A Report on Discoveries and Achievements at the University of California
Volume 10, Number 1, July 2000

The following is a glimpse of some recent achievements by the faculty, students, and staff of the University of California and the national laboratories managed by the University.

In The News

Regional Arts Center . . . Ground has been broken for the new UC Davis Center for the Arts that, when completed, will feature an 1,800-seat main hall with state-of-the-art technology for superior acoustics, and a studio theater for dance and choral performances, lectures, and theater productions for audiences as large as 250 people. The project will cost nearly $61 million. It's anticipated that the center will open in fall 2002.

Superbug Revealed . . . A team of researchers has unraveled in one day's workload the entire genome of a harmful bacterium. The effort completed the first phase of genome sequencing to a level sufficient to permit essentially all of the organism's genes to be identified. The genome for Enterococcus faecium, known as the superbug because of its resistance to antibiotic treatments, was sequenced at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute, which is a collaboration between the Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley and Los Alamos national labs.

Online Library Resources . . . A virtual library called Infomine--founded at UC Riverside on a shoestring budget just as the Internet was gaining wide use--has received a grant of nearly a half million dollars to vastly expand the number of Web-based academic resources it offers. With the grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Service, a federal agency, UCR librarians and computer scientists will develop software that is expected to expand the virtual library from its current 20,000 resources to more than 100,000 and perhaps eventually to 1 million.
 

Health and Nutrition

Herpes/Alzheimer's Connection . . . Researcher Frank LaFerla of UC Irvine's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior has discovered a connection between a form of the herpes virus and Alzheimer's disease, providing evidence that certain forms of the neural disease may be virally based. Through genetic sequencing, LaFerla found that the herpes simplex 1 virus and Alzheimer's share a similar protein.

Brain Metabolism . . . A new positron emission tomography (PET) study of the brain provides the first tangible evidence that what many doctors traditionally diagnose as mild head injury--or concussion--may not be so mild after all, say UCLA researchers. They report that no matter what range of brain injury a person sustains--from a concussion to severe head trauma--the human brain goes into a prolonged altered metabolic state. They say the research will change the way brain-injured patients are currently diagnosed and managed.

Insulin-Secreting Cells . . . UC San Diego School of Medicine scientists have cultured human beta cells that grow indefinitely and that may serve as an unlimited source of insulin-producing tissue for transplantation to cure people with diabetes. The researcher is Fred Levine of the UC San Diego Cancer Center and the Whittier Institute in San Diego.

Health Insurance . . . A UCLA study on children born with heart disease shows that when comparing the child's age at surgical repair, children with private insurance underwent surgery at a younger age than children with managed care health plans. Children with managed care health plans had their surgery at a younger age than children with Medi-Cal, and Asian children tended to be older at the time of surgical repair of congenital heart defects.
 

Developments and Discoveries

Gecko-stick . . . Geckos are able to scurry up walls and across ceilings thanks to two million microscopic hairs on their toes that glom onto surfaces in a way that has given engineers an idea for a novel synthetic adhesive that is both dry and self-cleaning. UC Berkeley biologist Robert Full and colleagues say the key seems to be the hundreds to thousands of tiny pads at the tip of each hair. Working with the Tokay gecko native to Southeast Asia, the researchers showed that the combined adhesive force of all the tiny hairs lining the gecko's toes is 10 times greater than the maximum force reportedly needed to pull a live gecko off the wall. Geckos apparently use only a fraction of the hairs at one time, though they have been known to hang from the ceiling by one toe.

Supernova Search . . . The world's most successful automated search for nearby supernovas, conducted by UC Berkeley, has found 70 of these exploding stars in its first two years of operation, providing information about the evolution and physics of stellar explosions. The data also are giving cosmologists greater confidence in conclusions about the structure of the universe. These include recent findings that the universe is flat, its expansion is accelerating and that most of the universe's mass is made up of strange matter called dark energy or "vacuum energy."

What Did You Say? . . . The noisiest restaurants are so loud they may be damaging the hearing of waiters and other employees who put in full shifts during the dinner-time rush, UC San Francisco researchers report. Hard surfaces, high ceilings, open kitchens and large crowds all can contribute to a cacophony that makes simple conversation difficult. Although diners are not at risk for hearing loss, the researchers said restaurant reviewers should advise the public about noise levels in eateries.

