A Report on Discoveries and Achievements at the University of California
Volume 7, Number 5, March 1999

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

In The News

Fulbright Scholars . . . UC faculty and staff have won a total of 21 Fulbright awards for the current year. The grants, awarded for study, teaching and research abroad, went to seven scholars at UC Davis, five each at UC Berkeley and UCLA, two at UC Santa Cruz and one each at UC Riverside and UC Irvine.

Studying the Coast . . . UC Santa Barbara researchers received a $17.7 million grant, the largest single grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, to study the California and Oregon coasts. They will work with colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, Stanford University and Oregon State University to examine the ecology and oceanography of the "near-shore zones."

How it Happens . . . James N. Weiss, director of the UCLA Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, has received a $2 million MERIT award from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The 10-year grant recognizes Weiss’ work studying the electrical activity of cells that direct organ function, such as how the brain thinks and how the heart beats.

Biomedical Engineering . . . UC Irvine has been awarded $3 million by the Whitaker Foundation to create a program in biomedical engineering, including a proposed academic department that will develop biomedical technology in collaboration with Southern California’s medical device and diagnostics industries. The program will draw faculty from engineering, biological sciences, computer and physical sciences, the College of Medicine and the Beckman Laser Institute.

Pacific Rim Alliance . . . The Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance – a year-old consortium of 13 academic libraries around the Pacific Rim headquartered at UC San Diego –has received a three-year, $300,000 award from the Henry Luce Foundation. Among other things, the award will enable the alliance to build a multilingual gateway to library resources giving scholars access to databases in several languages.

Welfare-to-Work . . . A UC Cooperative Extension program called "Gateway to a Better Life" is helping new wage earners – including those who have been on welfare for many years – cope with managing family finances, being a dependable employee and finding affordable child care. Directed by UC Riverside’s Karen Varcoe, the curriculum emphasizing life skills is being used by many California counties to help move aid recipients into jobs.

Lead Poisoning . . . UC Santa Cruz researchers received a $138,000 grant from the federal Housing and Urban Development department to evaluate the use of analytical equipment for identifying sources of contamination in the homes of children with dangerous amounts of lead in their blood. The study may help improve the effectiveness of strategies for controlling household lead hazards to children, says lead investigator Donald Smith.

Animal Hospital . . . The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine will administer a veterinary medical center set to open this fall at UC San Diego. The California Legislature is funding the center through recent budget augmentations for Davis’ veterinary medicine school.

Health and Nutrition

Feel-Good Copper . . . If you’re slugging down iron pills and remaining weak and anemic, the culprit may not be iron, but another metal: copper. UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco researchers discovered a protein, hephaestin, that appears critical in moving iron to the bloodstream. The protein contains copper and cannot be produced in the absence of copper.

Prostate Cancer . . . New treatments for men with metastatic prostate cancer could develop from a discovery made by researcher Charles Sawyers and his team at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center. The treatments would involve shutting down a pathway that can carry excessive growth signals to prostate cells, thereby causing prostate cancer.

Patients’ Rights and Higher Costs . . . An informal survey of health care industry decision-makers at UC Irvine’s 1999 Health Care Forecast Conference reflected industry leaders’ belief that proposed patient rights legislation will lead to higher health care costs, but will not improve quality of care. Nonetheless, respondents said they favor such changes and predicted they will be enacted.

Low Calories and Life . . . Eating a low-calorie yet nutrient-rich diet produces physiological changes that may lower risk of serious disease, according to findings from UCLA researcher Roy Walford. The data also suggest that "yo-yo dieting" may harm the body by flushing toxic substances in and out of the bloodstream.

New AIDS Challenge . . . Genetic analysis and clinical studies at UC San Francisco reveal that the AIDS virus in the cerebrospinal fluid of some people with AIDS-related dementia evolves independently of the virus in their blood, leading to two genetically distinct forms of the virus. The finding poses a new challenge for treatment of these patients, suggesting that drugs effective against HIV-1 in their blood may not do the job in the central nervous system and vice versa.

Developments and Discoveries

Flunking Flunks Out . . . A recent study on grade retention by UC Santa Barbara researcher Shane Jimerson cautions educators against flunking pupils. Children gain little academically and nothing emotionally from being held back, the research suggests.

Sense of Taste . . . Researchers at UC San Diego and colleagues have identified the genes likely responsible for the mammalian sense of taste. It sets the stage for discovering how the sense of taste is "wired" from the mouth to the brain.

Heavy Element . . . A Russian-Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory experiment at Russia’s Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna may have produced the long-sought element 114. An accelerator fired calcium-48 atoms into a Livermore-supplied target of plutonium-244 in a 40-day experiment. Detectors picked up signs of a single atom of a heavy element, tentatively identified as 114.

Protective Mothers . . . Trilobites – tiny denizens of the Cambrian seas of 500 million years ago – may have sheltered their young in pouches similar to what a kangaroo mother does. UC Riverside researcher Nigel Hughes and colleagues theorize that a swelling seen at the head of several trilobite fossils is a brood chamber where the females of the extinct species protected their developing larvae from predators.

