Soundbites

"This responsibility for this type of [sex-harassment and gender-sensitivity] training doesn't fall entirely on who's doing the hiring. Universities really should be building this into their intern programs and encouraging government programs to build it in as well."

--Francine Moccio, director of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Institute for Women and Work, discussing the White House intern program, in the Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 29.

"Food plays a critical role in the overall psychological well-being of isolated crews."

--David Levitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and psychology, discussing a NASA project at Cornell to develop nutritious vegetarian food for future space colonies, in the Financial Times of London, Jan. 22.

"When our dopamine system is active, we are more positive, excited and eager to go after goals and rewards, whether it's food, sex, money, education or professional achievment. We have strong evidence that feelings of elation [that occur] because you are moving toward achieving an important goal are biochemically based, though they can be modified by experience."

--Richard Depuie, professor of human development, discussing the role of dopamine in elation in The Wasington Post, Jan. 20.

"The results so far have been spectacular. It can produce a higher temperature over a larger volume of plasma that radiates more energy than any other source. The physics of how the plasmas from the individual wires form and merge to create a cylindrically symmetric plasma is not understood in detail."

--David A. Hammer, the J.C. Ward Jr. Professor of Nuclear Energy Engineering, describing the new Z machine at the Sandia National Laboratories, in Science News, Jan. 17.

"I'm not deterministically saying you're going to have problems because you're a stepfamily. There are tons of stepfamilies who are doing absolutely fine....An individual with children should realize the need to look for different traits in a future mate. Qualities such as a demonstrable interest in the children, financial generosity and a willingness to become an active participant in a ready-made family come readily to mind."

--Stephen T. Emlen, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Biology, discussing possible genetic factors in the greater incidence of violence in stepfamilies compared to biological families, in The New York Times, Feb. 10.