UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. See more UCLA In the News.
‘Downloadable gun’ settlement alarms activists | New York Times
As the “landmark settlement” brings ghost gun instructions out into the open, it could also give felons and domestic abusers access to firearms that background checks would otherwise block them from owning, said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The current laws are already difficult to enforce — they’re historically not especially powerful, and they’re riddled with loopholes — and this will just make those laws easier to evade,” Mr. Winkler said.
Supreme Court nominee could have major impact on gun laws | Los Angeles Times
UCLA law professor Adam Winkler said Kavanaugh’s opinion “reflects an unusually broad view” of gun rights. “He said judges should not consider public safety. And he says only long-standing gun laws are permissible. If so, what about new and innovative regulations?” he asked, such as laws that deny gun rights to people convicted of domestic violence.
Kavanaugh would help decide case that could rein in EPA | Sacramento Bee
“This is a really important sleeper case,” said Sean Hecht, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles who has been tracking the Gundy proceedings. If the court rules very broadly, the justices could throw into question numerous legal provisions that currently give the EPA and other agencies latitude to set policy, he said.
Wildfires and climate change | PBS SoCal’s “Sustaining California”
“For the past 200 years or so, we have been burning fossil fuels,” says UCLA’s Alex Hall. “That has led to an increase in greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses trap heat and that has led to a steady warming of the planet that has been accelerating in recent decades. Fires are driven by dry and hot winds, and when winds become hotter and drier, that leads to greater fire risk.” (Approx. 14:30 mark)
California prepares for extreme weather | New York Times
Climate models agree that “this really big increase in wet events is quite likely,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles and an author of a recent paper on the expected changes. “There’s just so much more moisture in the atmosphere in a warming world.”
Wildfire could become ‘major threat’ to Yosemite | CBS News
Daniel Swain believes the Ferguson Fire, which has claimed the life of one firefighter, “is likely to burn for many days and may eventually become a major threat” to the national park, he said via Twitter. Swain, of the University of California at Los Angeles, bases his prediction based on two factors. One is that the fire is burning in a tinderbox — an area that’s filled with dry, dead trees that became infested with beetles during previous years of drought. The other is that he believes that area of Mariposa County faces “a long period of hot weather to come.”
Many breast cancer patients don’t get recommended follow-up | Wall Street Journal
Among potential reasons for overuse of imaging other than of the breast is that women anxious that their cancer will return may press physicians for more screening, said Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research for the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Busy doctors may opt to order imaging tests rather than take time to review reasons to avoid them, said Ganz, who also wrote cancer guidelines for when to use imaging.
Assessing the possible impact of Musk’s high-speed rail | CNBC
“It’s not really managing the problem. It’s just providing an alternative,” said UCLA professor of urban planning Brian Taylor, who also expects this project to be a long time coming. “It’s sort of like when you have an interesting breakthrough in the lab, which might take 10 years to complete.”
Sacha Baron Cohen’s new show accused of misinterpretation | KPCC-FM’s “The Frame”
“If you sign something, you’re on the hook for what you signed,” says UCLA’s Eugene Volokh. “Now, maybe if you were told, ‘This is only a waiver of right of publicity,’ a very particular kind of claim, and it turns out it weighs a lot more, maybe that would be the kind of misinterpretation that makes the waiver ineffective.” (Approx. 0:45 mark)
Friendly minds think alike | PRI’s “Innovation Hub”
“We found that friends were exceptionally similar in how they responded to the videos,” says UCLA’s Carolyn Parkinson. “The similarity decreased with social distance in the network, so that friends were more similar than people who weren’t friends with each other but were friends one another’s friends. And those people were more similar than people who were three degrees of separation from one another in the network.” (Approx. 1:50 mark)
Health tips for your summer barbecue | Healthline
“A barbecue is a good place to think about heat exposure in a holistic sense because it’s a really great venue to get heat stroke and get sick,” Dr. Mark Morocco, professor of emergency medicine at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, told Healthline. “You have to be careful because you’re outside, you’re likely to be in the sun, and probably will be eating and drinking things that you’re not used to, including alcohol. All of those things are setups for heat exposure illnesses along the spectrum.”
Natural product could lead to new class of commercial herbicide | Phys.org
“Microorganisms are very smart at protecting themselves from the potent molecules they make to kill their enemies,” said Yi Tang, the study’s co-principal investigator and a UCLA professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and of chemistry and biochemistry. “The presence of these resistance genes provides a window into the functions of the molecules, and can allow us to discover these molecules and apply them to diverse applications in human health and agriculture.”