Brain Decline . . . UCLA researchers have found that adults carrying an Alzheimer's disease gene show significant decline in brain function over a two-year period--without symptoms of the disease. The study combined genetic testing with positron emission tomography (PET) scanning to determine brain function in people at risk for Alzheimer's who still had normal memory. The findings may lead to treatments to help prevent and delay the onset of Alzheimer's, a fatal disease that affects four million Americans.

Crickets' Risky Romance . . . A new UC Davis study of crickets' spring mating songs contradicts the notion that faint hearts don't win fair maidens. Researchers know that male field crickets attract mates by rubbing their wings together, and that cricket females prefer the males with the longest calls. But prolonged calling also may help a hungry predator locate the caller, turning the suitor into supper. What's a lovelorn cricket to do?  UC Davis researcher Ann Hedrick reports the most long-winded crickets were also the most cautious; they took twice as long as short singers to venture outside and more than 10 times as long to resume calling after being threatened.

From Russia, for Plutonium . . . After years of working to help the Russians on the disposition of plutonium and other fissile materials, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently purchased a "plutonium oxide saltwasher" from the Russian Scientific Research Institute of Atomic Reactors. Once installed at the laboratory, scientists believe the equipment will provide a quicker and more efficient solution to preparing U.S. plutonium for immobilization.
 

The Cutting Edge

Cancer-Fighting Protein . . . Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center have shown for the first time that a protein called SLC inhibits the growth of lung cancer by stimulating an immune response. Steven Dubinett and colleagues discovered that SLC, or secondary lymphoid tissue chemokine, eradicated lung cancer in 40 percent of laboratory models and dramatically slowed tumor growth in the remaining models injected with the protein.

Titanium Implants Collaboration . . . Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Ufa State Aviation Technical University in Russia have developed a process for making a strong, lightweight and corrosion-resistant medical implant material from pure titanium. The process creates implants strong enough to bear heavy loads without failure. The implant material is compatible with body organs and fluids so it can remain in the body for years.

Advanced Insulation . . . An inexpensive, advanced insulating material developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers converts an ordinary corrugated box into a cooler to keep perishables cold and fresh during shipping. It has been licensed by San Diego start-up Cargo Technology Inc. as a thermal packaging to ship perishables such as seafood, meat, fruit, prepared foods and pharmaceuticals.

Cancer-Fighting Proteins . . . A team led by scientists at UC San Francisco has identified five proteins in mice that trigger the immune system to attack cancer. The research greatly increases the number of known targets for drugs or vaccines to boost the immune system's natural cancer-fighting ability, the scientists say. The proteins present in cancer cells, but not normal healthy tissues, mark these cells for swift attack by the immune system's natural killer (NK) cells. Although the proteins were discovered in mice, there's evidence of their counterparts in humans.
 

Planet and Environment

Solar CAT Scan . . . Three-dimensional images of magnetic storms from the sun, developed by physicists at UC San Diego and Japan's Nagoya University, are allowing space weather forecasters to improve their predictions of solar disruptions on Earth. Using a network of four radio telescopes in Japan, the physicists have improved predictions of magnetic storms by developing a method of detecting the movements of geomagnetic storms in the vast region of space between the sun and Earth.

Active Underwater Volcano . . . Marine geologists from UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Mass. have confirmed the existence of an active underwater volcano east of Samoa. The volcano, named Vailulu'u, rises more than 16,400 feet from the seafloor to within 2,000 feet of the ocean surface.

Sex and the Single Whale . . . Since reproduction is one key to preventing extinction, whale behavior is an area UC Santa Barbara scientist Leah Gerber and colleagues are studying to ascertain why some whale populations are growing and others are not. Failure to find a mate and to reproduce successfully may result from the small population of the western North Atlantic right whales, which number only 350 or so. The idea is controversial, particularly since human threats or a combination of factors, may be the cause.

Approaching Zero Emissions . . . Advanced gasoline-powered vehicles are driving tailpipe emissions so low that they cannot be accurately detected and measured. To better understand the environmental impact of these emerging automobiles, UC Riverside, Honda Motor Co. and state and federal air-quality regulatory agencies have established an $800,000 research program to develop instrumentation to evaluate such vehicles, which is vital for the certification of the cars and to understanding their impact on air quality.

