Today’s weatherPartly cloudyHigh 66Low 39

Forecast

Spring has come early. Enjoy a nice read or nap out on the quad or just go on a nice run!

Roberto Martinez, atmospheric science majorAggie Forecasting Team

Partly cloudy Partly cloudy

Friday

High 72Low 43

Thursday

High 70Low 45

The word “bed” looks like a bed. Also… shark.

Joyce Berthelsen

serving the uc davis campus and communit y since 1915

www.theaggie.orgvolume 132, number 29 Wednesday, February 27, 2013

ASUCD bids farewell to Business Manager

Education for Sustainable Living Program offered

Spring Quarter 2013

De Vere’s to host St. Baldrick’s Day

events

Greening Project to begin construction this summer

Event aims to raise money for children’s cancer research Seminar aims to increase awareness of sustainable living

Brett Burns leaves for new position at UC Davis School of Law

City, Arboretum ask for feedback from community

News iN BrieF

Davis Downtown Parking Committee

seeking input The Davis Downtown Parking Committee would like individuals who typically drive to downtown by vehicle to take a three-minute survey regarding park-ing experience in downtown Davis. The survey will help the committee evaluate park-ing in downtown, as well as provide information to the City of Davis’ Parking Task Force. Individuals who wish to participate in the survey can do so at surveymonkey.com/s/AutomobileParkingSurvey until March 4. Those who participate may enter a drawing to win one of four $25 downtown Davis gift cards.

— Claire Tan

By KAMILA KUDELSKAAggie News Writer

The City of Davis and the UC Davis Arboretum are convening a community meeting this Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. to gather feed-back regarding the planned im-provements that will occur to the Putah Parkway and the east end of the Arboretum.

The meeting will allow the pub-lic to voice its opinions on the de-signs in order to improve the out-come, and make sure that the de-signs meet the needs of the com-munity.

The first hour of the event will include a walk onsite with proj-ect designers. The walk will as-semble at the back of the Davis Commons parking lot. At 2 p.m., there will be a community design workshop at the University Park Inn and Suites at 1111 Richards Blvd.

Known as the Greening Project, it has been in planning and design

By PAAYAL ZAVERIAggie Staff Writer

The city of Davis annual-ly receives funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through the feder-al Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Through Jan. 31, individuals can submit proposals for so-

cial service projects they feel would make good use of these funds by submitting an appli-cation to the city by 5 p.m. The funds are aimed to help low-income families and in-dividuals in the communi-ty. Organizations that have been funded in the past in-clude Communicare, Davis Community Meals, Short Term Emergency Aid Committee

(STEAC) and Yolo Community Care Continuum. City Council, the Social Services Commission, and city staff will decide on which pro-posals to go through with dur-ing the proposal review cycle, which ends in April. “CDBG funds assist in pub-lic service activities, increased

By JESSICA GRILLIAggie News Writer

Brett Burns, ASUCD Business Manager and UC Davis alum-nus, has recently accepted the po-sition of Senior Assistant Dean for Administration with the UC Davis School of Law and will be leav-ing his position as ASUCD Business Manager.

Burns is expected to take on his new role part-time in March and be fully immersed in his new position by April 1.

According to Burns, his new posi-tion at King Hall will involve serving

as a key advisor to the dean and oth-er leaders of the School of Law, with responsibility for strategic planning and administrative services. In addi-tion, he will provide financial plan-ning, forecasting, policy setting, or-ganizational development and hu-man resource management. The po-sition serves as the school’s primary liaison with the UC Davis central ad-ministration on all financial and hu-man resource issues.

“The UC Davis School of Law has a tremendous reputation national-ly and internationally for research, scholarship and service to the com-munity,” Burns said. “After doing my

research I found that the Law School has an outstanding student body, fac-ulty and staff, with a passion for ad-vancing the field of law and commit-ment to public service, and I want to be part of this forward-thinking team and leadership group.”

Rebecca Sterling, ASUCD President, praises Burns as a valuable asset to the campus community.

“Brett is a true student advocate — [he] thoroughly understands the stu-dent experience and what it means to be an Aggie. He is a role model to many students, and offers great mentorship

By PAAYAL ZAVERIAggie Staff Writer

De Vere’s Irish Pub at 217 E St. will be hosting St. Baldrick’s Day events in March. During the events, the community can come out and shave their heads while collecting donations for childhood cancer re-search. St. Baldrick’s is a nonprofit foun-dation for childhood cancer re-search that encourages people to raise money to support a good cause, said Mari Tzikas, social me-dia and marketing representative for St. Baldrick’s.

“It’s a great community service opportunity for students and they can give something back,” Tzikas said. The event will occur on March 13 from 5 to 8 p.m. and Supercuts volunteers will be present to shave heads. There is another event at the pub’s Sacramento location, 1531 L St., on March 11 from 4 to 8 p.m. The goal for both events is to raise a combined total of $250,000. “I think people agree that cancer has touched most people’s lives and it’s a terrible disease for anyone to

Zach Land-Miller / Aggie

De Vere’s irish Pub (pictured) will be hosting st. Baldrick’s Day events in March. residents can shave their heads to raise money for childhood cancer research.

Brian Nguyen / Aggie

residents of the Domes create sustainable gardens and farms.

Aaron Juarez Kong / Aggie

The City of Davis and the UC Davis Arboretum will be hosting a meeting where community members can give feedback regarding plans to improve the Arboretum.

see AsUCD, page 5

see De Vere’s, page 5see sUsTAiNABLe, page 2

see GreeNiNG, page 5

page two The california aggie2 WeDneSDaY, feBrUarY 27, 2013

daily calendardailycal@theaggie.org

One Shields Ave.25 Lower Freeborn, UCD

Davis, CA 95616Editorial (530) 752-0208

Advertising (530) 752-0365Fax (530) 752-0355

The California Aggie is entered as first-class mail with the United States Post Office, Davis, Calif., 95616. Printed Monday through Thursday during the academic year and once a week during Summer Session II at The Davis Enterprise, Davis, Calif., 95616. Accounting services are provided by ASUCD. The Aggie is distributed free on the UC Davis campus and in the Davis community. Mail subscriptions are $100 per academic year, $35 per quarter and $25 for the summer. Views or opinions expressed in The Aggie by editors or columnists regarding legislation or candidates for political office or other matters are those of the editors or columnist alone. They are not those of the University of California or any department of UC. Advertisements appearing in The Aggie reflect the views of advertisers only; they are not an expression of editorial opinion by The Aggie. The Aggie shall not be liable for any error in published advertising unless an advertising proof is clearly marked for corrections by the advertiser. If the error is not corrected by The Aggie, its liability, if any, shall not exceed the value of the space occupied by the error. Further, The Aggie shall not be liable for any omission of an advertisement ordered published. All claims for adjustment must be made within 30 days of the date of publication. In no case shall The Aggie be liable for any general, special or consequential damages.© 2009 by The California Aggie. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form whatsoever is forbidden without the expressed written permission of the copyright owner.

