A Sampling of Clips for 
October 25 - 30, 2003

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

A Clue to What Hurts Ozone Layer
Copley News Service, Oct. 26-Scientists from the University of California, San Diego, UC Irvine and UC Berkeley have discovered a gene in a common mustard plant that triggers the production of gases harmful to the ozone layer. (Quote by Martin Yanofsky, a UC San Diego biology professor and a co-author of the study.)
* No link available online.

Can Something Really Scare you to Death?
Cox News Service, Oct. 28-Fear is a powerful emotion and one that has fascinated scientists and medical experts, not to mention authors, for centuries. Once question scientist have been trying to answer is whether or not you could die from fear alone. Sociologist David Phillips of the University of California, San Diego, did a study about two years ago trying to determine whether this was a possibility, or just another horror story.
* No link available online.

Professors Find a Market for Tech Ideas
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 26-UC San Diego professor H. Kirk Hammond expected only modest monetary rewards when he made a revolutionary medical discovery for the treatment of angina patients. His focus was on the millions of people suffering from heart disease and chest pain. Hammond never dreamed his innovation would spur the creation of his own biotech company.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sun/news/news_1n26tech.html

UC Admissions; Review to Determine if Changes are Needed
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 25-Boards of education are being buffeted by social as well as scholastic crosscurrents. Nowhere is this more evident than the controversy over student admissions to the University of California. The question is whether UCSD and the other five selective campuses are abusing the two-year-old "comprehensive review" process approved by the UC Board of Regents. Robert Dynes, now president of the UC system, was right to call for a comprehensive review of student-admissions policy at all UC campuses. If the regents determine the policy to be flawed, they will fine-tune it or rewrite it altogether.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/opinion/news_mz1ed25top.html

Sun-generated magnetic storms bombard Earth
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 25-The sun has hurled huge magnetic storms that began hitting the Earth's atmosphere yesterday, threatening to damage satellites, cut airline communications and disrupt electricity grids. The bombardment results from periodic explosions on the surface of the sun called coronal mass ejections, which spew billions of tons of ionized gas and strong magnetic fields into space at 2 million miles per hour. (Quote by
Bernard Jackson, a solar physicist at UCSD.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/metro/news_7m25sun.html

Inventors' Competition Lauds Small Breakthroughs
Smalltimes, Oct. 29-Jamie Link, a graduate student in chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, won the $50,000 top prize for developing nanoparticle silicon chips that could rapidly and remotely detect biological and chemical agents. She made the discovery when a silicon chip accidentally broke in the process of making a multilayer film of porous silicon on crystalline substrate. She found that she could make the particles different colors and program them to detect substances.
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=6847

With 'Sinatra,' McAnuff does it his way
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 26-Throwing caution to the wind, Des McAnuff, UCSD's La Jolla Playhouse artistic director, told an interviewer from CNN that his recent Frank Sinatra extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall was "stupidly ambitious, but a lot of fun." The critical response -- no surprise -- was less warm than the popular one, which ranged from enthusiastic to ecstatic.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20031026-9999_1a26welsh.html

If it Ain't Broke . . . Legions of Tech Users are Finding Ways to Squeeze New Life out of Aging Equipment
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 27-Many technology users hold on to and squeeze the life out of gadgets long ago declared obsolete by Madison Avenue. Micro Star isn't the only owner of dot-matrix printers in the area. One example of this is at he University of California San Diego, where dot-matrix printers allow beginning computer programmers to print out and debug programs. The printers excel at printing draft-quality text, so they are well-suited to the task, said Mike Stark, the campus's manager of desktop support, in an e-mail interview.
(Quote by Mike Stark, campus's manager of desktop support at UCSD.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/mon/business/news_mz1b27broke.html

Balancing Act; Menopausal and Post-Menopausal Women Weigh the Risks vs. the Benefits of Hormone Therapy
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 26- In the last 15 months since a national study detected increased health risks for long-term users of a hormone treatment, women across the country have been feeling frustrated and perplexed as they question the wisdom of using hormones during and after menopause. Subsequent studies indicated that some women on the estrogen-progesterone therapy also may have a higher risk of developing dementia and ovarian cancer. (Quote by Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, professor of family and preventive medicine at UCSD.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20031026-9999_mz1c26act.html