Best Gas Mileage . . . UC Davis student engineers competing in the first FutureTruck competition won for best fuel economy and finished fourth overall among 15 university teams from North America. The challenge was to maintain all the "truck-ness"--the ability to carry cargo and pull heavy loads such as trailers--while reducing fuel consumption and emissions. The Davis team achieved fuel economy of 18.7 mpg with a Chevrolet Suburban, an almost 13 percent increase over the standard Suburban.

Tiny Tree Savior? . . . California's troubled red gum eucalyptus trees, under attack for the last two years from a fast-spreading insect infestation, may get some relief from a tiny Australian wasp discovered by UC Berkeley's Donald Dahlsten. The wasp may be able to control the infestation and begin to save the endangered trees. Trees are under attack in 30 California counties from the redgum lerp psyllid, Glycaspis brimblecombei, a flying insect that eats plant juices.
 

Insights on Society

All The News? . . . Newspaper and television reporting about drug treatments often mislead the public by exaggerating the benefits, ignoring the risks and failing to disclose potential biases of experts. Most striking was the finding that most news reports that cite experts with financial ties to the drug under study failed to disclose this potential conflict of interest. The study was carried out by a team of pharmacologists, social scientists and journalists at UC San Francisco, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and the University of Newcastle.

Apparel Worker Exploitation . . . UC Santa Barbara sociologists Richard Appelbaum and Edna Bonacich say Los Angeles is the heart of the U.S. apparel industry because manufacturers can find the same things they are seeking abroad: large numbers of workers willing to work without complaint in exploitive conditions for illegally low wages. Appelbaum estimates that there are about 5,000 apparel factories in Los Angeles employing as many as 120,000 workers. According to U.S. Department of Labor estimates, they say, as many as two-thirds of the factories are out of compliance with wage and hour laws.

"Liberal" Orange County? . . . UC Irvine research shows that Orange County doesn't fit its stereotypical conservative image. Like most people in California, Orange County residents favor access to abortion (65 percent), more gun control (63 percent) and stricter environmental laws (62 percent). Researchers Mark Baldassare and Cheryl Katz point out that Orange County is conservative on fiscal issues but liberal on social issues, indicating that many people distrust government and want as little of it as possible.

Women and Stress . . . UCLA researchers have found a key method used by women to cope with stress--and highlights one of the most basic differences between men's and women's behavior. The pattern, referred to by UCLA's Shelley E. Taylor as "tend and befriend," shows that females of many species, including humans, respond to stress by protecting and nurturing their young (the "tend" response), and by seeking social contact and support from others--especially other females (the "befriend" response). The pattern contrasts with the "fight-or-flight" behavior long considered the principal method for coping with stress by both men and women.

Happy-Go-Lucky . . . Americans are among the happiest people in the world, consistently at the top in cross-cultural comparisons of happiness, reports UC Irvine researcher Eunkook Suh. Americans, who hold internal, often idiosyncratic, standards of happiness, view unhappiness as an indication of personal failure and feel considerable pressure to be happy, Suh says. But in more fatalistic East Asian cultures, happiness is more likely to be evaluated in terms of external factors such as community standing.

Paradise Lost . . . A new history of the Pacific islands before their discovery by European voyagers buries forever the myth that Tahitians and other peoples of Oceania were children of nature living in a garden of Eden. UC Berkeley researcher Patrick Kirch reports that most islands of the Pacific were densely populated by the time of European contact, and the human impact on the natural ecosystem was often disastrous--with wholesale decimation of species and loss of vast tracts of indigenous forest. Moreover, he points out, Tahitian society engaged in endemic warfare, with ritual human sacrifice to a bloodthirsty god named Oro.
 

Looking to the Future

Heat Pipes . . . A utilitarian yet elegant piece of technology called a heat pipe transfers large quantities of heat with almost no change in temperature. Developed nearly 40 years ago at Los Alamos National Laboratory, it is now being refined for possible space flight. The pencil-sized metal tube that moves heat from one end to the other without a pump some day may allow astronauts to travel to Mars and beyond.

