"The people who have large investment earnings are doing extremely well right now. There is a lot of paper wealth out there, and that has got to be driving at least some of the new spending."
-- Robert Frank, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, Ethics and Public Policy, commenting on a surge in sales of luxury items in The New York Times, Dec. 12.
"It shouldn't be that surprising all living things -- plants and animals -- share a lot of the same genetic material."
-- Susan McCouch, assistant professor of plant breeding biometry, on breakthrough research on obtaining productive genes from wild rice species, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 9. She is explaining that rice not only shared genetic material with its wild ancestors, but with oats, wheat and barley.
"I think it's good for the Teamsters that their reform process is going forward."
-- Michael Belzer, senior research associate in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, discussing the recent Teamsters presidential election, in The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 16.
"There's very clear evidence linking chronic exposure to noise to cardiovascular issues and interference with sleep and annoyance, but no clear data linking it to other health impacts."
-- Gary Evans, professor of design and environmental analysis, in the Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.), Dec. 23.
"If it's happened here, it could certainly raise its ugly head once again. It could have a grave profound impact on our nation's forests."
-- E. Richard Hoebeke, senior extension associate in entomology, on the Asian long-horned beetle, which was found attacking maple trees in Brooklyn, in the Village Voice, Dec. 4.
"Having so much [aerogel] surface in close proximity to the liquid can clearly do odd things when you apply a magnetic field."
-- Jeevak Parpia, professor of physics in the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, in Science News, Dec. 7, on new findings about the effects of a magnetic field on the superfluidity of helium-3 in an aerogel.
"It's justice for hire and if you can afford it, great. But if you can't afford it, you've got to fend for yourself."
-- David Lipsky, director of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Institute on Conflict Resolution, discussing Washington Beltway mediators-for-hire in the Washington Post, Dec. 16.
"In Puerto Rico it is very important to continue developing physical infrastructure such as roads, the aqueduct and urban transit, because high-tech companies need that physical infrastructure. Puerto Rico is making good strides in that area."
-- William McGuire, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering and member of Puerto Rico's Blue Ribbon Science and Technology Council, in Caribbean Business, Nov. 14.
"It's every bit as profound as the revolutions that were brought about by Copernicus and Darwin on our place in the universe."
-- Steven Squyres, professor of astronomy, in a Dec. 17 Associated Press story on the number of findings this year that "have all but convinced scientists that life is not just a freak accident that could only happen on Earth, but a ubiquitous and irrepressible part of the universe."
"This 'era-of-big-government-is-over' thing is a bunch of crap. . . . Big government has institutionalized itself. We are a big, modern nation-state."
-- Theodore J. Lowi, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions, in a widely published Knight-Ridder wire story that appeared in the Flint, Mich., Journal, Nov. 26.