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March 3, 1997

Headliners

Tune in to KSCO radio (AM 1080) on Friday, March 7, from 7 to 9 p.m. to hear three UCSC researchers discuss issues faced by women in science. Scheduled to appear are anthropologist Alison Galloway, biochemist Lydia Gregoret, and biologist Martha Zuniga. Eileen Sundet, who hosts the weekly KSCO program "Sunset Salon," has organized the call-in show as part of a series of programs devoted to Women's History Month.

In an article about the World Bank's policies in Mexico, La Jornada, one of Mexico's principal independent newspapers, cited a recent study coauthored by Jonathan Fox of Latin American and Latino studies. Fox's monograph, published by the Center for US-Mexican Studies at UC San Diego, concluded that the bank's development program had "mixed results," working well in the state of Oaxaca but poorly in Chiapas, where it may have strengthened the power of local authoritarian elites.

"The Dolphin Strategy," a long article in the March issue of Discover, is devoted largely to the efforts of marine biologist Terrie Williams to understand the physiological adaptations that enable dolphins to thrive in the ocean. "By all rights, life in the sea should leave a dolphin baked, crushed, and sterile," the article begins. Research by Williams, at Long Marine Lab and elsewhere, is helping to reveal why none of those things occurs.

How realistic was HAL's lipreading in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey? Wired magazine called psychology's Dom Massaro, a master of speech comprehension, and he has some doubts. Even humans, says Massaro, miss a lot of conversation when they rely solely on visible speech.

Swim coach, Mickey Wender, was featured in a Discovery Channel documentary on the 1996 Eco-Challenge adventure race--nine days over 300 miles through the wilderness of British Columbia.--in which he participated as a member of Team S.C.A.R. (Santa Cruz Adventure Racers).

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