CLICC Lab closed due to mice infestation
The College Library Instructional Computing Commons closed
Wednesday after someone discovered a bag of lab mice beneath the
Macintosh stations around 12:30 a.m.
Pest control arrived at the lab Thursday morning to trap the
mice. Some of them had died during the night, but many were still
alive and wandering around the lab.
Because of the unknown origin of the animals, the university
called in environmental heath and safety consultants, as well as
Hazardous Materials specialists, to assess the situation, said Lisa
Kemp-Jones, the CLICC manager. Students and staff members who work
with research animals also assisted in capturing the mice.
According to Kemp-Jones, the environmental control personnel
used sticky traps to humanely capture the rodents and to ensure the
safety of lab users.
The library reopened at 4 p.m. Thursday, though several sections
remained closed due to their proximity to the mouse traps. There
are no suspects in this incident, Kemp-Jones said.
Regents approve plan to expand UC Berkeley
The UC Board of Regents on Thursday gave the go-ahead to a
development at the Berkeley campus despite objections from
neighbors and some students.
The development, known as the Underhill area projects, is spread
out over five blocks on the city’s south side. It would add
housing for 870 students as well as parking, dining commons and
offices.
Campus officials say they need the expansion, but critics say
the project is too dense.
City and community leaders said they needed more time to review
final environmental impact documents on the project. The City
Council voted to ask the regents to wait until January, when they
will meet in San Francisco, meaning more people from Berkeley could
attend. But UC officials decided to go ahead, saying they needed to
meet project deadlines.
Some Berkeley residents made the trip to Thursday’s board
meeting in Los Angeles to speak against the project.
Nick Papas, a member of the Berkeley campus student government,
criticized the development because it includes a parking
structure.
“˜”˜We could build a tremendous amount of housing on
this site. Instead we’re building parking,” he
said.
UCLA professor wins Phi Beta Kappa award
UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf has been awarded the 2000
Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science for his 1999 book “Cradle of
Life: The Discovery of Earth’s Earliest Fossils.” The
annual award is presented for “outstanding
contributions” to the literature of science at a Phi Beta
Kappa Senate dinner in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 1.
Previous recipients of the award include Linus Pauling, Stephen
Jay Gould, E. O. Wilson, and Jared Diamond, UCLA professor of
physiology and winner of the 1999 National Medal of Science.
In “Cradle of Life,” Schopf, who is the director of
UCLA’s Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of
Life, showed that for all its achievements, science has also been
spectacularly wrong.
“Facts always prevail eventually, but sometimes they
don’t emerge for decades,” Schopf said.
The book recounts the discovery over the last three decades of
an ancient fossil record, unknown and thought to be unknowable.
This record fills in holes about the earliest 85 percent of the
history of life on Earth and changes current understanding of how
evolution works.
Compiled by Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.