A Sampling of Clips for Feb. 3, 2011

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

Social Science Lines Up Its Biggest Challenges
Nature, Feb. 2 -- How can we persuade people to look after their health? Why do moods spread like a contagion? How can humanity increase its collective wisdom? These are some of the most pressing questions that social scientists should tackle, according to a group of leading scholars in the field who hope that their 'top ten' list will help shape the thinking of researchers and funding bodies for decades to come. (Mentions UC San Diego political scientist James Fowler) More

Salinger Bio Uses His Works to Understand the Man Behind the Fiction
Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, Feb. 2 -- Dead just a year, J.D. Salinger still fascinates us. Kenneth Slawenski's J.D. Salinger: A Life digs deep to find the nature of his talent and his silence. Slawenski gives us reams of detail, especially about Salinger's early, privileged life on New York's Upper East Side. (Written by Seth Lerer, dean of arts and humanities at UC San Diego) More

Yale Art Dean Defends Public Art
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 2 -- Public art, hailed or condemned, is a good use of public money and furthers democratic debate, says Robert Storr. The dean of the Yale University School of Art will elaborate on his views at a free public lecture in the “UCSD by Design” series at 7 p.m. tonight at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 700 Prospect St. in La Jolla. More

Metcalfe's 'Tragedy' Well-produced But Misses the Mark
North County Times, Feb. 2 -- The title of Stephen Metcalfe's latest play, "The Tragedy of the Commons," comes from Garrett Hardin, a real-life sociobiologist whose warnings about overpopulation and environmental degradation fuel a blog entry posted by the play's agitated protagonist, Dakin. Dakin is played by Jim Winker, who is on the UC San Diego faculty. More

Similar story in
KPBS
La Jolla Light

Fired UCSD Researcher Seeking Reprieve
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 2 -- An Indonesian researcher who was dismissed Jan. 6 from her postdoctoral position at UC San Diego is asking university officials to help her reinstate her academic visa so she can stay in the country long enough to appeal the firing. Unless something changes, Wilda Helen, 32, must leave the United States by Saturday. More

Chicago Law School Professor to Speak at UCSD
The San Diego Daily Transcript, Feb. 2 -- Geoffrey R. Stone, a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, will be speaking at UC San Diego Monday at 6 p.m. More

Riots Continue In Cairo: Egypt President Mubarak Won't Quit
San Diego.com, Feb. 1 -- Protests in Cairo, where hundreds of thousands have amassed to voice their displeasure with the current regime, have received most of the media attention throughout the world since they began several days ago. But the unrest isn't limited to the North African nation's capital. (Quotes Babak Rahimi, Assistant Professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies at UC San Diego) More

Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Team’s Work Could Aid Mexican Fisheries
La Jolla Light, Feb. 2 -- A study on the geography of commercial fisheries in Northwest Mexico could have far-ranging implications for the sustainable future of marine wildlife in the area. Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography analyzed data from local fisheries offices in Baja California as well as Gulf of California coasts from Sonora south to Nayarit. The region accounts for more than 60 percent of fishing production in Mexico. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically