A Sampling of Clips for December 7^th, 2009

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

In the Brain, Seven Is a Magic Number
ABC News, Dec. 6 -- Having a tough time recalling a phone number someone spoke a few minutes ago or forgetting items from a mental grocery list is not a sign of mental decline; in fact, it's natural. Countless psychological experiments have shown that, on average, the longest sequence a normal person can recall on the fly contains about seven items. This limit, which psychologists dubbed the "magical number seven" when they discovered it in the 1950s, is the typical capacity of what's called the brain's working memory. Now, physicists have come up with a model of brain activity that seems to explain the reason behind the magical memory number. (Quotes Mikhail Rabinovich, a neuroscientist at the BioCircuits Institute at UCSD) More

Regional Initiatives Key to Tackling Climate Change
Reuters, Dec. 5 -- Nobel Laureates, industries and political leaders are emphasizing the seriousness of global warming and climate change and calling for global action to reduce the accelerating trends of greenhouse gas emissions.  But it is equally vital for regions to initiate their own policies to deal with the growing impacts of climate change on their environments and their communities. (Mentions Charles Kennel, a UCSD professor) More

All the Lonely People
Los Angeles Times, Dec. 7 -- What's a good way to keep from getting lonely in this high holy season of togetherness? Stay away from lonely people.  It's brutal but true, and it's the cutting-edge finding of researchers whose mission it is to discover the causes of loneliness so that we can combat it with full force. Think this is just a scholarly version of a "Dr. Phil" episode? Think again. The lead researcher on this project – with UCSD’s James H. Fowler and Harvard's Nicholas A. Christakis -- is University of Chicago neuroscientist John T. Cacioppo, who last year co-wrote a groundbreaking book arguing that far from being a personal issue, mass loneliness threatens our public health. More

Similar story in Sacramento Bee

Be Jolly — or Else! 14 Ways to Force it or Fake it
MSNBC, Dec. 4 -- Add a few of these instant get-happy tricks to your arsenal, so you can whip them out whenever you need a burst of bliss. Experts say you won't find true joy in a paycheck or miracle wrinkle-remover. According to happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky,  of the University of California, Riverside, life circumstances account for only 10 percent of happiness. Half depends on our genetic "set point," which is kind of like the weight our body bounces back to after that crash diet. (Quotes Daniel Kripke, MD, a UCSD, light and sleep expert) More

Teens Lose More Weight Using Healthy Strategies
Discovery Health, Dec. 4 -- Increased exercise, reduced soda consumption and self-weighing are among the most effective weight control strategies for adolescents, a new study shows. Researchers surveyed 130 adolescents about their weight-control strategies and lifestyle habits. Sixty-two had succeeded in losing weight and 68 had not. The responses were grouped into four categories: Healthy weight control behaviors, which included eating fewer calories, increasing exercise, eating less high fat and junk food, drinking less soda, drinking more water, weighing oneself, eating more fruits and vegetables and doing different types of exercise. Unhealthy weight control behaviors, which included laxatives, vomiting, diuretics, smoking and fasting. (Quotes Kerri Boutelle, of the departments of pediatrics and psychiatry at UCSD) More

Feeling the Heat
Yahoo India News, Dec. 6 -- Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers is the Earth's third largest ice mass. The combo impact of global warming and short-lived pollutants are causing a decrease in ice-cover area. The glaciers are undergoing exceptional retreat, though the response time of glacial retreat differs by locations and governed by major weather systems like south west monsoon in eastern Himalayas and westerly jet streams in the Karakoram and western Himalayas. (Quotes Professor V. Ramanathan, director of the Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Climate-change Skeptics Getting Warmed Up
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 6 -- Heading into one of the most important climate-change summits ever, global warming has an image problem. For the first time in 25 years, a majority of Americans rank economic concerns above environmental ones, a major poll shows. People also are exhibiting signs of what some environmental experts call “apocalypse fatigue.” And now, they’re less confident in scientists’ warnings about rising temperatures. (Quotes Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a leading climate research group that is part of UCSD) More

Financial Backing from UC Spurs Construction of Stem Cell Center
KPBS, Dec. 7 -- Construction will begin on San Diego's stem cell center this week, now that financing is in place. The Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine will house stem cell scientists from UCSD and the Burnham, Scripps, and Salk Institutes. The center will be located in La Jolla right next to Salk. It's directors say it will be home to cutting edge research, aimed at curing disease by creating healthy new tissues. The center got $43 million from California's stem cell research agency. The financial package was finished after UC agreed to guarantee $62 million in bonds. More

Plectrum Spectrum: A New Ax to Grind
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 6 -- At least eight cutting-edge San Diego electric guitarists will perform Jan. 2 at the Soda Bar in City Heights as part of what is being billed as the “first annual” San Diego Experimental Guitar Show. The lineup features artists prominent in local improvised and avant-garde music communities, including Playground Slap co-founder Marcelo Radulovich, UCSD Ph.D music candidate David Wightman and Esteban Flores, who sometimes climaxes his performances by ripping the strings off his guitar. More

Holy Grail of Data-sifting Proves Elusive Goal
is System that Will Prevent Attacks on U.S.
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 7 -- The battleship Arizona toppled into the sea after being hit during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.  Call it the Pearl Harbor Paradox. On this day 68 years ago, the United States was thrust into World War II when Japan devastated the Pacific Fleet’s base in Hawaii, sinking four battleships, destroying 188 aircraft and killing more than 2,400 military personnel. Historians still debate the events surrounding the attack, but we know that U.S. intelligence had cracked the Japanese codes. (Quotes Andy Kehler, a professor of linguistics at UCSD) More

Mexico’s Rivera Garza Wins Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Prize
Latin American Herald Tribune, Dec. 7 -- Mexican writer and UCSD professor of literature Cristina Rivera Garza received the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Prize for her suspense novel “La muerte me da” (Death Hits) during a ceremony at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. The writer, a native of the northeastern city of Matamoros, said Wednesday on receiving the prize, which carries a cash award of $10,000, that “one writes to discover ... to try to discover in any case what’s being written.” More

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