A Sampling of Clips for Sept. 28, 2010

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

MacArthur Foundation Honors 23
The New York Times, Sept. 28 -- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced on Tuesday 23 recipients of the $500,000 “genius awards”. Carol Padden, 55, who studies sign languages and how they have evolved, is the first deaf person to receive a MacArthur grant. A professor in the department of communications at UC San Diego, she and her colleagues made headlines for their studies of Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, used in a small village in the Negev desert of Israel. It represented a rare opportunity to study and identify the innate elements of a language. More

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USA Today
The Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
Chronicle of Higher Education
San Diego Union-Tribune
10News

Saving Our Oceans
TIME Magazine, Sept. 23 -- In her more than 50-year career in ocean science, Sylvia Earle has studied the deep, dived it and written about it. Now she's trying to save the oceans, and she's focusing on one simple idea: protect them. Create true reserves — marine protected areas (MPAs) — on the high seas, sanctuaries for everything that swims, just as governments have created parks on land. (Quotes Jeremy Jackson, a researcher at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Japan Seeks Damages as China Trawler Row Lingers
Reuters, Sept. 27 -- Japan  said it will ask China to pay for damage to its patrol boats suffered in a collision with a Chinese trawler, as Asia's top two economies continue to bicker over the affair. (Quotes Susan Shirk, a professor at UC San Diego) More

The Future of California, Ready for Discussion
The New York Times, Sept. 25 -- As I gaze at a colorful new map  that lays out four alternative futures for the state, I feel quite energized. The document is the first piece of an effort by two major University of California research centers, including one at Calit2, and the Institute for the Future, based in Palo Alto, to reframe the public policy conversation. And for me, it succeeds in its effort to use imagination about the future as a way to grapple with the present. More

Defining Human Uniqueness in 'Almost Chimpanzee'
NPR, Sept. 24 -- Humans and chimpanzees share very similar genes -- some analyses peg the differences at just 1 percent. But in his book Almost Chimpanzee, science writer Jon Cohen focuses on our differences, from the way we eat and communicate to our susceptibilities to disease and aging. (Mentions UC San Diego) More

Chimps' Fate Ignites Debate
Nature, Sept. 27 -- After a ten-year hiatus, the chimpanzees of the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico are being called back to duty. The 186 chimps, already grizzled veterans of medical research, will be pulled from an un­official retirement and sent back into the lab  by the end of 2011, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced last month. But the decision has brought to a head a simmering debate about the use of chimpanzees for medical research in the United States — a practice finally banned by the European Union earlier this month. (Quotes Ajit Varki, a biochemist at UC San Diego) More

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Scientific American

The Ultimate Bypass
60 Minutes, Australia, Sept. 24 -- It's a terrible irony. Heart disease is Australia's biggest killer, yet we have one of the lowest organ donation rates in the world. The wait for a transplant can be agonisingly long. Often it's fatal. But there's been some remarkable progress in recent times. Doctors can now keep their patients alive for months, even years, by hooking them up to artificial pumps. (Quotes UC San Diego heart surgeon Dr. Jack Copeland) More

Viewpoints: Should Global Warming Law Be Delayed? No
The Sacramento Bee, Opinion, Sept. 26 -- Proposition 23, on the November ballot, will abandon California's aggressive clean air law until unemployment is 5.5 percent or lower for at least a year, a standard reached only six out of the last 34 years. Proposition 23 supporters, funded heavily by Texas oil money, argue we can't afford to invest in clean, domestic energy in the midst of the current economic downturn. They're wrong. Here's why. (Mentions UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Student Pushes Campus to Adopt Meat-free Mondays
The Sacramento Bee, Sept. 27 -- The student animal-rights group Banana Slugs for Animals, with help from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, pushed UC Santa Cruz to offer only vegetarian dishes at least one day a week. UCSC dining officials responded by agreeing to make one of the five dining halls completely meatless every Monday on a rotating basis. (Mentions UC San Diego) More

Pres. Clinton, Sarah Palin & the Padres
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 24 – On David Letterman’s show Tuesday night, former President Bill Clinton let loose with a local scoop. The student version of the Clinton Global Initiative  will be coming to UC San Diego next April. And so will Clinton. The students are being rallied to provide innovative solutions to problems ranging from climate change to poverty to human rights. More

UCSD Sponsors Beach Clean Up
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 24 -- UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox will lead students, faculty, staff and community members in a beach cleanup near Scripps Pier today. The event is part of Volunteer50, a program tied to the university’s yearlong celebration of its 50th anniversary. Fox is challenging each member of the university community to do 50 hours of community service during the current academic year. More

Scripps Wins $5M Grant to Advance Ocean Research
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 24 -- The Scripps Institution of Oceanography has won more than $5 million in grant money to bolster research on how climate change affects ocean water off the state's coast. More

Law School Looking to Merge With UCSD
North County Times, Sept. 26 -- North County business leaders were introduced last week to a plan that could marry a private law school to UC San Diego ---- creating the region's first law school attached to a public university. Faculty and staff from the San Diego-based California Western School of Law and UCSD have been meeting formally since January to come up with an outline that could create the sixth law school in the University of California system. More

Aging HIV Population Faces Increased Risk of Health Issues
KPBS, Sept. 24 -- The Centers for Disease Control estimates by 2015, half of all Americans living with HIV will be over 50. Doctors say the complex interactions between HIV, anti-retroviral therapy and aging aren't fully understood. But there is evidence that the disease increases one's risk of a variety of health problems. (Quotes Dr. Edward Cachay, a specialist in HIV at UC San Diego Medical Center) More

Health Effects of Marijuana
KPBS, Sept. 27 -- Doctors at the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UC San Diego have been working to find out just what value marijuana has in the reduction of pain and possible other benefits, as well as potential side effects. Dr. Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research and UC San Diego, discusses the issue. More

Another Flu Season, But No Pandemic
KPBS, Sept. 24 -- A year ago, almost to the day, I went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center on Skyline Drive to watch the San Diego County Health Department kick off its seasonal flu vaccinations. I did the same thing today. And what a difference a year makes. Today, flu doctors from the health department and from UC San Diego told us there was no shortage of flu vaccine and they were encouraging everyone to go get their shots. More

The Most Powerful Person You Know Nothing About
Voice of San Diego, Sept. 26 -- Kris Michell is the most powerful person in San Diego you know nothing about. She has remained in the background her entire career, rarely in the newspaper, quoted even less. Yet Michell's been the link, the linchpin, the consistent ingredient in San Diego's civic extravaganzas over the last 15 years. The Republican National Convention, the Super Bowl and Petco Park all bear her fingerprints. (Quotes UC San Diego political scientist Steve Erie) More

Lights, Camera, Action:
UCSD Film Students Dive Into Production with Time Warner
La Jolla Village News, Sept. 27 -- Cracking the film industry can be a challenge for young graduates, even those with talent and vision. Seven students within the UC San Diego’s Triton TV network will have a leg up after producing a prime-time weekly television series with Time Warner that is expected to debut on Channel 19 and throughout the 10-campus UC system in October. More

Dileep Rao Sends UCSD Freshman Off on Their New Journey
La Jolla Light, Sept. 24 -- UC San Diego kicked off its 50th anniversary celebration on Sept. 21, ushering in incoming freshmen with a dinner and convocation that included a keynote speech by class of '95 alumnus actor Dileep Rao, who has been in the blockbuster films "Avatar" and "Inception." More

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