The California Aggie is printed on

recycled paper

wedneSday

Food addicts in recovery anonymous7 to 8:30 p.m.Davis United Methodist Church1620 Anderson Rd. Free yourself from excess weight and/or obsessional thoughts about food and body image. Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous is a 12-step fellowship based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Meetings are open and free to the public. Visit www.foodaddicts.org for other meeting locations. alpha phi omega Service night7 to 9 p.m.King Lounge, Memorial UnionMake blankets for children in need with the brothers of Alpha Phi Omega while learning about the cardinal principles of Alpha Phi Omega and why we devote ourselves to service. Rides can be arranged if needed. Contact Christian at (916) 204-0777 or Lisa at (323) 703-3357 for further information.

tHUrSday

Shinkoskey noon concert12:05 to 1 p.m.Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby, Mondavi CenterCome down for an afternoon of free music as Tod Brody, pianist, and I-Hui Chen, flutist, perform Schubert and Franck classics.

Kirtan night with langar7 to 8 p.m.Cal Aggie Christian Association HouseJoin SCA for Kirtan Night this Thursday. Bhai Tajwinder Singh from Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar will also be doing kirtan. Langar will also be provided so come hungry! Everyone and anyone is welcome.

american red cross club general Meeting7:30 to 8:30 p.m.146 OlsonThe ARCC is an on-campus organization dedicated to emergency preparedness and community service. Join them for their fourth general meeting.

Biomedical engineering distinguished Seminar4:10 to 5 p.m.GBSF AuditoriumJoin Dr. Arthur Erdman, Professor and Director of the Medical Devices Center at the University of Minnesota, as he discusses “The Emergence of Regulatory Science, High-Speed Computation and New User Interfaces in Development and Approval of Medical Devices.” Refreshments will be served prior to his seminar.

Friday

Folk Music Jam SessionNoon to 1 p.m.Wyatt DeckFolk musicians are invited to play together informally during an acoustic jam session every other Friday this month from noon to 1 p.m. at the Wyatt Deck, located on Arboretum Drive. Pull out your fiddles, guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, pipes, flutes, squeezeboxes (you name it) and join your fellow musicians for a little bluegrass, old-time, blues, Celtic, klezmer and world music over the lunch hour. All skill levels welcome and listeners welcome.

infectious disease Seminar12:10 to 1 p.m.1020 Gladys ValleyJoin Dr. Jan Carette, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine, for a talk on “Expanding the Genetic Toolbox: Haploid Genetic Screens to Identify Host-pathogen Interactions.”

SatUrday

api(a) issues conference 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.Student Community Center, Multipurpose RoomCome down for this one-day conference to explore issues within the Asian Pacific Islander American community in hopes of unifying and strengthening it on campus. The event is open and free to all UC Davis students. Register at www.tinyurl.com/aic-participant.

community Meeting: improvements to the Uc davis arboretum east end1 to 2 p.m.Whole Foods Parking LotThe UC Davis Arboretum and City of Davis invite you to attend a site walk and workshop to discuss improvements to the Putah Creek Parkway between the railroad tracks and I-80 and the east end of the Arboretum.

SUnday

Urinetown - the Musical2:10 to 4 p.m.607 Pena DriveCome down for a musical directed by Steve Isaacson. Urinetown is a satirical comedy musical that pokes fun at the everything, from government bureaucracy and the legal system to corporate America’s mismanagement and social irresponsibility. The show even parodies the Broadway musical itself.

To receive placement in the AGGIE DAILY CALENDAR, email dailycal@theaggie.org or stop by 25 Lower Freeborn by noon the day prior to your event. Due to space constraints, all event descriptions are subject to editing and priority will be given to events that are free of charge and geared toward the campus community.

Janelle BitkerEditor in Chief

Hannah StrumwasserManaging Editor

Jonathan WesterBusiness Manager

Caelum ShoveAdvertising Manager

Muna SadekCampus Editor

Claire TanCity Editor

Elizabeth OrpinaArts Editor

Adam KhanFeatures Editor

Matthew YuenSports Editor

Hudson LofchieScience Editor

RebeccaPetersonOpinion Editor

Joey ChenCopy Chief

Brian NguyenPhotography Editor

Janice PangDesign Director

James KimAsst. Design Director

Amanda NguyenNight Editor

Joyce BerthelsenAsst. Night Editor

Irisa TamArt Director

David OuNew Media Director

I forget, sometimes, that weed is illegal.

If you’re looking for a high, but don’t want to break the law, you’ve probably heard of some of the legal alternatives that can be purchased at smoke and tobacco shops.

While these over-the-counter alternatives might initially seem safer and more legitimate than the weed you buy on the streets, many times they can actually be very un-pleasant and even harmful.

Probably the most well-known legal high is an “herbal” mixture known as Spice. I would never ever recommend smok-ing Spice.

Most people smoke Spice either because they can’t smoke weed due to their job, or simply because it is a lot easier to obtain than an illegal substance.

Spice is essentially syn-thetic marijuana. It is mar-keted as a safe and natural al-ternative to weed, and the fact that it is easily ac-cessible adds to the feeling that it is harmless.

Spice looks and smells like tea leaves, and it is smoked in the same exact manner as smoking weed.

Like weed, Spice can have a psychoactive ef-fect on the brain, and can make you feel relaxed and elevated and might even make you hallucinate.

But unlike weed, Spice is laced with many unnamed chemicals. It is these chem-icals, and not the herb it-self, that produce a high.

In fact, the Spice leaves are mainly just filler. There is no specific plant or flower that is cultivat-ed to make Spice. It is usually simply a mix of ground-up, dried plants. Unfortunately, this mix al-lows the product to be la-beled as natural.

But again, these herbs have absolutely no benefi-cial or mind-altering effects on their own, and they are simply the base on which Spice manufacturers can spray various chemicals.

These chemicals are the troublemakers.

Spice is made using the same chemical com-pound as the one that is used to make Bath Salts. Bath Salts recently made headlines after it was ru-mored that they were re-sponsible for turning peo-ple into crazed cannibals.

It is not surprising that Spice has caused just as

much trouble.While they are meant to

mimic THC, the chemicals in Spice actually produce an effect that is more similar to that of cocaine or meth.

There have been a number of emergency room visits by people who feel extreme anxiety, in-creased blood pressure and intense pains in the chest after smoking it.

Even more disturbing, there have been a num-ber of suicides by teens who developed bouts of psychosis after trying the drug. While these suicides and suicide attempts have led certain states like Arizona and Louisiana to immediately place a ban on synthetic marijua-na products, they are still permitted by federal law.

