A Sampling of Clips for February 3^rd, 2009

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

Arctic in danger: Pen Hadow Heads for North Pole to Establish the Facts
The Guardian, U.K., Feb. 2 -- The Arctic Ocean occupies just 3% of the Earth's surface. It is the smallest and shallowest of the oceans, made up of two basins separated by the Lomonosov ridge. The expanding and contracting veneer of floating sea ice that it supports makes it a unique habitat – and one that is threatened because the Arctic is warming at twice the global average. Based on ocean-depth data from UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, the Navy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and other sources, Google has created a program in which users can dive beneath the waves to explore the nooks and crannies of the seafloor – without getting wet. More

Similar story in
San Diego Union-Tribune
Voice of San Diego
Contra Costa Times
Sacramento Bee

When Gauging Age, the Eyes Have It
KFMB, Feb. 2 -- Want to look younger or less tired? Focus on the area around your eyes, a new study suggests, because that's where people get visual clues about your age and level of fatigue. When asked to estimate the age of people in photographs, participants in a study looked at the eye region almost half the time, researchers found. The number was about the same when the participants tried to figure out how tired people in the photographs were. (Mentions Timothy J. Slattery, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at UCSD) More

Experts: We're in Vitamin D Deficiency Crisis
NBC Washington, Feb. 3 -- The seizures gripped the nine-month-old baby boy as he slept. In the beginning, the infant’s mother thought he was sick with a cold. But then he became feverish and developed diarrhea, along with a strange, bulging soft spot on his skull. According to a report in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, once the worried mother and her baby arrived at a hospital and doctors conducted a series of tests, she heard a diagnosis that had become vanishingly rare since the 1940s: her baby had rickets. (Quotes Cedric Garland, professor of family and preventive medicine at the UCSD School of Medicine and colleagues) More

ESSAY: Darwin's 200th Birthday Worth Celebrating
North County Times, Feb. 2 -- Next week, scientists around the world will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the most significant figure in modern biology, Charles Darwin. Darwin’s birthday -- a date he shares with another giant of history, Abraham Lincoln -- will be celebrated in the region by lectures, symposiums and even concerts. From experts to the general public, there will be opportunities to learn about Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, and what it means to us. (Mentions Dr. Stephen Baird, a professor of clinical pathology at UCSD Medical Center) More

SG Biofuels, Emerging From Stealth,
Aims to Make Biodiesel From Hardy Shrub
Xconomy, Feb. 2 -- Another San Diego biofuel company is coming out of stealth mode today. SG Biofuels specializes in developing Jatropha, a hardy shrub found throughout Latin America that produces oval-shaped seeds that can be used to produce biodiesel and other petroleum feedstocks. The startup’s chief scientist is Robert Schmidt, a professor of biological sciences at UCSD. More

Seven To Be Inducted Into Women’s Hall Of Fame
San Diego Metropolitan, Feb. 2 -- Seven women will be inducted into the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame on March 28 at the Price Center ballroom at UCSD. The inductees are Joan Arrington Craigwell, Charlotte Baker, Kate Yavenditti, Marisa B. Ugarte, Edith C. Dabbs, Li-Rong Lilly Cheng and Monique Henderson.  More

Seed Salon: Albert-Laszlo Barabasi + James Fowler
Seed Magazine, Jan. 20 -- Using the lingua franca of math, Albert-László Barabási describes networks in the World Wide Web, the internet, the human body, and society at large. UCSD’s political science professor James Fowler seeks to identify the social and biological links that define us as humans. But whereas Barabási sees similarity across systems, Fowler believes that the underlying principle in social networks may be inherent variation. More

The Tech/Art Installations at the UCI
Beall Center Reveal Ghosts In the Machine
OC Weekly, Jan. 28  -- Our borderline-Luddite reviewer’s spin through the tech/art installations at the UC Irvine Beall Center reveals ghosts—and a couple of bugs—in the machine. (Mentions UCSD Visual Arts Professor Sheldon Brown).  More

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