A Sampling of Clips for January 19^th, 2010

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

What, Exactly, is in a Cigarette? FDA to Study
The New York Times, Jan. 18 -- The Food and Drug Administration is working to lift the smokescreen clouding the ingredients used in cigarettes and other tobacco products. In June, tobacco companies must tell the FDA their formulas for the first time, just as drugmakers have for decades. Manufacturers also will have to turn over any studies they've done on the effects of the ingredients. (Quotes Dr. David Burns of UCSD, scientific editor of several surgeon general reports on tobacco) More

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Chicago Tribune
MSNBC

U.N. Panel’s Glacier Warning Is Criticized as Exaggerated
The New York Times, Jan. 18 -- A much-publicized estimate from a United Nations panel about the rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers from climate change is coming under fire as a gross exaggeration. (Mentions an international conference last year on Asia’s glaciers, held at UCSD) More

Is Marijuana a Medicine?
The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 18 -- For many patients, it's getting easier to access marijuana for medical use. New Jersey will become the 14th state to allow therapeutic use of marijuana, and the number is likely to grow. Illinois and New York, among others, are considering new laws. (Quotes Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UCSD) More

Are Your Friends Making You Fat?
Guardian, UK, Jan. 17 -- A couple of months ago, about 80 people – some of whom knew each other and some of whom did not – gathered in a small lecture room at Nuffield College, Oxford, to hear a man give a lecture about how, if one of them suddenly got fat, the chances are that others would get fat, too. The lecture was given by Dr Nicholas Christakis, a professor from Harvard who had flown over to expand on theories that he once thought of as "cockamamie". (Christakis is a frequent collaborator with UCSD political scientists James Fowler. Fowler and Christakis co-authored “Connected.”) More

Green Sea Slugs Use Plant Genes to Live on Sunlight
Los Angeles Times, Jan 16 -- Scientists already knew that a few slugs could eat algae but save the algae's chloroplasts from digestion and feed off of their energy.  But this was not a self-sustaining system, since most slugs cannot make their own chlorophyll, a green pigment that fuels the chloroplasts. The green sea slug, however, can make its own chlorophyll. (Quotes Terry Gaasterland, a UCSD professor and director of the Scripps Genome Center, who was not involved in the study) More

Aid for Haiti Launches from San Diego
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 19 – Efforts to aid Haiti intensified yesterday as more than 90 service members and civilians departed San Diego for the earthquake-ravaged country and other local groups prepared to make the trip in coming days. (Mentions how staffers with the UCSD Medical Center are already working in Haiti) More

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10 News

UCSD Graduate Killed In Quake
MSNBC, Jan 16  -- The UCSD men's swim is mourning a tremendous loss after former team member Ryan Kloos, 24, died in the Haiti earthquake. "It's been tough because he touched so many people in so many positive ways," said Triton head swim coach Scott McGihon. Kloos was a Triton swimmer for four years before graduating in 2008 with a degree in Biochemistry. "He was someone who gave one hundred percent, he was all about this team being better than it was the day before,"said McGihon. More

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KNSD

Restorative Yoga for Those Who Want to Relax
San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 18 -- Known as "active relaxation," this brand of yoga came to life in San Francisco during one of the most stressful decades on record, and classes like this one at Bernal Yoga are gaining popularity as people look for ways to quiet the body, and ultimately, the mind. (Quotes psychobiologist Roger Cole, a sleep researcher for UCSD) More

Scripps Scientists Part
of Grant-Winning Team
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 19 -- Two scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla are part of a research team that won a $1.2 million federal grant to develop methods for quantifying regional greenhouse-gas emissions. More

County’s Green Efforts Lagging
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 19 -- An environmental report issued yesterday raised questions about why San Diego County lacks a comprehensive push to address concerns that have bubbled for decades, including lackluster recycling, coastal water pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions. (Quotes Mark Thiemens, dean of physical sciences at UCSD) More

County Median Housing Price on Upswing
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 19 -- San Diego County’s median housing price rose in December for the first time in four months, MDA DataQuick reported yesterday, adding further evidence that the housing market is stabilizing after four years of declines. (Quotes Ross Starr, an economist at UCSD) More

In Step with King and his Dream
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 17 -- A sunny day was filled with shining celebrations of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. yesterday, beginning with a morning parade through downtown San Diego that was all about diversity, community and pride. (Mentions how  a group of volunteers organized by UCSD traveled to National City for a Day of Service to help restore and maintain the historic Stein Family Farm, in honor of King’s focus on community service) More

The Rep’s ‘Boom’ is Perfectly Goofy
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 18 -- Who hasn’t sat at a play and wished a comet upon it?Dreams come true in “boom,” but not in quite that way; an apocalyptic frost ball only drives the plot instead of icing the entire enterprise.
Be grateful for that. If just a few modern plays were to survive some extinction-level visitation from the heavens, here’s a vote for Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s sly, wise, ridiculously witty work. (“Boom” co-stars UCSD alum who majored in Theatre and Dance Steven Lone) More

Mob Makes Successful Aging Expo a Success
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 17 -- Thousands of people yesterday who crowded into the Successful Aging Expo held at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center in Mission Valley. (Assistant professor with the Stein Institute for Research on Aging at UCSD, Colin Depp, was one of the speakers at Expo) More

Trieste Took Two Men to World’s Deepest Site
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 16 -- Fifty years ago, two men in an odd-looking vessel out of San Diego ventured to a place no human had gone before — a site as remote and dangerous as a lunar landscape. (Quotes David Sandwell, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, part of UCSD. He helped develop the first detailed maps of the global seafloor in the 1990s) More

UCSD Winter Game Fest Attracts Crowd
Del Mar Times, Jan. 18 -- Nearly 2,000 attended the UCSD Winter Game Fest over the weekend, one of the largest video game tournaments in Southern California. It featured several new video games, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee, Madden 2010 and Call of Duty 4. More than 48 consoles, 72 TVs and 13 projectors running beginner-friendly Wii games and professional video game tournaments drew competitors and spectators to the two-day event. More

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