Falk Named Dean of Krieger School
Theoretical physicist has served in interim post and as dean of faculty

Adam Falk, who has been serving as interim dean since January 2005, will formally take office as the James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School on Feb. 1.

Deans worry about dollars. They worry about infrastructure. They worry about labs and libraries and classrooms and committees. But mostly, Adam Falk says, they need to worry about people. Especially, he says, about bringing people together.
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Liftoff! New Horizons is Pluto-bound
The first mission to distant planet Pluto is under way after the launch Jan. 19 of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. New Horizons — designed and built by the Applied Physics Laboratory — roared into the afternoon sky aboard a powerful Atlas V rocket at 2 p.m.
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'Oil weapon' constrains U.S. policy in Middle East
U.S. policy in the Middle East is driven by baseless fears that an "oil weapon" can cut off our fuel supply, a Johns Hopkins researcher has concluded. In a peer-reviewed journal article, Roger J. Stern argues that the decades-old belief that petroleum-rich Persian Gulf nations must be appeased to keep oil flowing is imaginary, and the threat of deployment of an "oil weapon" is toothless.
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