Tree-thinning spares telescope, but endangers squirrels
U.Va.’s astronomers can breathe easier these days. The Mt. Graham Observatory, home of the Large Binocular Telescope — in which the University is a major investor — was spared from a wildfire that recently threatened the complex. But like many matters involving the facility, which was built over the vociferous objections of Native Americans who regard the mountain as sacred, the save was controversial. As flames neared the observatory, Forest Service officials ordered that the trees around the facility be thinned out to keep flames from jumping from treetop to treetop. The measure prevented likely damage, but it also threatened the habitat of the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel. Environmentalists charged fire officials for using the fire as a pretext to ram through plans that had been hotly debated before the fire.
— Arizona Daily Star, July 9

Quandt urges CIA reformers to go slow
The Central Intelligence Agency is under fire this summer, in the wake of a critical report from a Senate committee and another anticipated round of criticism soon to come from the federal 9-11 Commission. Director George Tenet has already resigned; now voices are calling for a thorough overhaul. But politics professor and former diplomat William Quandt cautions against knee-jerk reactions. The key to changing the culture, he said, is having the right people in the right places. “There’s nothing you can do to design a system to make people accept the results,” he said.
— Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 3

Dermatologist’s warning: Cover up
How much summer sun exposure is too much? Dr. Mark Russell, a skin cancer specialist and dermatology professor, acknowledges that it is unrealistic to expect people to hover under shelter for months at a time. But he pleaded with people to put on sunscreen — the easier you burn, the higher the SPF — early in the day and reapply it frequently. “There is no healthy tan,” Russell warned. “A tan is an indicator of damage to the skin.” Damage leads to skin cancer, and not only in older people. Marshall says his youngest patient is 21.
— Lynchburg News & Advance, July 9

The bigger the burden, the higher the hill
Fascinating psychological and neurological research is exploring humans’ hard-wired sense of personal space, or what is called “body schema.” Scientists are finding that one’s schema expands to include the area around tools one uses or the clothes one wears (think of a woman who ducks down just enough to let her tall feathered hat pass through a doorway). Psychologist Dennis Proffitt takes it one step further; our schema, he finds, can affect our perception of the environment. Almost everyone overestimates the slope of a hill, he said; however, people who are encumbered with backpacks, piggy-backing children, or who are tired, out of shape or elderly, often perceive the hill as being even steeper.
— New York Times, July 13