A Sampling of Clips for February 8, 2010

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

Q&A: Marye Anne Fox, UCSD Chancellor
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 7 -- Marye Anne Fox is the chancellor of UCSD. She recently sat down with the editorial board of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Below is an edited transcript of that interview. More

Geoffrey Burbidge, Who Traced Life to Stardust, Is Dead at 84
The New York Times, Feb. 8 -- Geoffrey Burbidge, an English physicist who became a towering figure in astronomy by helping to explain how people and everything else are made of stardust, died on Jan. 26 in San Diego. He was 84. His death, at Scripps Memorial Hospital, came after a long illness, said UCSD. Dr. Burbidge was a physics professor there for more than four decades and lived in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. More

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Terrorism and the Pocketbook
The New York Times, Feb. 6 – Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, a soon-to-be familiar figure appeared in the news media. He was a young Muslim who wanted nothing more than to strap on a belt laden with explosives and blow himself up in an area crowded with infidels. He thought his reward would be eternity in paradise with 72 virgins. But was he truly the face of Islamic terrorism? Eli Berman, a professor of economics at UCSD, says otherwise in “Radical, Religious, and Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism.” More

Scanners Help Economy by Warding Off Fear of Flying
CNN, Feb. 8 -- The Christmas Day attempted attack by would-be "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab provoked the U.S. government to plan to spend $1 billion for full body scanners and other bomb-detecting devices at airports. That's a substantial cost, and it doesn't include the extra wait time passengers will spend in security lines, or the distasteful invasiveness of the scanners. Is the extra security worth it? (Co-authored by Eli Berman, associate professor of economics at UCSD) More

Blue Whales Croon a New Tune
NPR, Feb. 6 -- Blue whales are updating their playlist, according to new research on the huge mammals. John Hildebrand of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography studies whale sounds and says he's been hearing something new lately. More

Action Star Learns Merits of Tenderness
The New York Times, Feb. 4 -- American audiences will get an hourlong dose of Wayne McGregor’s electrifying art on Thursday, when Random Dance, the company he founded 18 years ago, will perform the East Coast premiere of the 2008 work “Entity” as part of Peak Performances at Montclair State University in New Jersey. (Mentions that McGregor has worked with UCSD researchers to map the physical and mental processes within a company during the creation of a work) More

For UC's Commission on the Future, Nothing is Off the Table
Los Angeles Times, Feb. It remains to be seen how seriously UC leaders will examine Robert Reich's proposal, under which more highly paid alumni would, in effect, subsidize others. But it is among the far-reaching, even radical ideas receiving at least a hearing from UC's Commission on the Future, a panel that is studying ways to maintain the university's excellence yet make it more efficient and affordable in an era of shrinking state revenue. (Quotes Jegler Kalmijn, a UCSD research associate and president of the systemwide University Professional and Technical Employees union) More

New Recommendation: Why You Need More Vitamin D
Huffington Post, Feb. 7 -- I am raising my recommendation of 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day to 2,000 IU per day. Since 2005, when I raised it from 400 to 1,000 IU, clinical evidence has been accumulating to suggest that a higher dose is more appropriate to help maintain optimum health. (Mentions research by the Moores Cancer Center at UCSD) More

Law Partners
Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 5 -- It may not seem like the best time for public universities to go shopping for private law schools, but at prices like these -- “free” to taxpayers -- who can resist? Such was the argument this week from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, which accepted the unaccredited Southern New England School of Law as a “gift.” Negotiations between UCSD and California Western School of Law have a similar feel, as officials on both sides say a merger won’t cost cash-strapped Californians a penny. More

Wind Turbine Getting Seismic Shakedown
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 6 -- Researchers at UCSD will start taking an in-depth look at less-studied structures such as bridges, highways, electrical towers and smokestacks tomorrow when they subject an 80-foot, 23,400-pound working wind turbine to a series of simulated earthquakes escalating to more than 7.0 in magnitude. More

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Strangers Offer Homeless UCSD Student a Home
NBC San Diego, Feb. 8 -- A week ago, this homeless student at UCSD was sleeping in his car. Now he's got locals lining up to offer him a room in their home. David, who didn’t want to reveal his last name, is a 21-year old junior majoring in Computer Engineering. His parents were paying for his education, about $7,000 a semester not including housing, when they fell victim to a series of hardships. More

El Niño Just Getting Warmed Up
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 6 -- From San Diego to the Andes Mountains, from the American Southwest to the home of the Winter Olympics in British Columbia, the much-ballyhooed, periodic phenomenon has been strutting its stuff. (Quotes Dan Cayan, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, which is part of UCSD) More

Public Apology Part of Business Culture in Japan
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 6 -- The world knows Toyota cars have experienced a rash of mechanical failures — more than 9 million of these vehicles have been recalled across five continents. But much of the world didn’t know what to make of yesterday’s news conference at Toyota’s Nagoya headquarters. President Akio Toyoda, grandson of the corporation’s founder, bowed low and apologized. (Quotes Ulrike Schaede, a professor of Japanese business at UCSD) More

'Gene Doping' by Athletes Almost Here, Experts Warn
North County Times, Feb. 5 -- Progress in gene therapy for diseases is opening the way for its illegitimate use by athletes seeking an edge, according to an article published last week in the prestigious journal Science. The article is meant to warn sports organizations and the public that so-called "gene doping" will take place in the very near future, said gene therapy expert Theodore Friedmann of UCSD, an author of the article. More

Horn Way Ahead in Supervisor Money Race
North County Times, Feb. 7 -- San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn was re-elected in 2006 by fewer than 6 percentage points in a race in which former state Assemblyman Bruce Thompson of Fallbrook was faulted by political gurus for what they said was a lackluster campaign. (Quotes UCSD political scientist Gary Jacobson) More

A Fresh Face
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 6 -- The thought of being a model never crossed the mind of UCSD sophomore Monica Pearce. That is, until she came across a Clinique trailer one day on campus and entered the cosmetic company’s “Fresh Faces” search. Teen Vogue informed the urban studies/planning major that she is one of the three winners selected from more than 8,000 teenage girls nationwide. Pearce will appear in the magazine’s “Fresh Face” winners in its April edition. More

UCSD Offering Night Classes for Entrepreneurs
San Diego Daily Transcript, Feb. 5 -- The Rady School of Management at UCSD is offering a pair of evening courses designed to help entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs launch or expand their innovation-based businesses. The Venture Development Series is offered through the Rady School’s Center for Executive Development. More

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