UBC Reports | Vol. 51 | No. 8 | Aug. 4, 2005

In the News

Highlights of UBC Media Coverage in July 2005

Compiled by Ai Lin Choo

New Test for Psychopathic Bosses

Many corporate power brokers exhibit the same megalomaniac, manipulative and remorseless tendencies as hard-core criminals, says Robert Hare, UBC professor emeritus of psychology.

Hare, who created the Psychopathy Checklist used by law enforcement agencies around the world, has come up with a new personality test that companies can use when hiring, reports The Dallas Morning News.

The B-Scan quiz, which Hare developed with New York industrial psychologist Paul Babiak, is coming to market this summer.

Korea Should Boost Investment

UBC professor Ross King is calling for more national investment in Korean language and Korean studies programs that foster Korean specialists.

“I think everybody in Korea is absolutely crazy about learning English,’” said King, associate professor of Korean Language and Literature, in an interview with The Korea Times. “What happens in the process is that they forget who they are. They also forget about their own language. This is a great shame.”
The professor, who was visiting Korea to attend seminars on Korean language and Korean studies at Kangnam and Korea University, is dean of Supsogui Hosu (Lake of the Woods), a Korean immersion village in Minnesota.

Robots in Space

International space explorers gathered at the University of British Columbia in association with the International Space University’s summer session program this past month to discuss whether humans are more efficient than robots in exploring the solar system.

“Human exploration is felt by some as too expensive just to do science,” said U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “Science is part of exploration but not the whole story. . . . We must remember that human space exploration has assumed an important role in our cultural identity.”

Lung Cancer Risk Tied to Lung Function

Canadian researchers have found an association between reduced lung function and the risk of lung cancer.

“Even relatively small reductions in lung function, which are considered within the normal range, increased the risk of lung cancer by 30 per cent to 60 per cent, especially among women,” Dr. D. D. Sin told Reuters Health.

Sin and his research team from the University of British Columbia involved 204,990 subjects, of whom 6,185 had died from lung cancer, in their analysis and reviewed existing studies that have looked into the relationship between lung function and the risk of lung cancer.

Japan Awards Prize

UBC’s Daniel Pauly has won the International Cosmos Prize, an annual award worth $430,000, reports the CBC.

The prize awards research that has “achieved excellence and is recognized as contributing to a significant understanding of the relationships among living organisms, the interdependence of life and the global environment, and the common nature integrating these inter-relationships.”

The award was presented by the Expo 90 Foundation in Japan.

Space Telescope Probes Stars

Canada’s suitcase-sized MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars) telescope is probing the hidden internal structures of sunlike stars and pinning their ages down to a greater precision than ever before. MOST has also begun to provide information about planets that orbit some of those stars, even hinting at their weather patterns, reports Science Magazine.

“Not bad for a space telescope with a mirror the size of a pie plate and a price tag of $10 million Canadian, eh?” says UBC astronomer Jaymie Matthews.

MOST blasted into space June 30, 2003.