Evolutionary Leapfrog . . . Male and female fruit flies have a common interest in reproduction, but they're at odds on one point: while every male wants his sperm to fertilize a female’s eggs, she wants only certain males to succeed. UC Davis researcher Timothy Prout suggests that conflict provokes continual tit-for-tat changes in the flies’ genes – a male-female game of leapfrog that could have important evolutionary consequences

Human DNA . . . A team of UCLA researchers led by Juli Feigon has determined the three-dimensional structure of a critical region of a human DNA repair protein – a discovery that could lead to important medical and pharmaceutical applications.

Preventing Breast Cancer . . . UC San Francisco researchers and colleagues have discovered the molecular mechanism by which tamoxifen blocks the effects of estrogen, a process shown to prevent breast cancer in some women at high risk. The results provide valuable clues about ways to design new, more effective disease-preventing medications with fewer side effects.

Historic Horoscope . . . A 400-year-old manuscript penned by one of history’s greatest astronomers was recently discovered at UC Santa Cruz. Anthony Misch, a support astronomer at Lick Observatory, which is headquartered at UCSC, discovered the manuscript, a horoscope authored by 16th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler sometime in the late 1500s or early 1600s. Misch was researching solar eclipse expeditions in the University Library archives when he discovered the unassuming six- by eight-inch framed paper in a drawer of miscellanea.

The Cutting Edge

Acupuncture Has Heart . . . Researcher John Longhurst of UC Irvine, working with Chinese scientists, is looking at how acupuncture works on the heart. After finding that stimulating nerves associated with heart function resulted in lowered blood pressure and increased blood flow, the researchers are exploring whether hormones and other chemicals in the heart respond to acupuncture.

Turning on in Space . . . The ion beam spectrometer and ion mass spectrometer developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and now aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have been turned on – a long-range technological achievement involving high-voltage systems in space. Cassini is headed for a 2004 rendezvous with Saturn to study the planet and its moons and rings.

Champion Sorters . . . A group of UC Berkeley students claimed the world record for computerized data sorting. Undergraduates Joshua Coates and Spencer Low, along with graduate student Philip Buonadonna, completed the benchmark Datamation sort in 1.18 seconds. That is less than half the time of the previous record holder – another group at UC Berkeley.

Antibodies Are Culprits . . . Researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered that a human’s own antibodies, in recent years considered minor culprits in the development of multiple sclerosis, actually play a direct role. The finding suggests a possible new target for drug therapy.

Keyboard Design . . . A study led by UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley researchers has found that a new computer keyboard design can decrease hand paresthesia –numbness, tingling, burning in the hand. The study showed that a significant reduction in symptoms is possible by using springs underneath each key that change the force or feel of the key switches.

Planet and Environment

Dust in the Wind . . . A 10-year study by UC Santa Barbara researcher Oliver Chadwick shows that dust from phosphorus-rich Asian soil is carried 6,000 kilometers to the Hawaiian Islands, the world’s most remote archipelago. The discovery underscores that the world’s ecosystems are connected and, to some degree, dependent on each other for their existence.

Lifesaving Gel . . . Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed an oxidizing gel that will safely and effectively decontaminate biological and chemical releases in civilian settings, says project leader Ellen Raber. The gel – whose active ingredient is peroxymonosulfate – was more effective in laboratory tests than methods currently in use, is more environmentally acceptable than existing methods and is flexible for use in different scenarios.

Plant Communications . . . UC Davis biologists led by William Lucas report the discovery of an important element in the complicated internal communication and transportation systems of plants: a previously unknown "movement protein" that carries information-bearing RNA from stems and leaves to faraway roots and flowers. The findings could lead to better defenses against crop diseases.

Global Cooling . . . Scientists throughout the world are conducting the intensive field phase of an experiment to determine the role that aerosols play in cooling the planet and mitigating the effects of global warming. The Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate (C4) at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography is coordinating the $25 million Indian Ocean Experiment.

Insights on Society

Class Size Catastrophe? . . . In the wake of California’s $1.5 billion annual investment in class size reduction, UC Riverside researchers have found that a teacher’s training and experience is a stronger indicator of a child’s academic success than the size of the class. Researcher Douglas Mitchell says the large-scale recruitment of inexperienced teachers may be enough to counteract any positive effects of class size reduction, at least initially.

Preventing Olympic Bribes . . . Corporate America could coach the International Olympic Committee on how to protect itself against bribery, says UC Davis researcher Michael W. Maher. He says the allegations of bribery against Salt Lake City's bid committee are much like those leveled at U.S. industry in the 1970s when major corporations were accused of bribing foreign officials.

When in Rome. . . UC Santa Barbara researcher Fikret Yegul served as chief advisor to a Roman bath project commissioned by the public TV program Nova. Using ancient techniques and materials, a team of scientists and engineers created a replica for an episode in a new mini-series called "Secrets of Lost Empires II," airing in spring 2000.

Freshmen and the Internet . . . A national survey conducted annually by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute shows that most freshmen embrace the Internet as an educational tool. Other survey results: Interest in politics continues to decline; volunteerism continues to climb; academic disengagement worsens; beer drinking hits record low; and support for abortion and casual sex reaches all-time low.

