The Duke Digest - November 22, 2010

In Today's Issue:

  • Duke Law Alum To Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
  • Duke Launches New MFA Program
  • Duke Expert: TSA Screenings Test Americans' Willingness to Sacrifice
  • Duke Senior Receives Rhodes Scholarship
  • Duke Researchers Find FDA Study On Genetically Modified Salmon is Too Narrow

DUKE LAW ALUM TO RECEIVE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM
President Obama last week announced that John Adams (L '62), the founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, is to receive the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. In announcing his selection of Adams, the President cited a tenure "unparalleled by the leader of any other environmental organization," and cited a Rolling Stone quotation: "If the planet has a lawyer, it's John Adams."

John and Patricia Adams visited Duke Law last week to discuss a 1989 report on chemicals in food, "Intolerable Risk," that proved pivotal for the organization the two co-founded and for the organic food movement.  A video excerpt of the conversation is below.

Read More:
President Obama Awards Medal of Freedom to NRDC Founding Director John Adams (NRDC.org)
John Adams '62 and Patricia Adams Discuss Co-Founding the NRDC (Law.Duke.edu)
Video Excerpt from a Conversation with John and Patricia Adams (Law.Duke.edu)

DUKE LAUNCHES NEW MFA PROGRAM
Drawing faculty, courses and other resources from Duke's Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, and the Program in Arts of the Moving Image, the new MFA is a key addition to the university's growing arts portfolio, which has been a major focus of its most recent strategic plan. Accepting applications in January 2011 for a first cohort of 15 students, the Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts will look for accomplished artists seeking experience producing innovative photographic, spoken-word, film, video and computational digital arts along with the study of philosophy and critical theory.

Other recent initiatives in the arts include the establishment of the Nasher Museum of Art, a revitalized Duke Performances, the evolution of the Arts of the Moving Image program and the creation of the Visual Studies Initiative (VSI).

Read More:
Duke Launches New MFA Program (DukeNews)


DUKE EXPERT: TSA SCREENINGS TEST AMERICANS' WILLINGNESS TO SACRIFICE
Charlie Dunlap Jr., visiting professor of law and associate director of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, specializes in warfare policy and strategy, cyber-warfare, military commissions, counterinsurgency, nuclear issues and air power.  According to Dunlap:

"TSA's new screening procedures are understandably troubling to some, but they are likely legal under current law. Generally, the courts find that while there is a right to travel, there is no right to fly, per se. Accordingly, airline travel can be conditioned upon security screening requirements to include even one this invasive. In short, the procedures are probably legal; it is a policy decision, however, as to how and to what degree to implement them.

The difficulty TSA faces is an increasingly inventive terrorist threat that requires very sophisticated and often intrusive countermeasures. What the American people need to decide, however, is how much of their privacy they are willing to sacrifice in order to gain more security. And perfect security is unattainable.

“We may be seeing the limits of the public's tolerance in this latest controversy, but if a terrorist succeeds because of more lenient measures, public opinion could reverse itself rapidly.”


DUKE SENIOR RECEIVES RHODES SCHOLARSHIP
Duke University senior Jared Dunnmon of Cincinnati was among the 32 recipients selected this weekend for prestigious Rhodes Scholarships.

Dunnmon, an A.B. Duke Scholar and past recipient of Goldwater Scholarships in Science, Mathematics and Engineering, was chosen from among 837 applicants at 309 colleges and universities throughout the country. He is the 43rd student in Duke's history to receive a Rhodes Scholarship.

Read More:
Duke Senior Receives Rhodes Scholarship (DukeNews)


DUKE RESEARCHERS FIND FDA STUDY ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED SALMON IS TOO NARROW
The review process being used by the Food and Drug Administration to assess the safety of a faster-growing transgenic salmon fails to weigh the full impacts widespread production of the fish could have, according to analysis by a Duke University-led team in this week’s issue of Science.

The salmon, whose genome contains inserted genes from two other fish species, could become the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption in the United States. The FDA held two days of hearings in September to assess the fish’s human and environmental health risks. The period for public comment ends this month. A final decision could be imminent.

Read More:
New Study Finds FDA Review on Transgenic Salmon Too Narrow (Nicholas.Duke.edu)
Wiener Co-Authors Science Article on Genetically Modified Salmon (Law.Duke.edu)