A Sampling of Clips for June 15, 2010

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

Is Time an Illusion?
Scientific American, June 2010 -- As you read this sentence, you probably think that this moment—right now—is what is happening. The present moment feels special. It is real. However much you may remember the past or anticipate the future, you live in the present. (Written by UC San Diego philosophy professor Craig Callender) More

Best Medical Schools Don't Produce the Most-needed Doctors
Los Angeles Times , June 14 -- The nation has too few doctors, especially primary-care or family physicians and those who care for underprivileged populations, according to many studies. But don't look to the leading institutions for much help with this, say the authors of a new study. Researchers scored all U.S. medical schools on their ability to produce doctors who will work in primary care and in underserved communities. UC San Diego was among the few schools that received a large amount of government research funds while also producing a higher number of primary-care doctors. More

Study Reveals Promise for HIV Test
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 14 -- The evolution of AIDS from a deadly disease shrouded in fear to a largely manageable condition took another step forward Monday, when UC San Diego researchers unveiled results of a study looking at an early-detection method for the virus that causes the illness. More

Squid Studies: How Does One Get Ready for an Expedition?
Scientific American, June 14 -- We are back in the Gulf of California…on a boat…searching for Humboldt squid. This may sound familiar if you read our blogs in May. Those posts were written on our Stanford Holistic Biology teaching cruise. This is a more forceful outing aboard a UNOLS research vessel, the 160-foot New Horizon out of Scripps Institution of Oceanography that is presently home to 18 scientists, students and technicians plus the crew. More

Computerized Critics Could Find the Music You'll Like
New Scientist, June 15 – UC San Diego researcher Luke Barrington is building software that can analyse a piece of music and distil information about it that may be useful for software trying to compile a playlist. With this information, the software can assign the music a genre or even give it descriptions which may appear more subjective, such as whether or not a track is "funky", he says. More

Volunteerism, Achievement Go Hand-in-hand for Ambika Gopolan
San Jose Mercury News, June 15 -- For Ambika Gopolan, life is often a whirlwind. There's her volunteer work at two shelters for victims of domestic violence. Her participation in Amnesty International. The two summers she worked as an intern at NASA-Ames. And, the 11 years she's spent studying classical Indian dance and song. She plans to attend UC San Diego this fall. More

Cognionics, Wireless Sensor Startup, Wins UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 14 -- He got the beat. Yu “Mike” Chi, a graduate student in electrical engineering at UC San Diego, put a quarter-sized wireless sensor over his suit jacket and displayed the resulting electrocardiogram to win the UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge. More

Stun Gun Death Adds Fuel to Fire
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 14 -- The deaths of two people during confrontations with border officials in recent weeks, one in San Diego  and one in El Paso, have pushed an already-heated debate over illegal immigration to the boiling point. (Quotes John Skrentny, a sociologist and the new director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego) More

SIO to Examine Climate Change From National Security Perspective
North County Times, June 14 -- Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Center for Environment and National Security will host a symposium on climate change from military, diplomatic and development perspectives from June 21-23. More

CONNECT — a Worldwide Model for Technology and Life Science Innovation
San Diego Metropolitan Magazine, Opinion, June 14 -- In the early 1980s, the San Diego regional economy was in crisis. Twenty-five years later, the San Diego economy has been transformed into one of the leading innovation hubs in the world. How did this exciting transformation happen? In 1985, a small group came together to create the CONNECT Program as a way to translate San Diego’s growing research capabilities into commercially viable products and businesses that would ultimately increase the prosperity of the region. (Co-authored by Mary Walshok, the associate vice chancellor for extended studies and public programs at UC San Diego and co-founder of CONNECT) More

Leaders Planning for New Era in Alternative Energy Industry
San Diego Business Journal, June 14 — The next decade will usher in a new era of alternative energy solutions that could meet a growing demand for “smarter” electrical power, a group of industry leaders said last week. Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. said June 3 that it pledged $3 million in a three-year research collaboration with UC San Diego to identify ways of storing solar energy, among other things. More

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