A Sampling of Clips for 
March 23, 2006

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

Sleep Deprivation: The Great American Myth
Live Science, March 23 -- Many Americans are sleep-deprived zombies, and a quarter of us now use some form of sleeping pill or aid at night. Wake up, says psychiatry professor Daniel Kripke of UCSD. The pill-taking is real but the refrain that Americans are sleep deprived originates largely from people funded by the drug industry or with financial interests in sleep research clinics. More

Girl Power
L.A. Daily News, March 23 -- Recent studies show that in fourth grade, boys and girls are about even 68 percent to 66 percent when asked whether they like science and would consider becoming a scientist when they grow up. By eighth grade, twice as many boys like science as girls do, and the number of girls taking higher-level courses in high school drops dramatically. Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut and a physicist at UCSD, has dedicated herself the last few years to changing the perception that girls on the whole aren't very good at those subjects, or that math and science are boring. (Also quotes Karen Flammer, a research physicist at UCSD) More

Trauma Trials Leave Ethicists Uneasy
Nature, March 22 -- A US trial of an experimental blood substitute given to trauma patients who cannot give consent is stirring concern about the way that such 'no consent' trials are run. (Mentions UCSD; quotes Michael Caligiuri, UCSD's director of clinical research.) More

Custom Druggists Defending Turf
Orange County Register, March 23 -- A national turf war is heating up over women's hormones. At stake: the survival of compounding pharmacies, including 14 in Orange County. The pharmaceutical equivalent of custom clothing designers, such pharmacies create prescription medications tailored to individual patients. (Quotes Dr. Cynthia Stuenkel, a spokeswoman for the North American Menopause Society and clinical professor of medicine at UCSD.) More

KPBS Profiles ‘New Medicine’
North County Times, March 23 -- Many Americans have learned that health insurance companies will pay to treat an illness, and not a dime to prevent one. Is it just a medical utopia to think there might be a place where the person is treated, and not just the disease? "The New Medicine," which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday on KPBS/Channel 15, is a national program that looks at the field of "integrated medicine," a practice that combines treating the patient's physical, mental and spiritual health, using a combination of Western and Eastern medical practices. (Quotes Dr. Ellen Beck, director of the UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic Project; also mentions Telly Awards won by UCSD-TV.) More

CCAT Plays Matchmaker for New Technology
San Diego Daily Transcript, March 22 -- When Dan Hyman of XCOM Wireless Inc., a start-up developer of cell phone chips, received a grant from the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technologies, or CCAT, he was happy. He was happier still when he was given the opportunity to give his “elevator” pitch to a room teeming with potential investors and venture capitalists at UCSD’s Faculty Club on Wednesday evening. More