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.
Brain implant developed at UCLA helps blind see light like never before | KNBC4-TV
The brain implant was put there by UCLA neurosurgeon Nader Pouratian. Pouratian developed the device with Second Sight Medical Products. It starts with a tiny camera on Esterhuizen’s glasses, which sends an image to a video processing unit. A wireless signal is then sent to the implant, which stimulates his visual cortex. “We’re not restoring vision in the way that you and I know vision, but it’s artificial vision, and it’s learning how to use that and how to interpret that,” Pouratian says.
UCLA forecast: Strong California economy faces slowdown by end of 2020 | Times of San Diego
In his report on the state, UCLA Anderson Forecast Director Jerry Nickelsburg wrote that California’s unemployment rates remain “extremely low,” particularly in the largest job markets. And while the U.S. gross domestic product has slowed, California’s has been growing at a 4% annual rate.
Rebel historian who reframes history wins MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant | NPR
“My work and the work of many others is very much invested in telling the stories of communities that have been marginalized, that have been caged up, that have been locked out, that have been enslaved, and bringing our story, and our experience, to the center of the American narrative and helping us to change the American future with those stories,” said UCLA’s Kelly Lytle Hernandez. (Also: Inside Higher Ed, Los Angeles Times, Fast Company)
Studying kindness | Seattle Times Opinion
The University of California, Los Angeles will launch an institute to study kindness in an attempt to advance interdisciplinary research on the benefits of being good. Teresa Watanabe writes in the Los Angeles Times that UCLA scientists have already found that “mindfulness and kindness actually alter the behavior of genes, turning down those that promote inflammation.” (Also: Agence France-Presse, Santa Monica Daily Press)
Even Nobel-winning chemists don’t know what’s in your weed vape | Bloomberg
To date, there has never been a study on vaping cannabis, according to Jeff Chen, who runs a marijuana research institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA has a machine capable of testing cannabis oil, but the pot stores near campus are off limits because of federal rules, he said.
Loan modifications for the best — not distressed — borrowers | Wall Street Journal
The best known program, Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, which launched in 2009, required borrowers to be in default to qualify. HAMP fielded criticism that it didn’t help enough distressed borrowers and that it encouraged strategic default, said Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at the University of California, Los Angeles.
A newspaper reported that a man’s ancestors were slaveholders. He’s suing for defamation | Washington Post
In Virginia, as in most states, proving defamation requires establishing that someone made a false, factual assertion that causes harm to another person’s reputation — a statement that “exposes this person to public hostility . . . scorn, ridicule, contempt,” [UCLA’s Eugene] Volokh said. The newspaper article does not meet this standard, according to Volokh, who predicted the judge will dismiss the case.
Should we break our bottled water habit? | Consumer Reports
Even a quarter century ago, buying water in any kind of bottle would have seemed “ludicrous,” says James Salzman, environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of the book “Drinking Water: A History” (Harry N. Abrams, 2012). Eventually, bottled water came to be seen as chic, Salzman says, in part because of celebrity endorsements.
Harry Potter’s Broadway box office tactic cloaks drop in demand | Forbes
“Suppose they're currently selling 100 tickets at $100,” and, “if the demand falls, then maybe they can only sell 80 tickets at $100,” described UCLA professor Simon Board in an example. “The producers can lower the price to $80 to raise demand back to 100 tickets,” he explained.
EPA threatens to cut California’s highway funding over Clean Air Act ‘failure’ | Los Angeles Times
Ann Carlson, a professor of environmental law at UCLA, criticized the agency’s move. “It’s actually hard to think of a more hypocritical move by the most anti-environmental EPA in history than today’s threat to withhold highway funds from California for failing to do enough to fight air pollution while simultaneously taking away the state’s most effective tool for doing so,” she said.
‘Big Brother’s’ season marred by allegations of racism | Los Angeles Times
UCLA Dean of Social Sciences Darnell Hunt said he is not surprised that issues of race often erupt on “Big Brother.” “Race is the central axis of social relationships,” said Hunt, who is also a professor of African American studies at the university. “Even when, in public, we try to deny its significance, it creeps through in unexpected ways. When people are in a house like that 24 hours a day under those conditions, it’s difficult to hide an inconvenient truth about American culture and society. The camera is the great equalizer.”
‘Friends’ stars still make big money on reruns of the hit sitcom every year | The Sun (U.K.)
