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Thursday, 12 November 2009
1. Structural snapshots of complex molecules
Chemistry World News, Royal Society of Chemistry
November 11, 2009
US researchers have pioneered a new spectroscopy technique to uncover the precise sequence of atomic movements and structural changes that occur during complex chemical transformations.
The scientists used the new method to pin down the changes that occur when green fluorescent protein (GFP) glows under blue light, and say the approach could be used to further understand important chemical transformations in other complex molecules, as well as tailor new molecules.
GFP involves a classic intramolecular proton transfer reaction to produce its fluorescent form. This happens on an ultrafast timescale - from 10 femtoseconds to 10 picoseconds. Previously, it had been extremely difficult to perform structural measurements and determine the mechanism and pathway of any reaction occurring in this time range. But using femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) the team say they have transcended this barrier for the first time.
'A great deal was known about the kinetics of the proton transfer reaction but little was known about the actual complexity of the reaction coordinate or combination of atomic motions that must occur before the proton can be transferred,' says RICHARD MATHIES, WHO LED THE RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, US. '[But we] revealed the time resolved structural data which told us the actual atomic motions that are necessary...." Full Story
2. Museum of Man director takes post in Berkeley
San Diego Union-Tribune
November 12, 2009
MARI LYN SALVADOR, who was abruptly fired from her position as director of the San Diego Museum of Man in late May, has been named DIRECTOR OF THE PHOEBE A. HEARST MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, She will begin work at the Hearst later this month.
UC BERKELEY’S CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU called Salvador “a scholar with deep academic and museum management experience who will invigorate the Hearst Museum’s research and education mission while improving public access to our world-class collection of ethnic artifacts.”
Derrick Cartwright, the former director of the San Diego Museum of Art and now director of the Seattle Museum of Art, praised the appointment and called Salvador “a committed scholar, for whom academic values of exchanging ideas and professional integrity are paramount.”
The Hearst Museum has the oldest and largest anthropological collection in the Western United States.
The dismissal of Salvador from the Museum of Man stirred instant controversy, with some board members protesting her departure with a request to the American Association of Museums that it reject the museum’s reaccreditation. It is currently being evaluated for a renewal of its accreditation.
SALVADOR EARNED HER PH.D. IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY AT UC BERKELEY and was a professor of anthropology and chief curator at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico before coming to the Museum of Man in 2004...
[A similar story also appeared in the American Anthropological Society blog.] Full Story
3. GOP candidate Damon Dunn only voted once
San Francisco Chronicle
November 12, 2009
Damon Dunn, who declared his bid Wednesday to become California's next secretary of state, seems to have the goods to be a campaign contender: He's African American, a former NFL receiver with powerful Republican friends - including Condoleezza Rice - and he's hired a top team of campaign strategists.
But the 33-year-old Republican, who says he's wealthy, has a problem: Dunn, who has never run for public office and aims to become the state's chief elections official, said he voted for the first - and only - time in his life in May 2009.
His limited voting record puts Dunn in the same exclusive club as two other rich, first-time Republican candidates in California - Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who is running for governor, and U.S. Senate candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, each of whom has faced questions about her spotty voting patterns....
The GOP's backing of the three wealthy candidates, all political neophytes only minimally engaged in the political process until recently, shows how desperate the party, which does not hold a majority of registered voters in any of the state's 53 congressional districts, is to expand its appeal in the state - particularly to women and minority voters, political experts say.
"It is symptomatic of the shallow bench on the Republican side," said BRUCE CAIN, DIRECTOR OF UC BERKELEY'S INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENTAL STUDIES. "There are people on city councils, boards of supervisors and the Legislature who could run for that office. But the Republican Party has money troubles and people who self-finance jump to the head of the line, even if they have no experience...." Full Story
4. Family versus science
The Scientist blog
November 11, 2009
The pressures of family obligations and child-rearing are pushing young female researchers out of science, according to a new study released this month by the Center for American Progress (CAP), a think tank based in Washington, DC. The report provides a contrast to an earlier report by the National Academies of Sciences that focused on dissecting the subtle biases against women in science.
CAP, together with the BERKELEY CENTER ON HEALTH, ECONOMIC & FAMILY SECURITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, SCHOOL OF LAW surveyed some 25,000 University of California postdocs and graduate students for the report. They found that married women with children were 35% less likely to get a tenure-track position than married men with children and 33% less likely to do so than single women without children.
