Mason Media Blog

Russell Roberts, professor of economics, co-created this catchy rap video explaining the contrast in theories from legendary economists John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek.

The chorus has been stuck in my head all day!

Public concern about global warming has dropped sharply since the fall of 2008, according to the results of a national survey released today by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities. Only 50 percent of Americans now say they are “somewhat” or “very worried” about global warming, a 13-point decrease.

Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, and his colleague Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change, attribute several reasons for this decline.

“Over the past year the United States has experienced rising unemployment, public frustration with Washington and a divisive health care debate, largely pushing climate change out of the news. Meanwhile, a set of emails stolen from climate scientists and used by critics to allege scientific misconduct may have contributed to an erosion of public trust in climate science,” said Leiserowitz.

The survey also showed that people are now less likely to trust the media, weather reporters and scientists about climate change.

“The scientific evidence is clear that climate change is real, human-caused and a serious threat to communities across America,” said Maibach. “The erosion in both public concern and public trust about global warming should be a clarion call for people and organizations trying to educate the public about this important issue.”

The full press release can be read on the Mason press release site.

A copy of the report can be downloaded from: http://climatechange.gmu.edu.

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Skylights were placed at angles corresponding to the degrees of the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. A solar panel to supply electricity to the container sits on the roof.

It’s hard to believe that a dark, windowless steel box can be transformed into a comfortable living environment or a stylish artistic space. Yet, all across the world, architectural companies and designers are using shipping containers to create innovative homes, office buildings, restaurants and other structures.

Close to home, students in Mason’s School of Art have been working on a similar innovative project for the past year; they have converted a used shipping container into a prototype for a zero-carbon mobile exhibition gallery and community space. This project represents one of the first spaces on campus that aligns with Mason’s commitment to zero emissions.

Focusing on sustainability, an area in which Mason has taken a more active role, all of the materials used in the ContainerSpace Project are recycled and environmentally-friendly including paint that contains zero volatile organic compounds and skylights that help utilize the natural sunlight during the day. In addition, students developed both human-powered electrical turbines and solar panels to power low-voltage, homemade LED gallery-style lighting.

The 31-year-old container was manufactured in China, covered in primers from a company in Korea and inspected and approved for its international standards by a company in France.

“The ContainerSpace project forces students to think about what the presence of the shipping container represents and how its use has dramatically changed global economics throughout the years,” says Tom Ashcraft, associate director and associate professor of sculpture in the School of Art.

“When the project is complete, the shipping container will challenge norms of the traditional gallery space with elements of sustainability, mobility and access.”

For more information about the ContainerSpace project, click here.

George Mason University is going head-to-head with Virginia Commonwealth University to see who has the biggest fan base. As Virginia’s largest universities and Colonial Athletic Association rivals, Mason and VCU are hosting a Facebook Face-Off to see which school can get the most new fans on the popular social networking site.

The competition tipped off on Jan. 19 and runs until noon on Feb. 9, 2010. The school with the most new fans when the buzzer sounds will be announced at halftime during the VCU and Mason men’s basketball game (the game starts at 7 p.m.).

Show your Patriot Pride and become a fan of Mason on Facebook! For more information, visit beatVCU.gmu.edu.

Recently, President Obama announced a $250 million public-private effort to improve science and mathematics performance and instruction in U.S. classrooms. According to an article in The Washington Post, “With funding from high-tech businesses, universities and foundations, the initiative seeks to prepare more than 10,000 new math and science schoolteachers over five years and provide on-the-job training for an additional 100,000 in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).”

Mason science and math education professors Donna Sterling and Margret Hjalmarson weigh in on whether this funding initiative goes far enough and what impact it will have on preparing students for careers in STEM fields.

“I am delighted that President Obama has announced more funding for science and mathematics education. However, for our nation to remain a leader in the world, we need an ongoing and sustained emphasis on preparing the next generation, and teachers, to have a strong background in the STEM disciplines,” says Donna Sterling, professor of science education and director of Mason’s Center for Restructuring Education in Science and Technology.

“What President Obama overlooked was that in addition to teachers having ‘deep content expertise,’ they also need the knowledge and skills to teach science effectively. We are asking teachers to teach in a way that is different than they learned, in a way more like what scientists and engineers really do. Scientists ask questions, investigate problems, conduct experiments, collect and analyze data, propose explanations based on evidence and communicate their ideas to others. This active inquiry process is what we also want students to do while they learn science.”

