News Archive - All Stories

Computer Simulations Shed Light on the Physics of Rainbows

Computer scientists at UC San Diego, who set out to simulate all rainbows found in nature, wound up answering questions about the physics of rainbows as well. The scientists recreated a wide variety of rainbows – primary rainbows, secondary rainbows, redbows that form at sunset and cloudbows that form on foggy days – by using an improved method for simulating how light interacts with water drops of various shapes and sizes. Their new approach even yielded realistic simulations of difficult-to-replicate “twinned” rainbows that split their primary bow in two.

UC San Diego Health System Receives Leapfrog Group’s Top Hospitals Award for High Quality Care

The Leapfrog Group’s annual class of top hospitals – 65 from a field of nearly 1200 – was announced December 6th in Washington, D.C. and included UC San Diego Health System in San Diego, California for the first time. The 2011 list includes university and other teaching hospitals, children’s hospitals and community hospitals in rural, suburban and urban settings. The selection is based on the results of the Leapfrog Group’s national survey that measures hospitals’ performance in crucial areas of patient safety and quality.

Men’s Water Polo Team Takes Fourth Place at NCAA Water Polo Championships

No. 3-seed UC San Diego men's water polo team fell to No. 4-seed Princeton 9-7 in the consolation game of the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship on Sunday at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UC Berkeley. The Tritons finished in fourth place at the tournament after falling to second-seeded UCLA in the national semifinal on Saturday.

Two Artists Are Better Than One?

A seemingly unstable sculpture is the first thing that meets the eye on entering the Groves Gallery at the Oceanside Museum of Art: a boulder-like object sits atop a tall and narrow wooden structure.

SDSC’s Triton Resource Helps “Track” How Kinesin Molecules Move

Researchers at UC San Diego’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, in collaboration with several universities in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Poland, have developed a new picture of how kinesin molecules move along microtubules, or tiny biological train tracks – and how they sometimes come to a halt, causing diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Campus Community Comes Together to Offer Help for Holidays

It’s no secret that with the down economy and high unemployment rates many San Diego residents are facing financial hardship, and the holidays can be an especially challenging time of year. It’s also a difficult time for nonprofit organizations, which are experiencing an increase in demand for their services just when the economy is making fundraising more challenging.

Campus Leaders Describe Plans to “Flash Forward from 50” in Research and Discovery

Campus leaders, including three deans and an associate vice chancellor for research, presented linked visions of how UC San Diego can remain at the pioneering front of discovery and research in the 21st century. The Founders' Symposium, held in an impressive new space, drew a big crowd to a thought-provoking topic.