put them together in a single category.” In contrast, children learning Polish will maintain the ability to differentiate between the two sounds because they exist as two different categories in that language. Distributional Cues

s zw t u ntspi l ksla k

While children need to know the word boundaries to know where the stress is, it seems that they also need to know where stress is to identify word boundaries. Another boundary cue, the transitional probability, typically assesses the probability of seeing a certain phoneme (the basic, distinctive sound unit in language) given the previous one. For instance, what is the likelihood of seeing “o” next, given “d,” as in the word “dog”? The probability should be higher within words because the sounds/phonemes that make up the word always go together, but it should be lower at word boundaries since the next word can begin with any sound. Thus, dips in probability should predict the pattern of word segmentation. This property, among others, can also be calculated in either the forward or reverse direction, the latter instead looking at the likelihood of seeing a certain phoneme given the subsequent one. This time, given “o,” what is the chance of seeing “d” before it, as in “dog”?

s z w t u nt spi l ks la k

that the best cues were calculated in the reverse direction, which corroborates recent this information. However, the cues were informative to different extents in the different languages. The greatest predictor in English was boundary-predicting backwards phoneme-level trigram probability — the probability that the previous phoneme would be an indicator of word boundary, given two subsequent phonemes, instead of one. How-

ever, the same trend was not evident in Polish or Turkish. English are decently informative, no single one in Turkish or Polish is good by itself for learning about word segmentation. In other words, some of the 176 cues (stress, transitional probability, etc.) by themselves are somewhat useful in determining breaks between words in English, but none of them are individually helpful in the other two languages studied. When multiple cues are combined, though, such a clear advantage for English disappears. Thus, children must be paying attention to more than one word segmentation cue.

boundaries in languages such as Turkish and Polish. Understanding this process is also a method to improve computational models of word segmentation for languages other than English. “A lot of models have been tested have to make sure that we know how children do this in other languages as well — because obviously they do learn other languages, too!”

Across the three markedly different lanstudied the predictive capability of 176 cues for word boundaries, such as stress patterns and transitional probability. Languages tend to put stresses near the edges of words, at the beginning, end, or second from beginning/ end, but children are not aware of this relationThey have to learn, for instance, that the stressed syllable is at the beginning of the word in English but at the end in French. “The sorts out where the word boundaries are create a kind of chicken and egg problem for the 16

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About the Author NaNcy HuyNH antibiotics on the gut microbiome and vaccination response.

ackNowledgmeNts linguistics research.

The Subtle Smile

Different Types of Smiles

The Purpose of Smiling

LaFrance makes a comparison between a genuine smile (left) and a fake smile (right). Courtesy of Professor LaFrance

PSYCHOLOGY

Looking Forward

A 3-D ultrasound image of a baby smiling while still in the motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s womb, reveals the biological root of smiling. Courtesy of dailymail.co.uk The Implicit Bias

Smiles and Gender Roles

About the Author Terin PaTel-Wilson

acknoWledgemenTs

FurTher reading

he involvement of women in science has been an area of active investigation and research, with particular emphasis on encouraging women to become more visible in traditionally male-dominated ematics. Following their entrance into the workforce and acceptances into institutions of higher education, women are aspiring to pursue degrees and careers in the sciences in growing numbers. The sciences still lag behind humanitiesbased disciplines in female enrollment, though many divisions of research-based sciences have, in the last twenty years, experienced cine, biology and ecology, as well as the more and applied psychology. However, even as the emphasis on women in STEM (Science, Techincreases, female involvement in the applied and more quantitative sciences remains surprisingly low. Is science losing its appeal for 19

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young women? Or are women simply not as predisposed as men to careers in science?

in science or engineering are women? Urry has an answer: “Women and men have

A Better Approach

the top students in the physics department are women, but the differences in numbers are largely issues of climate and culture and not class material or structure.” In other words, “cultural conditioning” discourages women from the hard sciences, in which they otherwise have the potential to excel. Women can, and do, have passion for disciplines such as physics or chemistry, but the modern climate is unwelcoming to women and their unique skill sets. In order for women to overcome

Discussing gender disparities in science often leads to the question: how can we encourage women to become more involved? While a logical query, Meg Urry, the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy Department Chair, wholeheartedly rejects the underlying premises of this question. Urry instead encourages “a better approach” to increasing women participation in science. “The real question is how do we keep from pushing women out,” she says, “not how do we attract them.” “The simple truth is that young women in high school have the same math and quantitative preparation as their male classmates. There is no underlying difference in ability; it simply isn’t demonstrated in any of the data or studies,” asserts Urry. Therefore, how can we explain that less than 25% of those majoring

to our current educational system and workplaces must be made. Reconciling a Male-Oriented Climate Data concerning gender differences in education and the workplace reveal characteristics that, on average, correlate quite well with women’s choice in a college major and, later, life path. One of the most telling

EDUCATION gendered personality characteristics is that women tend to internalize blame whereas men tend to externalize it. In this way, women are more easily discouraged from careers that have high risks of failure. Accordingly, women often seek careers that help people, justifying the risk of failure with the value of higher application. Urry states that changes in learning climate and material emphasis would remedy this problem. “Women are much more interested in high context learning, [which is learning] that addresses questions of how this knowledge can be applied and why this or that is will help people the most, but we often forget to emphasize that.” Adopting a climate that fuels female interest by motivating students to push forward through failures will allow more women to continue pursuing their passions for science without becoming discouraged. Third-year Electrical Engineering graduate

“

EvEry

interpersonal leadership, and teamwork” creating a climate that rewards women by “cultivating an ambitious attitude” instead of deterring them.

In her recent article “Diminished by Discrimination,” Urry sums up current science and gender issues with the statement, “every woman was always compared to other women, as if every woman scientist is female often looked at as an anomaly in the sciences rather than an equally capable contribuyet equal, and perhaps never will be unless traditional gender roles are eliminated from the workplace. In particular, when a woman must choose between having a family and a successful career, she is often pressured into choosing family over her ambitions.

woman was always comparEd to

othEr womEn, as if EvEry woman sciEntist

”

is fEmalE first and a sciEntist sEcond.

student Monika Weber, agrees with this analysis. She is currently working on a revolutionary “alpha-screen” for single-bacterial detection in Professor Mark Reed’s lab, and says the fact that the device “could potentially help save 4 million lives from infection-related deaths” motivates her work enormously. She explains that working in the male-dominated

As Urry began her post-doctoral work in astronomy and theoretical astrophysics, she soon recognized the implicit—or, in a few cases, explicit—gender biases in the workplace. She recalls with a hollow laugh a particular lecture in which a professor used a blurred slide on the projector in order to demonstrate a physical principle. He showed the image coming into focus and, as the image became clearer, Urry realized the image was a topless woman. This garnered a laugh from her male

Professor Meg Urry. Courtesy of James Porto classmates, but alienated and disgusted her and the one other woman in the room. She these as “deeply harmful” to women. Examples like the blurred photograph show that, in the words of Urry, “the culture of the leaders and have a tremendous role to play.”

men and women must work together to reverse the cultural conditioning that causes most people, even women themselves, to undervalue the achievements of females in comparison to those of men. Urry claims that programs that compensate for innate human

However, Weber also states the “open enviand necessary good. She notes that the opporonment” at Yale encourages female social networking that women are then favored unfairly and reverses much of the over men, but this attitude “margindiscrimination that would alizes the achievements of women” otherwise prevail. and simply is not supported empiriWeber is also a fellow at the electrical engineer“implicit, unspoken weighed integral ing Graduate Leadership in our heads that favors the majorProgram, a female-domiity leader” by giving the minority, nated program that is slowly whether it be women or another changing the oppressive acagroup, a chance for a more objective demic climate women often evaluation. Students at Yale, includexperience. This program ing undergraduate senior Environhelps women “develop the mental Studies major Becca Stern, skills they are naturally good Participants attend a lecture at the NE Women in Physics Conagree that “there will be a point when at such as communication, ference at Yale. Courtesy of Yale News 20

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EDUCATION

(Left) Professor Meg Urry at the Women in Physics Conference. Courtesy of Yale Physics Department (Right) Rachel Kurchin (PC ‘13) showing a liquid nitrogen experiment at the Women in Physics Conference. Courtesy of Yale News. (Below) The Women In Science At Yale (WISAY) Mentoring Program hosts a Halloween Party. Courtesy of WISAY need to be taken to ensure that women can gain equal footing in a culture that marks them down by their gender alone.” Women in Science at Yale It is noteworthy that Yale has more women in science than most other institutions worldwide. A 2009 study by the National Academy of Sciences on Yale revealed, “[if] or the most part, men and women faculty in science, engineering, and mathematics have enjoyed comparable opportunities within the university, and gender does not appear to have been a factor in a number of important career transitions and outcomes.” The number of women in the engineering discipline, on average, is approximately 35% at Yale (in 2010) compared to the worldwide average of less than 10% women enrollment. In an address to the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Yale, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Dean Vanderlick noted, “the numbers are growing!” Yale offers the kind of environment for women that Urry champions: one that welcomes women as equal contributors and speaks to their preference of interdisciplinary, purpose-driven learning. With the arise of organizations such as the SWE and Women in Science at Yale (WISAY), as well as departmental networking programs for women, Yale embraces social environments that help empower women. While Yale’s initial gender stereotypes, there is more work to be done before true gender equality is reached. The ultimate goal of science is advancement and progress — having the best talent, regardless of gender, will achieve that uni-

