A Sampling of Clips for July 21, 2011

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

Solar Panels Keep Buildings Cool
U.S. News & World Report, July 20 -- Those solar panels on top of your roof aren't just providing clean power; they are cooling your house, or your workplace, too, according to a team of researchers led by Jan Kleissl, a professor of environmental engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. More

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Drugs and money: Obama puts myth over science
Aljazeera, July 20 -- On Friday, July 8, Obama's Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator, Michele M. Leonhart, decreed in the Federal Register that marijuana "has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States", thus keeping it in the same category as heroin, as it has been since 1970. This despite the fact that the National Cancer Institute, part of the cabinet-level Department of Health and Human Services, cites marijuana's potential helpfulness with nausea, loss of appetite, insomnia and pain. Dr. Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UC San Diego, explained to the LATimes that state-supported clinical trials have shown marijuana helps with neuropathic pain and muscle spasticity, but that the federal government's position discourages further research needed to test the drug's medical effectiveness. More

Carbon Capture Hopes Dim
Bloomberg.com, July 20 -- Coal is the world’s most CO2-intensive fossil fuel, accounting for more than 40 percent of all energy-related CO2 emissions. Carbon capture and storage technology, or CCS, has emerged as the lead technology in the race to reduce global greenhouse gases 50 percent by 2050. [If the technology works, it could] provide one possible solution to global warming. Yet since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2010, at least five large-scale CCS projects have been canceled or postponed, while the fate of several others remains doubtful. The fate of CCS technology is inextricably tied to the controversy over clean coal, a debate which has helped drive a wedge in the green community since many environmentalists simply don’t believe coal can ever be made “clean.” (Quotes David G. Victor, director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation at UC San Diego.) More

Is the Ocean’s Health Declining?
KPBS, July 19 -- (Radio broadcast featuring Stuart Sandin, assistant professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.) Is the ocean's health declining and how are we affected locally? Several conservation and research agencies have issued reports documenting the degradation of the world's oceans. Today we look at contributing factors such as water pollution, climate change, over-fishing, and dead zones. More

New Device Could Provide Insights Into Glaucoma
KPBS, July 21 -- Doctors at UC San Diego are testing a futuristic contact lens that may help researchers develop better treatments for glaucoma. The device provides 'round-the-clock measurement of internal eye pressure.  (Quotes Dr. Robert Weinreb chairs the opthalmology department at UC San Diego's Shiley Eye Center.) More

Minimal Political Fallout Seen Locally in Debt Debate
San Diego Union Tribune, July 20 -- As lawmakers labored over proposals Wednesday to avert government default, there was little agreement on how passage of a measure to raise the nation’s debt limit would weigh on the political futures of the region’s congressional delegation.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved a largely symbolic plan to extend borrowing capacity in exchange for a spending cap and balanced budget amendment. (Quotes Gary Jacobson, political scientist, UC San Diego.) More

Climate Change, Energy Demand and a Program That Works
San Diego Union Tribune, July 21—(Article by Dr. Walter Munk, one of the founding fathers of UC San Diego, and currently Secretary of the Navy-Chief of Naval Operations Oceanography Chair at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.) During World War II, I was involved in surf-and-swell forecasts for the amphibious landings in northwest Africa, the Pacific Theater of war and finally the Normandy beaches. At the same time, many of my colleagues were playing major roles in the detection of enemy submarines by sonar. Our focus then was national security. Today, a new generation of colleagues at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, working with state agencies, is focused on energy security for California. With today’s state of affairs, it can be argued that these are synonymous goals. More

Are You Hiring a Cheater?
San Diego Union Tribune, July 21 – (Article by Tricia Bertram Gallant , academic integrity coordinator at  UC San Diego.) It is July and millions of new graduates have just entered the workforce. If you are one of the lucky few able to hire new employees, you likely depend on school transcripts and diplomas to provide you with some certification that the applicant has the skills, knowledge and abilities claimed. But should you? More

Job Tips Are On at Comic-Con
San Diego Daily Transcript, July 20 – (Article by HenryDeVries, assistant dean for external affairs at UC San Diego Extension.) If you are one of the lucky ones to have a pass to Comic-Con, the largest pop culture convention in the galaxy, there is an amazing amount of job and career advice in the massive schedule of programming. More

Employment Rebounding Slowly in San Diego
La Jolla Patch, July 20 -- While the economy and job market are slowly recovering in San Diego, they are not rebounding quick enough to absorb the local unemployment rate. In May, San Diego’s unemployment numbers hit 9.6 percent, compared to 9.1 percent nationally and a staggering 11.7 percent in California. (Quotes Henry DeVries, assistant dean for external affairs at UC San Diego.) More

Research Report: Plastic Found in ‘Garbage Patch’ Fish
La Jolla Light, July 20 – (A compilation of reports.) The first scientific results from a 2009 Scripps Institution of Oceanography voyage to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre offer a stark view of human pollution of an area of the ocean, labeled the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” where debris is highly dispersed across thousands of miles…A novel method of disguising nanoparticles as red blood cells enables them to evade the body’s immune system in order to deliver cancer-fighting drugs straight to a tumor. The method, developed by UC San Diego researchers, involves wrapping the membrane of a red blood cell around a biodegradable polymer nanoparticle containing a cocktail of small-molecule drugs…Research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggests that a naturally occurring flavonoid (known as fisetin), found in fruits and vegetables, lessens the complications of diabetes. More

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