News Archive

May 31, 2018 — Before the May 25 arrest of Harvey Weinstein, more than 80 women came forward with allegations of sexual assault and abuse, including actors Rose McGowan, Annabella Sciorra, Salma Hayak and Uma Thurman. In a February interview, Thurman said she had complicated feelings about Weinstein because of how bad she felt about those attacked after her — but what duties do survivors of sexual assault have to warn others?

May 31, 2018 — Margaret Rattanachane’s energy abounds, powered by a love for people and creating community. Adored by her colleagues, who affectionately call her “Mimie,” she is known as the heart and pulse of UC San Diego’s Department of Education Studies. As a program and faculty assistant, she serves as an ambassador and relationship builder, increasing awareness of the ways in which faculty and students are transforming educational access.

May 31, 2018 — Hundreds of friends and family members—including the late astronaut’s mother and sister—as well as fans and former colleagues turned out to see the public dedication first-hand in the Price Center or tuned in to watch via the Postal Service’s livestream.

May 30, 2018 — Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed tiny ultrasound-powered robots that can swim through blood, removing harmful bacteria along with the toxins they produce. These proof-of-concept nanorobots could one day offer a safe and efficient way to detoxify and decontaminate biological fluids.

May 30, 2018 — The race is on between new antibiotics and drug-resistant bacteria—and scientists are challenged to keep up. By 2050, according to a Wellcome Trust study, deaths from deadly infections will be more common than cancer deaths. Scientists report that currently antimicrobial resistance causes 23,000 deaths annually in the U.S.; 700,000 deaths worldwide. Better methods to treat bacterial infections are urgently needed. So researchers, including a University of California San Diego professor, are gaining ground by demonstrating the first example of an effective gene therapy for deadly bacterial infections.

May 30, 2018 — The headaches of heavy traffic may be universal, but University of California San Diego’s Ruth Williams works to ease the pain. The Department of Mathematics professor analyzes traffic congestion within the field of stochastic networks. This area of math describes real-world systems running at near-maximum capacity. It applies to things like the Internet when congested, assembly line glitches, customer service queues and freeways at rush hour. For this work, and for her many contributions to probability theory and collaborative research, Williams has been selected as a Corresponding Member of the Australian Academy of Science. The U.K.’s Professor Richard Ellis joins her as a new academy member.

May 29, 2018 — UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers found that treating mice with a single spinal injection of a protein called AIBP — and thus switching “off” TLR4, a pro-inflammatory molecule — prevented and reversed inflammation and cellular events associated with pain processing. As reported May 29 by Cell Reports, the treatment alleviated chemotherapy pain in mice for two months with no side effects.

May 29, 2018 — A new world ranking names the University of California San Diego among the globe’s top 20 best universities; the campus netted the 16th spot on among U.S. universities. The annual rankings from the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), released today, measure universities’ quality of research, faculty, influence, enterprise and successful alumni.

May 24, 2018 — Certain types of bacteria and viruses are readily ejected into the atmosphere when waves break while other taxa are less likely to be transported by sea spray into the air, researchers reported May 22. The team behind a National Science Foundation-funded study included chemists, oceanographers, microbiologists, geneticists, and pediatric medicine specialists who are attempting to understand how far potentially infectious bacteria and viruses can travel and if those that pose the greatest risks to public health are among those most likely to escape the ocean.

May 24, 2018 — Researchers from University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Arizona State University found that if a car is parked in the sun on a summer day, the interior temperature can reach 116 degrees F. and the dashboard may exceed 165 degrees F. in approximately one hour — the time it can take for a young child trapped in a car to suffer fatal injuries.