A Sampling of Clips for July 23, 2010

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

U.S. Promotes Green Energy
Voice of America, July 22 -- This week U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced 43 cutting-edge research projects that aim to dramatically improve how the United States uses and produces energy. Funded with $92 million the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, the selections announced July 12th focus on accelerating innovation in green technology while increasing America's competitiveness in grid scale energy storage, power electronics and building efficiency. General Atomics and UC San Diego will develop a novel flow battery technology that pumps chemicals through the battery cell when electricity is needed, revolutionizing the century-old lead-acid battery technology.
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HIV ‘Epidemic’ in Canada is Changing, Says Expert
The Vancouver Sun, July 22 -- The number of new HIV cases in Canada is at the same level as when the epidemic was emerging and cutting a swath through the gay community in the early 1980s. But the lifestyles of the patients diagnosed with the virus is not the same, experts say. "The downward trend in Canada started reversing itself in 2001," said Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, associate dean of Global Health Sciences in the department of medicine at UC San Diego, who spoke Thursday at the International AIDS conference in Vienna. "The HIV epidemic in Canada is changing, and so must our response." More

Similar stories in
Calgary Herald
Globe and Mail
Ottawa Citizen

When Doubt Becomes a Weapon
Nature, July 21 -- In Merchants of Doubt, science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway describe how a small circle of influential and ideological US scientists paralysed policy action on various environmental and health issues, from the dangers of tobacco smoke to global warming. Oreskes is on the UC San Diego faculty. More

How Video Game Processors Could Save Lives
CNET, July 22 -- Are you dreading upgrading your graphics processor yet again just so you can get lost in the alien-infested urban jungle of Crysis 2? Rest-assured that the immersive power of these state-of-the-art video processors is now being used for more than just visual pleasure. A new technique for processing X-rays appears to lower the radiation patients are exposed to during cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans by a factor of 10 or more, according to researchers at UC San Diego. More

Scientists Taking Vitamin D in Droves
Globe and Mail, July 23 -- Health Canada is currently studying the medical claims about vitamin D, and in the meantime says it’s “premature” to jump on the supplement bandwagon. But many of the scientists investigating the nutrient, and presumably those most knowledgeable about it, are taking another approach. They’re personally popping the vitamin, big time. (Quotes Cedric Garland, an epidemiologist and researcher at the Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego) More

SANDAG to Pick Mid-Coast Trolley Route
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 22 -- The county planning agency SANDAG is expected to make the final selection this morning on a route for the $1.2 billion extension of the San Diego Trolley north from Old Town to the UC San Diego campus and University Town Centre. The new trolley route would extend the Blue Line 11 miles and is expected to be in operation in early 2015. More

Similar story on
CBS News 8, San Diego, Calif.

Standing in Solidarity at Survivor Beach
NBC San Diego, July 22 -- Cancer survivors, surfers and supporters gathered to form the world's longest line of surfboards Sunday, July 11 at the fourth annual Survivor Beach, hosted by the Moores UC San Diego Cancer Center. More

SeaWorld Group Funds Wildlife Work
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 22 -- The non-profit SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund said Thursday that it would spread more than $1 million across 95 wildlife protection programs worldwide. The list includes a few groups with strong San Diego ties, including Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society. More

Study Looks to Solve Marine Injuries Caused By Backpacks
KGTV, July 22  -- A new study to be conducted locally is hoping to find ways to prevent serious injuries caused by the equipment combat-ready Marines carry. (Quotes UC San Diego researcher Dr. Tim Neuschwander) More

Costs and Benefits of Illegal Immigration are Unequally Distributed
KPBS, July 23 -- The immigration issue sparks strong views. That’s because powerful interest groups have much at stake in either changing things or keeping things as they are. As part of our Envision series "Crossing the Line - Border Stories," we look at the winners and losers under the current system.  An estimated 200,000 illegal immigrants are working in San Diego County. They bring both benefits and costs. UC San Diego economics professor Gordon Hanson says the problem is those benefits and costs are not evenly distributed. More

San Diego's Middle American 'Pathology'
Voice of San Diego, July 22 -- Last week, I interviewed Rae Armantrout, the UC San Diego professor who won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry this year. She had more to say about her work and growing up in San Diego. More

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