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.
Team takes testing to the streets to study illegal drugs | Los Angeles Times
The UCLA team sets up at sites where Angelenos ordinarily access clean syringes and other health supplies. Their machine, which uses a technique called Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, is roughly the size of a computer scanner. “The real promise is using this technology to understand something that’s really been mysterious for a long time — what the heck is in the illicit drug supply?” said Chelsea Shover, assistant professor in residence at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and lead investigator for the pilot study. (UCLA’s Caitlin Molina was also quoted.)
Light pollution is the easiest pollution to fix — so why aren’t we? | Salon
Travis Longcore, an adjunct professor of environmental science and engineering at the University of California Los Angeles Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, detailed the ways that ordinary people can make a difference. “Do things like turning the lights out when you don’t need them, which I learned growing up inside, but it applies to outside as well,” Longcore told Salon.
Humans to blame for about 90% of wildfire ignitions, report finds | KTLA-TV
Researchers from 15 universities, including UCLA, looked at wildfire data from 1980 through 2020 and found that wildfires have become larger and more destructive due to various factors, including climate change, fuels left in the forests and ignition sources. “In the state of California, if you look at wildfires, well over 90% of the ignition source has been tracked back to humans,” Glen MacDonald, a geography professor at UCLA and the paper’s lead author, said.
The climate crisis is driving up cost of living in the west | The Guardian
“People are not only facing a rise in costs, but also increased variability in costs,” said Alan Barreca, a professor at the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability at UCLA. Barreca and his colleagues have found that for each August day when the temperature was 95 [degrees Fahrenheit] or higher, the chance that a low-income family would fall behind on bills and have their power disconnected increased by 1.2%.
Cities are painting their streets | NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ from KCRW-FM
A new project in L.A. is trying to make the city cooler by painting streets with a reflective coating to bounce away heat from the sun. … “They work at doing a specific job, which is to curtail the amount of heat that’s absorbed by asphalt,” said UCLA’s Kelly Turner (approx. 1:50 mark).
Climate talks end without a deal | Barron’s
Alex Wang, a professor of law and faculty co-director at the Emmett Institute for Climate Change and Environment at the UCLA School of Law, called the agreement to continue discussing how to work together “a modest outcome.” “It’s essential that the two sides are talking again — the caveat on that is that these talks are only a part of what needs to be done,” he said. “The biggest things that need to be done are each country moving as quickly as possible to decarbonize on their own.”
Handling heat-related emergencies | KCAL-TV
“You can see that in the center part of L.A., going down south to the ports, we have very high rates [of emergency room visits],” said UCLA’s Dr. David Eisenman. “You’ll see that the leafier, richer neighborhood — compared to its contiguous poorer, less-shaded neighborhood — has one-third the rate of emergency room visits due to heat. So, you really see the disparities.” (approx. 1:00 mark).
Emergency room visits increase on excessive heat days | KNBC-TV
On a hot day, there are 8,222 additional emergency room visits across California and in Los Angeles County alone, more than 1,500 additional visits to emergency rooms for heat-related problems, according to researchers at UCLA’s Center for Healthy Climate Solutions. The group’s heat map and data show emergency room visits that happen on an extreme heat day compared to a non-extreme heat day.
Mix of extreme heat and wildfire smoke can be very dangerous | ABC News
“So, you have a heatwave? Well, that leads to a longer fire season,” Saagar Patel, a doctoral student at the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, told ABC News. “Fires will begin earlier in the year, and they’ll end later in the year and so there is a direct impact where a longer or more pronounced heat wave will lead to longer fire seasons.”
Hiring to flourish in these fields as humans fight climate change. | USA Today
There are thousands of critical jobs that are learned by on-the-job or short-term training, said Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles. “You don’t need to get a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies.”
NASA satellite’s collision with asteroid sent boulders into space | Al Jazeera
The United States space agency says dozens of rock fragments were sent into space when it conducted a successful effort in 2022 to knock an asteroid off its path by making a satellite collide with it. … “We see a cloud of boulders carrying mass and energy away from the impact target. The numbers, sizes and shapes of the boulders are consistent with them having been knocked off the surface of Dimorphos [the asteroid] by the impact,” David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, a planetary scientist who uses Hubble to track changes in the asteroid, said in the press release. (Also: Phys.org.)
Israel’s protests over sweeping judicial reforms, explained | Vox
It’s worth remembering, too, that Netanyahu is still on trial on charges of corruption and fraud. “It’s hard to distinguish between his desire to avoid jail and his desire to remain in power,” David Myers, a professor of Jewish history at UCLA, told Vox in an interview. In some ways, the current state goes back to 2009, the start of what Myers called the “Netanyahu decade.”
Controversary around music video filmed at lynching site | New York Times
“I think there is a lack of sensitivity using that courthouse as a prop,” said Cheryl L. Keyes, chair of the department of African American studies and a professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA.
How Cillian Murphy prepared for ‘Oppenheimer’ | Insider
In order to portray the genius accurately, Murphy took care to get to know some of his science, too. The film employed science advisors Kip Thorne, a Nobel prize-winning theoretical physicist, and David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA. Both interacted with Murphy in preparing for and filming the movie. … “There's just an incredible dedication and level of experience that brings that all together,” Saltzberg said.
‘Sound of Freedom’ $100 million hit | Bloomberg News
Tom Nunan, a lecturer with the School of Theater, Film and Television at the University of California at Los Angeles, said the company’s early outreach to conservative and religious groups paid off. “It’s clear evidence of a filmmaker knowing their audience and how to reach them,” he said.
Why ACL injuries are more common in female athletes | PBS NewsHour
As an orthopedic surgeon and team doctor for UCLA and the Los Angeles Lakers, [Kristofer Jones] sees multiple ACL tears every week. “It’s not uncommon to some of these girls so already come in at the high school level, to our collegiate team at UCLA and already have had an ACL reconstruction.” [said Jones.]
School board battles over LGBTQ+ rights intensify | Los Angeles Times
A report released by the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access this year noted a pattern of conflict in school districts across the state and the nation. “The problem with our current moment is not too much democracy, but too little. Public school governance, at its best, brings together diverse members of the community to forge a vision for a shared future – one that embraces the values of a diverse democracy,” the study stated.
Colleges do not ask enough why they want diversity | Washington Post
UCLA’s VIP Scholars program dispatches volunteers to high schools with largely minority student bodies to mentor kids through the college application process. If they complete the program, they can earn scholarships — but even just showing up at schools, or creating opportunities for campus visits, can make a difference.
