A Sampling of Clips for 
July 15, 2004

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

Exobiology: It's Life...Isn't It?
Nature, July 14-Scientists find it hard enough to pin down evidence of early life
on our own planet. Efforts to detect faint traces of life in Earth's oldest rocks, some 4 billion years old, and in martian rocks that have fallen to Earth, have produced results that are both ambiguous and disputed; claims of errors in procedure and interpretation fly back and forth with regularity. Nevertheless, space agencies are shifting their research agendas towards looking for life. (Quote by John Kerridge, a chemist at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040712/full/430288a.html

Chip Factories Envisioned for South of Border
Los Angeles Times, July 15-American investors and Mexican officials unveiled
an ambitious plan Wednesday for an industrial park in Mexico on the California border to entice computer chip companies to build multibillion-dollar factories there instead of exporting production to Asia. (Quote by Chalmers Johnson, a retired UC San Diego professor who has closely studied Japanese investment in Mexico.)
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mexchips15jul15,1,1730454.story

How Worms Tackle Stress
The Scientist, July 14-When an animal cell encounters a bacterial or chemical toxin, it needs to respond to ensure its survival, but how it does this is still
poorly understood. Now two independent studies, one conducted by researchers at UC San Diego, clarify the process. (Quote by Raffi Aroian, associate
professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040714/01/

Alzheimer's Gene Therapy
Science Central News, July 13-Early results in the first trial of gene therapy for treating Alzheimer's disease are out, and researchers say they are promising enough for the trial to go to the next phase. One trial, led by UCSD researchers, was the first-ever test of the safety of gene therapy for Alzheimer's. (Quote by Mark Tuszynski M.D., a neuroscientist at the University of California, San
Diego.)
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=
article&article_id=218392301

Researchers Believe Gene Therapy Can Help Slow Alzheimer's
WBAL Channel 11, Baltimore, July 14-Researchers in California hope that gene therapy can help reduce the advancement of Alzheimer's disease. Preliminary findings, reported in April, suggest that genetically modified tissue surgically placed into the brains of Alzheimer's patients could delay the loss of brain cells associated with the disease. The study, conducted at the University of
California, San Diego, was small and tested safety and toxicity.
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/health/3529496/detail.html

Possible New Hope for People with Spinal-Cord Injuries
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 14-Researchers using a combination of chemical boosters and grafts have produced significant regeneration of nerve cells in rats with spinal-cord injury, according to a new study led by researchers at UC San Diego. (Quote by Mark Tuszynski M.D., a professor of neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/182014_medi14.html

Researchers Study New Drug Combination for Depression
San Diego Channel 10, July 14-In the early 1980s, Prozac -- and the family of anti-depressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors -- brought
relief from the blues to millions, but not everyone. Now, University of California, San Diego researchers are studying a new drug combination that could bring
21st century relief to even more depression sufferers. (Quote by David Feifel M.D., a psychiatrist at UC San Diego.)
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/health/3529586/detail.html

People
Chemical & Engineering News, July 12-Murray Goodman, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and a pioneer in the field of peptide chemistry, died on June 1 from pneumonia. He was 75. Born and raised in New York City, Goodman received a B.S. degree from Brooklyn College in 1950. He earned a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1953. After graduation, he conducted postdoctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later at Cambridge University.
http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/82/i28/html/8228people1.html

Tony Grant-Taylor
Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia), July 14-Those struggling to get a handle
on where the economy is going and how market conditions might be this time next year should head for QUT tomorrow. The QUT Faculty of Business' annual free public lecture will be: How good are Economic Forecasts: Does Forecasting
Have a Future? And it will be delivered by a Nobel Laureate no less -- Professor Clive Granger. Granger, originally from Wales and for 30 years Professor of Economics at the University of California at San Diego, shared the 2003 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (with another old friend Robert Engle) for his discoveries on the analysis and forecasting of time series data.
* No link available online.

Remedy & Risk
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 14-A growing number of cardiologists and heart-disease researchers believe people cannot be too low an LDL. They're talking about low-density lipoprotein, the so-called bad cholesterol, small amounts of which are necessary to make cell membranes and hormones. In excess, LDL collects inside coronary arteries, causing a destructive cascade that can result
in a heart attack. (Quote by Anthony DeMaria M.D., chief of cardiology at UC San Diego.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040714/news_1c14statins.html