A Sampling of Clips for October 15^th, 2009

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

Saudis Seek Payments for Any Drop in Oil Revenues
CNBC, Oct. 14 -- The oil-rich kingdom has pushed this position for years in earlier climate-treaty negotiations. While it has not succeeded, its efforts have sometimes delayed or disrupted discussions. The kingdom is once again gearing up to take a hard line on the issue at international negotiations scheduled for Copenhagen in December. The chief Saudi negotiator, Mohammad al-Sabban, described the position as a “make or break” provision for the Saudis, as nations stake out their stance before the global climate summit scheduled for the end of the year. (Quotes David G. Victor, an energy expert at UCSD) More

The Gift of Life, and Its Price
The New York Times, Oct. 10 -- Scary. Like aliens. That is how Kerry Mastera remembers her twins, Max and Wes, in the traumatic days after they were born nine weeks early. Machines forced air into the infants’ lungs, pushing their tiny chests up and down in artificial heaves. Tubes delivered nourishment. They were so small her husband’s wedding band fit around an entire baby foot. (Quotes Dr. Frank L. Mannino, medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at the UCSD Medical Center) More

New Life Sciences Startup Shows UCSD Technology
Can Boost Immune Response to Cancer in Mice
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 14 -- Research published today has revealed the existence of a new San Diego life sciences company that is working to commercialize anti-cancer technologies intended to boost the immune system to resist tumor growth. A paper in the journal PloS ONE shows that a gene for a specially engineered form of a protein called CD40 ligand (CD40L), developed by former researchers from UCSD, can be used to activate the immune system to fight tumors in mice.More

Scientists Scan the Brains of Mice Playing Quake
Wired, Oct. 14 -- By putting sensors in the brains of mice as they ran through a Quake-derived virtual reality, scientists have found a way to study neurological activity in moving animals. The setup allows for real-time, almost-real-motion tracking of single neurons. That feat has eluded researchers who have a fuzzy, general understanding of brain systems, but little knowledge of how individual cells actually work. They hope that cell-level details will make sense of motion, cognition and other complex mental functions. “One of the major research areas of neuroscience is the development of techniques to study the brain at cellular resolution,” said Princeton University neuroscientist David Tank, co-author of the study published Wednesday in Nature. “The information of the nervous system is contained in the activity of individual neurons.” (Quotes UCSD cognitive scientist Douglas Nitz’s commentary that accompanied the findings) More

Cancer Center Receives $6 Million Federal Grant
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 14 -- The Moores UCSD Cancer Center in La Jolla will receive $6 million from the federal government to examine adjuvants, or chemicals that boost the body's immune-system response to vaccines, the center's officials said Monday. The grant was part of $60 million handed out by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to six research institutions for the study of adjuvants in animal and human cells. The money will be delivered over the next five years, and the UCSD center will collaborate on the research with the University of California San Francisco and Life Technologies, a biotechnology tools company in San Diego. More

Chicano History Mural at UCSD
KUSI, Oct. 14 -- Bridget Naso was out at UCSD, where today at noon they're going to officially unveil a Chicano history mural by world-renowned San Diego-based artist, Mario Torero. More

Similar story in Fox 5

Freaky New "Ghost Shark" ID'd off California Coast
KFMB, Oct. 14 -- Local scientists are buzzing about a new species of shark that's been identified just in time for Halloween. A new ghost shark species was found off the coast of Southern California, and scientists say it's weirder than any shark they know. In this Earth 8 report, Kimberly King has more from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. More

Calculating the Cost of Climate Change
XETV, Oct. 13 -- San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography is pairing with one of the world's largest insurers to pin down the costs of global climate change.
The partnership between Scripps and the Willis Group of London will involve Scripps researchers collecting data on the effect of changes in the weather and sea level so it can be used by Willis to assess its exposure to financial risks from weather-related catastrophes. More

New York Times Columnist Coming to UCSD
San Diego Business Journal, Oct. 12 -- A favorite quote comes from controversial 1960s UCSD professor Herbert Marcuse: “It is for the sake of those without hope that hope is given.” Despite our political differences, he had a lot to say about the era. So, let’s come full circle 40 years later. Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof speaks about his new book, “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” Oct. 28 on campus. The book covers his journey through Africa and Asia and his encounters with women struggling in dire circumstances and ways to help. Details at helenedison.ucsd.edu … Speaking of news on campus, senior Mark Galvan becomes the nation’s first “green” intern in the nation’s capital. He’s working three days a week in the Office of the Architect of the Capitol and two days a week for local U.S. Rep. Susan Davis. Galvan’s been involved in a number of green projects at the campus as a student … A happy story in tough times. More

New UCSD Facility Wins
Construction and Design Award
San Diego Daily Transcript, Oct. 14 -- The Conrad Prebys Music Center at UCSD has been named the best “Higher Education/Research Facility” in Southern California for its construction and design by the McGraw-Hill publication, California Construction. The facility beat out more than 125 nominated projects that were completed between Sept. 1, 2008 and Aug. 31, 2009. Submitted projects were judged by an independent panel of industry experts in design and construction. More

Surgeon Joins UCSD Medical Center
La Jolla Light, Oct. 14 -- Roger Sur, M.D., a urologic surgeon certified by the American Board of Urology, will launch a comprehensive kidney stone treatment center at the UCSD Medical Center. It is the first program of its kind in Southern California dedicated to the medical prevention, advanced surgical treatment and research of kidney stone disease. More

UCSD Fund Gets Major Gift; Jacobs, Foster Kick Start Campaign to Battle Rising Fees
La Jolla Light, Oct. 15 -- The cost of a University of California education rises, three local philanthropists are fighting the impacts of the recession with major donations to UCSD's scholarship fund. La Jollans Irwin Jacobs, founder of Qualcomm, his wife Joan and Rancho Santa Fe resident Pauline Foster made a total contribution of $3.9 million to begin the "Invent the Future" campaign. The Jacobs' donation of $1.4 million will fund scholarships and fellowships for the Jacobs School of Engineering, while Foster's $2.5 million will go to MBA student fellowships in the Rady School of Management. More

Poles Apart
San Diego Reader, Oct. 14 -- Everybody knows that Democrats and Republicans are barely speaking these days. But two political scientists at the University of California at San Diego are statistically quantifying this mutual contempt: “Political polarization is at a post–Civil War high,” says Keith Poole, poly sci prof who, along with two academics at other institutions, has carefully plotted the partisanship in Congressional roll call votes from the 1870s to the present. Today’s yawning and widening gap between Republicans and Democrats (both Northern and Southern) is startling. In the adjoining office at UCSD is Gary Jacobson, another poly sci prof. Jacobson plots the polarization of the public, as well as partisans and activists within the public, based on opinion polls. More

Cash Prizes
San Diego Reader, Oct. 14 -- Last week, controversial
J. Craig Venter, millionaire, self-styled master of the human genome, and UCSD alumnus who maintains a handsome home in La Jolla, received the prestigious National Medal of Science from Barack Obama at a White House ceremony. Whether by coincidence or not, Venter is a big Democratic donor, though he favored the campaign of Hillary Clinton over that of Obama in the 2008 presidential derby, $7150 to $4600. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically