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.
Southland to see ‘striking increases’ in fire days | United Press International
Coastal Southern California will experience major increases in wildfire days in the mid-21st century, according to a new study from the University of California-Los Angeles. The UCLA study said there will be “striking increases in climatologically identifiable large fire days in the mid-21st century and that this trend will accelerate in the latter half of the century.” (UCLA’s Glen MacDonald is quoted. Also: The Hill, Phys.org, KCBS-TV, KTLA-TV, KPCC-FM and KCRW-FM.)
L.A.’s mental illness crisis: We must do better | Los Angeles Times
The county is housing thousands of people each year but the lifeboat is still taking on water. [UCLA’s Imelda] Padilla-Frausto calls for a greater “upstream approach” that targets social and economic needs early on, so that “we are not left bailing out a sinking boat.” She said there have to be more support services for people in their late teens and early 20s, which is when many serious mental illnesses first manifest.
As drought lingers, wildfires pose threats to water supply | Los Angeles Times
Already diminished by drought and extreme heat, California’s water supply will face yet another peril as wildfires continue to incinerate ever larger areas of forested land, according to new research. In a UCLA-led study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers determined that increasing forest fire activity is “unhinging” western U.S. stream flow from its historical predictability. (UCLA’s Park Williams is quoted.)
Western U.S. megadrought is driest in 1,200 years | Voice of America
Park Williams is a climate specialist with the University of California, Los Angeles. He helped lead the study. Williams told The Associated Press that the current drought actually began in 2002, which was one of the driest years on record. “I was wondering if we’d ever see a year like 2002 again in my life and in fact, we saw it 20 years later, within the same drought,” he said.
First Alzheimer’s treatment taught us some hard lessons | Los Angeles Times
(Commentary by UCLA’s Keith Vossel) The Food and Drug Administration’s surprise approval of Aduhelm for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease last year was a mess on practically every level. Three agency advisors resigned, and skeptical doctors such as myself were left to advise patients — all desperate for hope — that, yes, it is a treatment option but, no, we have no idea whether it will work.
UCLA professor fights for digital civil rights | ABC News
“There’s a long history that predates search engines, about hypersexualizing girls and women of color. It’s different when you’re using something like Google or a search engine like a fact-checker,” said UCLA’s Safiya Noble. (Noble is interviewed.)
What’s less fair than the SAT? You might be surprised | Los Angeles Times
Li Cai, professor of advanced quantitative methodology at UCLA, was a member of the UC faculty committee that recommended creating a new admissions test. He told me that although grades have historically been a strong indicator of success in college, grade inflation is making that less true.
UCLA launches space medicine program | KCBS-TV
UCLA is launching the latest thing in space travel: surgeons who make house calls to outer space. The program is the first of its kind in the nation, and a local doctor is the first one to be part of UCLA’s Space Medicine Fellowship. (UCLA’s Haig Aintablian is interviewed.)
Antarctica’s disappearing sea ice | CNN
“That kind of drop is pretty much unprecedented in the record,” Marilyn Raphael, geography professor and director at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, told CNN. “Antarctic sea ice does vary from year to year, but that was a bigger variation than what normally happens.”
Long-lost kimono tells tale of Japanese internment | BBC News
It wasn't until 1988 … that President Ronald Reagan issued an apology and reparations of $20,000 each were paid to more than 80,000 interned Japanese Americans or, in some instances, their heirs. Brian Niiya, who teaches about the history of the camps at the University of California–Los Angeles, says that at the time, the Japanese American community was happy about the apology and the settlement. “It was such a longshot, and people never thought they would see this in their lifetime,” he told the BBC.
Who should pay for college? | New York Times
[Brian Powell] and his colleague Natasha Quadlin, of UCLA, have written a book about what Americans think about paying for college. The book “Who Should Pay?” reports on a nationally representative survey of Americans’ ideas about the ideal mix of government, family and student responsibility for the cost of higher education.
Black innovators reshaped U.S. gardening, farming | Associated Press
After long days spent working on the plantation’s fields, many enslaved people grew their own gardens to supplement their meager rations. “The plantation owners could then force them to show them how to grow those foods,” said Judith Carney, a professor of geography at UCLA and co-author of “In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World” (University of California Press, 2011).
Birth control after a baby: Your best options | CNET
Dr. Leena Nathan, an OB-GYN at University of California, Los Angeles Health, says she doesn’t recommend breastfeeding alone as a contraceptive method to patients because it can be hard to predict when ovulation will start up again. “I’ve definitely seen that in my patients — where they’re exclusively breastfeeding and then their period starts again,” Nathan says.
Do smartphones stop bystanders from helping crime victims? | BBC News
Critics of the Citizen app have accused it of causing “paranoia” and altering perceptions about crime. “It’s pretending to provide public safety, but in reality, it’s just providing a paranoid spectacle,” said Angel Diaz, a law lecturer at the University of California–Los Angeles. “We shouldn’t be relying on a private company to supplement people’s safety.”
‘Climatarians’ support planet through food choices | Spectrum News 1
While a few meals and crackers might seem insignificant in the fight against climate change, UCLA professor of environmental engineering Jennifer Jay said individual choices are powerful. “Climatarian diets are actually essential. We need people to start seeing that they can make a difference, and this is how they can make a difference. It’s in black and white, the numbers are there,” Jay said.
Diversifying the field of nuclear physics | Diverse Issues of Higher Education
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has received a $500,000 federal grant to build a program to helps undergraduate students from low-income, first generation, historically underrepresented communities pursue graduate study in nuclear physics. The goal is to increase the diversity of scientists in the field … “The UC and CSU systems are among the largest engines for social mobility in the United States and play a key role in providing opportunities to students from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Dr. Zhongbo Kang, an associate professor of physics who will head the program at UCLA.
Remedying racial disproportionality in child welfare system | KABC-TV
Now, L.A. County plans to test “blind removal,” working with Dr. Tyrone Howard, of UCLA’s Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families, to pilot the program in at least one regional Department of Children and Family Services office. “We have to try something because the bottom line is there are far too many Black children being taken from their families, and that is unacceptable,” said Howard. “So we have to be creative. We have to be innovative and we have to look at any time of effort that we know may have some success.”
More teachers considering leaving the classroom | CBS News
Teacher shortages may remain a challenge for years as fewer students pursue the profession. In 2018, only 4.3% of college freshmen intended to major in education, compared to 11% in 2000, according to UCLA’s Cooperative Institutional Research Program.
Experts worry Supreme Court could hamstring EPA | NPR StateImpact
“I think it is scary,” said Cara Horowitz, co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law. Like many people, Horowitz was surprised last fall when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. “Because in many ways the case is a dead letter,” she said. “It’s not totally clear what exactly the court is reviewing.” (Horowitz co-authored an amicus brief to the Court on behalf of electric grid experts.)
What will the future of COVID look like? | Health Digest
“We don’t necessarily have to come up with new interventions [to prevent COVID],” said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “It’s just that we’ve got to do a better job continuing to do the things we know that work.”
