A Sampling of Clips for Oct. 22, 2010

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

Alzheimer's Advances: Promising But Slow-Going
ABC News, Oct. 22 -- It's been nearly a decade since the FDA approved a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease patients. Like much of disease research, many early studies show some promise -- but researchers say finding advances in prevention and treatment for Alzheimer's has been just as slow as the progression of the disease itself. (Quotes Dr. Paul Aisen, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study at the UC San Diego School of Medicine) More

What's in a Placebo? Turns Out We Don't Really Know
Discovery Channel, Oct. 21 -- Placebos are often overlooked in medical studies. They are designed to be non-functional fake medicine, given to the control group in a blind trial. Placebos don't have the active ingredients being tested in the trial, so their only impact should be psychological. They are often assumed simply to be "sugar pills." This got six researchers from UC San Diego, McMaster University and the University of Oxford curious. They set out to analyze descriptions of placebo composition in 167 studies from four major journals from 2008 to 2009. What they found, published in this week's Annals of Internal Medicine, is that only about 8 percent of studies published in those top medical journals revealed what was in their placebos. More

Noise Reduces Ocean Habitat for Whales
Scientific American, Oct. 22 -- The oceans were once a relatively quiet place. Yet in recent decades, anthropogenic ocean noise levels have risen markedly—doubling every decade for the past 50 years, according to research by scientists at the Whale Acoustic Lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. More

Naughton Sees China Appreciating Yuan to Curb Inflation
The Washington Post, Oct. 20 -- Barry Naughton, author of "The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth" and a China specialist at UC San Diego, talks about the People's Bank of China monetary policy and the yuan. More

City Centered
TIME Magazine, Oct. 21 -- With our recovery sluggish and our politics in rancorous free fall, the U.S. is on a desperate search to create jobs in the near term and retool the economy for the long haul. As Dorothy found in The Wizard of Oz, the answers surprisingly lie no farther away than home, or more precisely, the top 100 cities and their environs — the major metros — where most Americans live, work and play. (Mentions UC San Diego) More

Behind Bars
The New Yorker, Oct. 22 -- Forty years ago, when Faith Ringgold, the artist who is best known for her “story quilts”—narrative paintings on fabric—won a grant of three thousand dollars to execute a work for a public institution, her first thought was to make a painting for her alma mater, City College. Ringgold is a professor emerita in the visual arts department at UC San Diego. More

How Much Are Tea Party Candidates Hurting the GOP?
The Huffington Post, Oct. 21 -- With a few inexperienced Republican Senate candidates struggling, some analysts are suggesting that the Tea Party damaged the party's chances in November by helping weak candidates win primary elections. That may be true in the Senate, but the GOP has always been more likely to regain its majority in the House. (Mentions research by UC San Diego political scientist Gary Jacobson) More

Death by a Thousand Cuts
The Australian, Oct. 22 -- Brittons accustomed to the comforting safety net of the welfare state are shocked at the extent of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's pound stg. 7 billion ($11bn) raid on welfare, the deepest cuts since World War II. (Quotes Valerie Ramey, an economist at UC San Diego. Ramey studied US defense cutbacks in California in the 1990s and found it took years for workers affected by the reductions to find new jobs, often at lower wages.) More

Who You Vote For Could Be in Your Genes
KPCC, Los Angeles, Calif., Oct. 21 -- Could your genetic make up explain the way you vote? That's the question “genopolitics” scientists are exploring. Genopolitics is a mash up of genetics and politics. One of the leading researchers in this field is James Fowler, a professor of political science at UC San Diego. Fowler explains how two specific genes affect your likelihood to vote and your partisanship. More

San Diego Stem Cell Researchers Get $11.6 Million in Grants
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 21 -- Three San Diego researchers Thursday received $11.62 million in grants from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine to work on transforming basic stem cell research into clinical therapies for patients. In the latest round of funding, a $3.34 million grant went to Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director of stem cell research at UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center and assistant professor of medicine. Another UCSD researcher, associate professor of pediatrics Alysson Muotrio, received $1.49 million Thursday to grow neurons from adult stem cells derived from skin cells taken from people with autism spectrum disorders. More

Medical Marijuana: The Science Behind the Smoke and Fears
San Diego Union-Tribune, Opinion, Oct. 21 -- The debate over Proposition 19 – the Nov. 2 initiative to legalize marijuana in California – proves once again that where there’s smoke, there’s ire. But lost perhaps in the overheated haze of political rhetoric and culture clash is an ongoing scientific effort to elucidate marijuana’s potential as a powerful pain killer for people with HIV, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other life-altering conditions. That effort, I fear, may go up in smoke. (Written by Igor Grant, a professor and executive vice-chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. He also is director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center and the California NeuroAIDS Tissue Network) More

UCSD Beats Chico and Stanislaus, Up to 4th Overall in the CCAA
SoccerNation.com, Oct. 21 -- After starting the season 0-4-2, the UC San Diego men's soccer team is unbeaten in its last eight contests, compiling a 6-0-2 record and outscoring opponents 12-3 over that span after a pair of victories over Chico State and Cal State Stanislaus last weekend. More

TEDx San Diego to Talk Environment
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 21 -- Two top environmental experts from the San Diego region have been tapped to speak at TEDx San Diego, a daylong event of compelling speeches from innovators in science, technology, conservation and entertainment. The Nov. 8 function will feature Tony Haymet, the director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, one of the oldest centers for ocean and science research in the world. The other local speaker is Bill Toone, director of Escondido-based nonprofit group ECOLIFE Foundation. Toone is a well-known advocate for conservation. More

Similar story in
San Diego Daily Transcript

David Brin Wants Us to Keep a Low Galactic Profile
KPBS, Oct. 21 -- David Brin is the author of many science fiction books and he holds a doctoral degree in astrophysics from UC San Diego. Brin takes very seriously the possibility that the human race could meet up with extra-terrestrial intelligence. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically