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February 9, 1998
Psychologist Dominic Massaro's latest research project, which uses advanced computer technology to help deaf children at a Portland school learn to speak, was featured in the Santa Cruz County Sentinel and received a brief mention in the Alameda Times Star and Hayward's Sunday Review.
Agroecology's Sean Swezey was quoted at length in Metro Santa Cruz's cover story about the future of the Pajaro Valley. Swezey also was interviewed by Charles Osgood about organic cotton production for his KCBS radio show the Osgood Files.
Physicist Michael Riordan's book Crystal Fire, which details the development of the transistor, continues to get attention from the press, most recently a favorable review in the New York Times Book Review.
A story in the Santa Cruz County Sentinel profiled the work of hist. con.'s Gary Lease, which involves research on ceramics recovered from early Christian-era cemeteries. The ceramics were originally found in Egypt by archaeologist Alan Rowe in the 1930s and then rediscovered by Lease in the mid-1980s in a dusty pile on a museum shelf in Philadelphia.
Geologist Gerald Weber helped the San Jose Mercury News get a grip on the science of building on slippery slopes. The story, which appeared before the latest round of winter storms, noted that hundreds of new homes have been built in landslide-prone mountainous areas since the 1982 mud slides wreaked havoc on the Santa Cruz Mountains.
For its ongoing feature column, "Q&A," the Monterey County Herald recently profiled bassoonist Jane Orzel. Along with her work with students here, the story noted, Orzel plays with several area ensembles and performs as organist at an area church. Her philosophy, Orzel said, is "anything worth doing is worth overdoing."
The annual ritual of birthing, mating, and fighting among elephant seals at Año Nuevo has attracted reporters again this year, most recently from the San Francisco Chronicle, which tapped international pinniped expert Burney Le Boeuf for comment.
In an article about predicting volcanoes' behavior, the Los Angeles Times cited work by biologist Donald Potts.
Geochemist Khalil Abu-Saba was quoted heavily in a San Jose City Times story about mercury levels in the water supply.