Remote Observing . . . A remote observing facility at UC Santa Cruz will enable astronomers to operate the powerful Keck Telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii without leaving the mainland. The facility will use a new high-speed data link to connect observatories on Mauna Kea with Internet2, a high-performance network. Remote observing facilities are also planned for other UC campuses, including Berkeley, San Diego and UCLA. The Santa Cruz facility becomes operational later this summer.

Regenerating Cells? . . . UC San Francisco researchers have discovered a region in the telomerase enzyme that they say could prove to be a target for killing cancer cells and regenerating damaged cells--and could also lead to a possible target for attacking HIV. It has the capacity to replenish the tips of chromosomes, known as telomeres, which lose their final fragments with each cycle of cell division. The research offers hope for someday regenerating cells that have been damaged through injury or wear and tear.

Virtual "Realness" . . . Observing the increasing "realness" of virtual reality, UC Santa Cruz's Chip Lord has produced a video that explores the question of how computers affect the ways in which people interact with each other and their environment. The video, "Awakening from the 20th Century," won the Dallas Video Festival's Latham Award for 1999. One of Lord's goals was to find out if the Internet and virtual networking have had an effect on how society uses physical space.
 

Kudos

From Lab to Market . . . The Federal Laboratory Consortium has honored Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for success in moving two new technologies to the marketplace. Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer went to the lab for Peregrine, a technology to improve the effectiveness of radiation therapy in the treatment of cancer, and LaserShot Peening, a technology designed to extend the life of critical metal parts, from aircraft engine fan blades to artificial knee and hip joints.

Internationally Recognized . . . William Lucas, UC Davis professor of plant biology, has been elected a foreign member of France's Academie des Sciences to honor his research on cell-to-cell communication and the movement of viruses and macromolecules in plants. Lucas has also been invited to hold the Interuniversity International Francqui Chair in Belgium, which supports higher education and research.

Alma Mater Honors Dynes . . . UC San Diego Chancellor Robert C. Dynes has been inducted into the Alumni Gallery of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where he earned his master's and doctorate. The gallery recognizes the achievements of graduates. Dynes, a native of London, Ontario, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, joined UCSD as a physics professor in 1991 and became chancellor in 1996.

Faculty Honored . . . Eight faculty members have been elected members of the American Philosophical Society.  They are  Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone and  Walter Fitch of UC Irvine, Mary Gaillard, Herma Hill Kay, Thonas Gustav Rosenmeyer, and Erich Gruen of UC Berkeley, Gary Baring Nash of UCLA, and Hayden White of UC Santa Cruz.  The American Philosophical Society was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743 and is the nation's oldest learned society devoted to the advancement of scientific and scholarly inquiry.  Early members included George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.  Later members included Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Albert Einstein, and George Marshall.  Today, the society has 853 elected members, 712 from the United States and 141 from more than two dozen foreign countries.  Since 1900, more than 200 society members have received the Nobel Prize.
 

Investing in Education

$20 Million Gift . . . UC Regent John J. Moores, majority owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, and his wife, Rebecca, donated $20 million for a UC San Diego cancer facility dedicated to research, patient care and community service. The gift is the largest for the campus' cancer center initiative and among the largest from individuals received by UCSD. With the gift, the campus has raised nearly $50 million in private funds for the $75 million project, to be named the John and Rebecca Moores UCSD Cancer Center.

Bioengineering Gift . . . The Virginia-based Whitaker Foundation has awarded $15 million to the two-year-old Department of Bioengineering in UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, boosting work on biomedical advances to diagnose and treat disease and prolong healthy life. The gift will help support increased student enrollment, new faculty, expanded courses and research programs and a new building. The department is planned to become a two-campus entity, administered by UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.

Communications partners . . . Broadcom Corp. and Conexant Systmes Inc. are partnering with UC Irvine to establish a research center dedicated to developing new communications technologies. Broadcom and Conexant each committed $3 million to support the formation of the Center for Pervasive Communications at UCI's Samueli School of Engineering.
 
 
 
 

Compiled by University Affairs. For more information, call (510) 987-9200 or look under "News & Facts" on the UC Office of the President Home Page: www.ucop.edu