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Tuesday, 6 October 2009
1. Editorial: Basic science research brings in Nobel Prizes
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
October 6, 2009
The importance of basic scientific research was driven home Monday when three Americans won the Nobel Prize for medicine in recognition of their work, much of it done at UC BERKELEY, that inspired new lines of research into cancer.
As California political leaders grapple with devastating budget cuts, they must not forget that the state's universities are not only teaching institutions but also world research leaders. And as the nation struggles with immigration policy, we must remember that many of the nation's brilliant minds, including two of the three Nobel recipients, have come from abroad.
ELIZABETH BLACKBURN, CAROL GREIDER and Jack Szostak won the coveted prize for their work in the late 1970s and 1980s that solved the mystery of how chromosomes protect themselves from degrading when cells divide. BLACKBURN WAS ON THE FACULTY AT CAL AND GREIDER WAS ONE OF HER GRADUATE STUDENTS when they did their work....
Their work was born out of scientific inquisitiveness. GREIDER, THE DAUGHTER OF TWO SCIENTISTS ALSO WITH DOCTORATES FROM CAL, said the research began with experiments aimed at understanding how cells work. "Funding for that kind of curiosity-driven science is really important," she told The Associated Press.
We couldn't agree more. If ever there was a reminder of the need to protect the excellence of the UC system, this is it.
[This editorial also appeared in the Oakland Tribune] Full Story
2. Amid chores, the call: You won a Nobel
Sacramento Bee
October 6, 2009
A scientist who grew up in Davis and graduated from Davis Senior High School in 1979 was among three researchers who on Monday shared the Nobel Prize in medicine.
CAROL GREIDER, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, said she was at home in Baltimore folding laundry Monday morning when she received the news that she had won the world's most prestigious science prize....
Greider, 48, won for her discovery in 1984 of telomerase - an enzyme that regulates the length of chromosome ends and governs the division and death of cells in the human body....
She made the find on Christmas Day 1984, when she was a GRADUATE STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and couldn't wait until after the holiday to see the results of an experiment she'd started.
Twenty years later, the discovery has profound implications that scientists say may lead to treatments to control cancer or slow the aging process.
Greider shared the Nobel medals and the $1.4 million prize with ELIZABETH BLACKBURN, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, WHOM SHE WORKED WITH AS A GRADUATE STUDENT [AT UC BERKELEY], and Jack Szostak, who teaches at Harvard Medical School....
Greider credited her late father, KENNETH GREIDER, a longtime physics professor at UC Davis [AND UC BERKELEY ALUM], for her scientific bent.
She said he emphasized the importance of pursuing curiosity and "following what you're most interested in."
"He'd say, 'You don't do well for other people. You do well for yourself because it opens doors and gives you the freedom to do what you want,' " she said.
Greider and Blackburn were among a small number of women to have won the Nobel Prize in medicine. Greider said she hoped she could set an example for young women interested in science....
[Another story on this topic aired on NPR's "All Things Considered" (link to transcript and audio)] Full Story
3. As California tightens purse strings, UC turns to Uncle Sam
Sacramento Bee
October 6, 2009
With the state tightening the spigot on public funding for colleges, the University of California is putting a hand out to Uncle Sam.
The federal government already has sent the UC system $700 million in stimulus funds to help ease the pain of historic state budget cuts. And the stimulus package has directed millions of dollars more to UC for scientific research.
But UC leaders are making the case that the federal government should play an even larger role in funding California's premier university system - not just during an economic emergency but on an ongoing basis...
"There never has been an integrated national strategy in this country for higher education. There needs to be one now," UC President Mark Yudof wrote in a draft policy paper....
Chancellors of the UC campuses have begun echoing the call. In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post, UC BERKELEY CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU suggested that President Barack Obama create a national network of the country's top public research universities.
"Washington would provide sufficient additional funding for operations and student support to ensure broad access and continued excellence at these universities," Birgeneau wrote. "A portion of these resources would ensure that out-of-state and in-state students pay the same tuition and have access to the same financial aid packages."... Full Story
4. People & Ideas: Irina Conboy: Making the old feel young again
Conboy has found her niche in chasing down what ails aged, decrepit muscle stem cells.
Journal of Cell Biology
October 5, 2009
Originally from Russia, IRINA CONBOY joined Susan McConnell's laboratory at Stanford University in the early 1990s, where she later pursued her PhD, studying autoimmunity in the laboratory of Patricia Jones. Around the same time she married MICHAEL CONBOY, and the two have been scientific partners ever since—making a splash in the highly competitive pond of Bay Area stem cell science.
Starting with her postdoctoral fellowship with Tom Rando at Stanford, Conboy has dissected what causes muscle stem cells, or satellite cells, to age and lose their capacity for repair and regeneration of muscle tissue.
...In collaboration with Irv Weissman, she and Michael took a pioneering approach that hooked up the circulation of young mice to old mice. They found that circulating factors from young mice rejuvenated aged stem cells (3). More importantly, in Conboy's mind, they found that old factors negatively influenced repair in young tissues (4). In 2008, as an ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, Conboy identified at least one of the culprits emanating from aged muscle tissue—an excess of TGF-β that shuts down cell cycle progression in satellite cells (5).
