A Sampling of Clips for 
March 28 - April 1, 2003

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

Ideal Sensors For Terror Attack Don't Exist Yet
New York Times, Apr. 1 – After the World Trade Center and anthrax attacks in 2001, the federal government has doubled financing for counter terrorism research, including improved detectors. The “smart dust” technique by Dr. Michael J. Sailor, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, show that the smart dust could detect harmless ethanol vapors by shining a laser on them from 80 feet away. It would take several years for the technology to evolve into effective weapons sensors.
* No link available online.

Similar articles appeared in:
ScienceDaily, Mar. 30
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/03/030331044741.htm

UPI Science News, Mar. 27
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=20030327-011958-3945r

Diplomat Paul H. Boeker Dies at 64
Washington Post, Apr. 1 – Paul H. Boeker, 64, a retired Foreign Service officer who had served as ambassador to Bolivia and Jordan, died of a brain tumor March 29 at his home in San Diego. On leaving the Foreign Service, he became president and chief executive of the Institute of the Americas at the University of California, San Diego, a nonprofit business networking organization serving the United States, Canada and Latin America.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63489-2003Mar31.html

Similar article appeared in:
San Diego Union-Tribune, Apr. 1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63489-2003Mar31.html

Thirsty cities look seaward for more water
Washington Post, Mar. 30 – As California and other thirsty states face a seemingly endless search for more water, one possible future is already here: a desalination plant that sucks salty water out of the sea and transforms it into drinking water. "The demand for water is enormous and growing. That's what makes desalination part of the future," said Steve Erie, a professor of political science and a water expert at the University of California, San Diego.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49323-2003Mar29.html

'Moderate' Drinking: An Epitaph
Los Angeles Times, Mar. 31 – Parents who lost an alcoholic daughter to her own delusion are campaigning to make the hard lesson stick. In the nearly three months since Lisa Stoefen’s alcohol related fatal accident, her family has mounted a public-awareness campaign in her name. (Quotes Dr. Marc Schuckit, a psychiatry professor at the San Diego Veterans Hospital and University of California, San Diego's medical school).
http://www.lisastoefen.com/article4.html

Barriers to regional security discussed
San Diego Union-Tribune, Mar. 28 – City and county homeland-security planners teamed up with their corporate counterparts to discuss ways to protect the county's critical infrastructure -- such as fuel pipelines, nuclear facilities, chemical plants, and hospitals -- most of which is privately owned. (Mentions University of California, San Diego).
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20030329-9999_1m29secure.html

Trauma rate may be overstated
San Diego Union-Tribune, Mar. 28 – More injuries are classified as traumas by San Diego County's emergency medical teams than by the other 18 trauma programs in California, a practice that may unnecessarily exhaust fragile hospital resources, according to a report. Overall, the report gives high praise to the county's trauma program for its high-quality care and team collaboration but recommended that health officials re-evaluate how they rank patient injuries. The American College of Surgeons suggests major trauma programs such as University of California, San Diego treat at least 240 patients a year who have serious life-threatening injuries.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/fri/metro/news_1m28trauma.html

It’s the end of the edge: Pioneering series begins its final run Thursday
San Diego Union-Tribune, Mar. 30 – The 11th and final season of Quincy Troupe's Artists on the Cutting Edge: Cross Fertilizations opens Thursday night at La Jolla's Sherwood Auditorium, where it's been presented annually since 1993 under the auspices of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Troupe is a former University of California, San Diego literature and creative-writing professor. (Quotes UCSD professor George Lewis).
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sun/arts/news_m1a30artists.html

Event pays tribute to Chavez
San Diego Union-Tribune, Mar. 28 – An estimated 1,600 people gathered to pay tribute to civil rights leader Cesar Chavez. Event organizers sponsor, along with University of California, San Diego's Early Academic Outreach Program, an essay contest for high school students in San Diego and Imperial counties. The students will receive savings bonds of $400 to $700 donated by UCSD, and the first- to third-place winners will receive computers from the Waitt Family Foundation.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/fri/metro/news_7m28chavez.html

High on the sky
San Diego Union-Tribune, Mar. 28 – Harish Khandrika, a 15-year-old junior at La Jolla High School, won the top prize in his division last year at the annual Greater San Diego Science & Engineering Fair. This year’s project, Khandrika uses satellite data obtained from University of California, San Diego's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences to examine the characteristics of a neutron star and its companion, a huge star named Wray 977. Khandrika is working with his mentor, Richard Rothschild, an astrophysicist at UCSD and also William Heindl, another astrophysicist at UCSD.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20030328-9999_1m28fair.html

Inside the minds of angels
Daily Telegraph (London), Mar. 28 – In this year's Reith Lectures in Oxford, Vilayanur Ramachandran MD, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego, gives a talk on the major revolution in our understanding of how the brain works and the nature of our selves.
* No link available online.

S.D. scientists try to guess coast's future
North County Times, Mar. 30 – A team of scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has spent the last 12 months building a giant 3-D computer model ---- the first of its kind on the West Coast ---- showing where North County's coastline has been in the last 10,000 years. (Quotes Doug Inman, director of the Center for Coastal Studies at Scripps and University of California, San Diego archaeologist Patricia Masters).
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030330/60727.html

GeneAlert
United Press International, Mar. 28 – New findings suggest gene therapy can be used to reduce levels dramatically of a brain plaque associated with Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from the Salk Institute, University of California, San Diego and the University of Kentucky used a modified version of HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- to transfer a protein called neprilysin to the brain cells of genetically modified mice that produce human beta-amyloid.
* No link available online.

Surviving bacteria
Copley News Service, Mar. 31 – Microbiology, the science of unseen organisms, is undergoing a revolution. Propelled by modern technology, this revolution is changing the way scientists think about their subjects - bacteria in particular. Few creatures have contributed more to this shift in thinking than Bacillus subtilis, a model for a class of bacteria that includes some of the most deadly pathogens on the planet, including Bacillus anthracis. Armed with the bacteria's genome and new microscopy techniques developed largely in biologist Kit Pogliano's lab at University of California, San Diego, scientists are beginning to assemble a molecular picture of how it all happens.
* No link available online.

Aerobics help, hurt goal of weight loss
Copley News Service, Mar. 31 – According to the chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise, a comprehensive workout regimen needs to include all three components of fitness - flexibility, aerobic, and strength or resistance training. Dr. Mark Bracker, clinical professor of family medicine and director of sports medicine at University of California, San Diego says, "When it comes to aerobic training, the more you do, the longer you do it, the better off you are," noting that cardiovascular exercise has been shown to reduce morbidity risks, including some cancers, stroke and heart attacks.
* No link available online.

In TV eyes, UCSD's just like the FBI
San Diego Union-Tribune, Apr. 1 – 20th Century Fox was filming a pilot for a TV series called "The Edge," at the University of California, San Diego’s campus. The Biology and Applied Physics & Math building had been renamed "Forensic Science Center" and "Criminal Psychology." A large FBI seal was affixed outside the UCSD's Instructional Web Development Center and a huge sign of faux granite bore the words: “FBI Headquarters” near by. The FBI logos on campus didn't raise too many eyebrows because most students were away on spring break. (Mentions Christine Bagwell, a manager at IWDC of UCSD).
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/bell/20030401-9999_1m1bell.html