A Sampling of Clips for September 30^th, 2009

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

China to Parade its New and Improved Arsenal
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 30 – Chinese leaders have told their diplomats to seek greater political and economic influence, changing tack from the low profile they relied on for decades to ally foreign concerns about the country's growing might. China's new status found voice in last year's Beijing Olympics was bolstered by its role in fighting the global financial crisis and will be cemented on Thursday with the 60th birthday of the People's Republic. President Hu Jintao earlier this year publicly urged ambassadors to give China a more powerful international presence. (Quotes said Susan Shirk, director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and professor of political science at UCSD’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies) More

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Chicago Tribune
Yahoo! India

Study: Parents Lie to Children Surprisingly Often
MSN, Sept. 29 – Parents might say "honesty is the best policy," but when it comes to interacting with their own kids, mom and dad stretch the truth with the best of them, finds a new study. From claiming the existence of magical creatures to odd consequences of kids' actions, parents often come up with creative tales to shape a child's behaviors and emotions. "We are surprised by how often parenting by lying takes place," said study researcher Kang Lee of the University of Toronto, Canada. "Our findings showed that even the parents who most strongly promoted the importance of honesty with their children engaged in parenting by lying." (Quotes study researcher Gail Heyman professor in UCSD’s Department of Psychology) More

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Fox News
Yahoo! News
The Global Mail 

UCSD Joins Landmark Study of Breast Cancer
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 30 -- Researchers at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center in La Jolla and the four other UC campuses with medical schools yesterday launched what could become one of the nation's largest studies on breast cancer. The Athena Breast Health Network will spend several decades looking at screening and treatment for 150,000 women in California. The coordinators hope to expand their project by enlisting participation from outside medical centers. They aim to identify factors that lead to development of tumors, unlock new therapies for the disease and generate mountains of data that will take years for cancer experts worldwide to analyze. More

To Begin and Continue: Miller Theater Adventure
The New York Times, Sept. 24 – On Wednesday night Melissa Smey began her first full season as the director of the Miller Theater at Columbia University. It was clear from the kickoff program, “ ‘The Blue Rider’ in Performance,” a fascinating multimedia project presented in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process series, that the Miller Theater will be just as adventurous as it was under George Steel, Ms. Smey’s predecessor. (Mentions Susan Narucki, professor in UCSD’s Department of Music) More

La Jolla Company Develops Pain-Free Melanoma Test
10 News, Sept. 29 -- A local company has developed a new method of detecting the deadliest form of skin cancer, 10News reported. About 70,000 people are diagnosed with melanoma each year. Right now, a doctor has to cut a patient's mole and send it to a lab for results -- a process that many patients say is painful and often times comes back negative. (Mentions Dr. Bill Wachsman, a cancer researcher at UCSD and at the VA Medical Center) More

RNA: No Longer Just a Messenger Boy
Voice of San Diego, Sept. 30 -- The cause is as simple as it is lethal. Huntington's Disease slowly destroys brain cells, eventually leaving sufferers unable to talk, think clearly or even walk by themselves. The culprit is a defective copy of a single gene -- one out of more than 25,000 in the human genetic code. If the defective gene could be magically switched off, it would stop the disease dead in its tracks. (Quotes Steven Dowdy, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of cellular and molecular medicine at UCSD School of Medicine) More

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