The University of California San Diego’s Division of Arts and Humanities is committed to interdisciplinary collaboration. Consistent with that approach is the Department of History’s Distinguished Professor Paul Pickowicz and Department of Literature Chair Yingjin Zhang, who have coedited the new book, “Filming the Everyday: Independent Documentaries in Twenty-First Century China” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). The book includes essays about a Chinese film group led by Wu Wenguang, a former artist-in-residence at UC San Diego, who first revealed the struggles of rural people at a time when China’s state-controlled media depicted a thriving, modern country. The book’s debut happens to coincide with Pickowicz’s announcement of his retirement after more than 40 years. He will deliver a parting lecture entitled, “Very Close Encounters: Modern China at the Grassroots,” Jan. 18, 3 to 5 p.m., at the Faculty Club on campus.
Bones from dead turtles washed up on Mexican beaches indicate that Baja California is critical to the survival of endangered North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles, which travel some 7,500 miles from their nesting sites in Japan to their feeding grounds off the coast of Mexico.
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and the Western Australian Museum capture on video the first-ever field sightings of the newly discovered third species of seadragon. As they observed two Ruby Seadragons on video for nearly 30 minutes, the scientists uncovered new details about their anatomy, habitat, and behavior.
The Holocaust Living History Workshop (HLWH) at the University of California San Diego continues its year-long series of educational events with three insightful programs this winter, underscoring this year’s theme, “Holocaust and the Burden of History.” This year’s events approach the Holocaust from various angles to shed light on lesser-known aspects of the atrocities committed, such as the transgenerational transmission of trauma. The series, now in its ninth year of programming, is presented by the UC San Diego Library and the UC San Diego Jewish Studies Program.
A new proof-of-concept study by UC San Diego researchers succeeded in training computers to “learn” what a healthy versus an unhealthy gut microbiome looks like based on its genetic makeup.
The next presentation in UC San Diego’s “Inside Innovation” series features Dr. Catriona Jamieson speaking on “Detection and Therapeutic Targeting of Cancer Stem Cell Evolution.” The free and public presentation will be held 4-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17, in Roth Auditorium at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, 2880 Torrey Pines Scenic Drive. A networking reception will follow.