UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription to view. See more UCLA In the News.

New UCLA institute will study — and spread — kindness | Los Angeles Times

Now UCLA is poised to advance that science with the Wednesday launch of the world’s first interdisciplinary research institute on kindness, which will explore, for instance, how and why being nice to others reduces depression and the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease…. “In the midst of current world politics, violence and strife, the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute seeks to be an antidote,” said Darnell Hunt, dean of the UCLA division of social sciences, which will house the venture.

MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant winners for 2019: The full list | New York Times

Kelly Lytle Hernandez, 45, is a historian at U.C.L.A. who has written about the evolution of the Los Angeles County prison system. Dr. Lytle Hernandez, who is also the author of what the foundation calls the first significant scholarly history of the United States Border Patrol said the prize was a validation of the growing body of work by activist historians studying incarceration and immigration detention, which often draws on suppressed or scattered records. “I hope the fellowship provides an even larger umbrella for myself and other scholars who are doing this kind of movement-driven scholarship to have more flexibility, to have more — you almost want to say credentials,” she said. (Also: New York Times)

‘A doll for everyone’: Meet Mattel’s gender-neutral doll | Time

The population of young people who identify as gender-nonbinary is growing. Though no large surveys have been done of kids younger than 10, a recent study by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that 27% of California teens identify as gender-nonconforming.

Chinatown without Chinese grocery stores, and the delicate balance of ethnic communities | Los Angeles Times Column

Ethnic enclaves such as Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Historic Filipinotown and Boyle Heights find themselves directly in the path of change because they’re located in the urban core of the city where redevelopment is most intense, said UCLA professor Paul Ong, who studies ethnic economies.… “There’s still a need for these culturally specific services in the urban core. But the question is, are we going to see these needs served?” Ong asked.

Los Angeles Board of Supervisors votes to ban flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco products | CNN

The board meeting was attended by more than 100 students, as well as experts from organizations including the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.

What wolves’ teeth reveal about their lives | ScienceDaily

“Broken teeth cannot heal, so most of the time, carnivores are not going to chew on bones and risk breaking their teeth unless they have to,” said [UCLA’s Blaire] Van Valkenburgh, a UCLA distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, who holds the Donald R. Dickey Chair in Vertebrate Biology.

UCLA study analyzes San Diego Unified’s strategies for student equity | San Diego Union-Tribune

A study released this week by UCLA researchers showcased strategies that San Diego Unified School District has used to improve equity and outcomes for students, such as making college-ready courses available to more students. The report is part of a series of case studies of six school districts that researchers with UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools are rolling out in the next several months, said Joseph Bishop, the center’s director.

Gov. Gavin Newsom blasts Trump at climate event | Los Angeles Times

Thanks to Trump, the timing of the Newsom’s debut in New York couldn’t be better, said Ann Carlson, co-director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the UCLA School of Law.… “As a way to bolster Gavin Newsom as a climate leader, it’s hard to imagine a better opportunity for him than having the great climate denier in the White House going after him and the state of California,” Carlson said. “Newsom is standing up to that and it’s giving him a real opportunity to do so right before Climate Week.”

A looming change in immigration policy is spooking Bay Area families | Bay Area News Group

Across the Bay Area, the looming change in what is known as the “public charge” rule is sowing confusion and fear within the immigrant community, causing many people to abandon programs they need for fear of retaliation from immigration authorities, according to nearly two dozen interviews with health care providers, lawyers, nonprofit organizations, and social service agencies. Statewide, the rule could impact more than 2 million Californians, most of whom are not subject to the regulation, and could result in 765,000 people disenrolling from MediCal and CalFresh, according to UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research.

Magnetic field on Mars mysteriously pulses at night, NASA’s InSight Lander finds | Gizmodo

InSight launched and landed back in 2018, carrying three planetary science instruments, as well as auxiliary instruments like the magnetometer, the first ever used on Mars. A team led by Christopher Russell at University of California, Los Angeles, analysed data from the magnetometer, finding that the InSight landing area has a strong magnetic field, that electric currents travel through the ionised portion of the planet’s atmosphere, and that, occasionally, the magnetic field pulses at night.

Mississippi’s first rural charter creates community controversy | Education Dive

New York City is also grappling with school segregation after recent data surfaced showing “massive segregation” in the city’s specialized high schools. Among the most vocal groups on this issue is the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at the University of California Los Angeles, which recently released a report finding the number of schools where students of color make up more than 90% of the student body has tripled since 1988. Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project, has placed blame on charter schools, as some of the group’s previous research has found rates of racial and ethnic isolation are higher in this sector. Other research is somewhat mixed.

Did you know math can help us learn how diseases work? | Science Trends

Brain diseases such as epilepsy and neurodegeneration (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and others) affect millions of people all over the world. Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles are seeking ways to better understand what goes wrong in the brain cells during disease development. Even more fascinating is the fact that researchers are able to create mathematical models to manipulate sick brain cells to learn more about them. Using a technique known as dynamic-clamp, Dr. Sharmila Venugopal, a faculty member in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, and her colleagues interfaced neurons in live brain slices with computer-based mathematical models of ion channel physiology to investigate how disease can alter neurophysiology.

L.A.’s burgeoning life sciences industry is getting a boost | Los Angeles Business Journal

Thanks to a federal grant supplemented by matching funds from the school, the UCLA Biodesign Hub for Medical Technology and Digital Health Innovation will launch Oct. 1. The center’s goal is to create a regional facility that develops medical technology and digital health tools in conjunction with the hundreds of innovative startups that populate Silicon Beach. The three-year grant comes from the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration and was matched by UCLA Health and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, giving the hub $1.5 million in funding.