But even when the gov-ernment tries to prohibit the sale of Spice, Spice mak-ers usually have no problem finding a loophole.

For example, they con-stantly change the ingre-dients they use because the federal government constantly bans many of the chemicals their mix-tures rely on.

Spice companies have even added a “not for hu-man consumption” la-bel on their products. This warning makes it even harder to regulate Spice,

since Spice makers use it to claim that they are sell-ing pot-pourri and incense-

type products that are not meant to be smoked.

Furthermore, this warn-ing also makes it harder to hold Spice companies le-gally responsible for all the harm they cause, since again they can claim that their products were never intended to be smoked in the first place.

But it’s no secret that they know damn well that people are smoking their product.

Even though there is proof that Spice is hurt-ing people, and even though it contradicts their use of a warning la-bel, Spice proponents like Dan Francis have claimed in interviews that Spice is no more dangerous than peanuts, and that it would be unjust to ban such a safe product.

But safe products should not cause severe psychotic reactions.

It is a shame that there exists a synthetic alterna-tive to marijuana when marijuana is already safe, natural and delicious.

It’s even more disgust-ing that the public is pur-posely misled and that law-abiding citizens are taken advantage of.

So think twice and lose the Spice. Skip the dread and smoke weed instead.

LEO OCAMPO thinks drug-free is the way to be and can somewhat be reached at gocampo@ucadavis.edu.

I can’t do long division. This is odd, since I dis-tinctly remember ago-

nizing over it during grade school. I was made to learn, told it might come in handy one day — calculat-ing tip at a restaurant for instance.

I could refresh my mem-ory by looking up how to do it on my phone. But then I might as well use the built–in calculator. That’s what I have to do every time I pay a check.

How and when did I for-get what preteens can do with ease?

In due course, this fog of forgetfulness is now creep-ing into my college life. Despite the best efforts of my professor, the most en-during memory of fresh-man English is that Lord Byron had loads of sex. That wasn’t on the test.

How an-noying that we spend all this money and time on our ed-ucation, and we invariably forget so much of it.

One explanation for this unfortunate pattern is Hermann Ebbinghaus’ for-getting curve. The German psychologist repeatedly tested himself after mem-orizing groups of nonsen-sical syllables. In the first hour, he forgot over half of them. After a day, an addi-tional 10 percent was gone. After a month, 14 percent more disappeared.

A neat curve forms, as our memories rot away. But it’s not that simple. The ob-stinate decay of time is not the only obstacle in the way of remembering.

Acquiring new mem-ories also interferes with our ability recall the old. Conversely, old memories can interfere with our abil-ity to recall the new. Like a really great house party, some have to be crowded out for the fun to continue.

Sleep hygiene, stress levels and significance of memories also play a role in retention. This confluence of factors is what makes memory so capricious.

Tragically, those of you who do not read this col-umn closely will almost surely forget most of it be-fore the end of the day. The same is true for those who have filled their heads with calculus for that final, fast approaching.

Moreover, we are con-stantly externalizing our

memories, as the journal-ist Joshua Foer posits in his book, Moonwalking with Einstein.

Mr. Foer writes that be-fore writing, the mind was the only repository of memories. People spent a great deal of time striving to achieve memories that were unerring and abso-lute. To be knowledgeable, this was required.

Then came books, pho-tos, sound and video re-cordings, television, mov-ies, Twitter and Facebook. Digital media allowed us to outsource our memories, as Foer puts it.

Surely, this advent of technology has helped spread information fast-er and farther. We could not be where we are to-day without our electron-ic identities. However, Foer rightly posits that this changes our function of memory.

Technology affects our curve of forgetting pro-foundly, and takes some memories off the curve en-tirely. I know I rely on my phone to remember most numbers and Facebook to remember most birthdays.

But then we’re screwed when we run out of bat-teries. And our comput-ers cannot take a test for us. There is certainly val-ue in remembering more

without the terabytes of outsourc-ing available to us.

We need to remember more often

that we forget too much. Revisiting and livening up the memories we need to retain — making them stu-pid, or funny, absurd or distinct in some other way — will place them more permanently in our heads.

Perhaps my liberal sprin-kling of alliterative writ-ing and attempts at humor make all this easier to recall. Perhaps shamelessly adver-tising my alliterative writ-ing and attempts at humor make all this easier to recall.

After all, always, a lot of alliteration I wring from writing, right or wrong. Assonance, also, I do. Do you like that too?

If that does not work, Mr. Foer has a better idea. He notes that placing memo-ries in the most outlandish contexts you can imagine is a sure way to recall them more easily.

So, please picture your-self reading these final sen-tences upon a bed of bas-mati rice, complement-ed by caramelized onions and garlic, seasoned with saffron and chicken stock. Towering above is a giant Gary Busey, who is about to eat you.

After his meal, he will whip out his phone to cal-culate a tip for the waiter. I dare you to forget this by the end of the day.

SEAN LENEHAN really wants you to remember this. You can email him at splenehan@ucdavis.edu.

Fake weed

Leo Ocampo

Sleep hygiene, stress levels and significance of memories also play a role in retention

But safe products should not cause severe psychotic

reactions

correctionSIn the Feb. 26 print edition of The California Aggie, Tristan de Liege’s column was incorrectly titled “Religion as power.” The correct title for this article is “Mackey’s capitalism,” and was published with the online edition. The Aggie regrets this error.

Long division

Sean Lenehan

doin’ it green... Zero waSteEditor’s Note: The Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC) is an ASUCD com-mission responsible for re-searching environmental issues affecting the cam-

pus and its surrounding area, and pro-viding recommendations for improve-ment. Doin’ It Green is a new feature that provides tips and ideas for being green.

Whether you are having a barbe-cue with a few friends or hosting an event for a student organization, ev-ery bit of waste reduction and recy-cling at your event will make an im-pact. With some planning, these simple tips can help you reduce waste at your event.

For starters, waste reduction starts with the most important part of the event — the food! Avoid serving in-dividually wrapped single-serving items such as small bags of chips,

wrapped sandwiches and cans of soda. Instead, opt for the use of fin-ger foods that require no utensils, like sub sandwiches, or serve entrees that can be served in large contain-ers like pasta and fruit. Plan ahead to avoid wasting food by being re-alistic about the number of people that are attending the event and or-der accordingly. If there is an excess amount of food left over, don’t throw it away! Instead, find other uses for it such as saving it for leftovers, or if it’s a larger amount, partner up with other student organizations that may have use for the excess food such as the Food Recovery Network, or plan smaller events afterwards in which the food could be used.

Secondly, provide items at the event such as glasses and plates that can be washed and reused. However, if the use of paper plates, plastic cups and utensils is unavoidable, there are still steps you can take to reduce waste. For starters, buy compostable

materials such as compostable plates, bowls and napkins, which can be obtained through Campus Center for the Environment. Red plastic cups can be recycled through Red Cup Cleanup on campus, which also donates money earned from the cups to a charitable cause.

Thirdly, make sure bins for recy-cling, compost and landfill are avail-able and within easy access for peo-ple to use. For smaller events such as those held in homes, backyard composting is an easy way to reduce waste at home.

More information:Food Recovery Network: Danny Friedman, dlofriedman@ucdavis.edu Compostable food serving: Sarah Shuman (CCE), swshuman@ucdavis.eduBackyard composting guide: pro-jectcompost.ucdavis.eduRed Cup Cleanup: facebook.com/RedCupCleanup

accessibility in public facilities and group-care homes, local provision of fair housing services and administra-tion of the program,” said Housing and Human Services superintendent Danielle Foster in an email interview. An application workshop was held on Thursday to provide potential ap-plicants an opportunity to ask ques-tions about the overall process. A number of different organizations have benefited from CDBG funding in the past. “The Community Development Block Grant program has been instrumen-

tal in funding our programs for over 20 years,” said Bill Pride, executive director for Davis Community Meals. CDBG and the Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) also help provide money to local agencies that need funding for construction work that increases the availability of public meeting spaces, low-income services or affordable housing. According to Mike Goodison, an administrative analyst for CDBG and HOME grant programs, one such housing program is South Davis New Harmony. Goodison said the purpose of accepting these project proposals is to try and get the money out to the community as soon as possible. CDBG funding is estimated to be

$500,000 and HOME funding is esti-mated to be $300,000. All the funds ex-cept for 20 percent of the CDBG and 10 percent of the HOME funds are available for the projects. “With the ongoing financial de-bates in Congress, the programs face the potential for another funding cut this year, which would impact the amount of applications that can be awarded,” Foster said. “Regardless, the city welcomes the opportunity to support the local activities of Davis nonprofit agencies who do so much good work with the limited resources available.”

PAAYAL ZAVERI can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

SUSTAINABLEcont. from front page

&Science Technology wedneSday, FeBRUaRy 27, 2013 3The caliFoRnia aggie

A little while ago, I wrote about how amazing plants are, and how they have been here longer

than us, and will be here long after we are gone. I also promised that I would have some choice words for those in-dividuals who did not believe in evo-lution’s capacity to bring about these amazing organisms. Now, I need to clarify one point that many people often get con-fused. People who believe in evo-lution do not actually “believe” in evolution; they simply understand why evolution is true. To be clear, there is no such thing as an “evolutionist.” You either un-derstand it, or you don’t. Some peo-ple use cell phones. Some do not. Just picture a world where people who did not use cell phones called everyone else “phonists.” That is how stupid you sound. Evolution does not mean random. It does not mean improving. It has nothing to do with the origins of the universe. It has nothing to do with morality, theological claims, athe-ism, racism, christianity, judaism or any other ideology. Evolution means

change over time. To deny that things, and even the universe, change over time, is to deny what is right in front of your eyes. It is to deny reality. Now, many of you may be think-ing that this aggressive “preaching” of atheist, or even agnostic, ideology is just as bad as religious aggression. Let me tell you exactly why you are wrong. Religious aggression is telling ev-eryone who doesn’t agree with you that they are going to hell. Religious aggression is going door-to-door bothering people with your beliefs. Religious aggression is threatening and killing atheists, homosexuals, or even other religious individuals who believe in a different sky fairy than you do. It is using taxpayers’ mon-ey to promote your dogma in pub-lic schools. Religious aggression is the astoundingly egocentric attitude that your beliefs entitle you to special privileges, and that the words in your book give you the right to deny peo-ple their basic civil liberties. To put this in an even better per-spective, “aggressive” atheists do not kill anyone for having a reli-gion. Aggressive atheists promote the teaching of proven fact in schools, not archaic belief systems. They promote existing constitutional laws that pro-hibit the favoring of one religion over another. They write books about how illogical religion is. But how can we have morals if we don’t learn them from our book? Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but mo-rality and good morals existed long before the New Testament, or even the Old Testament. Nearly 4,000 years ago, Hammurabi’s code out-lawed murder, theft and rape. The Hittite Code of Nesilim set forth sim-ilar rules 3,800 years ago, and added punishments for those caught break-ing the laws. And 2,500 years ago, the 12 Tables of the Roman Empire out-lawed theft, vandalism, tax evasion and assault. The New Testament was written less than 2,000 years ago … And it has some serious catch-up to do in many aspects of “morality.” In the week of Feb. 3, 2013, scien-tists discovered a species of bacte-ria that makes gold as a waste prod-uct of its metabolism. The first bionic eye went on the market, allowing the blind to see. 3D printers were used to print living stem cells. Astronomical studies estimated that there are bil-lions of habitable, earth-like planets in our galaxy. Scientists used genomic sequencing technologies to pinpoint the most recent common ancestor of all living placental mammals. All of this happened in just one week. That same week in religion? The Pope did what every good Catholic does … He pulled out early. To those who still believe in cre-ationism, I don’t blame you. I get it. It’s way easier to read (or not read) one fairy tale book than it is to read a bunch of difficult ones. You talk about how we all need a shepherd, but in re-ality, the only people who need shep-herds are sheep. If you think that your reasoning is more sound, and that you can do bet-ter than the scientists, then show us. The great thing about science is that the people involved are just as inter-ested in finding out what is false, as they are in finding out what is true.

HUDSON LOFCHIE thinks that realizing he will never know everything is magnificent. The universe cannot fit in one man’s mind. He can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

Why you’re wrong

HudsonLofchie

To put this in an even better perspective, “aggressive”

atheists do not kill anyone for having a religion

By KYLE SCROGGINSAggie Science Writer

In a recent multidisciplinary article pub-lished at the end of January in Nature Communications, lead author Peter Kaiser, professor of biochemistry at UC Irvine (UCI), along with co-leader Richard Lathrop and many others, announced the discovery of a potential new target for a cure for cancer. Kaiser’s research focused on a specif-ic protein, called p53, that has been heavily implicated in many different forms of can-cer. P53’s primary role involves programmed cell death (apoptosis) and is thus crucial for preventing damaged cells from dividing. Mutations to the structure of p53 cause it to to be deactivated and thus lose its func-tion, allowing for cancer cells to grow with-out regulation. “There is a lot of machinery in a cell that needs to work together to create normal cell growth and division,” said Ryan Solis, a se-nior undergraduate researcher at UC Davis. Unfortunately, there are a plethora of ways that this machinery can malfunction. Usually a cell has mechanisms to repair parts that break, but no system is perfect. “If [DNA] is not repaired correctly after its strands break, it could lead to damaged or

even missing genes,” Solis said. Since DNA in a living organism is too diffi-cult to work with, doctors need to be able to find other ways of potentially treating any ge-netically related disease. “Current therapies generally target rapidly proliferating cells indiscriminate of whether they are tumor cells or rapidly dividing healthy cells,” Kaiser said in an email interview. In order to provide a better course of treat-ment, Kaiser and his team set out to better understand the p53 protein in hopes of po-tentially discovering a way to reactivate it. They succeeded. Utilizing complex com-puter models called “dynamic structural models” and some in-depth statistical anal-ysis, the researchers were able to find a tiny spot in the protein’s structure that can be used to reactivate the mutated forms. “These simulations basically predict how a protein moves and flexes over time, and often we see new pockets open in the [movement],” said Rommie Amaro, another one of the many co-leads on the article. According to Kaiser this pocket exists in both the normal and mutant p53 variants, but is predicted to be in a more open shape in the mutants.

