UCLA professors named in list of
“˜visionaries’
UCLA chemistry professor James R. Heath and neuroscientist Gary
W. Small were named by Scientific American magazine as one of the
“Scientific American 50″ visionaries in the world of
research.
The list appeared Nov. 18 in the magazine’s December
issue.
Heath, along with his colleagues R. Stanley Williams, Philip
Kuekes and Yong Chen were selected for inventing
“self-assembling nanotechnology devices that might eventually
surpass those etched into chips,” according to Scientific
American.
Heath and his colleagues at UCLA and HP Labs have been working
on the creation of molecular microprocessors, potentially smaller,
cheaper, and more energy-efficient than today’s silicon-based
microprocessors.
“This molecular approach could have failed early on in
many places, and it’s not failing,” Heath said in a
statement.
“We’re getting there. Overall, the progress is
faster than any of us expected.”
Heath was a founder and former co-director of the California
Nanosystems Institute, a joint partnership between UCLA and UCSB to
build a nanosystems institute on both campuses.
One of Heath’s projects is to build a direct, electronic
interface to certain components of the human immune system, which
will help researchers better understand the nano-circuitry of
biological systems.
Small, a Parlow-Solomon professor on aging at the David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA, was the first to report early brain
function decline in people at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s
disease.
He discovered a new PET scan compound which could provide more
definitive diagnoses and treatment of living Alzheimer’s
patients.
Study links races, diseases and education
levels
UCLA researchers recently released a study which identifies and
ranks diseases which contribute most to the life-expectancy gap
between races and education levels.
The study, which was reported in the Nov. 14 issue of the New
England Journal of Medicine, found that the top four contributors
to the life-expectancy disparity between blacks and whites are
hypertension, HIV, homicide and diabetes.
Dr. Mitchell Wong, lead investigator and assistant professor of
the UCLA Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services
Research, believes the research will help shrink the
life-expectancy differences.
UCLA researchers took a national sample of approximately 600,000
adults, age 18 and older. The sample was taken from the 1986-1994
National Health Interview Survey, and also from the Centers for
Disease Control.
Researchers reported that hypertension was responsible for the
15 percent life expectancy gap between blacks and whites, while HIV
made up 11 percent of the difference. Diabetes and homicide each
made up 8 percent of the difference.
Heart attacks were responsible for 12 percent of the difference
between high school graduates and those who didn’t finish
high school. Lung cancer followed with 8 percent, strokes 6
percent, and congestive heart failure, chronic lung disease were
each responsible for 5 percent of the difference.
All together, the conditions were responsible for 40 percent of
the total mortality difference based on education levels.
The study was supported in part by the University of Southern
California ““ UCLA Center on the Demography of Aging, funded
by the National Institute on Aging.
The study was also funded by an Institutional National Research
Service Award from the Health Resources and Services
Administration.
The center on aging is one of 11 across the United States.
Physical therapist places at contest for
bodybuilding
53-year-old Renee Young, a UCLA physical therapist at the David
Geffen School of Medicine, competed and placed in four different
categories at a bodybuilding competition last week in Fairfax.
Young, who has been a physical therapist for over 20 years,
including the last six at UCLA, placed 2nd in Open Women
Bodybuilding Short Class, 2nd in Grand Masters Bodybuilding, 2nd in
Grand Masters Figure, and 4th in the Open Figure competition.
Young placed despite competing against women in their 20s and
30s.
The competition fielded competitors from around the world,
including Australia and New Zealand.
Young, who works out with a trainer four days a week, also runs
four to five miles three to four times per week.
She began bodybuilding a little over a year ago, and estimates
her body fat to be around 9 percent before a competition.
Young lives and works in San Diego four days a week, and
commutes to Los Angeles Wednesday nights to work at UCLA Thursday
through Saturday.
Meteor shower one of century’s
largest
This week’s Leonid meteor shower fulfilled predictions and
was one of the largest expected until the end of the century.
The shower had two peaks, each a couple of hours long. The first
peak happened in North America around 11:30 pm EST Monday, with the
second peak arriving around 5:30 am EST Tuesday.
Astronomers predict that the next occurrence of a Leonid storm
even close to this magnitude will be in 2099.
Meteors are dust particles shed by comet Tempel-Tuttle, and the
dust for this year’s show was actually laid down by the comet
in 1866.
Briefs compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports and Daily Bruin
staff.