A Sampling of Clips for February 22, 2010

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

UC San Diego Officials Meet With Students Angry About Off-Campus 'Compton Cookout'
Los Angeles Times, Feb. 19 – UCSD administrators met Friday with more than 100 students who gathered to protest a Feb. 15 ghetto-themed “Compton Cookout” and to ask for improved conditions for black students on the campus. Penny Rue, vice chancellor for student affairs, said officials had agreed to student demands to create a task force aimed at boosting African American faculty hiring and addressing under-representation of black students on the campus. More

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San Jose Mercury News
Inside Higher Ed
San Diego Union-Tribune
NBC San Diego
10News
KPBS
San Diego News Network
La Jolla Light

Offensive Mockery is Publicly Condemned
San Diego Union-Tribune, Opinion, Feb. 20 -- As associate chancellor and chief diversity officer for UCSD, an alumna of the university and a Hispanic woman of African descent, I wish to publicly condemn the small group of students who hosted an offensively themed off-campus party mocking Black History Month. (Written by Sandra Daley, a pediatrician who received her medical degree from UCSD’s School of Medicine and is associate chancellor and chief diversity officer at UCSD) More

Drunk Driving
On the Rise Among Young Women
ABC News, Feb. 20 -- Increases in alcohol-related fatalities among young women drivers have outpaced the decade-long rise in such deaths among young men, researchers have found. Between 1995 and 2007, the increase in the number of women ages 16 to 24 involved in fatal, alcohol-related crashes rose by 3.1 percent, according to Dr. Virginia Tsai of UCSD, and colleagues. More

Scientists Shed Light
On Sleep Through the Ages
Agence France Presse, Feb. 22 — What starts with an "s" that seniors need more of than younger adults, is great to get a bit of in the middle of the day and could cause teens to turn to drugs if they don't get enough of it? The answer is sleep, according to several UCSD studies presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. More

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ScienceNOW

Dalai Lama Visit
Fuels Friction Between China, U.S.
PBS, Feb. 18 -- Chinese officials openly criticized President Obama's decision to meet with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Thursday. Beijing warned that U.S. recognition of Tibet as an independent state would further strain Sino-U.S. relations. Jeffrey Brown speaks to two experts, including UCSD’s Susan Shirk, about recent tension between the nations. More

Protein Appears Key to Intestinal Balance
BusinessWeek, Feb. 19 -- A protein that plays a key role in protecting the intestinal tract from bacterial infection and inflammation has been identified by UCSD researchers. More

Drug Improved Survival
In Mice With Cystic Fibrosis
BusinessWeek, Feb. 19 -- In the search for new treatments for cystic fibrosis, UCSD researchers have identified a defective signaling pathway that contributes to the severity of the inherited lung disease.
More

Biologists Discover How Biological
Clock Controls Cell Division in Bacteria
U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 19 -- A team of UCSD biologists has unraveled the biochemistry of how bacteria so precisely time cell division, a key element in understanding how all organisms from bacteria to humans use their biological clocks to control basic cellular functions. More

Kim Stanley Robinson
Maps the Future's Gray Areas
Los Angeles Times, Feb. 21 -- In science fiction, there's dystopia and there's utopia. And then there's Kim Stanley Robinson: family man, High Sierras pilgrim, ex- Orange County homeboy, UCSD alumnus, and prolific author of several of the most influential science fiction works of the last 25 years. More

Lautenberg's Illness
Could Hurt Senate Democrats
ABC News, Feb. 20 -- Concerns about New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg's health pose yet another challenge for Democrats struggling to retain control of the Senate. (Quotes UCSD political scientist Gary Jacobson) More

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The Washington Post

Oceans Turn More Acidic
than Last 800,000 Years
Scientific American, Feb. 21 -- For more than 30 years, scientists have understood the link between rising carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. But it wasn't until the middle of the last decade that they realized CO2 emissions could alter the chemistry of the world's oceans to devastating effect. Now they're making up for lost time, researchers said this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Quotes Victoria Fabry, a visiting research scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

As They Dither, State's Red Ink Deepens
Sacramento Bee, Opinion, Feb. 21 -- No lawmaker, Democrat or Republican, can possibly relish the task of closing another multibillion-dollar, mid-year budget shortfall. But they have no choice. Too many of them are acting as if they do. (Mentions UCSD) More

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San Diego Union-Tribune (Column)
North County Times
San Diego Union-Tribune (Editorial)

Is a Dolphin a Person?
ScienceNOW, Feb. 21—Are dolphins as smart as people? And if so, shouldn't we be treating them a bit better than we do now? Those were the topics of discussion at a session on the ethical and policy implications of dolphin intelligence here today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Quotes Jacopo Annese, a neuroanatomist at UCSD) More

Reality Bites: War Against Malaria Rages On
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 22 -- Over the years, medical science has claimed victory, however incomplete, over some of the nastiest, deadliest, infectious diseases to afflict mankind. But other infectious scourges endure. And none, it could be argued, is more problematic than malaria, a parasitical disease that continues to kill more than 1 million people each year — primarily children and pregnant women — while infecting another 300 million to 500 million. (Quotes Joseph Vinetz, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at UCSD School of Medicine) More

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