Heart to heart

Curing the incurableCure for cancer may not be as unattainable as previously thought

UC Davis study shows couples’ hearts beat in syncBy NICOLE NOGA

Aggie Science Writer

With Valentine’s Day just re-cently passed and spring upon us, you may be feeling closer than ever to your romantic part-ner. Most couples take this sea-son to spend time together and do things they like or invest more energy in the common ground they have. But it turns out that activities and interests are not the only things that good couples share. A UC Davis study has found that couples not only have their interests in sync, but over time their heartbeats and respiratory

patterns can sync up as well. “Physiological responses are tightly linked to emotion. For ex-ample, if someone is upset then [they] tend to breath faster and have an increased heart rate,” said Jonathan Helm, the main author of the study. “Since phys-iology shares a link with emo-tion and affect, we wanted to see if the connection between cou-ples' affective states also shows up as a link in physiological states.” The researchers used 32 het-erosexual couples in a series of exercises to find their data. Emilio Ferrer, a researcher in the UC Davis Department of

Psychology who assisted in the study, stated that the first exer-cise of the experiment asked the couples to sit across from each other while blindfolded. Next, the blindfolds were removed and they were asked to make eye contact without touching or speaking to one another. “We wanted to see if there was a connection at the baseline lev-el,” Ferrer said. The baseline level refers to the the initial readings of heart rate and respiration used for compari-son with values relating to an exter-nal stimulus. Physical contact with one another could have disrupted the data, hence why the couples

were not allowed to touch. Ferrer said the exercises that fol-lowed included one in which the couples were told to mimic one anothers’ actions but still avoid physical contact, and another test in which they were told to discuss the positive aspects of their rela-tionship. The researchers found that the couples’ breathing and heartbeats were synced with one another. When the data was shuffled around to mismatch couples, there was no correlation between the randomly paired individuals, implying that they will only sync

By KELLY MITCHELLAggie Science Writer

The chickpea, also known as the garbanzo bean, is the world’s second-most widely grown le-gume crop after the soybean, making it a major component of the world’s diet. It is an impor-tant crop especially for small-farm operators in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. An international team of 49 scientists from 23 or-ganizations in 10 countries have been able to sequence the genes of this notable food supply. The chickpea plant is a type of

legume, making it very different from other agricultural crops. “[Chickpeas] can be grown on poor soils worldwide, without application of nitrogen fertiliz-er,” said Alison Berry, a professor of plant sciences at UC Davis. “This is because legumes are hosts for beneficial bacteria that live inside the roots, in symbiot-ic structures called root nodules. These bacteria directly provide the plants with nitrogen through the enzymatic process of nitro-gen fixation.” Fixing nitrogen refers to the plant’s ability to draw nitro-

gen out of the atmosphere and incorporate it into its cellu-lar structure. The ability of this plant to fix nitrogen also makes this crop especially nutritious for humans. “Crop legumes, like chickpeas, soybeans, peanuts, etc. are ma-jor dietary staples for millions of people globally, in large mea-sure because the seeds are very high in protein as a result of the nitrogen fixation process,” Berry said. The chickpea contains an es-timated 28,269 genes. It was se-quenced randomly and then put back together using the overlap-ping regions. The 28,000 genes contain nearly 750 million base pairs. These pairs were taken apart and put back together 100 at a time. Each group of 100 base pairs overlaps slightly with the next set, allowing them to be re-assembled like a puzzle. Since there are 7.5 million sets of 100, the reassembly was car-ried out by a computer algo-rithm, since doing it by hand would take hundreds of years. “The assembly ‘problem’ is actually quite significant, be-cause large genomes such as chickpeas contain many repeat-ed sequence motifs, comprising about 50 percent of the genome, and these motifs complicate as-sembly,” said Douglas Cook, a

UC Davis professor of plant pa-thology and a lead author on the research paper. “In the case of chickpeas, only about 75 per-cent of the genome could be as-sembled.” With this discovery, scientists have been able to start separat-ing the information and match-ing genes with traits in the spe-cies. This makes selective breed-ing easier for scientists, like Paul Gepts, at UC Davis. Gepts has been working with garbanzo beans in his lab where he is re-sponsible for producing new va-rieties of lima beans, garbanzo beans and common beans. “The sequencing of the ge-nome will make the process of selective breeding more effi-cient,” Gepts said. This means scientist now can better understand how to im-prove the species and promote the maximum crop yield. “In the case of legumes, like chickpeas, we can apply genom-ic knowledge for the improve-ment of crop traits — drought tolerance, resistance to disease, increased yields in poor soils — that can be of benefit,” Berry said. “In addition, it may even-tually be possible to understand how legumes manage to form nitrogen-fixing associations with bacteria. Maybe this trait,

courtesy

Researchers have found a molecule, stictic acid, that will activate the p53 gene in cancerous cells. P53 is a gene involved with programmed cell death.

Tiny plant, big dealChickpea genome sequencing could allow beneficial modifications of genome

courtesy

An international team of scientists has sequenced the genes of chickpeas (pictured). Chickpeas are the second most widely cultivated legume.

See HEART, page 6

See CURE, page 6

See CHICKPEA, page 6

By VICTORIA TRANGAggie Science Writer

In this technology-driven world, there are many sites dedicated to providing differ-ent types of information to help people in their daily lives. Lifehacker offers a va-riety of ways to “hack” your lifestyle, lead-ing to better habits, better health and bet-

ter living. They also offer multiple tech tips of their own.

What is Lifehacker?Lifehacker is a weblog that features advice from how to do laundry, to cooking, to re-pairing technology and other goods, to staying fit in the office, and even teaches you how to make the best job application possible. In addition, the weblog offers in-formation regarding useful applications for the iPhone and other smartphones.

How much does it cost?The weblog gives free information to ev-eryone with internet access. An account is not required to read through the arti-cles, but is required for posting comments about the articles or providing supplemen-tary information.