These findings confirmed Conboy's unorthodox view of aging. Rather than a lack of the positive influences of youth, she sees aging as an excess of negative outputs from aged tissues and the stem cells' microenvironment. In an interview, she explained why old niches should concern anyone designing stem cell–based therapies and what parrots and samurai philosophy have taught her about research. ... Full Story
5. Green Living Blog: Economists say heading off climate disaster now would be affordable
KABC Online
October 6, 2009
Opponents of climate change action say we can’t afford to spend the billions it will take to retool our economy around new energy sources.
But a group of economists says we can’t afford not to.
The network of economists, called Economics for Equity and the Environment Network (E3), says that lowering carbon emissions to 350 parts per million (from the current 400 parts per million) is not just desirable — it is affordable....
Efforts to protect the earth, such as reforestation, replacing fossil fuels with clean energy and developing carbon sequestration, would be an insurance policy against drastic and costly climate changes, they say.
“The reason people buy fire insurance is not because they are certain that their house will burn down; rather, it is because they cannot be certain that it won’t,” said Dr. Frank Ackerman of Tufts University and Stockholm Environment Institute, the lead author of the report, in a statement....
The report was assembled by Dr. Ackerman and seven other economists from Tufts, the University of California at Santa Barbara, UC AT BERKELEY, Bard College Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins. (However, the economists’ views do not necessarily represent those of their university.) Full Story
6. Commentary: There could be a good story in nonprofit journalism
San Francisco Examiner
October 6, 2009
...I don’t need to tell anyone about the state of journalism these days, not since most of the biggest newspapers in the country became part of an endangered species list....
So it’s a necessary and inevitable step that newspapers would have to adapt in this brave new world by coming up with different models and strategies, the kind that launched this very tabloid some years back. And the Chronicle’s misfortunes led directly to the start of an anticipated online reporting venture that’s being set up as a nonprofit — charitable news indeed.
Billed as the Bay Area News Project, the venture will partner KQED, the public television and radio station, with the UC BERKELEY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, both of which will provide reporters and editing expertise. There are ongoing discussions with The New York Times about carrying the site’s published content as a Bay Area edition....
Initial reaction to the project has ranged from hyperbolic fear — a Chronicle editor vowed to smash the new competition — to casual skepticism, but the truth is it’s far too early to tell what impact a nonprofit news center might have on the local market. Even if it’s freed from the burden of seeking advertising revenue in a weak economy, philanthropic dollars aren’t easy to come by, and there’s no guarantee the venture would qualify for federal job funding.
Yet, it could provide a jolt to other outlets to do more and better since competition is what solid, old-fashioned news gathering is all about.
But at this point, the project is just an idea with some promise of offering a glimmer of hope in an industry that’s been bereft of good news. Full Story
7. Court asks for Obama's stance on Healthy S.F.
San Francisco Chronicle
October 6, 2009
The U.S. Supreme Court delayed action Monday on employer fees in San Francisco's groundbreaking health care program and instead sought advice from the Obama administration, even as the president struggles to overhaul health coverage nationwide.
The president has made health care reform a top domestic priority, yet his administration has been noticeably quiet during the legal fight over San Francisco's program - one touted by some experts as a potential model for the nation. The Bush administration had urged two federal courts to overturn the city law, which requires companies with more than 20 employees to provide health insurance benefits or pay fees that cover the employees' health care at city hospitals and clinics....
None of the pending bills in Congress would prohibit a local government from enforcing its own health coverage program, said KEN JACOBS, CHAIRMAN OF UC BERKELEY'S CENTER FOR LABOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION and a member of the task force that drafted the city's ordinance.
"If you're going to keep job-based coverage, you're going to need some type of requirement like this," Jacobs said.... Full Story
8. Report Says Vallejo an Example of Problems with Unions
KCBS Radio
October 6, 2009
Vallejo, Calif. (KCBS) -- The city of Vallejo’s bankruptcy has become a case study for a Washington-based think tank, and a new report argues that skyrocketing labor costs were primarily responsible for the city’s economic demise....
The report by the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, says to avoid collective bargaining whenever possible....
KEN JACOBS OF THE UC BERKELEY CENTER FOR LABOR RESEARCH says the claims in the report don't stand up.
"The Cato Institute has always had a position against unions, so it's not a surprise that's a conclusion they would come to in their research," he said.
[Link to audio] Full Story
9. Sacramento is also state's crash capital
Sacramento Bee
October 6, 2009
If you drive the streets of Sacramento, buckle up and look out.
Motorists here are more likely to get in serious crashes - and more prone to be involved in drunken-driving crashes - than those in the state's other major cities, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety....
Some Sacramentans say the city's poor ranking makes perfect sense: Drivers here are plain bad....
One academic suggests the rate of serious injury crashes would drop if Sacramento had more congestion, like San Francisco or San Jose.
