A Sampling of Clips for 
March 9, 2006

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

Sculpting in the City
The New York Times, March 8 – UCSD alumna Deborah Fisher is a 34-year-old sculptor working at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens. Her quest: "There has to be some way to look at climate change that isn't desperate, that doesn't waste time on blame or politics or collapse into end-of-times lists of future plagues and floods." More

It’s the Expression, Stupid
ScienceNOW, March 8 -- On a genetic level, humans and apes are nearly identical, sharing between 96% and 99% of their DNA. So what makes us so different? A new study argues that it comes down to where, when, and how vigorously these genes are expressed. (Quotes Ajit Varki, physician-scientist at UCSD.) More

Local Alliance
for Stem Cell Research Proposed
San Diego Union-Tribune, March 9 -- In an effort to vault San Diego to worldwide leadership in stem cell research, four La Jolla research institutes plan to join forces and seek state funding to build a facility for human embryonic stem cell research. UCSD is offering to make a site on its campus available for the facility, people involved with the project confirmed last night. It is the first of its kind to be proposed in California. In addition to UCSD, the consortium would include the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, The Scripps Research Institute and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. (Quotes Dr. Edward Holmes, UCSD’s vice chancellor of health sciences and head of the School of Medicine.) More

Beaches Bring Benefits
San Diego Union-Tribune, March 9 -- What is the value of a sandy beach? For a farm family in Chiapas, it's worth a weekly ration of rice and beans. For the city of Cancun, it's worth 315,000 jobs. For the government of President Vicente Fox, it's worth billions of dollars a year in the federal treasury. The powdery white sand lining Cancun's shore brings hard currency to Mexico, making it one of the country's most valuable natural resources. So when Hurricane Wilma's 140 mph winds stripped away eight miles of beach in October, it was clear the sand had to be put back, no matter what the cost. (Quotes research engineer Dick Seymour of UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography). More

Campus Provost Announces
Initiative to Find, Keep UCSC Faculty
Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 9 -- The UC system is expecting to miss its target of increased enrollment — 5,000 students — by 50 percent this year. The only campus to reach the target was UCSD. More

Tobacco Promos Promote Smoking
MyDNA News, March 8 -- Promotional offers from cigarette makers are used by more than one-third of smokers, a new study finds, and are most likely to be used by young adults and African-Americans. "Our results provide strong evidence that tobacco-industry promotional offers are particularly appealing to certain market segments," say researchers led by Elizabeth A. Gilpin, M.S., of the cancer center at UCSD. More