A Sampling of Clips for January 14^th, 2009

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

Griffin Going?
Science NOW, Jan. 13 -- Despite a concerted campaign by his supporters—including his wife—to keep him on the job, NASA Chief Mike Griffin may be leaving the space agency for good on Friday. Speculation about Griffin's successor is rife. Among the top names in the current rumor mill is Charles Kennel, former chair of the NASA Advisory Committee and former director of UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. More

Brain Imaging Studies Under Fire
Nature, Jan. 13 -- A no-holds-barred paper, accepted for publication in Perspectives on Psychological Science and already circulating widely on the Internet, claims that many studies in the field of social neuroscience are worthless because brain imaging data have been poorly analyzed. The paper was written by Edward Vul, a PhD student supervised by neuroscientist Nancy Kanwisher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, along with psychologists at UCSD, including Harold Pashler. More

Yahoo CEO Choice Carol Bartz Wins Praise
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 14 -- A few years back, Carol Bartz said that the worst thing about her job running software maker Autodesk Inc. was "when people on the outside try to second-guess everything a CEO does." As the new chief executive of beleaguered Internet company Yahoo Inc., Bartz's patience with Monday-morning quarterbacking is likely to be tested. (Quotes Marye Anne Fox, chancellor of UCSD, who served with Bartz on President George W. Bush's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Fox's service on the council ended Dec. 31) More

Terry Allen's 'Trees' are About to Come to Life for Obama Inauguration
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 14 – For the first time since it was installed on the UCSD campus nearly 23 years ago, Terry Allen's public sculpture "Trees" will soon be broadcasting something other than recorded poetry and music. One week from today, the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as 44th president of the United States will be heard live in the eucalyptus grove between the Geisel Library and the Faculty Club. More

The Next Biofuel Frontier: Jet Engines
Popular Mechanics, Jan. 13 -- In a test last Wednesday in Houston, Continental became the first U.S. airline to test synthetic paraffinic kerosenes—otherwise known as jet biofuels. Engineers filled one of the Boeing 737-800's twin engines (which required no modifications) with a 50/50 blend of oils from jatropha and algae and regular Jet A1 fuel. (Mentions the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Don't Bank on a Caring, Sharing Recession
The Times of London, U.K., Jan. 13 -- One way that people try to cheer themselves up as the economic climate worsens is by hoping that recession will make us a less materialistic, more sharing nation. It won't. If anything, it will make us nastier and meaner. (Mentions research co-authored by Steven Raphael, of UCSD concluding that a huge chunk of the fall in US crime in the 1990s was due merely to falling unemployment) More

Chula Vista Dubbed Dullsville
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 14 -- There is no truth to the rumor that the city of Chula Vista is changing its name to Aburrida Vista – no matter what you may read in a particular national financial magazine. (Quotes Michael Schudson, an adjunct professor of sociology at UCSD) More

UCSD Researcher Receives $16.6 Million Grant
San Diego 6, Jan. 13 -- A researcher at UCSD received a $16.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to map elements of the human epigenome, the university announced Tuesday. More

Medical Magazine Article Revisits Vaccine Schedule Issue
10News, Jan. 13 -- Dr. Janet Crow, associate professor of pediatrics for the UCSD Medical Center says she is noticing more patients asking to delay or skip vaccines. That's leading to more concern about threats to public health. More

San Diegans Voice Their Concerns Over the Israel-Gaza Crisis
KPBS, Jan. 13 -- Throughout 19 days of fighting, Israel says its aim is to get Hamas militants to stop firing rockets into Israel. Meanwhile, Hamas continues to fire those rockets. Is anything being gained in this assault against Gaza…and what will the situation be after the fighting stops? These Days guests on the topic include Gershon Shafir, professor of sociology at UCSD and director of the Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies. More

They Say We Know Nothing About the Internet
Voice of San Diego, Jan. 13 -- That so much about the Internet is unknowable doesn't necessarily mean that it is in trouble. But it does mean that if it were in trouble, we might not know about it until it was too late. This is what really bothers Kimberly Claffy and Dmitri Krioukov, two internet researchers at UCSD’s San Diego Supercomputer Center. Claffy and Krioukov are nationally renowned for their study of Internet architecture, and their work has been widely published, most recently in November in the journal Nature Physics. More

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