versally held purpose. Fifth-year Applied Physics graduate student, Nitin Rajan, agrees: “Truly, I don’t think it matters whether the person working next to me is a guy or a girl because smart people exist across the board, and acknowledging that is the only way science can actually reach the height of innovation.” If our concern is advancing science, then we must not reject women from participating and adding to that advancement. Science, as a discipline, is not inherently gendered, so the value of its contributors should not be either.

About the Author Kara Brower is a junior in Berkeley College, working towards a joint degree in Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry. She works in Professor Mark Reed’s electrical

acKnowledgements The author would like to thank Professor Meg Urry for her help on this article and guidance about pushing through as a woman in engineering.

Further reading Rosser, Sue. “Attracting and Retaining Women in Science and Engineering” Academe, 2003. Urry, Meg. Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering, Stanford University Press, 2008, p.p. 150-156. Cornic, Vivian.

City University of New York, 2009.

March 2012 |

en chase. Women choose. For decades, this has been the mantra of evolutionary biologists. Feminists may balk at the idea, but the logic is

But they are actually different,â&#x20AC;? said Monand are greater in size than those of the dry larval rearing, not any genetic differences.

investment and therefore has an interest in choosing a good mate. In humans, the

tance than those of the wet season females.

and during this time will be nurturing a synthesis are still unknown. be selected as a mate, however, the male must convince the female that he is worth the long

females choose. However, Prudic discovered that during the dry season, the females -

forms, she discovered that females that mate with dry season males have a much greater

manes of lions. concerned, the mating world is a little more equal. Katie Prudic, Ph.D., a member of Assistant Professor AntĂłnia Monteiroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lab at Yale University, discovered that the Bicyclus anynana

females that mated with wet season males or did not mate at all. On the other hand, seasonal forms of the male and female but-

dry season males who mate with dry season females was much lower than the life tancy of wet season males who mate. In other words, on average, dry season

year it is conceived. Found in many areas of for the wet season.

Two Forms: Morphological and Behavioral Changes

Courtship behavior of DS and WS B. anynana. Courtesy of Professor Monteiro 22

| March 2012

BIOLOGY

tancy and fecundity, and dry season males In the dry season, the male thus incurs a

and the male gets to choose. However, Monteiro cautions, the change in fecundity out in the field. In the field, females in the dry season

the female have a yet unknown quality that makes females live longer lives than those that live in the wet season and recieve males. Bicyclus and far fewer natural resources are available to the butterflies during survive through the very lengthy dry season,â&#x20AC;? notes Monteiro. By other costly substances, the male butterfly incurs a cost of reduced females, on the other hand, hold months, using them to survive until

Monteiro

continues, with wet season males courting females, and dry season females courting males.

ment may fundamentally alter the butter-

New Directions for Research global warming) or if something changes about the resources available in the enviBicyclus

butterflies will also change,â&#x20AC;? argues Monteiro. Sometime in the near future, Bicyclus anynana

incurs a cost in the male butterfly. Little The wet and dry seasonal forms of B. anynana differ in morphology and behavior. Courtesy of Professor Monteiro the end of the dry season, whereas the wet season females immediately lay their eggs

greater light reflectance. Further, because the forms of Bicyclus

Bicyclus understand the nuances of this remarkable feature of the natural world.

About the Author just before the rains begin to fall, marking

Lara BoyLe

it is likely due to resource limitations that make it most advantageous for the butterflies to release their eggs at the start of the wet season. Instead of mating and laying her eggs, the female receives from the male

long-term memories.

acknowLedgements about her research.