Hjalmarson, assistant professor of mathematics education and director of the Mathematics Education Center at Mason adds, “Many students do not understand the wide range of opportunities that a STEM major leading to a career can provide. Students are often uninformed about the trajectory they need to follow in high school in order to keep those opportunities open to them. STEM competitions are one significant step toward increasing the visibility and value of science and mathematics, but we also need to take a hard look at the math and science curriculum and question whether it is preparing our students for 21st century STEM careers.”

“Some states have added engineering to their K-12 state standards. Engineering is a perfect opportunity to integrate and to apply math and science. Students don’t often get to see how math and science can be exciting and interesting. They also need to be challenged to think, to design and to solve problems. Nothing makes a student feel more successful and motivated than succeeding at tackling a hard problem.”

If you are interested in speaking to Professor Sterling or Hjalmarson please contact Jennifer Edgerly at 703-993-8699 or jedgerly@gmu.edu.

Emanuel Petricoin III and Lance Liotta have a discussion with researcher Virginia Espina in their lab. Photo by Evan Cantwell

Imagine if treatments for disease could be based not on patients’ diagnoses, but instead on the characteristics of their tissue. By identifying and decoding the cryptic messages hidden deep inside the human proteome, scientists and physicians who study personalized medicine are seeking more effective treatments and disease management for patients.

Lance Liotta and Emanuel Petricoin III, professors of life sciences and co-directors of Mason’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), are pioneers in the field of patient-tailored research and personalized medicine. The two study biomarkers (indicators of disease in tissue and bodily fluids) related to cancer, heart disease, liver disease and obesity.

They recently launched a unique clinical trial in partnership with oncologists and co-principal investigators Kirstin Edmiston, medical director of cancer services at Inova Health System, and Alexander I. Spira, director of Fairfax Northern Virginia Hematology Oncology Research Program, to treat patients with late-stage colorectal cancer, a fatal cancer that starts in either the colon or the rectum.

Striking more than 150,000 American men and women each year, colorectal cancer is the nation’s third most commonly diagnosed cancer and third leading cause of cancer death, according to the American Cancer Society.

The three-year trial will accommodate up to 50 men and women who have late-stage colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver.

“Traditionally, all colon cancers have been lumped together and given similar treatments. The novelty about this is that we can, in a very minimally invasive way, start to treat the metastatic tumor based on its unique protein makeup,” says Edmiston.

“If we’re going to be successful in treating the metastatic disease, which is what kills people, then we need to focus on using therapies targeted toward the individuality of a patient’s disease state. This clinical trial is the first step toward doing that.”

 To read more, visit http://news.gmu.edu/articles/1477.

Prince William County residents discuss community issues at a study circle.

In community centers, schools and churches throughout Prince William County, residents are gathering together to improve their neighborhoods.

The Prince William Neighborhood Study Circles were formed collaboratively in 2007 by George Mason University, Unity in the Community and City of Manassas Neighborhood Services as a forum for community members to better understand all sides of various issues, build relationships across groups and develop action plans.

According to Charvis Campbell, assistant dean of Prince William University Life, the study circles were initially started to focus on immigration issues within the community. However, they quickly transformed into forums for discussing broader issues that affect neighborhoods, many of which are home to Mason’s faculty and staff.

“We realized that folks weren’t really talking about immigration but talking about how immigration impacted their community − whether it was loud music or miscommunication about trash pickup or miscommunication about language differences,” says Campbell.

“We decided to get the community talking and to have a respectful, honest and productive conversation about neighborhood issues. The whole point of the circles is to empower the community to take the initiative.”

To learn more, visit http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/15658.

Mason Provost Peter Stearns, left, shakes hands with Howard Federoff of Georgetown University after signing a memorandum of understanding to establish a new joint initiative. Photo by Evan Cantwell

The News & Messenger reports on  Mason and Georgetown’s new joint program called “George Squared” which is paving the road for the Washington area’s growing bioscience and health care industries. To read more, visit http://cli.gs/sbvuRJ.

Merav Opher

Merav Opher, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Mason, just had a paper published in the Dec. 24 edition of the journal Science that solves an interstellar mystery about the outer edges of the solar system.

According to a NASA press release, our solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist.

“Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system,” says Opher, lead author, in the NASA article. “This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all.”

A story on the discovery appeared on the USA Today web site, and news of the magnetic field was also covered by other national news outlets.

In 2008,  Opher won a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER grant and was awarded the distinguished and highly competitive Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She was presented with that award at a special White House ceremony hosted by President George W. Bush.

Opher is one of the only women in her field — and by far one of the youngest scientists —working to calculate the flow of particles and magnetic fields of the area just outside our solar system. Her journal articles have been published in numerous places, and her work was one of National Geographic’s Top 10 stories of the year for 2007.