STORIES
FROM UCSD
 Fieldworkers
on the Frontera
Twenty-one UCSD undergraduates journeyed south of the border last January to
learn firsthand what brings untold numbers of Mexican migrants north.  MORE
Quasar
Quandary
Astronomers have long assumed that quasars are among the farthest and fastest
moving objects in the universe. MORE
Roaming
with Wi-Fi
Road warriors, you may no longer have to quarantine yourselves in an airport
lounge or Starbucks to Wi-Fi the Internet. New software invented by computer
scientists at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering now makes it possible
to really ‘roam’ with a laptop, PDA
or Wi-Fi phone. MORE
Running,
Walking, Standing...
Come on back and celebrate 10 years of the 5K that’s turning into one of
UCSD’s biggest parties. Whether you walk, run,
or just watch, come and join the 1,500
faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends on campus for the 10th anniversary
Chancellor’s Challenge 5K Run/Walk
for Scholars. MORE
Salman
Rushdie
Salman Rushdie gained notoriety with his 1989 book Satanic
Verses and the consequent death
sentence issued by the former Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini.
MORE
Self
Cleaning Air
We’ve all benefited from catalytic converters
and their reduction of automobile emissions. Now UCSD chemists have
discovered
that chemical processes in the atmosphere itself are removing hydrocarbons
at a faster rate than once believed.
MORE
Starve
a Tumor
Like an expanding city lobbying for more freeways, growing tumors
need to stimulate the development of new blood vessels. As a tumor
grows, cells in its center find their oxygen supply reduced, and
respond by sending out chemical signals that make blood vessels
proliferate.
MORE
Who’s
in Third?
What’s in a name? To many UCSD alumni, Third by any other name
does not smell as sweet.
In a survey in the Campus Loop
e-newsletter, 64 percent of alumni
who attended a college while it was still unnamed identified with
the
number, and only 36 percent identified with the new name. MORE
Teacher’s
Little Helper-Bots
The children hug RUBI, but she doesn’t hug them back—at
least not yet. That’s because she’s still a developing
humanoid robot.
RUBI, aka Robot Using Bayesian Inference, is the evolving creation
of the Machine Perception Laboratory at UCSD. MORE
WIISARD Performs its Magic
Hazmat
officers dressed in yellow safety suits pick their way through
the simulated wreckage of a terrorist attack at San Diego’s
Cruise Ship Terminal. They are closely followed by computer-science
graduate student Neil McCurdy, wearing his own emergency gear:
a helmet with a built-in video camera; a wireless modem connecting
him to a mobile command post nearby. MORE
Kudos
Kudos to the following professors.
MORE
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ENCORE
Thirty years ago:
October 1, 1975
Imbalance Limits UC San Diego
to Two-Year Accreditation: UC San Diego had an unorganized administrative structure
and a heavy imbalance between sciences and humanities in
1973, reported the accreditation team that visited the campus
that year. The team, while “much impressed with the
hospitality, friendliness and frankness of faculty, students
and administration,” also criticized UCSD’s self-study
report as being “most inadequate and incomplete.” UCSD
was seeking a 10-year ccreditation then;
it received two years.
Twenty years ago:
October 3, 1985
An Ugly Story: In the early morning hours
of March 6 an estimated 14 persons calling themselves the “United
Paisley Army” covered University buildings, signs and
pavement with 300 to 400 paisley motifs and assorted slogans.
Three months later, Leanne Okada, a 21-year-old psychology
major at UCSD, was sentenced by the State of California for
her role in the affair. The state pressed for full restitution
of $8,000. UCSD demanded that Okada be suspended for two
quarters and contribute 50 hours of community service work
to the University. The overall “paisley affair,” she
said, was “non-political, non-social—there was
no statement. It was just art—a stupid, ugly paisley
just for the hell of it.”
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E-CLIPPINGS
A selection of UCSD research stories. For more visit: ucsdnews.ucsd.edu
Hollow
Legs: The first-ever study
of its kind has found that children as young
as 12 can show a genetic-driven trend toward alcoholism. Lead researcher Marc
Schuckit, M.D., professor of psychiatry at UCSD edical School, noted that the
relative resistance to alcohol, the “hollow leg” effect, contributes
significantly to the risk of alcoholism.
MORE
Crib DEATH: High outdoor levels
of nitrogen dioxide apparently raise the risk of sudden infant
death syndrome (SIDS), according
to H. Klonoff-Cohen, M.D., from UCSD, who along with colleagues
linked air pollutant data obtained from
the California Air Resources Board with occurrences of SIDS.
MORE
Vaccinating Genetic Diseases: Researchers at the
School of Medicine working with scientists at ElanPharmaceuticals
reported promising results for a vaccine
to treat Parkinson’s. Eliezer Masliah, M.D., professor of
Neurosciences and Pathology, used a combination of the protein
that abnormally accumulates in the brains of Parkinson’s
patients and an adjuvant, to vaccinate mice as test subjects. MORE
Dangerous Dieting: Women
who suffer from anorexia have an overactivity of dopamine receptors
in a part of the brain known to play a role in how people learn
from experience and make choices, according to a new study, published
in Biological Psychiatry, led by UCSD child psychiatry fellow Guido
Frank, M.D. MORE
Tiny Tubing: Sungho Jin,
a professor of materials science, reported a technique to create
bent nanotubes by manipulating the electric field during their
growth. The technical advance could lead to use of the long, thin
cylinders of carbon in many nanotechnology applications.
MORE
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