How does it work?The weblog can be viewed in various ways that suit the reader from traditional, two panes and blog view. Top stories and latest stories are featured for viewing pleasure. In addition there are many categories for readers to explore, such as DIY (do it your-self), internet browsing and advice about job applications. Readers can also subscribe to the Lifehacker twitter, to the Lifehacker Facebook profile, and Lifehacker RSS feeds daily for updates on stories and tips. In ad-dition, readers can submit their own “life-hacks” and suggestions to the authors. The readers can also participate and connect with each other through the forums.

VICTORIA TRANG can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

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EventsWant to learn more about careers in business? Come to the Managerial Economics Student-Alumni Career Day. Saturday, March 2nd, 9a-3p. Students may attend a variety of business workshops. Pre-registration required. Register in 1173 SS&H by February 26. $15 cash or check. Breakfast and lunch provided. Questions?manecon@primal.ucda-vis.edu.

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

FOR RELEASE MARCH 13, 2010

ACROSS1 “Scram!”

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DOWN1 Know-it-all’s taunt2 Long-legged

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Friday’s Puzzle SolvedBy Robert A. Doll 3/13/10

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Personals

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 5ThE cAliFoRNiA AggiE

Inside the Game with Ryan SypkensThe UC Davis men’s basketball team has been putting up a lot of points on the board this year, but have struggled a bit with consistency. One of the Aggie players who has been a backbone for UC Davis is junior Ryan Sypkens. The Elk Grove, Calif. native sat out last season with an injury, but came back more determined than ever, having already bro-ken the UC Davis single-season and career records for three-pointers, still with sever-al games left in the season. With more scoring to come, Sypkens has emerged as a present and future leader for UC Davis. He recently sat down with Aggie Sports Writer Kim Carr to discuss his life as a psychology major, what it’s like to be back on the team after sitting out last year and the dynamics of the revamped Aggies’ lineup.

So let’s start from the beginning. What made you come to UC Davis? Well, when I was getting recruited they made me feel like I was a top priority, which is something I was really drawn to. I wanted to come to a school that made me feel like a top concern. Also, it’s pretty close to home, but far enough away. But it’s still pretty easy for my parents to come watch me play. Mostly though, I wanted to come get a degree from UC Davis. It’s a great school to get an education from.

Since you’re a local kid, is your family able to make it to every game? Yeah, my family comes to pretty much every game. We also have a lot of confer-ence teams in Southern California and my grandparents live down there so my whole family comes to the games down there. My whole family is at almost every game, ex-cept when work gets in the way.

Do you have any interest in the field of sports psychology? Well first I have aspirations to play in the NBA and then I would like to become a coach. I definitely want to use it for some-thing with basketball. [Sports psychology is] definitely a possi-bility. I feel like I want to see what avenues open up in my life and if I find something I want to do I’m going to do [it]. I mean, you never know. I might end up back here someday so I can get my master’s degree but first I want to play basketball for as long as I can. Once I’m done with that, though, I’ll see what happens.

Do you have a dream team that you would love to play for in the NBA? Not really. Whoever wants to pay me, really. I want to look into the NBA but I would also love to go to Europe and trav-

el the world as well.

So you guys went to play in Europe this summer and J.T. Adenrele said that really influenced your development as a team. What do you think you guys improved the most over there? I think over there we had a lot of good guys on our team and to experience some-thing like that together — it really brought everyone a lot closer. It taught us all how to trust each other. None of us had really played with each other before so having that was a chance to get some games un-der our belt before we started getting into structured practices.

So you missed last season due to inju-ry. You’ve always been hot-handed from the three-point line but this year you just blitzed past records. How were you work-ing during your injury to end up with these kinds of results? Honestly, when I was injured I did ev-erything I could but for a long time I couldn’t walk. So I would sit in a chair un-der the hoop and just shoot over and over and really work on form shooting. I would lift a lot of weights and got stronger. Once I was able to start walking I would hit the gym every day for weights and shooting. I did absolutely everything that my knee allowed me to do. It was really a rough time because having knee surgery is not fun. My leg was in a cast for about three months so when I took the cast off there was no muscle left in my leg. I had to basi-cally rebuild my leg from scratch and even now it’s not back to the point that it used

to be.

So when you can’t play basketball for a year, what were your other hobbies? I love music. I’m learning to play bass guitar and I just love listening to music. It’s mostly all around music. I write a little bit of poetry too though.

Bozner also writes poetry, right? Have you read any of his stuff? Yeah. It’s mostly funny poetry but it’s pretty good.

So how does it feel to come back from an injury and break these three-point re-cords? You know, it really feels good. I’ve always believed that hard work pays off. I’ve al-ways been kind of a late bloomer. I’ve al-ways felt like a little bit behind where I want to be, and I’ve always just been like, ‘Man, I want to get better, I want to be bet-ter.’ It finally feels like it’s paying off for me. I’m going to keep pushing and hopefully keep getting better.

All right, let’s talk some non-basketball stuff for a minute. What are your favorite movies, favorite bands, etc.? My favorite movie is probably a tie be-tween my top three. Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds.

I’m sensing a theme here. [Laughs] Yeah, I like Quentin Tarantino a lot. Honestly, those three — it’s hard to say. I guess my favorite right now would be Django Unchained though.

All right, so how about music? I listen to a lot of reggae. Bob Marley is my absolute favorite musician ever. I lis-ten to all types of music though. Even a little country but everything from rap to blues to jazz. I still listen to a lot of blues actually.

So I’ve asked almost every single guy about the Aggie Pack and the Band-uh! but most of them seem to be so fo-cused on the game, they don’t notice the crowd. How do you think our home crowd stacks up against the other teams’ in conference? Honestly, I think our student fans are some of the best in the conference for sure. Long Beach and Hawai’i have good crowds but our student Aggie Pack is really good.

So do you actually hear them when you’re playing or do you totally tune them out? Yeah, I can hear them but at the same time when the game is going you’re just fo-cused on what’s happening on the floor. You do notice it when we hit a big shot, or make a big play — they go absolutely crazy and it helps to have that energy. It’s some-thing we can build on.

Obviously you weren’t playing, but this team went 3-13 last year. Considering that, did you expect this team to be where it’s at today? Honestly, I thought we had a chance to be a pretty good team this year. I could see the talent we had on our team and the tal-ent we had coming in and I was like, ‘Wow, we’ve got some good players on our team this year.’ Starting out the season [how] we started out was honestly really disap-pointing. I thought we were a lot better than that but I think a lot of those strug-gles stemmed from the fact that we hadn’t really played together that much. Our timing and our camaraderie wasn’t quite there and we weren’t quite clicking. As the year has gone on, I feel like we’re play-ing pretty well now and we have a chance to do something good. Next year, I think we’re going to be a really great team.