Further reading wet season and dry season forms of Bicyclus as well as the difference in longevity and fitness. March 2012 |

very year, twenty-four million Americans are put under general anesthesia. Still, much remains unknown about the mechanism and appropriate use of general anesthetics. An inadequate level of anesthesia has resulted in some patients waking up during surgery, while a higher dose of anesthesia has been linked to increased post-operative mortality in elderly patients. These hazards underscore the importance of monitoring the level of anesthesia and better understanding how anesthesia works. Although monitors can help determine how much anesthetic should be administered clinically, doctors today continue to rely heavily on clinical observation. The four end points of anesthesia — hypno— are highly subjective, but fMRI provides an alternative, objective method of description. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to probe the effects of anesthesia on the human brain. “Essentially, fMRI allows us to objectively measure the subjective effects Ramani, Associate Professor of Anesthesia at the Yale School of Medicine. the Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Center (MRRC) Robert Todd Constable, as well as Associate Research Scientist at the Yale MRRC Maolin Qiu, Ramani has conducted several fMRI studies with the commonly used inhaoffer insight into the dose-dependent effects of general anesthetics on neuronal activity in the brain and may help doctors make more informed decisions about the administration of general anesthesia. 24

| March 2012

Objective Measurements of Subjective Effects While traditional MRI uses the property of nuclear magnetic resonance to provide structural information such as the location of a brain tumor, fMRI provides functional information about the activity of different parts of the brain. With a spatial resolution of 0.5 mm and a temporal resolution of equal quality, fMRI allows precise measurement of brain activity. A few decades ago, researchers could only measure whole-brain activity, but fMRI allows investigation of the effects of

Ramani and colleagues used fMRI to measure the effects of low (subanesthetic) doses of general anesthetics on visual, auditory, motor, memory, and somatosensory activation in healthy adult subjects. Every study was conducted on 20–25 subjects, each imaged over the course of one to two hours. A baseline rCBF measurement was obtained in the awake state as well as in the anesthesia state. The subjects were instructed to perform visual, auditory, motor, memory, or somatosensory tasks, and different parts of the brain were taken and compared to the baseline state. A Non-uniform Effect on the Brain “It has long been assumed that anesthesia uniformly decreases metabolism and blood

Functional MRI produces two main out-

Ramani. “But we see that at lower doses, there is non-uniformity. In some regions of

genated hemoglobin in the blood, and they provide a qualitative measure of regional cerebral metabolism and neuronal activity.

other regions there is an increase. This implies that at lower doses some regions of the brain get activated, and some get deactivated.” In the fMRI studies, visual, auditory, and motor activation resulted in a significant increase in CBF in associated regions of

MEDICINE Because the neuronal signals must pass multiple synapses from the primary, secondary, and tertiary regions of the brain to reach the higher order regions, the anesthetic’s small effects on each synapse add up, so that the effect on rCBF is only observed at the more sensitive higher order regions.

The results Ramani and colleagues obtained “We have been highlighting that the concentration we are using in routine practice — 1 MAC — may be too high,” says Ramani. The

This BOLD mask demonstrates the planes in which BOLD measurements were obtained. BOLD measurements were taken in 3 mm sections, giving very good resolution. Courtesy of Dr. Ramani the brain. The primary and secondary visual The affected regions of the brain may also provide information regarding how to visual activation. Anesthetic appeared to decrease the task-induced activation of the visual cortices, thalamus, hippocampus, and supplementary motor area. However, the the brain, which contains the visual processtask-induced activation of other regions of the brain, such as the primary and secondary auditory cortices, was unaffected by and parietal lobes, which include areas that anesthetic. deal with memory and sensory functions. One minimum alveolar concentration The larger effect of anesthesia on higher (1 MAC) is considered to be the minimum order regions of the brain is consistent with amount of anesthetic necessary to suppress the current understanding of the mechanism of action of general anesthetics. Most subjects. In clinical anesthesia, the recommended dose of general anesthetic is at least primarily at the level of synaptic junctions 1 MAC, but Ramani and colleagues used in the brain. When a sensation is detected, - the resulting neural signals go to the primary regions of the brain, and then to the secondary regions, before being transmitted to the tertiary regions in the frontal and temporal and certain other higher order association lobes, which process and combine multiple cortices. different types of stimuli. For instance, visual signals received by the showed that this dose of anesthetic has an eyes are transmitted to the primary visual effect on a wider area of the brain. The researchers thus concluded that low doses of occipital lobe, before arriving at the frontal and temporal lobes, where visual, auditory, memory-related regions and association areas. sensory, and other information are integrated.

