Dr. Patrick Allard, ISG Assistant Professor, is featured in a UCLA Newsroom piece titled “A chemistry test for public safety.” An estimated 80,000 chemical substances currently find their way into our environment through industrial and agricultural waste, as well as through food additives, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. But even as companies continue to produce new chemical compounds at a…
Vanessa Moreno knows what it’s like to feed a family on a tight budget. The fourth-year international development studies major watched her own mother, a single parent, do it when she was temporarily unemployed. Moreno is now chronicling on video the story of a single mother of five as she struggles to meet the same challenge. Fellow UCLA senior Sanna…
Fifteen chemicals that disrupt our endocrine hormonal systems have been linked to earlier menopause among US women. Amber Cooper from Washington University in St Louis, US, and colleagues found women aged 45 to 55 exposed to the organic compounds were up to six times more likely to be menopausal than unexposed peers. The substances include long-banned but persistent polychlorinated biphenyls…
Scientists from the universities of Manchester and Sheffield have developed a computer model charting what happens in the brain when an action is chosen that leads to a reward. The model could provide new insights into the mechanisms behind motor disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease. It may also shed light on conditions involving abnormal learning, such as addiction. Dr. Mark…
The Institute for Public Knowledge invites you to join us for a conversation with Aaron Panofsky, Ann Morning, and Dalton Conley on Panofsky’s new book, Misbehaving Science: Controversy and the Development of Behavior Genetics. Behavior genetics has always been a breeding ground for controversies. From the “criminal chromosome” to the “gay gene,” claims about the influence of genes like these have led to often vitriolic…
Dr. Eric Vilain, a professor of human genetics, urology and pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and co-director of UCLA’s Institute for Society and Genetics, was interviewed Oct. 6 by the New York Times and Oct. 7 by KPCC 89.3FM’s AirTalk show about a young female sprinter from India who was banned from competition due to…