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Noted
November/December 2012
Scientists think of themselves as rigorously
objective, but a Yale study in the September online issue of the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences suggests otherwise. Molecular biologist
Jo Handelsman and her colleagues asked 127 science professors at six research
universities to evaluate identical applications for a lab manager post. “Subtle
gender bias” was obvious among both male and female professors: when the applicant
had a male name, he was rated significantly higher in competence and
hireability, and he was offered a better salary and more career mentoring.
An African primate, which Yale researchers John and
Terese Hart first saw in a 2007 snapshot of a young girl with a monkey, is
actually a new species, says a team that includes the Harts and anthropologist
Eric Sargis. The small, shy monkey, known in the Democratic Republic of Congo
as a lesula—its proposed scientific name is Cercopithecus lomamiensis—lives
largely hidden in lowland rain forests, yet is threatened by hunters. In
September’s PLoS One, researchers describe the animal and suggest a
conservation strategy.
Between 2000 and 2030, the amount of land covered by
cities will nearly triple, says Karen Seto, an urban land change scientist at
Yale’s environment school. In September’s online edition of the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, Seto and her colleagues estimate that
this dramatic growth—mostly in Asia and Africa—will result, if unchecked, in
almost 10 percent of the planet’s surface becoming urban land cover.  |
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