regions of the brain relevant to the maintenance of anesthesia are already affected at 0.5–0.7 MAC. Higher concentrations of anesthetics can have adverse effects on other parts of the body. They can affect breathing, depress the heart, and decrease blood pressure. Some studies suggest that keeping a patient under deep anesthesia can increase the mortality after surgery. In laboratory studies, it has been demonstrated that prolonged anesthesia of newborns. Some retrospective studies in humans also suggest that anesthesia early in life could lead to adverse neurological effects. “You have to remember that our studies are being done with healthy young adults. With an older population, the requirement for anesthesia could be even less,” says Ramani. “Moreover, elderly people have other comorbid conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke, etc., which by themselves can increase the risk associated with anesthesia. The population in this country is getting older. As they get older, they get sicker also, and in light of this we have to be more cautious when we manage these patients.” The simultaneous use of multiple other medications during anesthesia may also require a further decrease in the dose of anesthetic used in clinical practice. The researchers further recommend that doctors monitor the status of their patients under anesthesia and modulate the dose of anesthetic accordingly. Although fMRI is a very useful method for research on anesthesia, it is not practical for use as a monitor in clinical settings. Other research groups are currently studying how to correlate electroencephalogram (EEG) and fMRI measurements, to ultimately develope EEG-based monitors. March 2012 |

MEDICINE

Left: This series of axial sections shows the drop in rCBF in the brain of a healthy adult subject treated with 0.5 MAC propofol. erally lowers the BOLD signal in the auditory cortex. Courtesy of Dr. Ramani Future Studies in Neurotoxicity

About the Author

In the coming months, Ramani and coleffects of anesthetics. Rather than working with healthy subjects, they plan to study older pedic surgery patients. “In people over 65 years of age, there is a very high incidence of delirium following a surgery with anesthesia,” cardiovascular and respiratory function and often results in longer stays in the intensive care unit, hospital, or nursing facility. Ramani and his collaborators will use fMRI to image patients prior to surgery and will monitor patients for signs of post-surgical delirium. “Older people have changes in

Katherine Zhou is a senior Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry major in Saybrook College. She studies group II intron splicing in Professor Anna Pyle’s lab.

acKnowledgements and for his comments on this article.

Further reading 648-655. Qiu M, Ramani R, Swetye M, Constable RT. Spatial non uniformity of the resting -

dysfunction, and patients with cognitive dysfunction are more prone to delirium,” he third step, delirium.” With the fMRI studies, Ramani and his that may help predict whether a patient is at risk of developing delirium, so that postoperative delirium can be treated proactively or even prevented. A biomarker for delirium susceptibility could help reduce morbidity and mortality as well as decrease health care costs for elderly patients requiring surgery. 26

| March 2012

Qiu M, Ramani R, Swetye M, Rajeevan N, Constable RT. Anesthetic effects on

LINGUISTICS

FEATURE

The SecreT Life of PronounS

James W. Pennebaker, professor of psychology at the University of Texas Austin, searches for the hidden meanings in word use. Courtesy of Austin News (statesman.com)

March 2012 |

FEATURE

MATHEMATICS

Counting on gender BY LESYA CHOPIVSKY Sour cream and a round trashcan: what do these objects have in common? How about a square table and a T-bone steak? Surprising femininity whereas items in the second group tend to be linked to masculinity. Categorization plays an essential role in how people view the world. New research explores the potential connection between gender categorization and abstract concepts such as numbers. A recent study by Northwestern University Ph.D. student James Wilkie and professor Galen Bodenhausen investigated the projection of gender on numbers by asking 74 American participants to rate 18 unfamiliar names on a scale from one to seven, with one being “extremely feminine” and seven being “extremely masculine.” Half the participants rated Bulgarian names, while the other half rated Spanish names. All names were preceded by a “1” or a “2,” but participants were told that these numbers were simply a way for researchers to identify from which “bin” the name had come. In addition to names, participants then rated ten objects on the same seven-point scale. Interestingly, the experiment found that names labeled “1” were rated as more masculine than those labeled “2.” Results of the

a n d s o l i d a r i t y, i s linked to the agency category. Therefore, it is also linked to the male gender, as similar characteristics are used to describe both concepts. “2,” a number associated with linked pairs, is related to the communion dimension and thus, they hypothesize, to the more nurturing and relationship-oriented female gender. Matt Lebowitz, a humans begin to categorize the world graduate student in around them. Gender is one of the earliYale professor of est and most pervasive of these categop s y ch o l o g y Wo o - ries. Courtesy of Navigating Airports kyoung Ahn’s lab, explains that forming categories is a “basic feature of human familiarity with every Apple product, because when you see the logo, you know that the product will have some of the same software,” Lebowitz says. According to Yale psychology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies professor Marianne LaFrance, this research about gender and number association is most fascinating because of what it reveals about society. “Gender,” she explains, “ for most people represents a central organizing way to view the world.” Although children may describe themselves as male or female before age one, it is around eight months that a child will begin to know that he or she is male or female and different from the opposite gender. “From that point in life, most everything is garnered under that concept,” LaFrance explains. By combining this information with Yale Professor John Barge’s research about embodied cognition, LaFrance presents a possible