High-Tech Tribes; American Indian Group Starts Digital Printing Business
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 26-To kick off the opening of a high-tech printing business here, eight American Indian men, most with long hair or braids, stood in front of a digital printer and sang a song. Such was the first day of business for Hi Rez Digital Solutions, a new for-profit venture wholly owned by the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association. (Quote by Ross Frank, an associate professor of ethnic studies at University of California San Diego.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20031026-9999_m1m26native.html

Musing About the City we Love to Live in
San Diego Union-Tribune, Neil Morgan Column, Oct. 26- The romance of the Revelle family history in San Diego is pleasant to unravel. It informs us of a single dedicated couple's noblesse oblige. Ellen and Roger Revelle aspired, through their careers and philanthropy, to help shape San Diego's growth. Of all the grandiose visions that Roger plotted and Ellen assisted, none was more complex than building the University of California in San Diego.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sun/metro/news_1m26morgan.html

Notable Scientists Climb Aboard For Lift-Off of Cable Science Net
Cable World, Oct. 27-Carl Sagan, whose PBS series Cosmos was watched by more than half a billion viewers, once said, "It is suicidal to create a society dependent on science and technology in which hardly anybody knows anything about science and technology." Now his widow and fellow scientist, Ann Druyan, is picking up the gauntlet of popularizing scientific understanding by supporting the Cable Science Network. (Quote by V.S. Ramachandran, the director of the center for brain and cognition at the University of California, San Diego.)
* No link available online.

FIRE RELATED ARTICLES

Effects of Wildfire Smoke Vary, Experts Say
New York Times, Oct. 30-The inhalation of tiny smoke particles from wildfires, while unpleasant, is unlikely to cause long-term damage to healthy people unless it occurs over a prolonged period, doctors and environmental health specialists said. At the University of California at San Diego Medical Center, a spokeswoman reported that earlier in the week the number of people visiting the emergency room for respiratory complaints had increased by 50 percent. A hospital-affiliated clinic down the street, she added, was seeing twice the usual number of patients with respiratory problems. (Quote by Dr. William Hughson, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego.)
* No link available online.

Weather Offers Some Relief From California Wildfires, but Far Too Late for Many
New York Times, Oct. 28- The weather in California provided some relief on Monday after a weekend of destruction that leveled more than 900 structures, killed at least 14 people and charred 430,000 acres in four southern Californian counties. The Santa Ana winds abated in most parts of the region as hundreds of additional firefighters and pieces of equipment moved into the area. Doctors at the University of California San Diego Regional Burn Unit, the only major burn unit in the county, were treating many of the survivors Monday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/28/national/28FIRE.html

Converging On a Stadium For Shelter
New York Times, Oct. 28-By late Monday morning, Qualcomm Stadium here had become a refugee center for 3,000 people fleeing the firestorms of Southern California. Along the main gate of the stadium, so many volunteers had gathered to hand out food, clothing and even pet food that some, like Roberta Cruz, 21, and Andrew Quadri, 22, students at the University of California at San Diego, found that their physical labor was not needed. Instead, creating signs that read "Hugs Here," they offered something a little more intangible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/28/national/28STAD.html

Fear, Frustration Blanket Wildfire-Devastated California
Associated Press, Oct. 28-For every person left crying amid the rubble of a lost home, thousands more suffered a more everyday misery in the cloud of haze, fear and frustration that surrounded California's wildfires. Few lives were untouched by the fires, which shut down freeways, grounded planes, halted trains and burned power poles. University of California, San Diego, Medical Center had some staff members who lost their homes in the fire but continued to work, spokeswoman Eileen Callahan said.
* No link available online.

