A Sampling of Clips for Aug. 18, 2010

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

UCSD Ranked Highly in Survey
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 17 -- UC San Diego is ranked the 35th best university in the country and the 7th best public institution in U.S. News & World Report’s latest ranking of the nation’s colleges and universities. More

Similar stories on
10News
CBS8
KPBS
San Diego 6

Remove What From Where? Orifice Surgeries Expand
MSNBC, Aug. 18 -- A California woman who says she’s has been dieting for 50 years believes she’s finally found the solution to her weight-loss woes: A doctor at UC San Diego removed most of her stomach — through her mouth. Connie Harris, 60, of Carlsbad, this month became the first patient in the U.S. to undergo a sleeve gastrectomy, a surgery that eliminates 80 percent of the stomach, using a new technique that removes organs and tissues not in the traditional way, but through natural bodily openings. More

Similar story on
ABC News

Lilly Stops Alzheimer’s Drug Trials
The New York Times, Aug. 18 -- Eli Lilly halted two late-stage clinical trials of an experimental Alzheimer’s treatment on Tuesday, representing a setback to one leading theory on treating the degenerative disease and a new blow to Lilly’s business prospects. (Quotes Dr. Paul S. Aisen, director of the federally financed Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study and a professor of neuroscience at UC San Diego, who was not involved in the study) More

Similar story in
San Diego Union-Tribune

Lilly Alzheimer’s Setback Threatens Rivals’ Prospects
BusinessWeek, Aug. 18 -- Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and a half dozen competitors are committed to a research strategy for Alzheimer’s disease that has resulted in a string of study failures, the most recent involving Eli Lilly & Co. (Quotes Michael Rafii, co-director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at UC San Diego, who was not involved in the study) More

Similar stories in
Bloomberg
San Francisco Chronicle

Rummaging for a Final Theory
Scientific American, Aug. 18 -- Turning the clock back by half a century could be the key to solving one of science’s biggest puzzles: how to bring together gravity and particle physics. At least that is the hope of researchers advocating a back-to-basics approach in the search for a unified theory of physics. (Mentions research by A. Garrett Lisi, an independent researcher with a Ph.D. in physics from UC San Diego) More

Eternal Fascinations with the End:
Why We're Suckers for Stories of Our Own Demise
Scientific American, Aug. 18 -- Once again, the world is about to end. The latest source of doomsday dread comes courtesy of the ancient Mayans, whose calendar runs out in 2012, as interpreted by a cadre of opportunistic authors and blockbuster movie directors. (Quotes Nicholas Christenfeld, a psychologist at UC San Diego) More

Advisory Issued as Great White Sharks are Reported Off La Jolla Coast
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 18 -- Lifeguards are urging caution after half a dozen great white shark sightings have been reported along the Southern California coast in the last week, but experts downplayed the risk of attacks on humans, saying there is no cause for alarm. (Quotes Andrew Nosal, a shark researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Doctors Advise: Test May Gauge Alzheimer's Risk
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 17 --  In headlines and news reports splashed across the nation and world last week, an international team of researchers reported that a spinal fluid test accurately identifies patients with significant memory loss who are, to quote The New York Times, “on their way to developing Alzheimer’s disease.”  Currently, there is no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s, a neurodegenerative disease that afflicts an estimated 5.3 million Americans. We asked Dr. Paul Aisen, a professor of neuroscience at UC  San Diego and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, to offer his assessment of what the latest news means. More

Death Knell for Some Clean Tech Companies
MIT Tech Review, Aug. 18 -- The U.S. Senate's failure to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill this summer could spell doom for startups founded to help reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. Others will limp on, limited to markets much smaller than they originally expected to target. (Quotes David Victor, director of the International Law and Regulation Laboratory at UC San Diego) More

Politics or Civility?
Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 18 -- The oppressed conservative student is a regular theme in the right's critique of higher education. Research presented here Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association affirmed that many conservative students feel that way, but also that many do not -- and that the latter group in fact thrive on the very campuses that tend to be portrayed as hostile to them. The study presented here was conducted by Amy J. Binder, an associate professor of sociology at UC San Diego, and Kate Wood, a graduate student there. More

UC-San Diego Hillel Director Reflects on Divestment Battle
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Aug. 17 -- Last April, Keri Copans, Hillel's campus director at UC San Diego, learned that a measure was about to come before her student government asking the university to divest from companies that do business with "occupying" powers. More

Contemplative Moment: Enjoying the Singing Trees at UCSD
KPBS, Aug. 18 -- Sometimes you have to pause and take in the singing trees. We love Megan O'Connor's clip of Terry Allan's "Trees" sculpture at UC San Diego for encouraging us to do just that. As part of her day job, O'Connor is working on a podcast series for UCSD's acclaimed Stuart Collection of public art located throughout the UCSD campus. More

Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Team's Project Assisting With Gulf Monitoring
La Jolla Light, Aug. 17 -- Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientists are doing their part to aid in the Gulf oil spill crisis, deploying state-of-the-art "gliders" to track oil content and flow. The submersible craft goes to a depth of 500 meters, moving up and down in the water every three hours while taking measurements traveling slowly at half a nautical mile per hour. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically