The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for many parts of the U.S. this week. Parts of LA, like the San Fernando Valley, are headed for triple-digit temperatures this weekend. Heat negatively affects some people more than others — UCLA Heat Lab Director Bharat Venkat looks at it as thermal inequality.

Heat preparedness has generally improved over the years as forecasting has become more accurate, and as meteorologists, journalists and government officials have focused on spreading the word of upcoming danger. Chicago, for example, has expanded its emergency text and email notification system and identified its most vulnerable residents for outreach.

Since the time of the Greek physician Galen, knowing what causes a disease has been taken to be a critical step toward finding its cure (an idea we still hold dear in our time of mysterious syndromes and phantom pains). But a cure that specifically targeted the rod-shaped bacterium that causes tuberculosis…

The NY Times published a guest Opinion Essay by ISG faculty Danielle Carr’s article “Mental Health is Political”. “What if the cure for our current mental health crisis is not more mental health care?”

An ongoing study conducted by [Chase] Niesner, Christopher Kelty and Spencer Robins suggests that the same survival skills that enabled coyotes to outlast federal extermination campaigns during the 19th century has allowed them to flourish in some of the most densely populated urban centers in the world.

Congratulations to ISG Faculty member, Nick Shapiro, who was selected  as one of five inaugural faculty members to receive the Mellon “Data, Justice, and Society” grant. The new grant is dedicated to develop new undergraduate or graduate courses to teach in the areas of critical data studies, data and society and digital…

The Intercept recently published two articles featuring Nicholas Shapiro’s ongoing research on carceral ecologies. In addtion, the same publication produced an interactive map using data Shapiro and his lab collected titled Climate and Punishment.

Congratulations to ISG Faculty member Jessica Lynch for her collaboration on a research study about sexual selection in tiny Brazilian squirrel monkeys. Lynch worked with lead research team at the California Lutheran University.

ISG Faculty member Chris Kelty’s new UCLA podcast, “The Labyrinth Project,” captures the complexity of the urban ecosystem. The podcast is inspired by the Labyrinth Project research initiative and funded by the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge.

During a time of campus closure and remote learning, UCLA Library reimagined its services critical for students to carry out their research and academic coursework. Two students of “Red Hot LA” class, Alexandra Nechaev (’21) and Alice Lu (’21),  shared their reflections on the invaluable support that UCLA librarians exhibited.

Terence Keel shares his interest and extensive research on how Christian precepts have shaped racial and scientific attitude into the 21st century, which includes his most recent investigation into how doctors classify deaths of Black and brown people while in police custody.

Congratulations to ISG Faculty member Terence Keel, whose book “Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science” won the 2021 Iris Book Award.