Calif. Crews Try to Outflank Flames Death Toll at 20
Boston Globe, Oct. 30-Firefighters racing from house to house fought yesterday to save historic mountain towns in two Southern California counties from one of the most destructive wildfires in the state's history. The research of Richard Carson, the chairman of the economics department at the University of California at San Diego, hit close to home the last couple of days. Carson has studied how limited fire suppression in Baja California, Mexico, has allowed small blazes - even at the risk of losing homes - to burn and create natural firebreaks that protect many more homes.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/303/nation/Calif_crews_try_to_outflank_flames+.shtml

Delay in Aerial Water Drops Is Criticized
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 29- As fire continued to destroy large portions of San Diego County, the dispute between some local officials and the administration of Gov. Gray Davis intensified Tuesday over why aerial tankers and water-laden helicopters were not available in the first two days of the blaze. (Quote by Richard Carson, an economics professor at UC San Diego.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sandiegooct29,1,5044079.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Fires Hammer Businesses with Closures, Shipping Woes
USA Today, Oct. 30-Business disruptions continued in fire-struck Southern California on Wednesday amid delayed shipments, company closures and travel glitches. Gov. Gray Davis has said the cost to battle and clean up after the fires could hit $2 billion. But while that's a blow to a cash-strapped state reeling from the economic slowdown, it's unlikely to have a lasting impact. (Quote by University of California, San Diego, economics professor Richard Carson.)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2003-10-29-firebiz_x.htm

Tiny Smoke Particles are Biggest Threat to Public Health
San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 28-As smoke and ash filled the skies over fire-stricken San Diego and San Bernardino counties, doctors warned residents Monday to stay indoors or wear protective masks if they must venture outdoors. (Quote by Dr. William Hughson, a pulmonary medicine specialist and director of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at UC San Diego.)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/28/MNGSD2KO4L1.DTL

Commentary; An Ill Wind Blows Toward an Even More Inhospitable Climate
Los Angeles Times, Opinion, Oct. 30- There's more bad news for those watching the fires raging uncontrollably through Southern California: the prediction that in the years ahead, global warming will intensify our weather patterns, leading to an increase in the droughts and floods to which California is naturally prone. More droughts, in turn, will almost certainly mean more fires; more floods will mean more mudslides. (Article written by Naomi Oreskes, an associate professor of history and director, of the science studies program at UC San Diego.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-oreskes30oct30,1,7787649.story

L.A.'s Foresight Leaves Questions for San Diegans
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 30-As thousands of homes in Porter Ranch, a sprawling tract in Los Angeles, were saved from the fire by continuous airstrikes by helicopter, San Diegans question whether such heroics might have helped here. Despite urgent warnings, politicians here never invested public funds into a local firefighting air fleet. (Quote by Steve Erie, a political scientist at UCSD.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/thu/news/news_1n30chopper.html

It's House-to-House Combat as Aid Awaited
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 28- After leveling a pair of rural East County communities, what is now the largest wildfire in San Diego County history turned yesterday on Julian, forcing evacuations there for the second time in two years. UCSD's Burn Unit has treated 13 patients, some of them with second-or third-degree burns - as severe as UCSD has ever treated, said trauma director Dr. David Hoyt.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/fires/20031028-9999_1n28main.html

Same article appeared in:
Copley News Service, Oct. 28
* No link available online.

Schools Keep Students Indoors as Hazardous Smoke Lingers
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 30- Outdoor physical education classes, after-school tennis practices and lunchtime basketball games were canceled this week for hundreds of thousands of Southern California students. Even in areas far from the wildfires, lingering smoke forced many schools to keep students inside and ban outdoor exercise. The UC San Diego women's soccer team drove up the freeway to use the practice field at San Clemente High School, where smoke was dissipating and air improving.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-schools30oct30,1,978502.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Handling the Emotional Impact of the Fires
KFMB, Channel 8, Oct. 28- It's been several days since the fires broke out across the San Diego county, and disbelief and distress are normal reactions being felt by many San Diegans. According to the experts, the sheer shock of an event like this is enough to trigger a whole array of emotions. (Dr. Steven Hickman, a UCSD staff psychologist.)
http://www.kfmb.com/healthcast/details.php?storyID=19405

County's Air Quality Called Unhealthy for Everyone
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 28- Countless San Diego residents who are trying to go about their lives amid the orange-gray smoke, are suffering from such symptoms as burning eyes, sore throats, coughing and heavy, tight chests. What's afflicting them is what they cannot see: the high number of tiny particles created by the fires. (Quote by Dr. William Hughson, UCSD director of environmental and occupational medicine.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/fires/20031028-9999_1n28health.html

Same article appeared in:
Copley News Service, Oct. 28
* No link available online.