A Sampling of Clips for Aug. 30, 2010

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

Does Your Language Shape How You Think?
New York Times Magazine, Aug. 26 -- Seventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the 20th century.  Benjamin Lee Whorf let loose an alluring idea about language’s power over the mind, and his stirring prose seduced a whole generation into believing that our mother tongue restricts what we are able to think.  (Quotes John Haviland of the department of anthropology at UC San Diego) More

Today, 20:32 on BBC World Service
BBC News, Aug. 30 -- Without a few unusual people, human behaviour would have remained a mystery - ordinary people whose extraordinary circumstances provided researchers with the exceptions that proved behavioural rules. Claudia Hammond revisits the classic case studies that have advanced psychological research.  (Mentions Jacopo Annese of the department of radiology at UC San Diego) More

Arts Month: Museum Directors Speak on Local Arts Scene
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 28 -- We asked the directors of San Diego’s two major museums of art, the San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, to comment on San Diego’s arts scene as we look toward Arts Month.  (Mentions Kim MacConnel of the visual arts department at UC San Diego) More

Universities Offer Rental Book Option
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 28 -- A full-time college student spends an average of $500 on textbooks at the start of each semester but if the textbook rental market catches on, that price could fall by at least $100.  Bookstores at San Diego State University, University of San Diego and UC San Diego have expanded their inventory to include books students rent and return instead of buy and sell at the end of the semester. More

Potential Cancer Drug Arises From Sponges
R&D Magazine, Aug. 30 -- Deep in the ocean, sponges of the Agelas family, or bacteria living within the sponges, emit chemicals believed to help them defend their territory. Those chemicals, called agelastatins, have also shown the ability to kill cancer cells. For that reason, chemists have been trying to find ways to synthesize agelastatins in the laboratory since the chemicals were discovered in 1993.  (Quotes Tadeusz Molinski, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego). More
                                          
Birch Aquarium Details Fall Evening Lecture Series
La Jolla Light, Aug. 29 -- Earthquakes and Earth's magnetic field will be explored during the Birch Aquarium's Fall Evening Lecture Series, beginning Sept. 13.  The three-part series features researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego talking about "Earth's mysteries." More

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