A Sampling of Clips for January 5^th, 2009

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

On Second Thought ...
Newsweek, Jan. 3 -- When politicians do it, they're tarred as flip-floppers. When lovers do it, we complain they're fickle. But scientists are supposed to change their minds. Having adopted their views on scientific questions— What killed the dinosaurs? Is the universe infinite?—based on a dispassionate evaluation of empirical evidence, they are expected to willingly, even eagerly, abandon cherished beliefs when new evidence undercuts them. (Quotes UCSD neuroscientist Roger Bingham) More

Diamond Clues to Beasts' Demise
BBC News, Jan. 2 --  Nano-diamonds and other exotic impact materials have been unearthed in thin sediments, Science magazine reports. The age of these materials coincides with the start of a millennium-long climate cooling event known as the Younger Dryas - some 13,000 years ago. (Quotes Jeff Severinghaus, a geochemist who studies ice cores at Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Oil Shares Blame for US Recession – Economists
CNBC, Jan. 4 -- The housing market slowed the U.S. economy but an oil price shock last summer was the straw that broke its back, two top economists said on Sunday. A year-long U.S. recession has been blamed squarely on the collapse of the country's housing market, but IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said that the surge in oil prices had the same harmful impact seen in the past. (Quotes James Hamilton, a professor of economics at UCSD) More

Can Lasers Help California Farmers Conserve Water?
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 3 -- Seventy-six years after the invention of the modern sprinkler helped revolutionize farming, a professor of environmental engineering is pointing a laser beam across an alfalfa crop in Southern California's Imperial Valley, looking for a better way to conserve the millions of gallons of water sprayed each year on thirsty crops. Jan Kleissl and a handful of his students at UCSD have rigged up a contraption called a large aperture scintillometer to study exactly how much irrigation water is lost to evaporation and the peak times that water disappears. More

Energy Drain by Computers Stifles Efforts at Cost Control
Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 5 --  For decades, the major computers at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center have multiplied almost without limit. Row by row, racks of computer servers have expanded outward in a constant quest to provide computing power for the center's data-intensive experiments. The servers have taken over new wings of an office building at the site, which is operated by Stanford University. Many of those unfortunate enough to work nearby have been displaced, and their former offices house towering black machines. (Quotes Dallas Thornton, a division director for cyberinfrastructure services at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD). More

A Turkish 'I Apologize' Campaign to Armenians
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 5-- Two hundred Turkish intellectuals last month launched an Internet signature campaign for an apology to Armenians for the 1915 massacres. "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Armenians were subjected to in 1915," the brief statement reads. "I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them." (Written by Esra Özyürek,  an associate professor of anthropology at UCSD) More

Papers of City’s First Mover and Shaker Donated to UCSD 
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 4 -- A century and a half ago, when San Diego was all about raising cattle and attracting railroads, locals turned to Ephraim W. Morse as their fixer from Massachusetts. In correspondence acquired by the UCSD Geisel Library, the details of how Morse smoothed business deals behind the scenes echoes how many of today's movers and shakers make San Diego hum.  More

Marine Algae Good for Green Fuel
Economic Times (India), Jan. 5 -- Scientists see marine algae as the most promising bet for a green fuel that would help ease the dependence on fossil fuel and power vehicles of the future. Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientists  along with their counterparts from its division of biological sciences are part of an emerging algal biofuel consortium that includes academic collaborators, CleanTECH, public and private partners. More

UCSD Researchers Make Cancer Discovery
Voice of San Diego, Jan. 2 – A team of UCSD researchers, led by Michael Karin, has identified a protein that enhances the growth and spread of lung cancer cells by stimulating inflammation in the cells. The discovery, reported in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Nature, could lead to therapies that would slow the spread of the deadly disease. More

Trying to Turn San Diego into the Green Houston
Voice of San Diego, Jan. 1 -- In the early 1990s, San Diego's moribund economy was revived by a bunch of scientists who figured out how to do things like turn a mobile phone into a multi-media entertainment center and develop a diabetes therapy out of lizard spit.Now, with the economy tanking again, another bunch of scientists is telling anyone who will listen that the region's next economic boom might be borne out of pond scum. Algae that is -- green gold, San Diego soda. (Mentions Steve Kay, dean of the division of Biological Sciences at UCSD, and B. Gregory Mitchell a biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Year End Review of 2008
La Presna, Jan. 2 -- When we look back at the year 2008 we can sum up the year as an ‘Economic meltdown.’ The economy dominated the news from the start of the year to the end as every day passed a new story came out about the deteriorating economy. (Mentions UCSD) More

Two More College Campuses Go Smoke-Free
KPBS, Jan. 5 -- The new year brings two new smoke-free college campuses in San Diego County. Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges will no longer allow smoking anywhere on school grounds. KPBS Reporter Kenny Goldberg has more. Grossmont and Cuyamaca are the fourth colleges in San Diego County to go smoke-free. Mesa was the first community college to do so. Point Loma Nazarene is the only four-year institution that doesn’t allow smoking. Debra Kelley is with the American Lung Association. She says UCSD and the two local Cal State schools are behind the times. More

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