In an article for The Scientist last year, Association for Women in Science president Phoebe Leboy explored some of the reasons why women, who enter most scientific fields in equal numbers to men, only occupy some 30% of the highest echelons in academia. Leboy suggested that universities weren't doing enough to promote their female researchers. She suggested that search committees and review boards make a point of including women, who might be more likely to suggest the names of other women than men would.
But while the focus in recent years has been on discrimination, many women who added their voices to an online forum on the subject at The Scientist discussed how their experience in the lab changed when they started a family. If a lab is essentially thought of as a small business, the loss of an employee -- even for a short period of time -- can be devastating.... Full Story
5. Catching up with Richard Blum
San Francisco Chronicle
November 12, 2009
RICHARD BLUM has many titles: financier, anti-poverty crusader, chair of the UC BOARD OF REGENTS, founder of the American Himalayan Foundation and husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
After three decades of opening clinics, schools and restoring Tibetan monasteries in the Himalayas, the 74-year-old recipient of the UC BERKELEY HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD is now leading an effort to combat sex trafficking in Nepal, where thousands of desperately poor girls as young as 10 are lured to brothels in Kathmandu and India by traffickers promising jobs and marriage.
Q: What made you want to expand the American Himalayan Foundation's scope to include anti-trafficking work?
A: We have over 175 projects in Nepal now, and the fastest-growing part of what we are funding is the trafficking program. Each year we're spending a million to educate 6,500 girls and convince their families not to sell their daughters. ... There will be 400 girls graduating this year, and we haven't lost one yet.
Q: Are you making this your next cause?
A: I've talked to two women who are both heads of state and my wife, and I asked if they are ready to take this to the next level, and they said of course. One of our directors, Sharon Stone, is really interested in doing this. Hollywood is more than happy to create PR for it. Hillary Clinton is interested. I've talked to Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, and Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, and they are all willing to help.... Full Story
6. Yoo's lawyers warn of flood of political suits
San Francisco Chronicle
November 11, 2009
San Francisco -- A ruling that allowed a prisoner to sue former Bush administration attorney JOHN YOO for devising the legal theories that justified his alleged torture threatens to "open the floodgates to politically motivated lawsuits" against government officials, Yoo's lawyers say.
In papers filed late Monday with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Yoo's new team of private lawyers argued that a judge's refusal to dismiss a suit by inmate Jose Padilla injected the courts into the political arena.
"Threatening executive branch lawyers with personal liability for reaching allegedly incorrect legal conclusions regarding the constitutionality of a president's wartime actions would infringe on the core war-making authority that the Constitution reserves to the political branches," said attorney Miguel Estrada.
YOO, A UC BERKELEY LAW PROFESSOR, was a Justice Department lawyer from 2001 to 2003 and wrote a series of memos on interrogation, detention and presidential powers.
The best known was a 2002 document that said that rough treatment of captives amounted to torture only if it caused the same level of pain as "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." The memo also said the president may have the power to authorize torture of enemy combatants.... Full Story
7. Night Owl: Geek world unites after hours at Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science
Contra Costa Times
November 11, 2009
Membership to the geek world is open, and they're taking members. You don't even have to be a physicist or socially challenged to join. Just show up at the LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE [AT UC BERKELEY] for its monthly "Geek Out" science happy hour. The next one is Nov. 18.
Down with Buddy Love, long live the Nutty Professor. Geek is the new chic. (Admit it: You secretly regret blowing off that computer whiz kid in high school who now is raking in six figures.)
This is a petri dish-optional event. However, geek nights are strictly 21 years and older.
Usually the adults at the Lawrence Hall of Science are chaperoning their children through the family-friendly interactive science center. But the hall now is rolling out its welcome mat for grown-ups who, in the words of the organizers, think fantasy football is even better than the real thing and that a spreadsheet is a perfectly reasonable way to keep track of past relationships.
But the nerds seek no revenge. Instead they are spreading the grant love given to them by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
On Nov. 18, everyone (even the least of us who struggled through rudimentary math and basic biology) is invited to a "Geek Challenge" to find out if they have what it takes to survive on Mars. Participants will try to design and build their own base on the red planet. Tech geeks can film a short clip of their base, and volunteers will upload it so everyone can experience all the nerdy fun.... Full Story
8. Jim Harrington: Orange Peels return with new batch of sunny pop tunes
November 12, 2009
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UC jazz time
It's time to support the next generation of local jazz heroes as the UC JAZZ ENSEMBLES host their annual fall benefit. The concert will feature performances by four groups under the direction of faculty members Frank Martin, Ted Moore, Dann Zinn and Steve Campos.
