A Sampling of Clips for
May 21st, 2007
* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office
Ooh, Ooh, Taze Me Next
Los Angeles Times, May 18 -- Tasers don't harm healthy humans, according to new research conducted by UCSD emergency medicine physicians. This they learned after zapping 32 willing volunteers from the local sheriff's department then measuring various vital signs. Cheerfully agreeing to be Tazed may sound bizarre, but it fits into a solid medical tradition of willing self-experimentation. More
Fly Moves: Insects Buzz About in Organized Abandon
Science News , May 19 -- Flies aren't deep thinkers. Yet these humble creatures display a penchant for spontaneous behavior that represents an evolutionary building block of voluntary choice, also known as free will, a controversial new study suggests. Chih-hao Hsieh and George Sugihara of UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography worked on the study. More
Ice Age Blast 'Ravaged America'
BBC News, May 21 -- A controversial new idea suggests that a large space rock exploded over North America 13,000 years ago. The blast may have wiped out one of America's first Stone Age cultures as well as the continent's big mammals such as the mammoth and the mastodon. (Quotes Jeff Severinghaus, a palaeoclimatologist at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More
Afghans Fighting Another Tragic Battle: Heroin Addiction
The Vancouver Sune, May 20 -- Although it is a strict Muslim country, held in the grip of a fundamentalist regime for five years until 2001, Afghanistan is suffering from a boom in heroin addiction. (Quotes Catherine Todd, an epidemiologist from UCSD who is working in Kabul) More
Surgery Offers Mixed Blessings for Incontinence
Reuters, May 21 -- Surgery that uses an internal sling to support the body's urine tube worked better to fix a type of incontinence in women than another method, but any procedure is unlikely to work perfectly, doctors reported on Monday. Dr. Michael Albo of UCSD and his colleagues wrote the report, released to coincide with a meeting of the American Urological Association. More
Pediatric HIV/AIDS Research Funds Cut
Oakland Tribune, May 20 -- Children with HIV/AIDS in Northern California and the Central Valley no longer have access to experimental, cutting-edge treatments because of federal funding cuts, effective this spring. That's because there are so few children in the region with HIV/AIDS — about 160 patients total — the area's major research centers no longer qualify for participation. Meanwhile, UCLA, which has a larger pediatric AIDS program, and UCSD, which has an AIDS clinic in Mexico, both had their funding grants renewed by the National Institutes of Health. More
Unhealthy Records
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 20 -- For nearly two decades, physicians, health experts and even U.S. presidents have declared the nation within reach of the holy grail of medical information technology: a vast computerized network linking hospitals, doctors' offices, pharmacies, laboratories, clinics and insurers that would allow a patient's comprehensive medical record to accompany him around the nation's fractured health care system. UCSD's Thornton Hospital in La Jolla recently started using portable laser scanners to read bar codes printed on patient wristbands and on prescription drugs. More
The Climate Change Scientist: Questions for Richard Somerville
Voice of San Diego, May 19 -- Richard C.J. Somerville, a distinguished professor at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was one of four local scientists who contributed work to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The group, which included dozens of scientists worldwide, issued a landmark report earlier this year that effectively cemented the scientific consensus that the world is growing warmer -- and that humans are causing the change. More
UCSD's Season Ends With Loss in Regionals
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 19 --UCSD's baseball season ended yesterday in the NCAA Division II West Regionals when the 22nd-ranked Tritons lost to top-ranked Sonoma State 10-3. UCSD went 0-2 in the regionals. More
Dozens Arrested
in Underage Drinking Crack Down
NBC San Diego, May 19 --A major undercover operation going on this weekend at UCSD aimed to crack down on underage drinking, NBC 7/39 reported. Officers said they made dozens of arrests and issued hundreds of citations at Sungod, an annual day-long festival that is supposed to be alcohol free. Agents with the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control said the alcohol is usually hidden in water bottles and energy drinks. More
Scholars Beyond University Walls
Voice of San Diego, May 19 --If you think arbitrage -- trade that takes advantage of price differences between markets -- is a modern financial practice, Aline Hornaday knows some medieval farmers who had it down cold. In fact, they were so good at arbitrage that they blocked the emperor Charlemagne from imposing uniform weights and measures across his empire, even though his public works and political reforms laid the tracks for modern Europe. (Quotes UCSD's Stanley Chodorow) More