Researchers are now exploring the connection between gender association and numbers. One theory for this association is the “personality” of even or odd numbers. Courtesy of Hold it Baby! each number, although participants did not report that the number Wilkie and Bodenhausen hypothesize that the cause of this attribution may be due to what they refer to as communion and agency. The idea of agency includes human characteristics associated with independence and achievement, while the concept of communion describes nurturing and relationship-oriented human characteristics. Extrapolating from these two categories, Wilkie and Bodenhausen suggest that the number “1,” a number associated with dominance 28

| March 2012

numbers. The theory of embodied cognition says that most of our they are biologically different from the opposite sex and then form “gender scaffolding.” Consequently, LaFrance says, “we put on the scaffold of gender everything else in life; it is one of the earliest ways that we divvy up the world.” LaFrance emphasizes, however, that this research is more important than simply providing evidence that numbers may be the latest concept hung on the gender scaffolding. “Gender continues to be a pervasive, consistently present way of categorizing the world,” LaFrance explains. And this research further reveals the importance standing social interactions.

PSYCHOLOGY

FEATURE

SexineSS and SweaterS: the PSyChology of objeCtfiCation BY DANIEL ARIAS Regardless of your chosen wardrobe, you have selected a certain amount of clothing to wear and, in turn, you have selected just how much skin to show off. Be warned, however; the simple decision of wearing a sweater or a V-neck, regardless of your gender, may sig-

images of men viewing women as nothing but a body, dehumanizing them and divorcing them from their moral being. It is seen as the ugly end of a single continuum — that of viewing someone as a human to viewing them as nothing more than an object.

increased, ratings of agency (competency, self-control) decreased, while ratings of experience (pain, desire, or fear, for instance) increased. The multidimensionality of perception therefore suggests a duality them as less competent, but as more sensitive and emotional, while focusing on them as a mind, we perceive the reverse. cation that views it as an exclusively harmful act. In fact, although a decline in perceived intelligence of semi-nude models was observed in the study, these models were also seen as more deserving of empathy and protection than their clothed counterparts, despite the fact that

New research from University of Maryland psychologist Dr. Kurt Gray and colleagues from Yale University and Northeastern University,

models adopted identical poses in each photograph. In the paper’s own words, “[the] data suggest that people who are seen as more of a body are harmed less than people who are seen as more of a mind.

someone into an object, per se, but about giving them a different kind of mind. If you’re [objectifying] someone, [it’s been thought] you treat them as an object and strip them of their moral rights. Instead, we found the opposite.” Through a series of six experiments, Gray tested various ways that people are perceived in respect to their appearance. While many of scantily clad people as less competent, they also indicate that this decline in perceived competency is matched by a marked increase in perceived experience, as in a heightened sensitivity to pain, emotions, and feelings. This promotes a view that perceptions of a mind are distributive along two continua, not one. For example, in one experiment, subjects were shown one of three images of the same woman in either a clothed, naked, or sensual pose. Participants were told to answer a set of questions, despite not knowing anything about the personality of the woman in the photograph. The questions were designed to ask subjects to evaluate the woman’s moral character, her sensitivity to pain, and her competency. The results demonstrated that as the sexual suggestiveness of the model

leads solely to harm.” Underlying this tentatively positive observation, however, may be “makes you not appear not only less intelligent but also seemingly more worthy of protection, then it seems to go counter to what you want. You might feel more empowered … but, as perceptions go, people won’t perceive you as more powerful.” The benevolent impulse just as unwanted as the perceptions of incompetence that mirror it. the most part, perceive and objectify each other in the same way. Mark Sheskin, a Yale graduate student and a co-author of the paper, noted We have much more advertising of scantily clad women than of men. Still, we have no reason to think that it is only directed to women.” against women, Gray warns men that they are equally likely as women be the beefcake and you’re going to wear a tight shirt to show off your pecs, you’re also going to be viewed as less competent of a person.” March 2012 |

Baby Got… Birth Control? The Impact of Hormonal Contraception on Sexual Attraction BY KAITLIN McLEAN

ow many times have you heard this and rolled your eyes?