The concert is at 8 tonight at UC Berkeley's International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Tickets are $8-$20 for concert only, $50 to $85 with dinner. (Dinner begins at 6 p.m.) Call 510-643-2662 or visit www.ucjazz.berkeley.edu... Full Story
9. GOOD NEIGHBOR: JACQUIE OLIVERIUS
Assistance League joins with Wells Fargo to ring Operation School Bell
Contra Costa Times
November 12, 2009
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Navy League
Members of Contra Costa Navy League are busy, busy, busy.
The group held a birthday dinner Oct. 22 in Lafayette to honor two of the United States' sea services — the U.S. Navy, which celebrated 234 years of duty Oct. 13, and the U.S. Marine Corps, which also marked 234 years Nov. 10.
Publicity coordinator Harold Gill said that the dinner was a great success, with 88 people attending.
Guest speakers were NAVY CAPT. TONY LAIRD and Marine Corps 1st Sgt. Michael Bolyard. Gill said that LAIRD IS CURRENTLY IN CHARGE OF NROTC AT UC BERKELEY, Stanford University, UC Davis and Cal State East Bay.
And Bolyard gave "an interesting talk about his many years in the Marines, including his tours in Iraq," said Gill.
Next on the Navy League's calendar is "A Remembrance of the Tragedy at Pearl Harbor," set for Monday, Dec. 7, at Lafayette Veterans Memorial Build, 3780 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette.
The social hour will be at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m.... Full Story
10. Funeral services set for judge who presided over UC Berkeley tree-sitting case
Contra Costa Times
November 11, 2009
OAKLAND — Funeral services for Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller will be held Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Chapel of Chimes on 4499 Piedmont Ave. in Oakland.
Miller, 58, who presided over the UC BERKELEY TREE-SITTING CASE, died last week of natural causes in her Oakland home. Full Story
11. Listen to past City Arts & Lectures programs
San Francisco Chronicle
November 12, 2009
The other day, DR. CHARLES B. FAULHABER, DIRECTOR OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY AT UC BERKELEY, had an urge to hear the sonorous Chilean accent of the author Isabel Allende. So he went to the third-floor reading room and jacked headphones into a computer, and Allende's voice came through the wire - from an interview at City Arts & Lectures 20 years ago.
Faulhaber, a professor of Spanish literature, could just as easily have phoned the author at her home in Marin County. You might not have Allende's number, but you can go to the Bancroft and hear the interview along with more than 1,000 other City Arts & Lectures programs to be posted by the end of November.
Now in its 29th season, City Arts is a nonprofit retailer of culture that puts on 55 to 60 events a year at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Tapes of the shows have been stored in the City Arts office and in founding director Sydney Goldstein's home basement - boxes upon boxes of reel-to-reels, cassettes and mini discs.
About a year ago, Goldstein offered the archive to Faulhaber, who turned her down. A Bancroft staffer redirected her to Stanford University, which has an Archive of Recorded Sound, but Goldstein wouldn't hear of that.
"I have no connection to a private school. I would sooner send it to Brooklyn College," says Goldstein, 65, who graduated from Lowell High School in 1962. "If I had gone to college I would have been proud to have gone to Berkeley," she adds, while volunteering that she was "very rude about it," in pressuring Faulhaber. "He turned us down more than once..." Full Story
12. Cal women rely on senior guards
San Francisco Chronicle
November 12, 2009
CAL COACH JOANNE BOYLE knew she had a unique challenge on her hands this season. All she had to do was look at the roster. Freshman, freshman, freshman ...
All told, there were seven freshmen and five returning players from last season's Sweet 16 team. Boyle did take some comfort in the fact that three of the five were senior guards ALEXIS GRAY-LAWSON, NATASHA VITAL AND LAUREN GREIF.
"The ball is in their hands," Boyle said.
But if and when they shoot and miss, what will happen? Will the freshmen forwards and centers be there in position to rebound? And what if the senior guards get tired of shooting and throw the ball inside? Will Gennifer Brandon, DeNesha Stallworth and Co. be able to post up older, more experienced players?
So, you see, though the ball might be in the guards' hands, this season is in the freshmen's. The seven freshmen - all ranked in the top 67 of high schoolers nationally (by ESPN's HoopGurlz) last year - are down to six active players. San Francisco native Tierra Rogers is done playing after being diagnosed with a heart defect and having surgery to implant a defibrillator.... Full Story