But does it work?
A New York Times article on the real benefits (or lack thereof) of statins, the often-prescribed drugs used to lower cholesterol and the risk for heart attacks, quoted Mark H. Ebell, a part-time professor in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

“High-risk groups have a lot to gain (from statins),” said Ebell, who also is deputy editor of the journal American Family Physician. “But patients at low risk benefit very little if at all. We end up overtreating a lot of patients.”

Learn and earn
An Associated Press article about a pilot program in two Georgia schools that pays students struggling in math and science to attend study hall for four hours a week, quoted Jerome Morris, associate professor of social foundations of education and a research fellow at the Institute for Behavioral Research. Morris noted that wealthy families have frequently rewarded their children for making good grades.

“Poor families just can’t do that,” Morris said. “They have to tell their children, ‘You have to go to school just to learn.’ ”

Economic forecast
A Christian Science Monitor story about the economic effects of the drought in the Southeast quoted Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth. “The coincidence of having a [potential] recession plus drought is a tough one for the economy,” Humphreys said. “It’s coming on top of the housing recession and the oil price shock, making our economy more vulnerable than would otherwise be the case. I don’t think the drought alone is able to produce a recession, but it adds to negative forces that are already out there.”

So happy together
Betty Hudson, a public service associate at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, was quoted in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story about city and county merger deals. Hudson said that after Athens and Clarke County merged, the government initially cost more to run, but then costs leveled off.

“You may have some savings if you had two managers or two directors of different departments,” said Hudson. “But generally, you’re not going to be cutting the amount of staff you have.”

In fact, the merger of two workforces can force government to raise the pay and benefits of one to match those of the other.

Sculpting a longer life
A Nature.com article focusing on studies showing that sculptors tended to live longer than painters quoted Phillip Greenspan, an associate professor of pharmaceutical and biomedical science. Greenspan, who has studied the issue, developed the idea while helping his wife, who is a sculptor.

“It is hard work,” he said. “The idea came to me right then—I knew there weren’t many sculptors who died early, but many painters have.”

Safety first
Forbes magazine, in an article about proposals calling for the restructuring of the FDA, quoted Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety.

“There really needs to be a single food safety agency so that you don’t have all of this ridiculous overlap and duplication,” Doyle said. “When you have it split up into different agencies like that, there’s a lot of bureaucratic infighting.”