April 2006
New antibiotics show promise against "superbugs"
By: William G. Gilroy
A novel type of antibiotic studied by a team of University of Notre Dame researchers led by Shahriar Mobashery has shown promise in defeating deadly drug-resistant staph bacteria. >
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New planet found: Icy "Super-Earth" dominates distant solar system
By: William G. Gilroy
An international collaboration of astronomers that includes David Bennett, an associate professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, has discovered a “super-Earth” orbiting in the cold outer regions of a distant solar system roughly 9,000 light-years away from our planet. >
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Study offers sobering analysis of U.S. nuclear dominance
By: William G. Gilroy
A new article by political scientists Keir A. Lieber of the University of Notre Dame and Daryl G. Press of the University of Pennsylvania presents a sobering analysis of several recent strategic nuclear developments. Titled, “The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy,” the article appears in the just released March/April edition of the prestigious journal Foreign Affairs. >
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China: Found in translation
By: Gail Hinchion Mancini
If, as is said, you can’t judge a book by its cover, then you probably don’t want to draw conclusions about “Big Breasts and Wide Hips,” a novel recently translated from Chinese by Howard Goldblatt, research professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Notre Dame. >
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Discovery sheds light on the nature of the bacterial cell wall and how antibiotics work
By: William G. Gilroy
For nearly half a century, scientists have known that bacteria possess a cell wall. Since the health and integrity of the cell wall are critical to the survival of these organisms, it is not surprising that many antibiotics work by either impairing biosynthesis of the cell wall, or simply bind to it to inhibit its full structural maturation.>
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GEM program invaluable for minority grad students
By: Carol C. Bradley
Michele Lezama is on the move, both in her work life and in her office location. As executive director of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc., known as the GEM program, she travels the country three days a week recruiting students and seeking program support. Her office on Eddy St., just south of the Notre Dame campus, soon will be torn down for redevelopment, and in early summer the program will relocate into new on-campus quarters in Brownson Hall. >
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Theologian Father Kollman publishes book on African mission history
By: Michael O. Garvey
“Evangelization of Slaves and Catholic Origins in Eastern Africa” by Rev. Paul Kollman, C.S.C., assistant professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, recently was published by Orbis Books. >
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