A Report on Discoveries and Achievements at the University of California
Volume 5, Number 1, July 1996
The following is a glimpse of some recent achievements by the faculty, students and staff of the University of California.
Members of the Academy . . . Ten of 60 newly-elected members of the National Academy of Sciences are UC scholars. Four are from UC San Diego and one each is from UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The new members were elected in recognition of thier distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Joining the Philosophers . . . The American Philosophical Society elected three UC Berkeley scholars as resident members: herptologist David B. Wake, historian Robert Brentano and sociologist Robert Bellah. Founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, the society is the oldest and most prestigious learned society in the United States devoted to the advancement of scientific and scholarly inquiry.
HumanUnity Award . . . UC President Richard C. Atkinson was awarded the 1996 HumanUnity Award by the National Conference (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews). Atkinson was cited for "leadership in bringing the resources of the academy to the challenge of the community."
Discover Awards . . . Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory won two of this year's seven Discover Magazine Awards for Technological
Innovation. The winners were Ashok Gadgil in the environment category for
UV Waterworks, an ultraviolet-based water purification system for developing
nations, and Xiao-Dong Xiang and Peter Schultz in the computer hardware
and electronics category for combinatorial synthesis, a high-speed technique
for making and testing exotic new materials.
California Cavities . . . Seventy-three percent of California children ages 6 to 8 have cavities versus 53 percent nationwide, according to UC San Francisco dental researcher Howard Pollick. The reason, says Pollick, is that less than 16 percent of Californians drink fluoridated water , ranking 47th in the nation. Until legislation was passed last year requiring most communities to fluoridate, fluoridation was a local option in the state, and most communities chose not to.
Starting Young . . . Young children can be taught simple behaviors at school that could help protect them against heart disease later in life, according to a three-year study of elementary school students by medical research Philip Nader of UC San Diego. Children in the study reduced their daily intake of dietary fat and increased their amount of vigorous activity. Information from the study is being made available to interested school districts nationwide.
Keeping Warm . . . Warming patients during surgery improves outcomes and cuts rates of post-surgical infection, according to a research team led by anesthesiologist Daniel Sessler of UC San Francisco. Traditionally, surgeons like to keep operating rooms chilly for their own comfort and to inhibit bacteria growth, which lowers their patients' body temperatures by about 4 degrees , a significant drop. The solution: cover patients with disposable quilts inflated with warm air.
The Schizophrenic Brain . . . Schizophrenia may have a physical cause that originates before birth, according to a team of UC Irvine researchers. The team found that a third of schizophrenics studied had an abnormal distribution of certain critical nerve cells in the brain, but none of the control group did. The finding strongly suggests that the abnormality occurs during early fetal brain development.
Hip Results . . . A drug called alendronate dramatically reduces hip and spine fractures among post-menopausal women with osteoporosis, according to research by epidemiologist Dennis Black of UC San Francisco. Women with previous fractures who took the drug were about 50 percent less likely to get new fractures than women who didn't. The results are significant because up to 20 percent of women with hip fractures die within a year.
Anti-allergy vaccine . . . Medical scientists at UC San Diego developed an anti-allergy vaccine made from a snippet of DNA that shows promise of preventing allergic reactions and may wipe out an allergies for good. The vaccine, which could be applied merely by scratching the skin with a device similar to that used for allergy sensitization tests, would be cost effective, safe and specific to the allergy protein or allergen causing the symptoms. Pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, patient studies with the new vaccine could begin in two years.
No Fountain of Youth . . . A study led by clinical medicine specialist
Maxine Papadakis of UC San Francisco found that human growth hormone treatments
had no significant effect on strength or physical and mental functioning
in elderly volunteers. Growth hormone has drawn tremendous interest from
older people who hope it will make them youthful again, but Papadakis says
it won't, and doesn't recommend it.
Central American Connections . . . UC Berkeley anthropologist Rosemary Joyce discovered the oldest evidence so far of village life in central Honduras, dated between 1200 and 900 B.C. Joyce also discovered pottery linking central Honduran civilization to ancient Olmec civilization in Mexico, indicating long-distance travel in early Central America.
Better Yeast . . . UC Davis microbiologists led by Daniel Klionsky made a "superyeast" that grows twice as well as normal yeast after being frozen, dehydrated or during brewing. The new strain will make bread rise in half the time, survive longer in frozen dough and be required in smaller quantities.
The Oldest Mummy . . . A team of UC Riverside researchers led by anthropologist R. Ervin Taylor found that Nevada's mummified "Spirit Cave Man" is three times older than previously thought, making him the oldest mummy found in North America. Minute specimens from the mummy and from objects buried with him were dated using accelerator mass spectrometry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Musical Speech . . . A child's perception of music may be influenced
by the speech patterns of his or her mother, according to research by psychologist
Diana Deutsch of UC San Diego. Deutsch found that children and their mothers
perceived musical patterns in very similar ways, even though the children
had grown up in California and their mothers in Europe and the United States.
She believes it's because children are exposed early to their mother's
speech patterns. Deutsch previously found that people who grew up in California
and the south of England perceived identical series of musical tones differently.
The Road to Humanity . . . Early human ancestors didn't follow a straight and narrow evolutionary path on the way to becoming modern humans, according to UC Davis anthropologist Henry McHenry. New fossil discoveries in South Africa show that some species of early human ancestors had human-like bodies and ape-like skulls, while others had humanoid skulls and ape-like bodies.
How and Why the Moon . . . Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory think they've figured out how the moon was created: a violent collision billions of years ago between the earth and a huge celestial body. The impact separated earth's constituent elements into a metallic, mostly iron core and a rocky, mostly silicate mantle. Their conclusions are based on an experiment that duplicated conditions 250 miles inside the earth.
The Age of A Comet . . . Astronomer Marina Fomenkova of UC San
Diego was on a team of astronomers who discovered that Comet Hyakutake,
which recently passed close to earth, is made up of material that existed
in space long before the the solar system was formed. The finding should
offer scientists new insights into everything from conditions 4.5 billion
years ago, when the solar system was born, to the origin of life on earth.
Dirt and Global Warming . . . Global warming might lead to more global warming, according to environmental scientists Ronald Amundson of UC Berkeley, Susan E. Trumbore of UC Irvine and Oliver A. Chadwick of UC Santa Barbara. The reason: increased heat will release carbon in soil at an accelerated rate, which will turn into carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and further contribute to warming. If the earth's temperature rises half a degree, world carbon dioxide emissions will go up by 25 percent. The researchers say world deforestation and increased agriculture contribute to the problem.
Saving the Eucalyptus . . . California's eucalyptus trees are being threatened by a new pest, the eucalyptus snout beetle. But entomologists at UC Riverside believe they have a new insect weapon against the beetle: a parasitic wasp imported from South Africa. In tests, the stingless wasp is close to 100 percent effective against the beetle, and poses no threat to California agriculture.
Park Plans . . . Belize and Guatamala endorsed a plan by UC Santa Barbara archaeologist Anabel Ford to establish a binational Central American park at the Maya ruins known as "El Pilar." The park will straddle both countries. The agreement, created during a meeting organized by Ford, marks the first time the two nations have collaborated on a cultural issue since Belize became independent in 1981.
Oiled Care . . . UC Santa Cruz broke ground for the state's Oiled Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center. The $5 million center, slated to open in summer 1997, will be the nation's first facility dedicated to the study and rescue of oiled sea otters, seabirds and other wildlife. UCSC marine scientists will collaborate on wildlife and toxicology research at the center.
Platform Life . . . An oil platform in the Santa Barbara channel is home to a surprisingly large number of rockfishes and other marine life, according to a study led by marine biologist Milton Love of UC Santa Barbara. It's the first detailed study of fish settlement on oil platforms off the central California coast, and Love says it challenges the conventional wisdom that the platforms will have to be removed completely when the oil below them is depleted.
Dry Cleaning Goes to the Cleaners . . . Scientists at Los Alamos
National Laboratory helped develop an alternative to the hazardous chemicals
used in dry cleaning. The new method, which uses carbon dioxide under high
pressure, is organic, entirely recyclable and uses less energy than conventional
methods. With an ability to clean leather, furs and sequins as well as
cloth garments, the new system could revolutionize the dry cleaning industry
worldwide.
Minority Doctors, Minority Patients . . . Black and Hispanic physicians in California care for a disproportionately high share of the state's minority patients, according to a study led by Miriam Komaromy, assistant professor of medicine at UC San Francisco. Komaromy found that in black physician practices, 52 percent of the patients are black, while in non-black physician practices, the number of black patients is only 9 percent. The figures for Hispanic doctors and patients are similar. Komaromy says that health care for non-white patients could be threatened by state medical school admissions policies that might reduce the number of minority doctors.
