Columbia University recently announced plans to offer a course next semester in which students can study and participate in the movement. The class will be offered through the anthropology department and will be taught by Dr. Hannah Appel, a veteran of the movement. It is called “Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement.” Upperclassmen and graduate students will be able to take the class. “Class requirements will be divided between seminar at Columbia and fieldwork in and around the Occupy movement,” according to the class syllabus. “In addition to scheduled seminar , this class will meet off-campus several times, and students will be expected to be involved in ongoing OWS projects outside of class, to be developed in close conversation with the instructor.” Could this type of class be dangerous for the students who will be involved in it? Appel thinks not. “As a regular participant in the Occupy movement… I can say with absolute certainty that there is no foreseeable risk in teaching this as a field-based class,” she said. She also encourages students not to break the law when they are conducting their fieldwork though, because then there could be problems http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2012/01/columbia-university-offers-course-allowing-students-to-participate-in-occupy-wall-street/
《科技日报》2011年6月29日报道了新华网北京2011年6月28日电 美国科学家新发表的一项研究成果(Disruption of adult expression of sexually selected traits by developmental exposure to bisphenol A)显示,化工原料双酚A可能对健康有更多危害。 双酚A( Bisphenol A,简称BPA )也称为聚碳酸酯,用于饮料瓶、食品包装等多种塑料制品。它有类似激素的作用,会干扰人体内分泌和生殖系统。它对人体健康的影响究竟如何,目前还没有一致的结论。但是,由于担心双酚A对婴幼儿健康的损害,欧盟、加拿大、中国等国家和地区已禁止将双酚A用于婴儿奶瓶。 美国密苏里大学哥伦比亚分校的研究人员认为,受激素调控的特征可能对双酚A之类的内分泌干扰素特别敏感。为了检验这一假设,他们将怀孕的拉布拉多白足鼠分成三组,分别喂食富含双酚A的食物、富含合成雌激素--乙炔雌二醇(ethinyl estradiol)的食物,以及不含上述物质的普通食物。这样的喂食一直持续到哺乳期结束,随后给断奶的幼鼠喂食普通食物,并观察它们的行为。 结果显示,用富含双酚A的食物喂养的怀孕雌鼠,其雄性后代看起来正常,体内雄性激素水平也正常,但空间导航能力较差,在设计实验中很难学会迅速通过迷宫的办法。据认为,空间导航能力对雄鼠在野外扩展领地和求偶非常重要。此外,幼年时曾接触双酚A的雄鼠,成年后相对不受雌鼠欢迎,择偶的成功率大约只有普通雄鼠的一半。 这一成果发表在2011年6月27日出版的新一期美国《国家科学院学报》( Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences )上。研究人员表示,还不清楚双酚A对人体是否有类似的影响,但显然必须引起关注。 更为详细的报道,请浏览原文。 Disruption of adult expression of sexually selected traits by developmental exposure to bisphenol A http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/06/20/1107958108/suppl/DCSupplemental