UCLA lecturer Tom Nunan, who was head of comedy at Fox’s TV division when creators Marta Kauffman, Kevin S. Bright and David Crane were pitching the show, told The Scotsman: “You just don’t know how is it when a group of people come together and, if you forgive the expression, make beautiful music together, is that going to be for a generation or is it going to be for the ages?”
What wolves’ teeth reveal about their lives | Phys.org
UCLA evolutionary biologist Blaire Van Valkenburgh has spent more than three decades studying the skulls of many species of large carnivores — including wolves, lions and tigers — that lived from 50,000 years ago to the present. She reports today in the journal eLife the answer to a puzzling question. (Also: Patch)
Utility company cuts power to 24,000 Northern California homes for wildfire risk | Washington Times
Daniel Swain, a researcher for the Center for Climate Science at the University of California-Los Angeles, tweeted that the Paradise Fire would not have occurred “if Northern California had received anywhere near the typical amount of autumn precipitation.”
Can nice women get ahead at work? | Quartz
Samuel Culbert, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management and the author of “Good People, Bad Managers,” articulates the task for forward-thinking workplaces this way: It’s “how you get people and processes, in a competitive environment, to own up to the fact that they’re imperfect, to not get so insecure that they have to point out other people’s imperfections, and to create a compensation structure where people have everything to gain by helping others, and nothing to gain by competing?”
Engineered killer T cells could provide long-lasting immunity against cancer | ScienceDaily
In experiments with mice, UCLA researchers have shown they can harness the power of iNKT cells to attack tumor cells and treat cancer. The new method, described in the journal Cell Stem Cell, suppressed the growth of multiple types of human tumors that had been transplanted into the animals. “What’s really exciting is that we can give this treatment just once and it increases the number of iNKT cells to levels that can fight cancer for the lifetime of the animal,” said Lili Yang, a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA and the study’s senior author.
Woman argues prison must give her Suboxone to fight opioid addiction | Washington Times
Sharon Dolovich, the director of prison law and policy at the UCLA School of Law, said it is a subject being widely litigated across the country, but she said it’s unlikely to make it before the Supreme Court in the near future. “Under current Eighth Amendment doctrine, corrections officials can’t opt for a course of treatment if it’s known to be less effective, just because it’s cheaper,” she said.
Theorists discover the ‘Rosetta Stone’ for neutrino physics | Phys.org
Experts fully expected the identity to exist somewhere in the literature for centuries but couldn’t find any evidence for it online or in textbooks. The three of us were eventually directed to a similar result by UCLA mathematics professor Terence Tao, who has a Fields Medal and Breakthrough Prize to his name. When we presented Tao with our result, he cheerfully declared that it was, in fact, the discovery of a new identity, and he provided several mathematical proofs, which have now been published online. Tao also discussed the new identity in his math blog.
$1M gift establishes UCLA faculty chair in health care management | Patch
With a gift of more than $1 million from the Don S. Levin Trust and Edna and Tom Gordon, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has established the Paul Torrens Chair in Healthcare Management. The chair is named in honor of Dr. Paul Torrens, a professor emeritus who has been on the school’s faculty since 1972 and has taught and mentored numerous people who went on to become key figures in health care management.
UCLA forecast: Strong California economy faces slowdown by end of 2020 | City News Service
California’s economy is continuing to outperform the nation as a whole, but thanks to anticipated economic slowing in the United States and globally, the state will likely start seeing some negative impacts by the end of next year, according to a UCLA Anderson Forecast released Wednesday. In his report on the state, UCLA Anderson Forecast Director Jerry Nickelsburg wrote that California’s unemployment rates remain “extremely low,” particularly in the largest job markets. And while the U.S. gross domestic product has slowed, California’s has been growing at a 4% annual rate. (Also: KABC-TV)
L.A. County votes to ban sales of flavored tobacco | KPCC-FM
“It is important to prohibit all flavors, including mint and menthol. Menthol masks the harsh taste of tobacco and makes the smoke easier to inhale and more appealing to new users, particularly youth,” said UCLA’s Michael Ong. (Audio download)
Former California Governor Jerry Brown announces new climate-centered think tank | KPCC-FM’s “Take Two”
“For Governor Newsom in particular, I think a lot remains to be seen. I think the global community is still feeling him out, to see what level of commitment he is going to bring to the climate fight,” said UCLA’s Cara Horowitz. (Approx. 7:10 mark)