The Duke Digest - March 23, 2012
In Today's Issue:
- President Brodhead: Advocating for the Humanities
- Opinion: Oil Under Our Noses
- Duke Researchers: Metamaterials Will Change Optics
- Opinion: Time to Reset Police-Muslim Relations
PRESIDENT BRODHEAD: ADVOCATING FOR THE HUMANITIES
President Richard H. Brodhead delivered the keynote address Monday, March 19, at the annual meeting of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA), held in conjunction with Humanities Advocacy Day on March 20. NHA is a non-profit organization to advance national humanities policy in the areas of research, education, preservation and public programs.
In his remarks, President Brodhead reminded the audience, "To make someone want to invest in the humanities, we first have to remind them what the humanities are and why they matter."
See President Brodhead's remarks on the humanities - and why they matter - below.
Read More:
Brodhead: Advocating for the Humanities (duke.edu)
OPINION: OIL UNDER OUR NOSES
Stephen R. Kelly, a former U.S. Diplomat who teaches energy security courses at Duke, writes in an opinion piece appearing on the New York Times this week:
"Like President Carter before him, Mr. Obama supposedly risks losing an election over something he can’t control.
Fortunately for the president — and millions of American drivers — he may have more energy options than most of his recent predecessors.
Thanks in part to surging oil imports from our continental neighbors, Persian Gulf oil now constitutes a significantly smaller share of American oil imports than it did just 20 years ago. At the same time, domestic oil production is actually increasing after decades of decline, meaning we have to import less than before.
Taken together, these trends suggest that the oil weapon, at least in the hands of Persian Gulf producers, may no longer have the same edge for the United States."
Read More:
Oil Under Our Noses (New York Times)
DUKE RESEARCHERS: METAMATERIALS WILL CHANGE OPTICS
Duke University engineers believe that continued advances in creating ever-more exotic and sophisticated man-made materials will greatly improve their ability to control light at will.
The burgeoning use of metamaterials in the field of optics does not rely on the limited set of materials found in nature, but rather man-made constructs that can be designed to control light’s many properties. “In the past, our ability to create optical devices has been limited by the properties of natural materials,” said Stéphane Larouche, research scientist in electrical and computer engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. “Now, with the advent of metamaterials, we can almost do whatever we want to do with light.
The research was supported by the Army Research Office’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).
Read More:
Metamaterials Will Change Optics (pratt.duke.edu)
OPINION: TIME TO RESET POLICE-MUSLIM RELATIONS
Referring to a string of recent episodes that have undercut the Obama administration's strategy for addressing homegrown terrorism, David Schanzer, the Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University, writes:
"We need to hit the reset button quickly and establish a partnership between law enforcement and Muslim Americans that can provide a foundation for an effective national counterterrorism policy.
There are three key sources of tension that all need to be addressed: government-funded training that casts Islam as encouraging violence, surveillance of individuals and communities without a criminal predicate and the use of informants to goad individuals into criminal activities."
Read More:
Time to Reset Police-Muslim Relations (Huffington Post)