Quick Takes: Chemistry Nobel, Pa. Loan Agency Probed, Attitudes on Drinking, Media Group Censures Okla. Baptist, Dean Quits Following Drug Charge, French Intellectuals Back Philosopher, Gallaudet Protests Return, NIH Effort on Clinical Research

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Roger D. Kornberg, a professor at Stanford University's medical school, was this morning named winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription." According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Kornberg created a picture of transcription -- the process by which information stored in genes is copied, moves to the outer parts of the cells, and is used for the production of proteins that construct organisms and their functions.
The U.S. Education Department is investigating whether it overpaid the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency and whether that agency was using a loophole to collect too much on student loans, The Patriot-News reported. On Friday, the department revealed an investigation of the National Education Loan Network (Nelnet) over this issue. Both loan agencies have denied any wrongdoing.
Students don't necessarily trust "social norms" campaigns designed to encourage moderation in drinking, according to a new Pennsylvania State University study. The research, based on a survey of students at a university in the Northeast, found that students get their ideas about acceptable drinking levels from other students.
Oklahoma Baptist University has been censured by the College Media Advisers for failing to renew the contract of a newspaper adviser who refused to censor student journalists.
The dean of the business school at the University of San Diego quit Tuesday, after he entered a plea of no contest to charges that he attempted to purchase cocaine in a hotel outside Cleveland, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Mohsen Anvari, the dean, had formerly led the business school at Case Western Reserve University.
French philosophers are up in arms over their government's minimal response to death threats made against a teacher at a lycée who published comments critical of Islam and is now hiding from possible attacks, The Times of London reported. The teacher, Robert Redeker, is a member of the editorial board of the journal Les Temps Modernes, founded by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Students and faculty members upset with the appointment of Jane K. Fernandes as president of Gallaudet University have resumed their protests, moving into tents and walking out of classes, The Washington Post reported. Galluadet's board has stood behind the selection of Fernandes. Critics have questioned the fairness of the search process, while board leaders have praised the new president's qualifications.
The National Institutes of Health on Tuesday announced $100 million in grants to create a national consortium of leading academic medical facilities, with the charge of speeding the development of new treatments to patients. The idea behind the effort is that more collaboration and planning are needed to produce more results for those in need. Institutions receiving grants are Columbia, Duke, Oregon Health & Science, Rockefeller, and Yale Universities; the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine; and the Universities of California at Davis, California at San Francisco, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Rochester, and Texas.