[Currents headergraphic]

April 7, 1997

Headliners

The Heaven's Gate mass suicide got the phones ringing at the home of UCSC's resident cult expert, Anthony Pratkanis, who spoke with KION-TV, the Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Bee, and San Jose Mercury News.

An editorial in the Eureka Times-Standard praised chemist Joe Konopelski's efforts to synthesize a potential cancer-fighting compound in his lab. Konopelski's project earned extensive national coverage recently from Associated Press. "It's refreshing to see California at the forefront of this zealous mission," the editorial stated. "The work at UC Santa Cruz reminds us that there's more to education than politics and social debate."

Agroecology's Sean Swezey was featured in a lengthy article in Oregon's Capitol Press newspaper about Claude and Linda Sheppard's success growing cotton organically. Swezey helped the Sheppards wean themselves of herbicides, insecticides, and defoliants, and he predicts that up to 5 percent of California's cotton industry could convert to organic production methods.

The Monterey County Herald gave front-page coverage to the UC Board of Regents' approval of the first phases of development at the MBEST Center, UCSC's research and technology park based at the former Fort Ord. MBEST director Lora Lee Martin and associate vice chancellor for research Jim Gill talked about UCSC's plans. Gill also spoke about MBEST on San Jose radio station KLIV.

Physicist Stan Flatté described UCSC's role in a new national supercomputing partnership, based at UC San Diego, for reporters at the Santa Cruz County Sentinel and KLIV radio. UCSC researchers will receive about $830,000 during the five-year, $150 million initiative.

Predatory Bird Research Group director Brian Walton spoke out in a Washington State farming magazine about the politicization of the Endangered Species Act.


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