A Sampling of Clips for December 3^rd, 2009

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

Dissection Begins on Famous Brain
The New York Times, Dec. 2 -- The man who could not remember has left scientists a gift that will provide insights for generations to come: his brain, now being dissected and digitally mapped in exquisite detail. The man, Henry Molaison — known during his lifetime only as H.M., to protect his privacy — lost the ability to form new memories after a brain operation in 1953, and over the next half century he became the most studied patient in brain science. He consented years ago to donate his brain for study, and last February Dr. Jacopo Annese, an assistant professor of radiology at UCSD, traveled across the country and flew back with the brain seated next to him on Jet Blue. More

Kim Jong Il's Fake Currency 'Reform'
Wall Street Journal, Dec. 3 -- North Korea announced a surprise currency reform this week. The move isn't about good economics, however; it is yet another stratagem by the central authorities to short-circuit the development of an entrepreneurial class independent of the state.
Currency reforms are not a bad thing in principle. Stable governments historically have used this tactic to draw a line under bad economic policies of the past, often after taming a hyperinflation. (Mentions Stephan Haggard of UCSD’s Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies) More

Hair Reveals Ancient Peruvians Were Stressed
MSNBC, Dec. 2 -- People in the past were very stressed out, suggests a new study that found high amounts of a stress hormone in the hair of Peruvian individuals who lived between 550 A.D. and 1532. The study, accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science, is the first to detect the stress hormone cortisol in ancient hair. Cortisol is produced in response to real and perceived threats. After its release, the hormone travels to nearly every part of the body, including to blood, saliva, urine and hair. It now may be possible to determine not only how ancient people behaved, but also how they felt. (Mentions UCSD School of Medicine researcher Michael Miyamoto) More

Short-Term Munis Retrace Quarter Losses Amid Money-Fund Exodus
Bloomberg, Dec. 3 -- Short-term municipal bonds are bouncing back from declines at the start of the quarter as investors escaping record-low money-market payouts help lower yields on benchmark tax-exempt debt due in the next few years. General obligation bonds due in two to four years have gained 0.8 percent for the fourth quarter so far, rebounding from a 0.3 percent decline during October, according to a BofA Merrill Lynch index, which includes reinvested interest. A Bloomberg index for top-rated, four-year state and local government bond yields fell 2 basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 1.22 percent, the lowest since the data began in 1991. (Mentions UCSD) More

Loneliness May Be Catching
Tehran Times, Dec. 3 -- A new study suggests that lonely people attract fellow “lonelies” and influence others to feel lonely, too. “Loneliness can spread from person to person to person -- up to three degrees of separation,” said James H. Fowler, co-author of the study published in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and professor of political science at UCSD. More

UCSD Marks World AIDS Day with Art and Events
San Diego News Network, Dec. 3 -- UCSD honored World AIDS Day on Tuesday with a litany of red ribbons and events on campus. The crown jewel of the program was a public viewing of three pieces of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which is comprised of over 40,000 panels spread over the world that memorialize individual AIDS victims. The Quilt is the largest ongoing community arts project in the world. Shaun Travers, director of the UCSD LGBT Resource Center, said in recent years the UCSD community has really come together for the event and shown the impact of HIV/AIDS and how it has affected so many lives and taken so many people from us. More

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Tainted Science Climate-change Research fraud is an Outrage
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 3 -- This editorial page has accepted the predominant view of the scientific community that global warming is occurring partly because of mankind’s industrial activity, specifically the release of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere. This view was strongly buttressed by a March 2007 editorial board interview with climate change experts Tony Haymet and Richard C.J. Somerville of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who laid out a comprehensive view of the scientific case for global warming and the risks it posed to civilization. More

Study: Hand Sanitizer
Also Kills Good Bacteria
KGTV, Dec. 2 -- According to a UCSD study, hand Sanitizer has pros and cons. Many people have a bottle of hand sanitizer in their car, on their desk, or in their home. We use it to clean our hands and kill the germs that could get us sick. But, what many don't know is that they might not want their hands to be too clean. More

A Sapphire Energy Co-Founder Sees
Solutions in Algae for Drugs as Well as Biofuels
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 2 -- The potential of algae as a clean energy source has been generating a lot of entrepreneurial excitement in San Diego. At last count, 10 local companies are busy working on technologies focused on transforming ordinary pond scum into “green crude” one day capable of powering aircraft, trucks, automobiles, and even utility plants—and easing the world’s energy problems. It is a bold vision—but one that may be selling algae short. That thought occurred to me after I had a chat with Stephen Mayfield, a leading expert on the genetics of algae who recently moved his lab from The Scripps Research Institute to UCSD. More

Who Made You God?
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 3 -- Jenny Scheinman is such a versatile musician that when her performance tonight at The Loft at UCSD was announced, her fans eagerly wondered: Which Jenny Scheinman should they expect? The Jenny Scheinman who has been the singing violinist of choice for such top singer-songwriters as Norah Jones, Ani DiFranco and alt-country great Rodney Crowell (with whom she memorably appeared here last year at the Belly Up Tavern)? The Jenny Scheinman who has worked as a musical arranger for Bono, Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams and Sean Lennon? More

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