A Sampling of Clips for May 3, 2010

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

Driving Cars Toward Complexity
NPR, April 30 -- Safety features such as stability control are adding to the complexity of car electronics and the software that controls them. UC San Diego engineer Ingold Krueger explains how electronics have changed car operation and maintenance, and how, in rare instances, some systems fail. More

Soviet Lunar Rover Can Still Help Scientists
Los Angeles Times, April 30 -- A Soviet Union lunar rover discovered last month on the moon's surface might still prove useful nearly four decades after scientists lost track of it, with physicists announcing Monday that the rover's reflector can still shine bright. "It's been silent for almost 40 years, and nobody knew if it was even viable anymore," said Tom Murphy, a physicist at UC San Diego. Murphy led the team that identified the location of the reflector. More

Similar stories in
Albuquerque Journal
St. Louis Globe Democrat
Dallas Morning News
San Diego Union-Tribune

Group to Censure Physicians Who Play Role in Lethal Injections
The Washington Post, May 3 -- An American doctors organization has quietly decided to revoke the certification of any member who participates in executing a prisoner by lethal injection. (Quotes Bryan Liang, a law professor at California Western School of Law and a professor of anesthesia at UC San Diego) More

Similar stories in
The Sydney Morning Herald
Seattle Times

After 'Compton Cookout' Scandal, UCSD
Forges a More Positive Association With the City
Los Angeles Times, May 1 -- UC officials say they are trying to arrange scholarship funds to bring as many as 20 Compton High students to San Diego to attend the university's three-week summer program for teenagers. In addition, UC San Diego 's Scripps Institution of Oceanography plans to work with Compton High science teachers to develop special classes for subsequent summers and the regular school year, with UC faculty expected to visit Compton and Compton students expected to tour Scripps labs. Both sides hope to create a pipeline of Compton students to UC San Diego. More

Dr. Helen M. Ranney Dies at 89
Los Angeles Times, May 1 -- Dr. Helen M. Ranney, a pioneering female physician who was among the first to explore the genetics of sickle cell disease and scored a number of firsts for women in her profession, including being the first to head a department of medicine at a U.S. medical school, has died. She was 89, a week short of her 90th birthday. Ranney died at her La Jolla, Calif., home April 5, UC San Diego announced. A cause of death was not given. More

Similar story in
Kansas City Star

UCSD-grad-led Team Wins National Software Contest
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 3 – A 2009 UC San Diego graduate and two current students won the U.S. Imagine Cup competition for software design sponsored by Microsoft Corp. The team created Mobilife, which uses wireless technology to help physicians detect vascular disease among children in developing nations. More

San Diego Quake Hunters Off Nicaragua
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 2 – R/V Melville, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's largest research ship, has made it to Nicaragua, where scientists are using advanced underwater imaging equipment to study seismic threats in and around the sea floor. More

Experts Split on Economic Toll of Illegal Immigrants
San Diego Union-Tribune, Opinion, May 2 -- As Arizona last week unveiled the nation’s most restrictive set of immigration laws, local lawmakers chimed in on the benefits of keeping a tighter border. (Quotes Gordon Hanson, director of the Center on Pacific Economies at UC San Diego) More

Gulf Spill Could Take Awful Toll on Wildlife
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 1 – Sickened or dead creatures might wash up on shore for days, wildlife experts said. Crews may need to handle a variety of species, including brown pelicans, sandpipers, snowy plovers, reddish egrets, royal terns, mottled ducks, sea turtles and perhaps even dolphins or whales. (Quotes Jeremy Jackson, a marine ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, which is part of UC San Diego) More

Compulsive Hoarder Gets Help; Show to Air
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 1 – Cheryl and David Sherrell’s home in Oceanside was recently cleared with the help of organizers from the television show “Hoarding: Buried Alive,” which will be aired at 10 p.m. Sunday on cable channel TLC. Cheryl Sherrell said she agreed to participate in the cable television show because the producers offered to pay for an organizer and for her therapy at the UC San Diego anxiety-disorders clinic. More

Tritons Women Head to Water Polo Championship
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 2 – The 18th-ranked UC San Diego women’s water polo team will make its first Western Water Polo Association championship game appearance since 2004 after defeating Colorado State 14-8 in the semifinals Saturday in Bakersfield. UCSD scored five goals each in the second and fourth quarters to pull away from the Rams. More

Local Scientists Take $12M in Round of CIRM Grants
San Diego Business Journal, April 30 -- A governing board with the state’s stem cell agency has committed $28 million to nine nonprofit biomedical institutions and one for-profit company with the goal of recruiting scientists and gaining a deeper understanding of stem cell biology. Awards include Kun-Liang Guan with UC San Diego ($1.3 million); and Dong-Er Zhang also of UCSD ($1.4 million). More

‘Transurbaniac’ Touts Modern Mexican Art at UCSD
SDNN, May 1 -- The current show at the UC San Diego Art Gallery, titled “Transurbaniac: Art Emotions and Some City Trances,” this is a collection of contemporary socially-inspired Mexican art brought to UCSD by Guillermo Santamaria, the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MuCA) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, which is the largest public institution in Mexico dedicated to contemporary art. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically