A Sampling of Clips for June 27^th, 2008

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

Profile: James Halpert
Nature, June 26 -- James Halpert is a self-described cautious, methodical guy. But his career path suggests a bit of daring. He left promising undergraduate work in chemistry to travel to Europe and learn a new language. And he has uprooted himself repeatedly when eager for new challenges; a tendency that he says has benefited his scientific career. Halpert is associate dean of scientific affairs at UCSD’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. More

How to Walk on Water
Nature, June 26 -- At face value, the snails’ motion seems almost impossible: how can they drag themselves across a fluid surface that they can’t actually grip? But Eric Lauga of UCSD and his colleagues say that, by creating little ripples in the surface, water snails transform it into one that does effectively offer a ‘foothold’. More

The Crowd Within
The Economist, June 26 -- Until now, psychologists have assumed that when people make a guess, they make the most accurate guess that they can. Ask them to make a second and it should, by definition, be less accurate. If that were true, averaging the first and second guesses should decrease the accuracy. Yet Edward Vul at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harold Pashler at UCSD have revealed in a study just published in Psychological Science that the average of first and second guesses is indeed better than either guess on its own. More

Breast Cancer Vaccines Look Promising
The Washington Post, June 27 -- Women with metastatic breast cancer who developed an immune response to an investigational vaccine lived twice as long as those who didn't have an immune response, new research shows. (Quotes Dr. Davorka Messmer, an assistant project scientist at the Moores Cancer Center at UCSD, who conducted similar research) More

Similar story on
CBC, Canada
WTOC, Savannah, Ga.
New Channel 5, Nashville, Tenn.

Bio-Sleuths Track Down the Sources of Outbreaks
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 27 -- Epidemiologists are the mystery solvers of the medical world. While the bugs they battle often grab headlines – think Ebola virus and mad cow disease – much of their work goes unnoticed and unappreciated by the public. The truth is that life would be far more precarious without them, said Dr. Joshua Fierer, a professor of medicine at UCSD. More

Voting: It's In Your DNA
Live Science, June 27 -- Voting could be in your genes, according to a study of twins. Political scientist James Fowler of UCSD and his colleagues analyzed voting patterns of identical and non-identical twins from a sample in Los Angeles County and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. More

Sentencing for University City Rapist
KFMB, June 27 -- Sentencing is scheduled Friday for a Carmel Valley man who raped two female UCSD medical students in their University City apartments over a nine-month period in 2005 and 2006. More

Scripps Institution of Oceanography Climate Forecast Innovator Dies
San Diego Daily Transcript, June 26 -- John Roads, a climate researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD who took long-range climate prediction capability to new levels of sophistication, died following a two-year battle with leukemia on June 21. More

Briefs
San Diego Daily Transcript, June 26 – The UCSD Medical Center has taken the next step toward building a new inpatient tower on its East Campus-La Jolla location by selecting Cannon Design, an international architectural, engineering and planning firm, to lead the project. More