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May 31, 1999
Professor of astronomy and astrophysics Stan Woosley is profiled in the July issue of Astronomy magazine. In an article entitled "The Supernova Guru," Woosley is described as "the master of big things that go boom" and the leading theorist in the effort to explain gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe.
Roland Tharp was tapped by the San Jose Mercury News to pen one of those "Voices of our Time" columns that have been appearing in the main section of the paper. The column features the views of prominent individuals regarding the most important developments of the 20th century and how the world will be different in 100 years.
Research on sources of lead poisoning in children by environmental toxicologist Donald Smith continues to get widespread attention in the Spanish-language press, including stories in El Observador (San Jose, Calif.) and La Nueva Prensa de California (Concord, Calif.).
Reporters continue to write about the dialogue between scientists and theologians stimulated by a conference organized by cosmologist Joel Primack. Articles in the Washington Post and other newspapers quoted both Primack and astronomer Sandra Faber, who also took part in the "Cosmic Questions" conference, held in April at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Stories by the Religion News Service and Knight Ridder News Service ran in numerous papers, including the Sacramento Bee. The Atlanta Journal & Constitution covered the conference and also ran a separate story about Primack's involvement in a Smithsonian Institution educational movie on the origin of the universe. Primack related how, at one point, fear of controversy almost led the film's producers to ban the use of the words "big bang" and "evolution" in the script.
A book signing by feminist scholar Bettina Aptheker and Angela Davis of history of consciousness was covered in the Santa Cruz County Sentinel. The book signing was for a re-release of Aptheker's book, The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis, first published in 1975. The two spoke and signed copies of Aptheker's book to a standing-room-only crowd at the Women's Center.
An article in the Santa Cruz County Sentinel about changes in the math program at San Lorenzo Valley High School mentioned the use of diagnostic testing performed by UCSC's Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project, run by coordinator Michelle Dohl in the Mathematics Department. The testing was used to place SLV students in appropriate courses.
Stanley Stevens, librarian emeritus, was quoted in a Sentinel article concerning the Hihn-Younger Archive in McHenry Library's Special Collections. The archive houses the documents and letters of Frederick Augustus Hihn, a Santa Cruz timber harvester who died in 1913. Stevens is archiving Hihn's letters into an electronic database and creating a detailed index.