“We just have so much chemistry.” “There just wasn’t any spark.” “It’s like we were made for each other.” All clichés aside, chemistry has indeed been shown to play a crucial role in romantic attraction. However, these natural mechanisms istry of attraction between men and women.

| March 2012

HEALTH

FEATURE

How Hormonal Contraception Works In recent years, the use of hormonal birth control has increased dramatically and is now used by over 12 million women in the United

In addition to physical appearances, women have other, less obvient types of disease. One of the important components of the immune system is the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). In

that had been slept in by men and were asked to rank the attractiveness of the individual women consistently ranked males with MHC

How We Choose Sexual Partners women’s facial preferences in men actually when people decide which individual at the -

the menstrual cycle. In the study, heterosexual women were asked to pick whether a mascu-

chose the more masculine face; however, hips, full lips, and a clear, youthful complexion. These features are all nature’s none-too-subtle

face. One evolutionary explanation for this phenomenon is that in order to produce the ductive success, a woman will seek a partner

healthy and fertile. Like females, males also have many ways to Male peacocks, for example, are known for -

as indicated by masculine secondary sexual characteristics. However, in order to have a

predators. Scientists term this type of display despite the handicap. on this exact same tactic. The qualities women -

On the other end, men may also be able to determine when women are most likely to conceive. Many species have an estrus cycle, in

Nature -

tions, testosterone is also an immunosuppressant — it lowers the are most fertile and that women may unconsciously advertise this

March 2012 |

FEATURE

HEALTH

seems to throw off the biochemical basis of attraction. In the facial variation in preference for faces with more masculine or feminine matically, in the MHC T-shirt study, women on hormonal contracepthey preferred men with MHC more similar to their own. Scientists to be around kin, who are more likely to assist them, and similarity to have weaker immune systems. Finally, in the study of estrus in

of the facial preference study, women were asked to pick which face -

was in her menstrual cycle. However, when asked to pick the face of variation. Other studies would imply that biochemistry actually has a commented that the smells they rated as more attractive reminded them of the smell of current or past boyfriends. effect at all, so it’s still an open question how much these cues are contraception, Santos asserted, “The honest answer is that we just don’t know the impact hormonal birth control will have on human of human preferences.” It seems that for now, the jury is still out. However, in terms of preferences down the line.” more likely to thrive if you have them at the point in your life that which the biochemical basis of attraction plays a role outside the not be time for women who favor hormonal birth control to throw away their pills just yet.

| March 2012

MUSIC

FEATURE

The MozarT effecT: NoT so NoTeworThy? In 1998, Governor Zell Miller’s budget proposition allocated $105,000 to buying classical music CDs for every newborn in the state of Georgia. In 2000, a South China Morning Post article read that “babies who hear Così Fan Tutte or the ‘Mass in C Minor’ during gestation are likely to come out of the womb smarter than their peers,” and the Times of India has referred to the Mozart effect as “music curry for the soul.” Although the idea that listening to classical music increases intelligence has become popular worldwide, study published in Nature in 1993. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine tested the spatial skills of college students after exposing them to three ten-minute listening conditions: Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, a relaxation tape, and silence. Results showed that students scored the highest after listening to Mozart’s music: On StanfordBinet spatial IQ tests involving the visualization of folded paper shapes, scores rose 8-9 points, though only for a period of 10-15 minutes. A leading researcher of the study, Frances Rauscher, continued for two more years to conduct similar studies with comparable results. However, Rauscher’s results have faced much contradictory research. Three studies conducted by other researchers in 1994, 1995, and 1997 ings using other spatial tests, but none showed significant score enhancement . Another study in 1994 used parts of the Stanford-Binet spatial test but also failed to corroborate

public sphere. Media outlets quickly began to suggest a connection between listening to classical music and intelligence, an overgenerthen began turning myth into money, generating a “Mozart effect video “Baby Mozart,” which was recognized as “Video of the Year” by Parenting Magazine and “Top Selling Video of the Year” by Specialty Realtor Magazine. Writer Don Campbell, credited with coining and reserving legal rights to the phrase “Mozart effect,” The Mozart Effect in 1997. Recent interest has been focused on the rapid proliferation of the Mozart effect myth and what it may imply about the state of education. In one study, researchers observed that the Mozart effect received more newspaper coverage in American states with weaker educational systems. Professor Chip Heath of Stanford University, one of the leading researchers, proposes that people always grapple for solutions to complex problems, even if those solutions are “highly distorted, bogus things like the Mozart effect.” Along these lines, Yale Professor tant Professor Stephanie M. Jones state in their article “The Mozart that serious solutions have “nothing to do with Mozart or any other sort of magic inoculations,” advocating instead long-term programs that provide for impoverished families and develop children’s social skills. The Mozart effect myth may be an

