A Sampling of Clips for July 8^th, 2008

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

Nanoparticle Smart Bombs Used to Target Cancer Cells
London Daily Telegraph, July 7 -- Smart bombs consisting of microscopic particles can curb the deadly spread of cancer, a team reports today. The smart bombs are nanoparticles, that is particles at the length scale of a billionth of a metre or so, and can be used to target malignant cancer cells as they move through the body, a process called metastasis that seeds new tumours throughout the body. A new treatment strategy using polymer particles 100 billionths of a metre across to bombard tumour cells with anti-cancer drugs leads to good results, using significantly lower doses of toxic chemotherapy, with less "collateral damage" to surrounding tissue, researchers report today. The team, led by Prof David Cheresh of UCSD, showed this way to ensure toxic chemotherapy is delivered precisely where it is needed had "a profound impact on metastasis in pancreatic and kidney cancer in mice." More

Similar story in Wired

Green Eyes on Future
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 8 -- San Diego is at the forefront of biotechnology and wireless innovations, but can it also become a leader in green technology? City officials believe the answer is “yes,” and they are trying to make it happen. It won't be easy. Cities across the country are jumping onto the “greentech” bandwagon, seeing it as the new engine of economic growth. (Mentions UCSD) More

Smoke is Normal - for 1800s
Sacramento Bee, July 8 -- No one in Colfax or Auburn will breathe a whit easier knowing this, but the heavy wildfire smoke that gave their towns a carbon black eye on the Air Quality Index on Monday is historically the norm for the foothills, studies show. Analysis of tree rings and oral histories of American Indians and Euro-American surveyors suggests that the cobalt blue skies typifying the Sierra today were more the exception up through the 19th century. (Mentions Gordon J. MacDonald, a geophysicist and former professor at UCSD) More

Nature a Key Factor in Decision to Vote?
Chicago Tribune, July 8 -- As much as half of your tendency to vote may be genetically determined, says a team at UCSD. Comparing voter-turnout data in Los Angeles and a registry of identical and non-identical twins, the researchers found that 53 percent of the variation in voter turnout was due to differences in genes. "Both nature and nurture play a role in voting," said lead author James H. Fowler, professor in the Department of Political Science. More

A Climate Threat from Flat TVs, Microchips
Los Angeles Times, July 8 -- A synthetic chemical widely used in the manufacture of computers and flat-screen televisions is a potent greenhouse gas, with 17,000 times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide, but its measure in the atmosphere has never been taken, nor is it regulated by international treaty. The chemical, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), could be considered the "missing greenhouse gas," atmospheric chemists Michael J. Prather and Juno Hsu of UC Irvine wrote in a paper released June 26 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "With the surge in flat-panel displays, the market for NF3 has exploded.” (Quotes climate scientist V.  Ramanathan of UCSD) More

Similar story in KPCQ

Fed's Yellen Says Stability is Top Priority
San Francisco Chronicle, July 8 --  Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, spoke at a conference Monday at UCSD and gave the clearest indication yet of the Fed's top economic priority. WHAT SHE SAID: The Federal Reserve "cannot and will not allow a wage-price spiral to develop. If we saw a wage-price spiral developing, then we need to act. Nobody wants a repeat" of the 1970s. More

Mystery of the Meat-Eaters' Molecule
London Daily Telegraph, July 8 -- What does it mean to be human? For most people, it all comes down to that extraordinary object between our ears, and how it blesses us with language, laughter and logic. But not for UCSD School of Medicine Professor Ajit Varki, a doctor-cum-scientist who works in California.  For him, being human is also about a single chemical that separates us from  our closest relatives, and which could be linked to many of our most debilitating illnesses. The story began in 1984, when Prof. Varki at was working at UCSD.  More