A Sampling of Clips for
April 26th, 2007
* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office
Eyes in the
Sky Grow Dim
BBC News, April 25 -- At a time when climate change impacts are accelerating, our ability to observe those impacts from space is deteriorating. Cuts in US government funding for Nasa programmes will dramatically weaken scientists' capacity to monitor and understand the planet's climate; at least, so says a major study from the National Research Council (NRC), published earlier this year. (Quotes Richard Somerville from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD) More
Insight: Warning Signs
on the Road to Violence
The New Scientist, April 28 -- In the wake of the carnage wrought on the campus of Virginia Tech by Cho Seung-Hui, the obvious question has emerged from the shock and grief: why were warning signs missed? If anyone has answers, it is Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist at the UCSD, who has studied 30 adults and 34 adolescents who committed mass murder in North America between 1949 and 1999. More
Web 2.0, Part 2: Serious
Business Tool or Silly Waste of Time?
MacNews World, April 26 -- How do you suppose a professor of computer science and engineering might use Web 2.0 tools? Assisting students to manage an intramural sports league online is probably not the first thing that would come to mind. That, though, is exactly what Ioannis Papakonstantinou, a professor at the UCSD, does. More
Fox Gets Award for Reform in Mexico
San Diego Union-Tribune, April 26 -- Vicente Fox, whose 2000 election ended seven decades of single-party rule, was honored by UCSD's Institute of the Americas at the U.S. Grant Hotel for his role in Mexico's democratic transition. He received the institute's Award for Democracy and Peace, which recognizes leaders who have strengthened democracy in Latin America. More
Supercomputers Used in Ethanol Research
UPI, April 26 -- The process of producing ethanol from cellulose is an expensive one, mainly due to the sluggish rate at which the cellulose enzyme complex breaks down tightly bound cellulose into sugars, which are then fermented into ethanol. To help resolve the problem, a team of scientists conducted molecular simulations at UCSD's San Diego Supercomputer Center. By using "virtual molecules," they have discovered key steps in the process by which the enzyme acts as a molecular machine. More
Briefs
North County Times, April 26 -- World-renowned percussionist and UCSD Music Professor Steven Schick has been named the new music director of the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. Schick was selected after a two-year search. As music director, he'll share next season with choral conductor David Chase, who described Schick as a "brilliant musician" who will combine "a worldview, along with his respect for the history of our music-making." More