Mar - Apr 2011 Issue

 This year, the first of the baby boomers—those born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1964—turn sixty-five. As this population ages, the prevalence of end-of-life illnesses will increase. Some of these illnesses, such as dementia, are psychiatric disorders, and they’re the focus of “Geriatric Psychiatry,” a medical-school elective taught by Mugdha Thakur HS ’03.

 

 

 Launched in late 2008, the Duke Idea brings President Richard H. Brodhead and other university leaders to cities around the world to inform alumni about Duke’s vision for the twenty-first century and plans and goals for shaping and serving society.

 

 When we move from the real world to a virtual space such as that of Second Life or World of Warcraft, we cross clear thresholds as we log in and “become” our avatars. We know our roles in virtual space, and we know that they change as we move from one space to another.

 He was a literary luminary whose debut work drew comparisons with William Faulkner. But Reynolds Price ’55, who died in January, was animated not just by his writing but also by his more than fifty years of teaching at Duke.Price had no patience for intellectual laziness. He wanted his students to show their best—their best writing, their best thinking.

  

 

  

  

  From South Africa to Iraq to Tunisia, the birth of a new government is fraught with false starts, fresh bursts of violence, and seemingly insurmountable

  On a large screen in a darkened lecture hall at the Fuqua School of Business, a television newscaster reports on the spread of a contagious disease.

   Generation Gap • Memories of Doris • Missing Piece • CorrectionsGeneration Gap

 Scholarly research isn’t all fun and games: Sometimes it’s just games.

 Lesa France Kennedy '83  

 A commanding presence in the life of the university, Reynolds Price ’55 died on January 20. Beginning with his first novel, the widely acclaimed A Long and Happy Life, in 1962, he published nearly forty volumes, including poetry, short stories, novels, essays, plays, and memoirs.

 Aristotle is widely considered the most important thinker in the Western philosophical tradition, and his ideas about ways to make sense of the world around us laid the groundwork for many of today’s forms of academic inquiry. For centuries, his scientific theories held sway in the minds of learned people of the day, his writings pored over and commented on by Romans, monks, and medieval scholastics.

 Scott Cooper remembers walking into the West Baltimore home, seeing mattresses, four of them, stacked against the living-room wall, and asking the woman if she was moving.

 

 

  The Blue Devil volleyball team had a record year, advancing to the regional finals, or “elite eight,” of the NCAA

 

  An effort in King County, Washington, to add nutrition facts to fas

 A recent study has found that children as young as three who have little self-control are more likely to have health problems, a chemical dependency, financial troubles, or a criminal record by the time they reach adulthood.

Duke researchers have uncovered clues to memory and learning by exploring the function of a single gene, WRP, that governs how neurons form new connections.

 

 Most American companies shipping jobs overseas say a shortage of skilled domestic employees—not cost cutting—is their primary motivation, according to new research from the Fuqua School of Business. The recent study is part of an ongoing research effort at Duke into the effects of offshoring trends on American competitiveness.

 

 

 

 

 

 Larry Moneta

 Ten student-led scholarly projects designed to enhance collaboration between Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have been awarded $5,000 each as part of the inaugural Kenan-Biddle Partnership class.