A Sampling of Clips for June 28, 2011

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

Salton Sea Called Earthquake Factor
United Press International, June 27 -- California's Salton Sea, once a large natural lake fed by the Colorado River, has a role in the earthquake cycle of the San Andreas fault, researchers say.
Scientists at UC San Diego say faults beneath the Southern California sea that ruptured during ancient Colorado River floods may have triggered large earthquakes on the southern San Andreas Fault in the past. The Salton Sea region is closely monitored because the last large earthquake on this section of the San Andreas occurred approximately 300 years ago and the fault is considered by many experts to be overdue for another. "We've been baffled as to why the Southern San Andreas hasn't gone. It's been compared to a woman who is 15 months pregnant," said Scripps Institution of Oceanography seismologist Debi Kilb, a report co-author. "Now this paper offers one explanation why." More

Similar story in
Huffington Post
Science Daily
NBC Los Angeles
North County Times

Even One Glass of Beer, Wine Boosts Car Crash Risk
U.S. News & World Report, June 24 -- Drinking even a single glass of beer or wine can raise blood-alcohol concentrations enough to increase the chances of being seriously injured or dying in a crash for those who choose to get behind the wheel, a new study suggests. Researchers at UC San Diego found that having a blood-alcohol concentration of just 0.01 percent -- much lower than the legal limit in the United States of 0.08 percent -- increased the chances of being in a serious crash. No amount of alcohol seemed to be safe for driving, according to the study. (Quotes study co-author David Phillips.) More

As Mobile Devices Multiply, Some
Colleges Turn Away From Building Campus Apps
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 27 -- Many colleges have published iPhone apps in the last few years that allow people to get campus news, maps, and other information on Apple's popular smartphones. Then some colleges found they also needed to develop a version for phones running Google's competing Android system. And some built apps for BlackBerrys as well. As the mobile Internet continues to grow at an astounding pace, some colleges are shifting their attention from stand-alone applications that can be downloaded from an app store to mobile-optimized versions of their Web sites. The University of California at San Diego, one of the first public universities to offer a mobile application, will end its mobile-application contract with Blackboard next year, according to Brett Pollak, director of the campus Web office. Instead, the college will soon start directing all mobile users to a version of its Web site, m.ucsd.edu. More

Ancient Dancing Outbreak Believed to Be a Case of Social Contagion
ABC News, June 28 –Back in 1374, the city of Aachen, Germany, was struck by an unusual outbreak that, legend says, spread as far away as Madagascar. According to the scant written accounts, the outbreak, known as St. Vitus' Dance, caused groups of people – sometimes thousands at a time – to start dancing uncontrollably. It continued for days, and in some cases, weeks and months. Some people reportedly danced until they collapsed from exhaustion or even death, while others suffered heart attacks and broken bones. "One written account described people as united by one common delusion," said James Fowler, professor of medical genetics and political science at UC San Diego. To this day, no one knows what led so many people into the dancing fits. At the time, many people believed it was a curse. Fowler and other experts, however, believe the 14th-century dancing outbreak was an early example of social contagion. Just as yawning and laughing seem to be contagious, experts say manic dancing can be as well. "We tend to imitate body language and the emotional state of people that we're with, and we're not aware of it," Fowler said. More

Smell-O-Vision Has Pleasant Aroma for San Diego Researcher
KPBS, June 27-- Sight and sound TV seems so last century. It seems the future of enhanced sensory entertainment could soon be smell-o-vision. Movies like the “Scent of a Woman,” or a pizza commercial, can be seen and smelled according to Sungho Jin, Ph.D., a San Diego professor who was approached by Samsung Electronics to develop a smell-o-vision device. Jin, a
researcher at UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering said he and his graduate students developed a prototype than can emit up to 10,000 odors. “We send electrical current to the chambers and that heats up the interior. When the temperature goes up so does the internal chamber pressure which pushes the vapor out of the device and into the air,” explained Jin. More

When Clouds Block Sun, Solar Panels Lose Power Slowly
North County Times, June 27 -- Solar panels generate electricity without burning fossil fuels, but they have a weakness: No sun, no power. Even at midday, when solar panels make electricity the way Keebler Elves make cookies, a cloud obscuring the sun causes production to plummet.
"Utilities are very concerned about the solar panels being installed in urban rooftops, especially in coastal Southern California," said Jan Kleissl, a UC San Diego professor who studies solar power. "If all these systems went out at the same time, because of cloud cover, that could cause some problems." But the panels in a system don't go out at the same time, according to research recently released by Kleissl and Matthew Lave, a graduate student at the university. By studying solar radiation sensors scattered around the UCSD campus, Lave determined that cloud cover reduces power generation by a group of solar panels, like those in a utility power plant or in a group of houses, more slowly than previously thought, and to a lesser degree. More

Unhealed Sprain Can Lead to Chronic Ankle Instability
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 28 – Ankle injuries are one of the most common problems encountered by athletes. Most are simple sprains that result from rolling the foot under the ankle. The vast majority of ankle sprains can be treated with rest, ice, compression and elevation. (Article by Dr. Eric W. Edmonds, a pediatric and adolescent orthopedic sports medicine specialist at Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego and an assistant professor of orthopedics at UC San Diego.) More

San Diego Scene 6.2011
San Diego Metro, June 28 – UC San Diego alumni are innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders who continue to change the world across all industries, from science, technology, medicine and public service to business, education, politics and the arts. And they continue to make headlines. Recently San Diego-based Cymer Inc., founded by alumni Robert Akins and Richard Sandstrom, was named by Forbes as the No. 1 most innovative tech company in the U.S. for its leading role in deep-ultraviolet photolithography systems. Alumnus Gary Jacobs is co-founder of San Diego’s High Tech High International, an innovative new model of education that was one of three schools in the nation vying for President Obama to speak at this year’s commencement (didn’t make it). And alumna Megan McArthur, who served as a space shuttle Atlantis crew member on the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, continues to make history as a scientist and NASA astronaut.“The single greatest measure of a university is the quality of its graduates,” said Armin Afsahi, executive director of UCSD Alumni, a group that represents UCSD’s 130,000 alumni. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically