A Report on Discoveries and Achievements at the University of California
Volume 4, Number 5, March 1996
The following is a glimpse of some recent achievements by the faculty, students and staff of the University of California.
Disease Watch . . . UC's Statewide Integrated Pest Management Project is spearheading a $500,000 effort to build a computerized network of remote weather stations in California to predict when conditions are ripe for the development of plant diseases -- fungi, mildew, blights and other microbial pests. Unlike insects and weeds, plant diseases can't be seen with the naked eye, and fungicide must be applied before diseases start in order to be effective. The project will be managed by agricultural meteorologist Joyce Strand.
New Planets . . . Astronomers at UC Berkeley discovered two new Jupiter-sized planets within about 35 light years of Earth, both at temperatures that mean they could have liquid water. The discovery was made by Geoffrey Marcy, a professor of physics and astronomy at San Francisco State University and a visiting scholar at Berkeley, and Paul Butler, a postdoctoral researcher with a joint appointment at Berkeley and San Francisco State University. The two new planets were found around the stars 70 Virginis in the constellation Virgo and 47 Ursae Majoris in the Big Dipper. They're only the second and third planets to be discovered outside our own solar system.
University Professor . . . Sandra Faber, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, was appointed a University Professor by the UC Board of Regents. Faber was recognized for her internationally renowned research in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, her work with the Hubble Space Telescope and the W. M. Keck Telescope and her highly regarded teaching. Her five-year appointment brings the current roster of University Professors to 18.
Start Here . . . Major changes in law and policy are needed on the state and federal levels to address the failure of a four-year-old visa program to induce wealthy Asian immigrants to start up U.S. companies, according to a study led by UCLA urban planner Paul Ong. The study found that program requirements are too stringent or poorly conceived, no effort has been made to promote the program, and other countries are competing more effectively for the same immigrants.
After School Activity . . . A cooperative venture between UC
Cooperative Extension, Oakland Housing Authority and PG&E received
$1 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to
establish 4-H Afterschool Activity Programs for 7- to 13-year-olds at three
Oakland housing projects. Oakland is one of four cities in the nation sharing
HUD money to bring the program to inner-city kids.
Hyper-Diagnosis . . . UC Davis pediatricians Robin L. Hansen and Penelope G. Krener say that too many children are diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and that Ritalin, the drug used to treat the disorder, is over-prescribed. Since 1990, Ritalin production in the United States has climbed 500 percent and ADHD diagnosis has doubled to 2 million, with boys ages 5 to 17 constituting the largest group. The researchers say that children with presumed attention or behavior problems deserve a comprehensive evaluation of their symptoms and, when ADD is diagnosed, Ritalin and other medications should be the last resort -- not the first.
Hip Guard . . . UC San Francisco orthopedic surgeon Steve Robinovitch designed a hip pad that can by can be worn in an undergarment to protect against hip fractures. More than 250,000 Americans a year, most of them elderly, suffer hip fractures from falls, resulting in about $10 billion in medical bills and costing many elderly people their independence or even their lives. The new pad can help reduce impact force to the hip by 65 percent, well below the amount needed to cause a fracture.
Keep the Ben & Jerry's . . . Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that low-fat, heart-healthy diets aren't for everyone. The research team discovered that only those at high risk for heart disease significantly benefit from most such diets, and suggested people find out their heart disease risk from their doctors before throwing out the butter.
Elderly Exercise . . . Researchers at UCLA developed an exercise program that increases both physical activity and mobility endurance in frail nursing home residents. The program breaks new ground because it targets severely cognitively and functionally impaired nursing home residents, a group excluded from past studies on the benefits of exercise. The work was led by sports medicine expert Priscilla MacRae.
Team Effort . . . A collaborative team of UC Irvine and British researchers discovered the gene for a hereditary disorder called Treacher Collins syndrome, which can cause severe facial anomalies and deafness. The gene is located on chromosome 5. The discovery team was led by the late Irvine geneticist John Wasmuth.
Teenage Brains . . . The tendency of teenagers to stay up late
at night may be a sign that they're eating right and their brains have
reached a significant stage in development, according to Mari Golub, a
behavioral neurobiologist at UC Davis. Her research revealed a link between
zinc deficiency and slower skeletal and brain maturation and slower growth
in adolescent monkeys. The shift in sleep habits could be a normal behavioral
change reflecting final brain maturation that occurs in human as well as
monkey adolescence.
Evolutionary Pathways . . . Life is divided into prokaryotes -- creatures whose cells have no nucleus -- and eukaryotes. Research by a UC San Diego team led by chemist Russell Doolittle indicates that prokaryotes and eukaryotes last shared a common ancestor about 2 billion years ago before going their separate evolutionary ways. The team also found that plants, animals and fungi -- the three major kingdoms of life -- last shared a common ancestor about 1 billion years ago. The findings emerged from a new evolutionary tree of life constructed by the research team.
How Bugs Shed Skin . . . A team of entomologists from UC Riverside discovered a previously unknown hormone that controls the way insects shed their skins, or molt, as they grow. The research, which was done on the tobacco hornworm, is a major insight into hormonally controlled behavior in insects generally. Insects molt many times during their lives.
Bridge Inspectors . . . The U.S. Federal Highway Administration will test a new technology developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that uses infrared imaging and special computer software to look for deterioration in bridge decks. Cameras and computer are mounted on a mobile home, which is driven across the bridge to be inspected. The system is being looked at as a possible replacement for current techniques, which are slow, inaccurate and involve shutting down lanes of traffic.
Brain Games . . . Researchers led by William Jenkins, UC San
Francisco professor of otolaryngology, developed a set of computer games
designed to help learning-disabled children catch up with their peers in
language development and reading. The games retrain the way the children
read and hear by incorporating basic research on how the brain responds
to sound.
Anyone Out There? . . . The fourth generation of a 20-year search for extraterrestrial life will get under way this summer at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The SERENDIP project, which monitors radio waves from space, is directed by astronomer Stuart Bowyer of UC Berkeley. For part four, new instruments will scan the sky 40 times more efficiently than previous equipment.
Hunting Neutrinos . . . The National Science Foundation awarded
$3.8 million to physicist Stephen Barwick of UC Irvine and researchers
from the University of Wisconsin to expand and upgrade the AMANDA neutrino
telescope at the South Pole. Neutrinos, which have no mass or electric
charge, are extremely difficult to detect and are best found using sensors
far removed from other signals.
Not Clean Enough . . . Preliminary measurements by toxicologists at UC Santa Cruz suggest that cleaning the most polluted parts of San Francisco Bay will be difficult because metals in contaminated bottom sediments may rise for decades into the water and continue to pollute the bay. The work provides some of the first reliable measurements of trace metals in bay sediments.
Different Mountains . . . Researchers from UC Riverside and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that the southern Sierra Nevada, which contains the highest peak in the contiguous United States, apparently defies conventional scientific wisdom of how mountains are made. The crust beneath the range is only about 20 miles thick, and the mountains are thrust upward by partially molten rock in the mantle beneath -- a picture of mountain-building that differs radically from that of other major ranges, which generally result from the collision of two continental plates.
Synergistic Frog Death? . . . Amphibians around the world are dying out, and no one knows why. But a study by biologist Leslie Long and professor emeritus of environmental studies Michael Soule of UC Santa Cruz may provide a clue. Their research showed that in the laboratory, acidic water and ultraviolet light damage frog embryos far more seriously when acting together rather than separately -- a phenomenon known as synergy. The researchers say that ecologists should look for similar synergistic effects in nature as they try to explain amphibian disappearances.
Let the Bugs Do It . . . A study by researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis found that many contaminated underground fuel tank sites slated for cleanup by conventional engineering techniques could be cleaned just as effectively and quickly by letting natural soil bacteria do the job. The study estimates that under existing regulations, current and future tank cleanup efforts may cost $3 billion.
Sponges, Not Pipes . . . Geophysicists at UC Santa Cruz unearthed evidence that the most common model of the plumbing under earth's mid-ocean ridges may be wrong. About 80 percent of the planet's volcanic activity occurs at mid-ocean ridges; until now, researchers had assumed that the ridges were formed by molten material rising quickly from the earth's depths via direct conduits. The new study shows instead that magma may rise upward slowly and diffusely, as if seeping through a very poor sponge.
Methane the Culprit? . . . Paleoceanographer James P. Kennett
and doctoral student Ingrid Henley of UC Santa Barbara found a possible
explanation for rapid climate changes in the earth's past: sudden eruptions
of methane from the sea floor. Methane is a greenhouse gas, and the team
found traces of eruptions that coincide with known periods of global warming.
Kennett calls it a powerful piece of evidence for a new theory of global
climate change.
Sex, Aggression and Communication . . . A study of college students by communications professor Michael T. Motley of UC Davis says that male sexual aggression on dates is often a matter of lack of communication. Motley found that unwanted sexual attention could be lessened if men better understood women's resistance messages and if women used clearer messages. He found the main reason that women do not use more direct messages is because they worry how it might affect their relationship with men -- and that most men will stop escalating when the message is clear and direct.
Violence On the Tube . . . Research by a team of UC Santa Barbara communications professors showed that perpetrators go unpunished in 73 percent of all violent scenes on television. The research was conducted for the National Television Violence Study, commissioned in 1994 by the National Cable Television Association. The Santa Barbara team analyzed television violence in context, looking for lack of punishment, unrealistic violence and lack of consequences, rather than just counting violent incidents. The report's findings will provide a benchmark for the ongoing study, which will continue for another two years.
Violence at Home . . . UCLA researchers led by public and community health expert Susan Sorenson found that immigrants to the United States are more likely to be victims of homicide than people born here. The researchers found that from 1970 to 1992, immigrants comprised about 17 percent of the state's population but accounted for 23 percent of homicide victims. Sorenson said the findings suggest immigrants should be targeted for violence prevention programs . . . Sorenson also led research showing that people who are black, under age 30, less educated, lower income or urban dwellers are more likely to report physical violence in their marriages. She estimates that 3 million married American couples face some form of physical violence in their relationship each year, with an estimated 500,000 couples sustaining injury from the violence.
Psychic Trends? . . . Secret government experiments on psychic
phenomena such as ESP offer the most credible evidence to date of the existence
of paranormal abilities in humans, according to statistician Jessica Utts
of UC Davis and psychologist Ray Hyman of the University of Oregon at Eugene.
After evaluating a previously classified 20-year, $20 million basic-research
program funded by U.S. intelligence agencies, the two experts agree that
the research produced statistically significant results but disagree about
how to interpret those results. Utts maintains the experiments prove that
"psychic functioning" really exists, while Hyman says the evidence is strong
but far from compelling.
Smart Crash Tests . . . In a four-year project, Los Alamos National Laboratory will develop a computer-based virtual safety laboratory for General Motors Corp. The goal of the lab is to develop a simulated crash test system that will reduce the need for actual crash tests, which cost about $750,000 each, by 15 to 20 percent.
Ultraviolet Research . . . UC Santa Barbara graduate student Terence J. Evens received a three-year $94,000 fellowship from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency for research on the effects of ultraviolet radiation on photosynthesis. Although it's known that excess ultraviolet light affects photosynthesis, no one knows why. Evens was one of 100 finalists out of 2,500 applicants for the fellowship.
Health Risk Grants . . . UCLA received a $1.2 million grant from the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health to develop tools to assess health risks to workers in defense and other high-risk industries. The research will be led by toxicologist John Froines. UCLA also received a $600,000 grant from the Fogarty International Center to help train Mexican researchers to address a variety of environmental health threats in their country.
Research Rescue . . . The medical schools at UC San Francisco,
UCLA and UC San Diego were among 30 medical schools nationwide to receive
special grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The grants, which
will be distributed annually over four years, will help sustain critical
programs endangered by funding cuts. UCSF received $4 million, UCLA $3
million and UCSD $2.6 million. The grants will be used to support research,
recruit faculty and provide needed equipment.
Healthtrac Prize . . . Lester Breslow, UCLA professor emeritus at the School of Public Health, was awarded the Healthtrac Foundation Prize, presented annually to recognize a person who has made a major contribution to health improvement. Breslow is widely known for his research in health promotion and disease prevention.
Entomological Fellow . . . Entomologist Mir Mulla of UC Riverside,
an authority on insects that transmit diseases to humans, was elected a
fellow of the Entomological Society of America, the nation's leading academic
organization for insect scientists. It is one of the highest honors the
society bestows.
Compiled by Communications Services, Office of the President, steve.tokar@ucop.edu