A Sampling of Clips for January 29^th, 2009

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

Brain Study Indicates Why Some Memories Persist
NPR, Jan. 29 – A new study appears to explain why people with Alzheimer's disease often remember events from the distant past — but not things that happened recently. Scientists also know that areas of the brain near the hippocampus are usually the first to be affected by Alzheimer's disease. "That's why Alzheimer's typically begins with memory problems," says Larry Squire, a brain researcher at UCSD and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego and lead author of the study.More

Similar story on
CNN

What Good Are New Brain Cells?
Newsweek, Jan.28 -- Ever since neuroscientists discovered a decade ago that middle-aged and even old brains keep producing new neurons, they have puzzled over a fundamental question: are these new recruits good for anything, and if so, what? “Intuitively we feel that those new brain cells have to be good for something, but nobody really knows what it is,” said James Aimone, a graduate student at UCSD. More

Similar story in
The Scientist, U.K.

Voodoo Correlations: Have the Results
of Some Brain Scanning Experiments Been Overstated?
Scientific American, Jan. 29 -- Ed Vul is a graduate student in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He’s also the lead author of a recent paper, “Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience,” which explored the high correlations between measures of personality or emotionality in the individual—such as the experience of fear, or the willingness to trust another person—with the activity of certain brain areas as observed in an fMRI machine. He worked on the paper with UCSD researcher Hal Pashler. More

Revisiting The 'Keeling Curve'
NPR, Jan. 28 -- In the late 1950s, scientist Charles David Keeling began research that would prove to be a key signpost of climate change. In this archived story, hosts Madeleine Brand and Alex Chadwick talked with Keeling's widow and other scientists about the impact of Keeling's work. More

Harvard’s Faust, Dead Chilean Nominated for Book Critics Prize
Bloomberg, Jan. 26 -- Seth Lerer, the new dean of Arts and Humanities at UCSD has been nominated as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in the criticism category for his book, “Children’s Literature: A Readers’ History From Aesop to Harry Potter” (University of Chicago Press). More

Similar story in
Austin American-Statesman

Should American Science Be More Like "American Idol"?
Discover Magazine, Jan. 28 -- It is a seductive notion—especially in this era of overextended government and corporate cutbacks—and one that is gaining traction in philanthropic circles and the research establishment. The National Academy of Engineering and the National Science Foundation have urged experimenting with so-called inducement prizes to spur research.Within government, NASA has taken small steps into the competition arena and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has sponsored Grand Challenge robotic auto­mobile races. (Quotes Lewis Branscomb, an adjunct professor at UCSD) More

Collage New Music Attends to Works of the Recent Past
Boston Globe, Jan. 28 -- Presenting world premieres is naturally a bread-and-butter activity for an ensemble like Collage New Music. But this venerable group, now in its 37th season, also has broader goals in mind: tending reputations and keeping in circulation a substantial body of music by the composers it champions. That means works written yesterday, but also the day before yesterday. (Mentions Susan Narucki, a music professor at UCSD) More

Dye Experiment Helps Scientists Study Coastal Pollution
News8, Jan. 28 -- If you've spotted some crazy colors in the water near La Jolla Shores lately, don't be alarmed. It's probably scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography hard at work figuring out a better way to keep our beaches clean. They're dumping dye into the water as part of an experiment to track ocean pollution. More

Worm Hunters
Voice of San Diego, Jan. 28 -- The folks at the San Diego Supercomputer Center are a part of the world-wide cyberposse on the hunt for a new internet worm that has the potential to wreak unprecedented havoc on computer networks. More

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