What are you hoping for for next year’s team? You know, we have to keep what we have going. All of our guys are coming back except for Howley and Paolo so we need to keep it going. We’re going to add in Avery Johnson, Darius Graham, and those are great players. You know Darius, he got hurt early this season but the min-utes he did play were really impressive for a freshman.

— Kim Carr

Lucas Bolster / Aggie

to students,” she said in an email interview. “Further, Brett has thor-ough knowledge of the university, and a wealth of experience which he draws upon to contribute to the university’s advancement.”

Burns, who graduated from UC Davis in 1995 with a bache-lor’s in sociology and economics with an emphasis in organization-al management, has been ASUCD Business Manager for just over a year, and has worked within the Division of Student Affairs for al-most 15 years, serving in differ-ent capacities. Burns’ current job as ASUCD Business Manager in-cludes serving as both an advi-sor to student leaders and over-seeing and managing all opera-tions and business practices for the Association.

According to Sterling, some of Burns’ most important work for ASUCD has included easing the transition from its previous busi-ness manager, who served for 32 years, recruiting new directors for ASUCD’s two largest units — the Coffee House and Unitrans — and helping ASUCD avoid taxes and budget cuts.

Darin Schluep, Director of Associated Students Dining Services, was hired for his position by Burns nine months ago.

“In the short time I’ve worked with [Burns], he has shown an abil-ity to motivate people around him and generate a lot of excitement for projects. He seems to have re-ally enjoyed the student interac-tion, and has impressed me with his vision for what ASUCD could and should be,” Schluep said.

According to Schluep, Burns led AS Dining Services through a tran-sitory phase created by the retire-ment of Sharon Coulson, their di-rector for 28 years. Schluep also said that Burns has motivated the AS Dining Services staff to think big when it comes to their sta-tus and position on the UC Davis campus.

Anthony Palmere, General Manager of Unitrans, said that Burns has had a positive impact on Unitrans as well.

“[Burns] was able to help Unitrans articulate the impacts of administrative and funding proposals that could have result-ed in higher costs and reduced service. He also helped to ad-vance our highest priority capi-tal project — the modernization of the MU Terminal — to keep it moving forward for projected completion in 2014,” he said in an email interview.

According to Palmere, Burns has a detailed understanding of UC Davis administrative process-

es and is able to communicate ef-fectively and provide a bridge be-tween ASUCD units and the cam-pus administration.

“[Burns] recognizes the special nature of ASUCD and the fact that so many important campus func-tions are provided by units which are led by students,” Palmere said. “By celebrating that aspect of our university, [he] helped others be-come more aware of the impor-tance of the student government and student staff in both the qual-ity of life on our campus and the full educational experience that [UC Davis] offers.”

Burns has served many roles on campus, including working as the Director of Memorial Union Auxiliary Services, at which he worked with student unions, retail food service and event facilities in the Division of Student Affairs, and becoming the Executive Director of Auxiliary Services, with the responsibility of man-aging the UC Davis Stores, the Center for Student Involvement, retail food service, trademark li-censing, student unions and event facilities.

In addition, Burns worked on the development and construction of the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC).

“The ARC is one of the first fa-cilities in the country that blend-ed recreation centers with student unions, to truly create a student-focused facility,” he said. “Today, almost all of the new recreation-al centers in collegiate settings have developed into hybrid fa-cilities with lounge space, meet-ing rooms, food service, pro shops and of course recreational activ-ities. I would like to believe we were trend setters at UC Davis in this ‘fusion model’ for recreation centers.”

While discussing his history at UC Davis, Burns said that he has gained valuable experience from his encounters with members of the campus community.

“I am most proud of the rela-tionships I have established on campus with students, faculty and staff,” he said. “UC Davis is a won-derful institution with rich tra-dition of achievement and I am proud to play my small part in ad-vancing the mission of the campus through the programs and servic-es I have been involved with over the last 15 years, none more re-warding than my experience with the Associated Students.”

In a Feb. 19 email to members of the Association, Sterling said that she and Burns are current-ly developing a process to find an interim manager and permanent replacement.

JESSICA GRILLI can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

ASUCDCont. from front page

phases for the last two years since the city was awarded an Urban Greening Project Grant of $891,304 from the California Strategic Growth Council.

“The idea started since the Arboretum got a grant to make a native plant garden so that it can connect with the Davis community and a welcom-ing door to downtown,” said Emily Griswold, the director of GATEways (Gardens, Arts and the Environment) Horticulture and Teaching Gardens. “We found out that there’s this [Urban Greening Project Grant] program. [We] started thinking that this could be a way to extend the reach be-tween this project and strength-en the Arboretum to the city.”

The Greening Project includes a 5-acre area, which includes 3.5 acres of the Putah Creek Parkway that has a bike pathway west of Olive Drive and the bike tunnel for I-80.

“Through surveys and our ex-periences interacting with cam-pus and community partners, we have found that there is a lot of visitor and academic inter-est in native plants,” said Carmia Feldman, the assistant director of the UC Davis Arboretum. “There is a big emphasis on localism these days — eating local food, supporting local businesses — and a part of that is also under-standing the local environment. We realized that we didn’t have a part of the Arboretum that real-ly focused on our local environ-ment and plant communities, so

this garden will fill that gap.”The garden, which Feldman re-

ferred to, is the leftover 1.5 acres of the 5 acres at the east end of the Arboretum near Aggie Village and the Davis Commons shop-ping center. The garden will be a new California-native plant gar-den focused on plants native to the Putah Creek watershed.

“The idea with that site [Putah Creek] is to restore native plants to that area so people can get better sense of what vegetation would have looked like in Davis. This side will almost feel like a nature trail,” Griswold said. “We have the garden here that is fo-cused with native plants as well. This would be an artistic inter-pretation. Our goal is to inspire people about the beauty of the native plants.”

Environmental improvements are a huge part of the project as well.

There will be habitat enhance-ments for native wildlife and in-sects, trees for shade and carbon sequestration, and improved treatment of stormwater run-off. Specifically for the treatment of the storm water runoff, a rain garden will be built, which will catch the rainwater before it goes into the storm system.

One of the main highlights for both the UC Davis Arboretum and the City of Davis is the col-laboration between the two as well as having an easier and more accessible entrance to the Arboretum.

“What is really exciting for me is strengthening the connec-tion between the Arboretum and the city,” Griswold said. “Often people don’t know what the

Arboretum is. We can strengthen that connection so that people can benefit and use this place.”

Griswold and Feldman em-phasized that the connection to the city and the Arboretum is lacking. There is no clear-cut, straight path that leads to the Arboretum. A huge part of the Greening Project is to estab-lish this connection by building an arc to the entrance as well as straightening the path from the Davis Commons shopping cen-ter to the Arboretum.

“I believe that the Arboretum is [a] unique feature of Davis that you don’t have on other campus-es,” said Angelica Degnan, a sec-ond-year genetics major. “It def-initely would make it more ac-cessible if there were a walkway that would go directly to town. It would be nice.”

