The links to the stories summarized on this page are time sensitive, so stories might no longer be online at that URL. We also include links to the original source publication itself.
Monday, 25 February 2013
1. Bob Bea, the Master of Disaster
Men's Journal
Civil engineering professor Bob Bea is profiled for his work as "the nation's foremost forensic engineer ... the guy to call when levees break or oil rigs explode -- to sift through the wreckage, assign blame, and try to prevent the same mistakes again." On Tuesday, he will be the first witness testifying -- for the plaintiffs -- in the trial of BP and other companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Another story on this topic appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Full Story
2. Bay Area universities team up to commercialise innovation
Financial Times (*requires registration)
A regional consortium of UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Stanford has been given a three-year, $3.75 million grant from the National Science Foundation to collaborate on the promotion and commercialization of innovative ideas. Dean Richard Lyons, of Berkeley's business school, will direct the program along with entrepreneurship lecturer Steve Blank. “Our three universities are the source of so many ground-breaking discoveries that can be put into service of society and this grant will allow us to develop next-generation processes to tap them and bring them to market,” Dean Lyons says. “Getting better at this means more jobs, more economic value and better lives.” Full Story
3. Boost health coverage, officials urge UC
San Francisco Chronicle
Rep. Nancy Pelosi and nine other members of Congress are urging the UC system to lift its caps on student health insurance, which leave students facing catastrophic medical problems stranded. Berkeley student Kenya Wheeler, for example, reached his limit while halfway through chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Universities with self-funded health plans were overlooked when the Affordable Care Act was designed to outlaw insurance caps nationwide. UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein says it's a "a real sticky problem" for UC, since its 3-year-old program is already down $57 million because actuarial misinformation led the university to undercharge students. Hence, officials are hesitant to voluntarily lift the insurance caps until they've figured out how much more students would have to pay for the unlimited care. UC has appointed 47 people, including students from every campus, to try to figure out how to resolve the problem. Full Story
4. Athletes cash in on California's workers' comp
Los Angeles Times
California's workers' compensation system has awarded millions of dollars in benefits for job-related injuries to thousands of professional athletes over the last 30 years, although the vast majority of the beneficiaries played for out-of-state teams. Frank Neuhauser, executive director of Berkeley's Center for the Study of Social Insurance, says about the problem: "The actual answer to this problem is not a state-by-state decision. ... The leagues should negotiate with the players associations to resolve how to handle these cases in the future.... The players need coverage for these diseases that they got playing for teams that made billions of dollars." Full Story
5. Little Help for Low-Income Students
Inside Higher Ed
The Obama administration's new College Scorecard, meant to help families of college-bound students “get the most bang for your educational buck,” is flawed by its categorization of average net prices. As this analysis points out: "There’s just one problem: no student is average." To demonstrate how off-the-mark the averages are for low-income students, the article provides a chart comparing a low-income student's net price to the College Scorecard's net at three institutions, including Berkeley. Full Story
6. Op-Ed: New preschool push more about politics than educating kids
Sacramento Bee
Education and public policy professor Bruce Fuller writes that President Obama's preschool plan "offers great hope for America's young families," but that the "grinding mechanics of testing and accountability" could spoil the intent. "Aligning preschool to the state's bland regimen of accountability is not the answer. It will render the rainbow room less inviting, as government paints it a pallid gray." Full Story
7. NSF Anticipates Pushing Boundaries on Open-Access Plan
Chronicle of Higher Edcuation (*requires registration)
The National Science Foundation is considering ways of implementing President Obama's call for greater public access to research published in scientific journals, including exclusivity periods shorter than the 12-month standard in the White House directive. According to Berkeley associate molecular and cell biology professor Michael Eisen, tax money indirectly covers "the vast majority of the costs of publishing" and taxpayers get "a really really watered-down product for their money," with publishers restricting access and owning the rights. "It's nuts," he says, but 12 months seems too big a hindrance to researchers, since the first year is when scientific findings are of greatest use. Full Story
8. Making ends meet on the minimum wage
Washington Post
A study by Berkeley economists compared adjacent counties with different minimum wages nationwide, and found that higher minimum wages did not prompt job cuts. A similar citation appeared in the Huffington Post. Full Story
9. 'Desi' voices strengthen in South Bay
San Francisco Chronicle
A story about the growing Indian population in Silicon Valley mentions a study by Berkeley and Stanford researchers, finding that 13 percent of the startups in Silicon Valley and nearly 7 percent nationwide were founded by Indian Americans. Full Story
10. Are hybrid species being created due to climate change?
Mother Nature Network
Evolutionary biology professor Jim Patton comments on the question of whether climate change is creating hybrid species. He says hybridization is fairly common, driven by many forces, and overall there's no evidence they're on the rise or that climate change would be a stimulus. "While I don't think there is any question that climate change has had a role in hybridization over the past many thousands of years, the question is how rapidly is it occurring today -- and what are the consequences in terms of species identities? ... Is this going to be a problem for the long-term existence of parental species? Are they going to merge into one big hybrid population? We're only going to find out in hindsight," he says. Full Story
11. What you need to know about GMO labels
Mother Nature Network
Molecular and cell biology professor Steve Beckendorf explains that there is no difference between the GMO and GE labels, variously used in reference to genetically engineered food. “In common usage, GMO and GE indicate that a plant or a seed or even an animal has a gene or genes that are different from the normal variety," he says. "This could be by inserting a foreign gene, or by activating, inactivating or changing the expression of a normal gene. ... The terms GMO and GE are interchangeable. ... It could be that some marketing people somewhere have decided that one of the terms is preferable or less objectionable. To me the two terms refer to a distinction without a difference.” Full Story
12. UC Berkeley pushes stadium seat sales
San Francisco Chronicle
Cal's athletic department is launching a new marketing campaign to boost sales of premium seats at Memorial Stadium in order to bridge a $121 million gap on the stadium retrofit and athletic center construction projects. "Athletics is keenly aware that we can't let this debt roll onto campus," Vice Chancellor John Wilton says. Another story on this topic appeared in the San Francisco Business Times. Full Story
13. Cal football: New defensive coordinator Andy Buh interview transcript
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
Andy Buh, Cal's new football defensive coordinator, is interviewed. Full Story
14. Cal Women Beat Ducks for School-Record 12th in Row
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
The Cal women's basketball team won a school-record 12th straight game Friday night, with a 77-55 score against Oregon. Full Story
15. Fossils & Photons Blog: Energy Sec. Chu returns to Stanford, not Berkeley
San Francisco Chronicle Online
Departing U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Friday that he will return to Stanford this spring, not Berkeley. He had taught at Stanford between 1987 and 2004 before coming to Berkeley as physics professor and director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was appointed Secretary of Energy in 2009. Full Story
16. College Radio Station of the Year
Radio World
UC Berkeley's radio station – KALX – is among the ten finalists in mtvU’s Woodie Award competition for top college radio station. The awards will be announced on March 17. Full Story