UC San Diego students and researchers have produced the world’s first algae-based, renewable flip flops.The first prototypes of their new invention, developed over the summer in a York Hall chemistry laboratory, consist of a flexible, spongy slipper adorned with a Triton logo and a simple strap—fairly basic, as flip flops go.But when they go into full production later this academic year at what researchers hope will be a projected cost of $3 a pair, the impact of this campus innovation could be revolutionary, changing the world for the better environmentally.
Six years ago, visiting college senior Angelica Rodriguez spent the summer conducting oceanographic research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. In the lab, she plowed through data and analyzed in situ observations to understand the oceanic mechanisms that transport heat onto the Antarctic continental shelf in the Southern Ocean. Though Rodriguez was new to the field of oceanography, she received training and mentorship from Scripps Professor Sarah Gille and researcher Matt Mazloff. After spending ten weeks as a researcher, she was hooked.
“UC San Diego is a community of changemakers and innovators,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla Sept. 28 as he welcomed a crowd in Atkinson Hall at the IBM-UC San Diego signing ceremony celebration. “It is not an exaggeration to say that at this campus, which in its short time of 57 years is the top ten in the country and top 15 in the world, we must have done something right.
Walter Munk joined Scripps Institution of Oceanography as a young doctoral student in 1939 in what would start a nearly eight-decade-long career of scientific discovery, daring science and transforming how the world understands the ocean. The ocean science pioneer is being honored throughout 2017, including in a visit from His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco on Oct. 26.
Patients at UC San Diego Health in need of radiation therapy now have access to the next generation of radiation treatment technology. The new radiotherapy system significantly reduces treatment times with improved accuracy.
In a first-of-its-kind study, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers report that a blood sample, or liquid biopsy, can reveal which patients will respond to checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapies.