Reverse Migration . . . African-Americans are returning to the south from northern cities, according to UC Berkeley anthropologist Carol Stack. In the 1940s and 1950s, millions of rural black Americans migrated north. But since 1975, that migration has reversed, as more than a million African-Americans have returned to live in the south. The reasons: economic conditions in the south have improved, and northern blacks never broke their ties with their rural southern families.
Do Your Homework . . . A study by economist Julian R. Betts of UC San Diego showed that even half an hour a day of extra homework can improve student performance on math test scores and accelerate learning by two grade levels. As for students' age-old gripe of being overburdened by "too much" homework, Betts found that less than 1 percent are actually overworked.
Monitoring Robbery . . . Robbery in convenience stores was reduced by 53 percent after installation of high-quality color TV monitors that gave customers and potential robbers a clear view of themselves at the counter, according to a study by UC Riverside sociologist Robert Figlio. Neither adding a second clerk on the late-night shift nor adding closed-circuit television monitored from outside the store had a significant effect on robbery rates.
Race and Drugs . . . A third of mentally ill African-American patients in county emergency rooms got twice the dosage of the anti-psychotic drug Haldol compared to patients of other races, according to social welfare professor Steven P. Segal of UC Berkeley. Segal found that the less time white emergency room clinicians spent talking to and evaluating black patients, the more likely they were to give them higher drug doses. Segal recommends training emergency room personnel not to pre-judge patients by race.
Relocation Rights . . . A California Supreme Court ruling that
allows divorced parents who relocate to keep custody of their children
is a critical advance for kids and will influence legal decisions in other
states, according to UC Davis law school professor Carol Bruch. In the
past, custodial parents , who are women in 80 percent of divorces , often
were forced to stay in an area so that non-custodial parents could see
their children. Meanwhile, custodial parents forfeited education, better
economic conditions or the companionship of family or new spouses. Bruch's
friend of the court brief includes UC-developed guidelines to help courts
evaluate relocation disputes.
Oral Health Grant . . . A team led by dental professor Charles Bertolami of UCLA was awarded a $4.9 million grant from the National Institute of Dental Research. The team will conduct a five-year study of oral health problems that occur disproportionately among underserved non-white populations.
Schizophrenia Awards . . . Two UC Irvine researchers received research grants from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. Edward G. Jones, professor of anatomy and neurobiology, received a one-year, $100,000 Established Investigator award for his proposal to study the role of the thalamus, a part of the brain, in schizophrenia. Christopher Reist, assistant professor in residence in psychiatry and human behavior, received a two-year, $30,000 Young Investigator award to study the role of serotonin, a brain enzyme, in impulsivity. Impulse control and lack of it are important in a number of mental disorders as well as aggression and suicide.
Naval Money . . . Chemist Timothy J. Deming and electrical and computer engineer Robert A. York of UC Santa Barbara were awarded stipends of up to $100,000 a year for three years under the Office of Naval Research's young investigator program. The money will go for research on topics ranging from stronger glues to better radar.
Internet Research . . . Computer scientist Urs Hoelzle of UC Santa Barbara won $200,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation for research on a new family of computer languages that are revolutionizing the Internet. The grant will support Hoelzle's investigations into ways to speed up languages like Sun Microsystems' Java . . . Santa Barbara political scientist Bruce Bimber received $72,000 from the NSF to conduct a two-year survey of people who use electronic mail and the World Wide Web for political purposes.
Astronomical Array . . . UC Berkeley led a consortium that included
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Maryland
in the construction of a new state-of-the-art array of radio telescopes
at Berkeley's Hat Creek Observatory north of Redding, Calif. The array,
which has been in use during the eight years it took to build, is used
to map extremely fine detail of relatively cool objects in space, ranging
from the gas and dust in distant galaxies to the background radiation left
over from the origin of the universe.
Honorary Doctorate . . . The Parsons School of Design of the New School for Social Research in New York City awarded an honorary doctor of Fine Arts degree to Faith Ringgold, professor of visual arts at UC San Diego.
Academic Fellow . . . Suanne M. Daves, UC Irvine associate clinical
professor of anesthesiology, is one of 29 women selected nationally as
a 1996-97 fellow in Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine. The fellowship
program focuses on preparing women faculty for senior leadership positions
in academic medicine.
Compiled by Communications Services, Office of the President, Steve.Tokar@ucop.edu