"The more attentive you have to be to drive, the better driver you tend to be," said SIMON WASHINGTON, HEAD OF THE TRAFFIC SAFETY CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.... Full Story
10. Discovery sheds new light on Stonehenge
Archaeologists say the remains of another large henge near the River Avon offer clues to the building of Stonehenge and the significance of the river. They had sought the telltale holes for years.
Los Angeles Times
October 6, 2009
British archaeologists have found the remains of a massive stone henge, or ceremonial circle, that was part of the ancient and celebrated Stonehenge complex, a find that is shedding new light on how the monument was built and its religious uses.
The new henge, called Bluestonehenge because it was built with blue Preseli dolerite mined more than 150 miles away in Wales, was on the banks of the River Avon, where ancient pilgrims carrying the ashes of their dead relatives began the journey from the river to Stonehenge, nearly two miles away. Some are calling it the "little sister" of Stonehenge....
The fact that the monument was found at the beginning of an avenue leading to Stonehenge and near the river "not only solidifies the view that Stonehenge covers the entire landscape, but also the sacred importance of the river itself," said ARCHAEOLOGIST CHRISTINE HASTORF OF UC BERKELEY, who was not involved in the research.
"It means that there was a link between Stonehenge and the water, out to the ocean," she said.... Full Story
11. Nobel Physics Prize Puzzling to Predict
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
October 5, 2009
Stockholm (AP) -- Scientists who developed a cornerstone in thinking behind quantum mechanics, the broad sweep of chaos theory or the expanding nature of the universe and dark energy could be rewarded for years of effort and research when the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics is announced Tuesday.
Who may win, and for what, is a guessing game at best. The Nobel Foundation does not proffer names of possible candidates or hints of any kind. That, along with the complexity of the science involved for an award encompassing a wide latitude of subjects, makes it difficult to say with any authority who could win....
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY'S SAUL PERLMUTTER, Brian Schmidt of Australia and Adam Reiss at Johns Hopkins University found the universe's expansion to be accelerating based on a study of supernovas and came up with the theory of ''dark energy'' to explain it.
Dark energy may account for 70 percent of the universe. The trio won the prestigious Shaw prize in astronomy three years ago....
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times] Full Story
12. Obituary: Prominent UC Berkeley statistician, Erich Lehmann, dies at 91
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
October 5, 2009
ERICH LEHMANN, A FORMER UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR who helped establish the modern field of statistics after World War II, died Sept. 12 of natural causes. He was 91.
Lehmann was born in France and raised in Frankfurt, Germany. After fleeing the Nazis with his family in 1933, he was educated in Switzerland and went to college at Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
In 1940, he went to UC Berkeley for graduate school, and earned a Ph.D. and started teaching statistics there in 1946. Part of his goal was to "help clear the fog and build a coherent theoretical structure" of statistics, said JULIET POPPER SHAFFER, his wife of 32 years.
Lehmann's thinking was reflected in his books — "Testing Statistical Hypotheses" in 1959 and "Theory of Point Estimation" in 1983. The books became required reading for graduate statistics students over the past few decades, said SHAFFER, WHO ALSO WORKS IN THE UC BERKELEY STATISTICS DEPARTMENT....
Though his wife said he didn't care much about awards, Lehmann received many accolades in the field. Among those were the Wald and Fisher lectureships; presidency of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics; and editorship of its main journal, "The Annals of Mathematical Statistics."
The Berkeley resident was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1955, 1966 and 1980, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1975 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1978....
[This obituary also appeared in the Oakland Tribune] Full Story
13. Cal Apologizes For Crowded Gates
Work Under Way at California Memorial Stadium
KCRA Online
October 5, 2009
Berkeley, Calif. -- Fans who went to California MEMORIAL STADIUM on Saturday to watch the Golden Bears play the USC Trojans got caught up in some bad foot traffic.
There are a few gates that bottleneck into the stadium because of the current construction at the stadium. More than half the crowd entered through two gates.
BERKELEY'S ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT has since issued a written apology to all the fans caught up in the congested tunnels.
In the letter, ATHLETIC DIRECTOR SANDY BARBOUR said Cal understands what went wrong and the school will fix the problem before another home game.
"We have almost three weeks before our next home game against Washington State on Oct. 24, and with the help of the UC POLICE DEPARTMENT and other experts, we will be working diligently to improve pedestrian flow and crowd control," Barbour said in a statement.... Full Story
14. Blog: Guess who lives in America's second "smartest city"?
San Francisco Chronicle Online
October 6, 2009
Residents of the San Francisco metro area, that's who. At least according to the Daily Beast's ranking of "the relative intelligence of every major American population hub, from first-to-worst."
Its reasoning is a little peculiar, for example, singling out UC BERKELEY as the example of the Bay Area's "great universities (that have) spawned a world-class technology hub," when Stanford is clearly more deserving of the honor.
Odder perhaps is the reason we didn't make #1, instead of Raleigh-Durham: our "relatively low score in political engagement, undercutting the reputation of this notorious activist hotspot."... Full Story