Coffee Still Reigns Supreme . . . They’ve been the engine of a global economy, currency of illicit trade and the foundation of financial empires. Cocaine? No, coffee beans. Three centuries before the microchip, coffee beans fueled international trade, says UC Irvine researcher Steven Topik, who teaches a class on the history of coffee. Today’s global economy is more intense, but much of it still runs on coffee – now among the top 10 world commodities at some 400 billion cups a year.

Involved Scientists . . . Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, UC Santa Cruz Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood has urged scientifically literate professionals to serve on school boards. She proposed an AAAS program called Project 20/20 to give them information and advice on protecting and enhancing scientific content and accuracy in K-12 education.

Sharing the Wheel . . . For the next year, 60 San Francisco Bay Area residents will share the use of 12 ultra-low emissions cars in the largest, most technically sophisticated test of car sharing in the nation. The goal of the project, sponsored by the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, is to learn whether people can make car sharing work for commuting and running errands.

Agricultural Workers . . . The portion of California farmworkers who are not authorized to work legally in the United States jumped from nine percent in 1990-91 to 43 percent in 1995-97, say UC Berkeley researchers. Typically, the workers are employed almost half the year in seasonal farm work and about three-fourths earned less than $10,000 annually.

Physicians Marrying Physicians . . . A survey of 1,208 young physicians by UC San Francisco researchers and colleagues show both women and men physicians married to other physicians differed from their peers whose spouses were not physicians. Physicians married to physicians worked fewer hours on average, earned less money and more often played a major role in raising their children.

Looking to the Future

Forever Young . . . UC Irvine College of Medicine researcher Sudhir Gupta has identified a key molecular process in T cells that leads to the wear and tear taken for granted as part of getting older. Understanding how these cells become more sensitive to the influences of enzymes and other chemicals could help scientists find ways to arrest the changes that occur in aging cells, perhaps lengthening life spans.

Using Fads . . . Remember quality circles? Business process re-engineering? Conventional wisdom has deemed them "fad du-jour," but UC Berkeley researcher Robert Cole says businesses often need fads to motivate people to try new things. He adds that smart companies learn to use fads while stupid companies do not.

Discovery Offers Hope . . . UC San Francisco researchers led by Dean Sheppard have uncovered crucial steps in a grim molecular dance that asphyxiates more than 5,000 people a year in the United States. They have pinpointed a protein involved in a process leading to pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung inflammation that eventually robs the lungs of their ability to supply oxygen to the blood.

Worm With Nerve . . . Researcher Ji-Ying Sze of UC Irvine is studying how nerve cells in a tiny worm called C. elegans grow and respond to disease. The worm made headlines when it became the only creature whose entire genetic makeup is known. Since C. elegans’ nerves appear to be similar to humans, understanding its nervous system could help scientists develop a blueprint for how nerve cells grow and function in people.

Kudos

Presidential Award . . . Tonya Kuhl, a UC Santa Barbara researcher and Los Alamos National Laboratory affiliate, has received a Presidential Early Career Award from the National Science and Technology Council. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.

Peace Fellowship . . . Etel Solingen, professor of political science at UC Irvine, has won a Social Science Research Council-MacArthur Foundation Fellowship on Peace and Security in a Changing World. Her project, "Emulating Peace: East Asian Keys to Middle East Cooperation," will examine whether the conditions that have transformed East Asia into a peaceful region can be replicated in the Mideast.

New ASME Fellow . . . Charlie Landram, a mechanical engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was honored for his achievements in research and development, engineering product application, design, technical publications and contributions to ASME.

Boosting Information . . . Nancy Knowlton, a marine biologist at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has been awarded a fellowship from the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, a new effort designed to improve scientific communication about environmental issues to the media, policy makers and the private sector.

Investing in Education

Largest Gift . . . A $10.7 million gift from the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation – the largest single cash gift in the campus’s history – will boost significantly efforts to improve aging facilities at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and to restore full accreditation to the nation’s top-ranked vet school.

Engineering Fellowships . . . Esther F. Hays, professor emeritus in the UCLA School of Medicine, has established an endowed fund to support graduate engineering students at the UC Riverside. The $100,000 gift will fund fellowships at the College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology. Hays said her concern for the health of Southern California residents, especially children, and CE-CERT’s emphasis on training future engineers to solve environmental problems inspired her gift.

Extraterrestrial Chair. . . A new academic chair at UC Berkeley may well be the first ever reserved for an astronomer engaged in looking for extraterrestrial intelligence. William "Jack" Welch, former director of Berkeley’s Radio Astronomy Laboratory, is the inaugural holder of the Watson and Marilyn Alberts Chair in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in the astronomy department.

Big Sounds . . . A $150,000 gift from the Ahmanson Foundation to UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture has supported the addition of a new Bombarde division of 24 ranks of pipes to the Royce Hall organ. The organ, one of the largest and most historically significant in Los Angeles, has been restored and reinstalled after suffering major damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Compiled  by University Relations. For more information, call (510) 987-9200 . Written by Charles McFadden, UCOP News & Communication, charles.mcfadden@ucop.edu.