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.

How to make defunding the police a reality | The Nation

“We have had a persistent trend for the last half-century of spending ever more money on police and incarceration,” said Kelly Lytle Hernandez, a history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “This is a truly historic shift.”

Coronavirus: Why do a few infect many? | New York Times

But James Lloyd-Smith, a UCLA disease ecologist who developed the dispersion parameter 15 years ago, cautioned that just because scientists can measure it doesn’t mean they understand why some diseases have more superspreading than others. “We just understand the bits of it,” he said.

How to compare medicine to other health careers | U.S. News and World Report

Louis Ignarro — a Nobel Prize-winning, Ph.D.-trained pharmacologist — says one important factor to consider when choosing a health career is to think about what type of lifestyle you prefer. “The lifestyles of a physician, biomedical research scientist, and nurse, for example, are very different,” Ignarro, a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of California—Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, wrote in an email. “The most important factor in making such a career decision is motivation. Why do you want to make this your professional career?”

How to socialize during coronavirus | Teen Vogue

Mienah Sharif, a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for the Study of Racism Social Justice & Health at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, working on their COVID-19 Task Force on Racism & Equity, called residential segregation a prime example of how poverty and racism are connected. “A lot of these challenges that these teens are facing existed before the virus, such that certain neighborhoods have limited access to safe and accessible places to exercise in,” says Sharif.

Brain responses to social stimuli may vary by sex in autism | Spectrum

Autistic girls may find social interaction more rewarding than autistic boys do, according to a new study focused on the brain’s reward system. “It may be a critical variable that can influence the way girls with autism present as opposed to boys,” says lead investigator Mirella Dapretto, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The latest on the pandemic | KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk”

“We’re finding out more and more — not that we know everything yet — but it’s not simply a matter of if you get over this, you just go right back as you were before. In fact, for many people, they do have weeks of feeling fatigued. There could also be multi-system damage that’s occurred, from pancreas to lungs,” said UCLA’s Dr. Robert Kim-Farley (approx. 26:50 mark; Kim-Farley was also quoted by Bloomberg).

Two climate lawsuits give Big Oil the tobacco treatment | Grist

William Boyd, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, says the two new lawsuits might get more traction than past attempts. “These are broad consumer protection statutes, and the facts that are alleged in the complaints are pretty damning for the big oil companies in the sense that they show a systematic effort to suppress and divert climate science and to mislead the public about the impacts of climate change,” said Boyd.

Emotional support robot headed to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital | TechRepublic

Being hospitalized long-term as a child is traumatic, separated from home, their own bedrooms, and often, their parents and caretakers. Now, a robot named Robin will provide emotional support to children staying at the UCLA Mattel Children’s hospital at the University of California Los Angeles.

Black people, vitamin D and COVID-19 | Elemental

“There is a lot of debate on how low vitamin D levels need to be before they are clinically important,” says Keith Norris, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. “When it’s a little low it may not be that important.”

Glove translates sign language into speech | Science Daily

UCLA bioengineers have designed a glove-like device that can translate American Sign Language into English speech in real time though a smartphone app…. “Our hope is that this opens up an easy way for people who use sign language to communicate directly with non-signers without needing someone else to translate for them,” said Jun Chen, an assistant professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the principal investigator on the research.