Media Highlights
August 2006
This summary highlights media placements members of the UCSC
community have garnered during the month of August 2006.
National and international
The discovery of a new gene involved in human brain development
generated widespread media coverage featuring David Haussler,
professor of biomolecular engineering, and research biologist
Sofie Salama, including an interview with Salama on National
Public Radio's All Things Considered and Morning
Edition, interviews with Haussler on KION TV, KGO Radio,
and CJOB Radio (Canada), and stories in the San Jose
Mercury News, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington
Post, Boston Globe, Houston Chronicle, St. Paul Pioneer Press,
Calgary Sun, Edmonton Journal, Herald Sun (Australia),
New Zealand Herald, Belfast Telegraph, Scotsman, Guardian
(London), Independent (London), Santa Cruz
Sentinel, Watsonville Register-Pajaronian, AP, UPI,
and Reuters wire services, Science News magazine,
online news sites of The Scientist, The Economist, Technology
Review, New Scientist, Scientific American, ScienceNow,
Bloomberg.com, BBC News, and Aljazeera, as well as
editorials in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Santa
Cruz Sentinel. . . . Research on sooty shearwater migrations
led by biologist Scott Shaffer received widespread media coverage,
including stories in national and international newspapers such
as the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles
Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Monterey
Herald, Globe and Mail (Canada), Toronto Star, Telegraph
(U.K.), Guardian (U.K.), Scotsman, Australian,
and New Zealand Herald; Science News
magazine; AP and UPI news wires; National
Public Radio's Day to Day; and online news sites such
as BBC News, Times Online, ABC News, MSNBC, National Geographic
News, Environmental News Network, ScienceNow, LiveScience.com,
Top Tech News, and MonstersandCritics.com. . . . Economist
Lori Kletzer's findings on job outsourcing were cited in an "Economic
View" piece in the New York Times. . . . History
of consciousness professor James Clifford was interviewed on National
Public Radio about the opening of a controversial new museum
in Paris, the Quai Branly Museum, which is devoted to the display
of non-Western arts and cultures. . . . Slate ran
a rave review of Far from the Madding Gerund, a new book
coauthored by linguistics professor Geoffrey Pullum. . . . The
September issue of Sky & Telescope magazine
has several stories featuring UCSC planetary scientists, including
separate news stories about research by Craig Agnor on Neptune's
moon Triton and by Francis Nimmo on Saturn's moon Enceladus, as
well as a cover story on the Japanese Hayabusa mission with quotes
from Erik Asphaug. . . . The San Antonio Express-News
quoted associate history professor Pedro Castillo about the research
of UCSC graduate student Marianne Bueno, who is studying how military
labor changed the lives of Mexican American women in Texas. Bueno
was also extensively quoted in the story. . . . A scholarly review
of associate history professor David Anthony’s new book
Max Yergan: Race Man, Internationalist, Cold Warrior appeared
in the South African journal Safundi. . . . Associate
professor of literature Louis Chude-Sokei was interviewed on National
Public Radio about his work on masquerade and carnival in
relation to the work of the African American visual artist Carrie
Mae Weems, whose "The Louisiana Project" is currently
showing at the San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora. .
. . Physicist Anthony Aguirre was quoted in a Boston Globe
story about the new Foundational Questions Institute, of which
Aguirre is associate scientific director. . . . Holger Schmidt,
associate professor of electrical engineering, was featured in
an article about optical sensor technology in Laser Focus
World. . . . New Scientist magazine and the Santa
Cruz Sentinel ran reviews of the new book by physicists
Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner. . . . The gifted middle schoolers
at UCSC's MathPath were featured in the Wall Streeet Journal's
weekend edition. . . . Theater arts professor Kathy Foley was
featured in an Asian Theater Journal article about
her performance at "A Gathering of Gamelans," an eight-day
festival featuring nine San Francisco Bay Area performance groups.
Foley and theater arts professor Patty Gallagher also contributed
book reviews to the journal. . . . Astronomer Jason X. Prochaska's
research on galaxies was covered by UPI wire service, Physics
Web, SpaceRef.com, Universe Today, Astra News, and MonstersandCritics.com.
. . . Astronomer Gregory Laughlin was quoted in a story on CNN.com
and Space.com about a newly proposed definition for planets.
. . . Research by graduate student Kena Fox-Dobbs on the survival
of condors since the Pleistocene era was covered in an article
in Discovery News. . . . Associate professor of
history Dilip Basu was quoted in the Hindustan Times
about the launch of a web site devoted to the output of renowned
Indian film director Satyajit Ray. . . . Journalism lecturer Conn
Hallinan contributed a commentary to Mother Jones
magazine on poverty relief, as well as pieces on Pakistan and
the Middle East to Foreign Policy in Focus.
State and regional
Professor of Earth and planetary sciences James Zachos was quoted
in a Los Angeles Times article about ocean acidification
due to carbon dioxide emissions. His research was also featured
in a story on ocean acidification in New Scientist
magazine. . . . An unusual invention by ITS staff member Erin
Elliott was featured in the San Jose Mercury News
and PC Magazine. Displayed at a design expo at Yahoo's
Sunnyvale campus, Elliott’s Edible Interface allowed participants
to lick sensor-equipped lollipops to control the movements of
robotic dolls. . . . Art professor Frank Galuszka was quoted in
a San Jose Mercury News article about the transfer
of five miles of stunning beaches and rugged coastline along Santa
Cruz County's north coast to public ownership. . . . The San
Francisco Chronicle ran a feature story on American studies
professor emerita Judy Yung's new book Images of America: San
Francisco's Chinatown. Yung was also quoted in The Oregonian
about Dmae Roberts's eight-part public radio series Crossing
East, about the history of Asian American immigration in
the United States. (Yung served as Roberts's lead scholar on the
project.) . . . History of art and visual culture lecturer Kirtana
Thangavelu was quoted in a Contra Costa Times article
about Indian art exhibits in the Bay Area this summer. . . . Physicist
Joel Primack was quoted in an article in the Contra Costa
Times about new findings that confirm the existence of
dark matter. . . . The San Francisco Chronicle,
San Jose Mercury News, and Santa Cruz Sentinel
all ran feature stories celebrating the 25th anniversary season
of Shakespeare Santa Cruz.
Local
The Santa Cruz Sentinel and Mid-County Post
ran stories about Phillip Berman, professor and chair of biomolecular
engineering. . . . William Clark, director of the Office of Sponsored
Projects, was quoted in a Santa Cruz Sentinel story
about the growth in funding for research at UCSC. . . . Biologist
Peter Raimondi was quoted in an article about kelp in the Santa
Cruz Sentinel. . . . Good Times ran a story about
research by graduate student Myra Finkelstein on levels of DDT
and other pollutants in albatrosses.
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