Media Highlights

September 2007

This summary highlights media placements members of the UCSC community have garnered during the month of September 2007.

National and international

Anthropology's Nate Dominy rode a tsunami of media coverage of his latest work about the diet of early human ancestors. Heavyweights like the New York Times, Nature, BBC News, National Public Radio, New Scientist, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and United Press International weighed in, as did publications including the Daily Telegraph, the International Herald Tribune, the Times of India, Earthtimes.org, the Scientist, Science Daily, the India edition of zeenews.com, Hindustan Times, Science Now, and Bloomberg. . . . The discovery of light-sensing abilities in bacteria by biochemist Roberto Bogomolni and colleagues was covered in the Financial Times (London), Forbes, the Scientist, Hindustan Times, U.P.I., Science Daily, Medical News Today, Health Day News, Health News Digest, and PressZoom. . . . The Wall Street Journal quoted economist Michael Dooley in a recent story about the impact on financial markets of the U.S. current-account deficit. . . . An Associated Press story about computer scientist Luca de Alfaro's Wikipedia project ran in the Columbus Ledger-Inquirer, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Capital, and other newspapers. . . . While she was in Barcelona, anthropologist Margaret Gibson saw her research on the educational experiences of immigrant children in California and Catalonia featured in Spain's El Periódico and La Vanguadia newspapers. . . . National Public Radio's Morning Edition program tapped economist Lori Kletzer for insight about the news that an Indian software firm will hire about 500 computer programmers in Atlanta, a twist on the now-familiar story of the outsourcing of high-tech jobs to India. . . . Psychology's Eileen Zurbriggen was quoted in a FoxNews.com story about the mental health consequences of the sexualization of young girls. . . . Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor recently read Professor Emeritus David Swanger's poem, "Patriarch at the Beach," on National Public Radio's Writers' Almanac program. The poem is from Swanger's latest book, Wayne's College of Beauty, which won the 2005 John Ciardi Prize for Poetry from MkBk Press. . . . The "Slashdot effect" caused a surge of web traffic to computer scientist Luca de Alfaro's Wikipedia demo site after a mention of his research on the popular technology news site Slashdot, and USA Today also ran a story about his work. . . . The Chronicle of Higher Education published a lengthy interview with Elliot Aronson of psychology about his new book, Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), and the Santa Cruz Sentinel also published a feature article about the book. . . . Science Daily ran a story about UCSC's new Chemical Screening Center directed by chemist Scott Lokey. . . . Climate change research by Michael Loik of environmental studies was noted in Science. . . . Linguistics professor Geoffrey Pullum was quoted in The Herald News about Ebonics for an article about language and race. . . . Frank Drake, professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics, discussed astrobiology in an interview with Astrobiology magazine that also ran in Space Daily. . . . In psychology, Mara Mather was quoted in The Times of India in a story about new research that shows that the human brain appears to naturally "accentuate the positive" as we age. . . . BusinessWorld featured sociologist Dane Archer's research about nonverbal sensitivity in an article on social intelligence. . . . BusinessWeek interviewed economist Rob Fairlie about his research on home values and entrepreneurship. . . . Humanities dean Georges Van Den Abbeele was quoted in the Times of India for an article about a gift of $367,000 to establish an endowed chair in Sikh and Punjabi studies in UCSC's History Department. India-West, the Santa Cruz Sentinel and SikhNet News also ran stories on the gift. . . . Astronomer Steven Vogt's work on the Automated Planet Finder telescope was featured in SpaceRef.com.

State and regional

David Haussler, professor of biomolecular engineering, was featured in a recent episode of the weekly science show Quest on KQED TV. . . . The San Luis Obispo Tribune and the Wichita Eagle ran a story quoting assistant professor of theater arts Brandin Baron-Nusbaum about how current fashion trends date back historically hundreds of years. . . . Physicist Michael Dine was quoted in a San Jose Mercury News story about the Food Stamp Challenge in which he is participating by spending only $3 a day on food for one week. . . . A story in the Palo Alto Daily News about plans for Hanger One at NASA's Moffett Field included quotes from William Berry, director of the University Affiliated Research Center. . . . The San Jose Mercury News published a rave review of the Shakespeare Santa Cruz production of J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World.

Local

The Santa Cruz Sentinel and Space Daily ran stories about astronomer Steven Vogt's work on a new telescope, the Automated Planet Finder. . . . Psychology's Jean Fox Tree's work was cited in a Santa Cruz Sentinel column about a new book chronicling the history of verbal gaffes and "disfluencies." Fox Tree's research has revealed the role utterances such as "um" and "uh" play in speech comprehension. . . . Professor of art Norman Locks and associate art professor Lewis Watts were quoted in Metro Santa Cruz for an article about "Chronotopographies: Remembering in Digital," an exhibition of their work at the Felix Kulpa Gallery. . . . The Santa Cruz Sentinel quoted then-Acting Chancellor George Blumenthal in an article about the appointment of Felicia McGinty to the position of vice chancellor for Student Affairs. . . . The Santa Cruz Sentinel did a feature story on McHenry Library assistant Hisako Nakazawa and her expertise at restoring books. . . . The Santa Cruz Sentinel and Good Times reported that Jeanette Pilak is the new director of UCSC's Arts & Lectures program. . . . Metro Santa Cruz, Good Times, and the Santa Cruz Sentinel ran stories on a Santa Cruz appearance and film screening by a pioneer of India's alternative cinema, organized by associate professor of history Dilip Basu, director of UCSC's Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection.

See media outlets highlighted in bold.

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