complex problems presented by child education. Despite the popularity of the Though popular belief may claim listening to classical Mozart effect, experiments on the suggest that music’s temporary music makes children more intelligent, there are no scienrelationship between music and enhancement of arousal could spatial reasoning have produced explain the positive results of “Journal of a Mom” inconsistent results, and there has the original studies. In a 1999 study that supported this arousal hypothesis, subjects listened to been no direct evidence for enhancement of overall intelligence. music by Mozart and a narrated story. The study asked subjects That is not to say, however, that all investigation of music and which condition they preferred, and results showed higher scores on cognition should be dismissed. According to Andrew Kobets, spatial tests correlated with exposure to preferred stimuli. Another study in 2001 involved three listening conditions — silence, an on our neurobiology will certainly be continued in the future, but upbeat Mozart piece, and a slow, sad piece by a different composer — and found that elevated spatial test scores corresponded to high require controlling the musical experiences of several individuals arousal rates following the Mozart condition. These studies either over a period of time to demonstrate if cognitive changes can be - maintained.” For this reason, while popular myth may have easily tion, or that it has short-term effects attributed wholly to arousal. Nevertheless, Rauscher’s 1993 experiment struck a chord in the in much shorter supply. March 2012 |

FEATURE

HISTORY OF SCIENCE

The STory of Science aT yale

Part I: ScIence educatIon at Yale In the PaSt 1895, an editorial published in The

complained of

student experience and efforts to reposition science is left for future

At its peak in 1912, the Sheff awarded 300 Bachelors of Philoso

was placed near the top of Sci with these additions, Sheff stu dents published an article in the

of Engineering and Applied Sci time of the Sheff ’s founding, Yale

schools — new administration building[s] and more dormitories should be planned at once,” but the students also expressed their

the inventor of the cotton gin, Ben School … will again step into the The Sheff was, from the begin ning, separate from Yale College,

age, engineers proved to be essential; Yale researchers had even contrib Funding for the development of new antibiotics ballooned following decades that followed, the number of science students increased and

But even as the Sheff generated new innovations, the divide between

| April 2012

BOOK REVIEW

FEATURE

StIff: the curIouS lIveS of human cadaverS , rather incongruous image comparisons — between a head and a roast Through frank, uncensored accounts of interviews of various people working with cadavers, Roach weaves a compelling and some

the knowledge contained within it is nothing groundbreaking and, upon completion of the book, amounts

cadavers have become the unsung humorous and personal format, reads like an exploration of

extremes of cadaver use, often entertaining through shock value, such as when Roach researches the meat to a dumpling house in the

cadavers in all areas of life through the past and present, expanding

spersed with these shock value stories, Roach explores some of the most pressing concerns and newest developments in cadaver

to cover pharmaceutical use, experi ments in human composting, the institute in Tennessee, cadavers’ use as organic crash test dummies, and

obscure ethics associated with cadaver research and mountains of processes associated with cremation and burial and dedicates a chapter focusing on Promessa, a Swedish

to explore alternate routes of Through these chapters, Roach begins to become more of a trea tise on death and our complex and sometimes sentimental relationship

used for medical research and grave of more relaxed social and religious constraints regarding burial and

You’re Dead,” Roach details the modern view of the basis of life as residing in the brain as well as ancient ones that delegated the human

is a wonderful book that book through the perspective of a curious outsider exploring the

April 2012 |

FEATURE

UNDERGRADUATE PROFILE

Helen Jack, Yale ’12, OxfOrd ’14 -

Helen Jack, a MCDB and International Studies double major, is one of this year’s recipients of the Rhodes scholarship. Courtesy of Michael Marsland

Jack says her work in Kumasi, Ghana on infant health and Courtesy of Helen Jack -

ALUMNI PROFILE

FEATURE

an evOlving PersPective: carl Zimmer, B.a. ’87

Discover Carl Zimmer ’87 spoke at the 2012 Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism. - Courtesy of Carl Zimmer

Discover The Sea -

FEATURE

MEDICINE

Sex-BaSed Biology: How MaleneSS and FeMaleneSS are CHanging tHe way we look at inFeCtiouS diSeaSe BY KATHERINE LEIBY -

avian H5N1. Images show sections of vaginal tissue in mice during several phases of the estrous cycle. Phase (a), which shows thinning - of the epithelium and the presence of antigen-presenting cells, is the only stage at which herpes infection can occur. Courtesy of Professor Iwasaki 38

| March 2012

CARTOON

FEATURE

Tunnel of Love

March 2012 |