UCLA in the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription. See more UCLA in the News.
Lifting blood-donation restrictions on gay men | “CBS Evening News”
A 2014 study from UCLA’s Williams Institute estimated that lifting the ban entirely could “increase the total annual blood supply by 2%-4%, adding from 345,400 to 615,300 pints of blood each year.” One pint of blood can save up to three lives.
New fears over COVID and kids | Los Angeles Times
But Dr. Alice Kuo, director of the UCLA Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health, countered that lockdowns have exacerbated other issues, including child abuse and mental illness among youth. “If all that mattered was COVID,” said Kuo, a pediatrics professor at UCLA, “then everything would be shut down again. But lockdowns aren’t sustainable, and other health concerns matter too.”
MLK and critical race theory | Los Angeles Times
(Commentary by UCLA’s Kimberlé Crenshaw) For the first time, we’re observing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday under new laws in multiple states that ban the instruction of “divisive” interpretations of our racial past. The assaults have given new weapons to an enduring faction in American society that has long resisted the reckoning that his life’s work demanded.
America’s approach to Putin in Ukraine and beyond | Washington Post
(Commentary by UCLA’s Wesley Clark) A week of talks in Geneva between the United States and Russia ended in an impasse. The United States stood firm on its principles, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat of a major invasion of Ukraine remained. But the United States need not wait for a return to the table before strengthening its deterrence against Russian military action to match the full scope of what is at stake.
Arizonans: Sinema should stand up for voting rights | Los Angeles Times
(Commentary by UCLA’s Sonja Diaz) A little over a year ago, a violent insurrection, fueled by disinformation and hate, threatened to destroy our fragile democracy. Soon, our lawmakers may finish what the insurrectionists began if they cannot find a way forward on common-sense federal voting rights legislation.
Contact tracing: Has omircron changed the game? | Orange County Register
“As higher and higher levels of COVID-19 transmission occur in a community, the importance and efficiency of contact tracing becomes diminished and exceeds the capacity of health departments to effectively conduct such tracing in a timely manner when staff are overwhelmed by the sheer number of cases,” said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, professor of epidemiology and community health sciences with the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, by email.
Do students learn when they speed up class videos? | KNBC-TV
A new study from researchers at UCLA seems to suggest busy students listening to sped-up video lectures can actually understand a lot: about as much as those listening to the same lecture at regular speeds. Even more, when researchers checked back weeks later, the students watching sped-up videos retained about as much information as those who watched the lectures at regular speeds. (UCLA’s Alan Castel and Dillon Murphy are quoted.)
In Arkansas, trans teens await uncertain future | New York Times
Arkansas and Tennessee are the only states that have passed such laws — Tennessee banned gender-affirming care for children who have yet to reach puberty, a population that does not currently receive such care — and 19 more states have considered them, according to the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law.
Obit: Agustin Gurza, former columnist, music critic | Los Angeles Times
After he took a buyout from the Times in 2008, another musical adventure was awaiting him. UCLA had taken possession of the world’s largest archives of recorded Spanish-language music and needed someone to write about it … “I swear he listened to every song,” said Chon Noriega, a professor at the UCLA department of film, television and digital media. Noriega asked Gurza to write a 100-page book; Gurza delivered an award-winning 234-page book and continued to write about the collection in a blog.
UCLA’s star-making gymnastics choreographer | Los Angeles Times
In her first two years as UCLA’s choreographer, Bijoya “BJ” Das has set the internet aflame with three viral floor routines. Two of the star-making performances were choreographed during a pandemic that limited the assistant coach’s ability to interact with the gymnasts she was coaching. (Das is quoted.)
Tips for 2022: Avoiding the Sunday blues | National Public Radio
Cassie Mogilner Holmes, associate professor of marketing and behavioral decision making at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, has a suggestion to take it even further: Treat the entire weekend like a mini-vacation and don’t work at all on Saturday and Sunday.
Russia and the conflict with Ukraine | CBS News
“I have to say, it’s not a hundred percent yet that the Kremlin actually plans to invade. It could still be a bluff that they’re using to try to extract some concessions from the West. But if they’re bluffing, they’re doing it in a very realistic way,” said UCLA’s Daniel Treisman (approx. 2:15 mark).
Study points to easier withdrawal from opioid addiction | City News Service
UCLA researchers have released a study in mice that shows removing chemical messengers in the brain that are involved with wakefulness and addiction may make withdrawal from opioids easier and prevent a relapse. (Also: ScienceDaily.)
What are the oldest fossils in the world? | Discover
“It is a real detective story,” says William Schopf, a paleobiologist with the University of California, Los Angeles … Schopf and his colleagues found worm-like patterns preserved in the Apex Chert — a rock formation in Australia dating back to about 3.465 billion years ago. They first discovered these supposed organisms in 1993, but the idea that these patterns represented ancient life was controversial.
Could new vaccine help low-income countries? | Global News
“If we want to be able to get in front of this pandemic, if we want to stop chasing behind it, we are going to have to vaccinate the world,” cautions Dr. Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at UCLA, who warns the next dangerous variant could easily emerge from an unvaccinated population. “We’re already paying the price of not having an equal distribution of vaccines globally.” (Rimoin is also interviewed about COVID variants by Fox News.)
Global warming, pregnant mothers and poor infant health | Guardian
The second study analysed 200,000 births from 2007–2011 in Harris County, Texas — which includes Houston — where people are accustomed to heat. The period included Texas’s hottest summer on record in 2011 … “Public health warnings during heatwaves should include pregnant people, especially given our finding of stronger associations earlier in gestation when the consequences of preterm birth are more severe,” said the researchers, led by Lara Cushing, at the University of California, Los Angeles.
5 easy ways to start practicing mindfulness | Mashable
“It prevents us from getting lost in these spirals of thinking that can lead to more anxiety,” says Diana Winston, director of mindfulness education at the University of California Los Angeles’ Mindful Awareness Research Center. “We’re trying to train our minds to have a little bit more stability.”
The banana health benefit you weren’t aware of | The Healthy
“The gut microbiome are the bacteria that live in our intestines,” says Dana Ellis Hunnes, PhD, a senior dietitian at UCLA Medical Center and author of the January 2022 book, Recipe for Survival. “It’s thought that the more overall diversity there is in our gut, the healthier our gut microbiome is.”