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.

Hubble confirms size of record-breaking comet | National Public Radio

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed the largest icy comet nucleus ever seen by scientists. The C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein) nucleus is about 80 miles in diameter, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island, NASA says … “This comet is literally the tip of the iceberg for many thousands of comets that are too faint to see in the more distant parts of the solar system,” David Jewitt, a professor of planetary science and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement. (Also: CNN, New York Daily News, Mashable, Space Daily, Daily Beast, Inverse and ScienceDaily.)

Deadly overdoses have spiked among teens | Associated Press

Adolescent overdose death counts were fairly constant for most of the last decade, at around 500 a year, according to the paper published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. They almost doubled in 2020, to 954, and the researchers estimated that the total hit nearly 1,150 last year. Joseph Friedman, a UCLA researcher who was the paper’s lead author, called the spike “unprecedented.” (Also: National Public Radio, City News Service, NBC News, Los Angeles Daily News, Healthline, Medical Xpress, United Press International, KABC-TV and KNBC-TV.)

Barriers to rent relief for Asian Americans | NBC News

Thousands of low-income Asian American households in California are either not applying to the state’s rental assistance program or struggle to obtain funds, a new report by UCLA reveals. Just 25 percent of rent-distressed Asian American households applied for aid, compared to 48 percent of white renters, according to the report, “Housing Insecurity Persists for Renters of Color Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic,” published last week. Asian Americans had the lowest rate among all racial groups. (UCLA’s Paul Ong is quoted. Also: The Hill.)

Inglewood to permanently shut elementary school | KCRW-FM’s “Greater LA”

Besides lower birth rates, Warren Lane is also losing students to nearby charter schools, says John Rogers, who studies education inequality at UCLA. “Over the last 20 years … there’s been substantial growth in charter schools around the state. And in Los Angeles County, there’s been hyper growth of charter schools in the area right around Warren Lane Elementary in Inglewood Unified.”

Rainbow breathing: Combatting stress in minutes | NBC’s “Today”

Jack Feldman, a neuroscientist and professor at UCLA, has dedicated much of his time to understanding how our body is impacted by breathing. After noticing that we tend to sigh once every five minutes, and more so under stress, he and his team developed the “psychological sigh” method to help reduce stress in real time. 

‘Magic mushroom’ drug may ease depression | HealthDay News

The tide is turning, agreed Dr. Charles Grob. He is a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles. “These drugs that were once marginalized and considered taboo are now the subject of great interest and activity, and both private and government funding,” said Grob, who has no ties to the new study.

How your gut affects your immune system, mental health | Axios

The foundation of your health and well-being isn’t your heart, your lung or your brains. It’s your gut … Your gut runs on a biological clock and eating at consistent times every day optimizes digestion, says David Heber, a physician and director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition.

Studying the health effects of marijuana | Science

Researchers are keen to examine cannabinoids as potential therapies for chronic pain, cancer, anxiety, and other conditions. To do that, “Researchers need to be able to study these chemicals that the rest of the world can get very easily,” says Ziva Cooper, director of the Cannabis Research Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles.

‘Trans Capitalist’ teaches financial literacy to LGBTQ community | CNBC

In the U.S., the poverty rate for transgender people is 29.4%, nearly double the rate that cisgender straight adults experience, 15.7%, according to a 2019 study from the Williams Institute, a think tank based at the UCLA School of Law. Poverty rates are even higher for LGBT people of color.

Have mosques become ‘boys’ clubs?’  | Independent

In fact, UCLA Islamic law professor Khaled Abou El Fadl points out in his book, “Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women,” that due to social resistance to reforms regarding women’s rights, the Prophet felt impelled to specifically command men to not prevent women from attending prayers to mosques.

The latest on the pandemic | KNX-FM

COVID cases are on the rise in Southern California and other parts of the country too … “We’re not out of the pandemic yet. We are still subject to new surges, to the effect of new variants, and we’re going to see this play out again,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin.