Brown University is a co-sponsor of the 2007 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition. The competition, which is open to anyone with an idea for a new business, will name an entrepreneur winner and a student winner next May. Charles Kingdon, associate vice president of Brown Technology Partnerships at Brown University, is the competition co-chair.

A study published in the journal Appetite by Assistant Professor (Research) Hollie Raynor and Professor Rena Wing, both of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, suggests that reducing the variety of snack foods available to consumers could reduce the pleasure associated with them, cut consumption, and help fight obesity. This article was distributed to several newsletters published for the European food and beverage industry.

Takahiro Hiroi, senior research associate the Department of Geological Sciences, and colleagues have discovered that an asteroid has patchy surfaces in different stages of aging. Because meteorites come from asteroids, the finding suggests the aging process may be the reason why most meteorites look different from most asteroids. The research was published in the journal Nature. This article was distributed by the wire service and appeared in several newspapers and on several news Web sites. A similar article appeared on newscientistspace.com.

In this season of the reality show “Survivor,” a white team, a black team, an Asian-American team, and a Latino team will compete against one another. Economics Professor Glenn Loury is among the academicians offering perspective.

Demand is growing for materials prepared specifically to help teachers tackle lessons about terrorism and the war in Iraq. The Watson Institute for International Studies has seen a spike in requests for its instructional materials on terrorism and on Islam. “We want to engage high school students in international studies, and get them engaged in it in such a way that they realize it’s not something they are studying because it’s good for them, but because it matters to them,” said Susan Graseck, the director of the institute’s Choices program, which writes curricula.