A Sampling of Clips for November 19^th, 2008

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

Obama Grabs the Reins
ScienceNOW, Nov. 18 -- Barack Obama's transition team has announced the officials who will review personnel and policies at federal agencies for the new Administration, including dozens who will begin visits to examine the work of science agencies this week. Prominent among the hundreds of people is Nobelist Mario Molina of UCSD, who along with former White House science and technology official Thomas Kalil will head the review of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. More

Satellite Risks Losing sight of Earth
Nature, Nov. 19 -- NASA is scrambling to work out what to do with a US$100-million Earth-science satellite that has been sitting on a sanitized shelf in Greenbelt, Maryland, for nearly eight years. Francisco Valero is the mission's principal investigator at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. More

Hispanic Panic for The GOP
CBS News, Nov. 18 -- Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American Republican from the Miami area, puts it bluntly: "We have a very, very serious problem." He is referring to the GOP's lack of support among Hispanics, which could derail the party's future presidential hopes. (Mentions research by Gordon Hanson and Craig McIntosh of UCSD) More

'Stealing' Keys by Camera Proven Easy
Discovery Channel, Nov. 19 -- Scientists at UCSD have developed a software algorithm that automatically creates a physical key based solely on a picture of one, regardless of angle or distance. The project, called Sneakey, was meant to warn people about the dangers of haphazardly placing keys in the open or posting images of them online. More

Cheap Gas: Thanks for Nothing
Globe and Mail, Nov. 19 -- When the price of gasoline was on the rise earlier this year, we were inundated with reports on how the steep price of a fill-up was draining crucial money from consumers. But now that gas prices are falling sharply, shouldn't consumers be swimming in cash and saving the economy from ruin? (Quotes UCSD economist James Hamilton) More

How Air Imperils the Sea
Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 18 -- If the rising level of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is a slowly ticking time bomb, some scientists say, the CO2 building in seawater is a depth charge about to explode. (Quotes Victoria Fabry, a marine biologist and visiting researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD) More

Primary Frustration
KPBS, Nov. 19 -- A new nationwide survey of primary care doctors shows widespread dissatisfaction with the medical business. Nearly half of the physicians who responded said they would get out of medicine if they could. Dr. Jess Mandel, a dean at UCSD's School of Medicine, says students who graduate with enormous debt often look for more lucrative specialties. More

The Powers to Be
San Diego Magazine, November 2008 -- At 29, Lihini I. Aluwihare was the youngest professor ever hired at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. As professor of marine chemistry, Aluwihare spends weeks at sea studying ecosystems and the impacts of climate change and carbon-dioxide emissions on the ocean. More

A Disciplined Scribe
San Diego CityBeat, Nov. 18 -- Author Joyce Carol Oates has kicked it out since 1963—more than 50 novels, 33 collections of short stories and a bunch of other stuff (poetry, plays, pseudononymous crime novels), and, at 70, she’s still going strong. It’s safe to say she’s one of the country’s greatest living writers. She’ll also appear at the Faculty Club on the UCSD campus from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23. More

UCSD’s Taylor Awarded 2009 Axelrod Award in Pharmacology
San Diego Daily Transcript, Nov. 18 -- Palmer Taylor, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for Health Sciences, and founding dean of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSD, has been awarded the 2009 Julius Axelrod Award in Pharmacology by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Mor

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