February 22, 2018
February 22, 2018 —
Imagine an alley. If what you're picturing is a drab and narrow passageway, lined with garbage bins and cars, maybe pocked with puddles and potholes, you're not alone. Alleys are some of our city's most neglected public spaces-but they don't have to be. Students from UC San Diego's Urban Studies and Planning Program, led by faculty member Sue Peerson, are working hard to transform our attitudes about alleys. Alleys, they say, can help make our urban environments greener, friendlier and more connected.
January 29, 2018
January 29, 2018 —
We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Is that true though? While new research from psychology professor Piotr Winkielman makes no claims on quantifying just how many words a picture is really worth, it shows that a single picture has the power to sway people – changing how they behave – while a single word does not. Even a picture that’s barely seen, flashed on a screen for only 10 milliseconds, seems able to alter behavior.
October 12, 2017
October 12, 2017 —
An international team of researchers, including UC San Diego psychologist Gail Heyman, suggests that one way to reduce implicit racial bias in young children is by teaching them to distinguish among faces of a different race. A touch-screen app developed by the team shows promising results.
September 28, 2017
September 28, 2017 —
How do we create a San Diego where we all move freely? That’s the central question posed by “Design for San Diego,” or D4SD for short, a month-long, city-wide civic design challenge launched by UC San Diego’s Design Lab. You—yes, you, whether you’re a novice or a professional—are invited to design solutions to problems of transportation and mobility in our city. From improving commutes to preparing for a future with driverless cars, D4SD seeks to harness the power of the crowd and of human-centered design.
September 14, 2017
September 14, 2017 —
An international team of researchers reports that when children are praised for being smart not only are they quicker to give up in the face of obstacles they are also more likely to be dishonest and cheat. Kids as young as age 3 appear to behave differently when told “You are so smart” vs “You did very well this time.” The study, published in Psychological Science, is co-authored by UC San Diego developmental psychologist Gail Heyman.
September 7, 2017
September 7, 2017 —
Helping to solve complex urban problems in a way that puts people first, the UC San Diego Design Lab has launched a city-wide civic design challenge called “Design for San Diego,” or D4SD for short. The challenge seeks to harness the power of crowdsourcing and human-centered design to address concerns with transportation and mobility in San Diego.
August 22, 2017
August 22, 2017 —
How can humans best cooperate in an increasingly complex world? The Center for Peace and Security Studies (cPASS) at the University of California San Diego is working to find out by studying new and emerging modes of conflict – cybersecurity, military automation, weapons of mass destruction, cross-domain deterrence, and intelligence derived from big data. Launched in 2016 by social scientist and foreign policy expert Erik Gartzke, the center has now received a $3.32 million multiyear grant from the Charles Koch Foundation to support its mission and growth.
August 15, 2017
August 15, 2017 —
Parenting is not a science, yet there is a lot of science on the subject. And there’s a lot of chatter. On the Internet, everyone claims to be an expert. So what’s a person to do? Enter UC San Diego professor David Barner with his free online course, “The Science of Parenting.”
August 10, 2017
August 10, 2017 —
A team from the UC San Diego Department of Cognitive Science and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has, for the first time, profiled chemical modifications in the DNA of individual neurons, giving the most detailed information yet on what makes one brain cell different from its neighbor. The novel approach enabled the team to sort neurons into subtypes and create new kinds of brain maps. The study also identifies new subtypes of neurons.
June 20, 2017
June 20, 2017 —
It’s a cheesy pick-up line: “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” It might also be something that profoundly alters how we perceive other people. According to research from UC San Diego, familiar faces look happier to us than unfamiliar ones, even when faces are objectively expressing the same emotion to the same degree.