Additionally, the project will include increasing the visibility of the bike path so there are few-er blind spots. Safety regulations to bike and pedestrian circula-tion will also be improved, ac-cording to Feldman.

Construction will begin this summer. Even before construc-tion begins, volunteers will be needed to clean up trash on the Putah Creek path. In the fall, community planting days and other events will be scheduled to help in the transformation of the Arboretum.

“The goal is to make this space a learning environment, to raise awareness of native plants and their importance of it, as well as the story of the creek,” Griswold said.

KAMILA KUDELSKA can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

GREENINGCont. from front page

go through,” said Henry de Vere White, co-owner of De Vere’s Irish Pub. “Anything we can do to raise money and help makes a difference.” White’s father is an oncologist. White said this is partly what in-spired him and his brothers to get involved with this event. “It’s a powerful day when you see a 5-year-old girl show up to shave her head because she is a cancer survivor, while you have some 30-year-old men who are too scared to do it because of their ego,” White said. This is the second year Davis

has hosted the event, but the fourth year for De Vere’s Irish Pub overall. Last year, the Sacramento lo-cation shaved 375 heads, and the Davis location shaved 100. White said the pub is hoping to surpass the Sacramento location this year and raise more than them. People can sign up to shave their heads by going to getbald.com. The event is sponsored by the Keaton Raphael Memorial foun-dation, Sacramento Magazine and Yelp Sacramento. “The money raised makes a huge impact and the event helps spread the word of cancer and keep research going,” said Dana Pearson, development coordina-tor at Keaton Raphael Memorial

Foundation. According to St. Baldrick’s Foundation, over 175,000 chil-dren are diagnosed with cancer each year and more children die from cancer than any other disease. “St. Baldrick’s is second only to the government in raising re-search dollars to fight cancer, and it also sends a huge state-ment to young children fighting this horrible disease,” White said. “St. Baldrick’s Day tells them that they are not alone, shows them that losing hair is OK and tem-porary, and most of all, inspires them to fight.”

PAAYAL ZAVERI can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE6 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

UC Davis services help high school students prepare for collegeBy JOYCE BERTHELSEN

Aggie Features Writer

While UC Davis seniors are gearing up to delve into the real world, it’s also that stressful time of year when high school stu-dents are getting ready for the much-antic-ipated college experience. Before this inde-pendent lifestyle, however, students need to actually get into college. UC Davis offers multiple programs and student services which prepare mid-dle and high school students for post-secondary school. Programs includ-ing Educational Talent Search (ETS), the Student Recruitment and Retention Center (SRRC) and the Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) provide these students with help for getting into colleg-es, as well as services to help them after they are accepted. Founded in 1994, ETS is a federally fund-ed program that helps about 1,700 stu-dents from 12 different high schools in Yolo, Sacramento and Solano counties. Sam Blanco, director of ETS, said that their program does not recruit students for UC Davis. Instead, it helps students through-out their high school and college academ-ic careers, following them from their first year of high school until they graduate from college. “We work with [high school] students throughout their years in high school and get them prepared for college,” Blanco said. “We help them graduate and contin-ue to any type of higher education, wheth-er it be community college, state, UC, pri-vate [or] out-of-state. We do workshops, presentations and work with them one-on-one.” Blanco said that seven ETS staff mem-bers visit the high schools on a weekly ba-sis, helping their students with “A through G” information (the requirements all California high school students must ful-fill), such as time management, study skills, note-taking skills and advising. He said that high school seniors are given the most one-on-one time with their advisors. “Our advisors make sure that they work with all their seniors on their college appli-cation, personal statements, scholarships [and] financial aid,” Blanco said. ETS also contracts out to San Francisco-based Study Smart Tutors to offer students workshops on strategies for taking the SAT and ACT tests. Students in the ETS pro-gram can attend these workshops, which are held at UC Davis or the Davis high schools. For further entrance exams help, EAOP also offers services designed to prepare students’ test-taking skills, according to the EAOP website. Designed for eighth to 12th grade students, the service teaches stu-dents how to take the exams, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and the impor-tance of the tests. EAOP helps students with administrative preparations, such as registration and payment, as well as test preparation, including test-taking strate-gies, tips, test format and practice tests. EAOP was founded in 1976 to help stu-dents meet requirements for college ad-mission. With each UC school housing the program, EAOP is the University of California’s premier outreach program, ac-cording to the EAOP website. The UC Davis EAOP works with over 2,300 students in 28 schools. “We outreach to high school and mid-dle school students at underserved, under-resourced and underfunded schools sur-rounding [Davis], including Sacramento,” said Mai Moua Vang, a third-year commu-nity and regional development major and EAOP student outreach assistant. “We give

them tools, guidelines and the extra sup-port to help them get into college.” While EAOP holds campus tours for stu-dents that visit the UC Davis campus, they also visit their middle and high schools weekly to hold workshops. “The last workshop we held was called the ‘Game of Life’ [where] we placed stu-dents in the situation of an adult,” Vang said. “They had to make their own budget in terms of the career [they were] given, if they’re married or not or if they have chil-dren. [It] put them in their parents’ shoes and figure out how tough it is to be an adult.” Vang said that these workshops help students develop life and decision-mak-ing skills. EAOP also offers Individual Academic Planning, where the staff talks to students one-on-one, looks over their transcripts and asks them how they are doing outside of school. EAOP helps stu-dents plan their schedules to make sure they take all required classes and meet college requirements. The SRRC’s student-run programs also outreach to high schools and help stu-dents prepare for college. In the fall, SRRC hosts Apply Yourself, where they help high school seniors apply to colleges. In the spring, SRRC holds Senior Weekend Trip, where students admitted to UC Davis spend the weekend learning about UC Davis and spend nights in dorms or apart-ments with current students. This Spring Quarter, SRRC’s BRIDGE will also hold its first appeal process workshop for students who didn’t get into the UC they wanted. “Speaking on behalf of the entire SRRC, our efforts are definitely to bring under-represented and underserved communi-ties into higher education,” said Kristian Marie Ocampo, a fourth-year communica-tion and sociology — organizational stud-ies double major and SRRC internal chair. “So we do various workshops that are aca-demic, social justice or culture.” Ocampo said that the SRRC holds College 101 workshops, in which high school stu-dents are educated about different forms of higher education and how to get into them. “We look at students from a holistic per-spective,” Ocampo said. “So we don’t look at just their grades and test scores. We look at their personal experiences. Being in California or out of state, [we look at] how they’ve experienced life so far and how that can benefit the kind of higher education they’re applying to.” Other programs that help high school students are also available on campus. The Global Achievement Program offers in-ternational students with services such as academic and entrance exams prepara-tion, advising and support. Also available is the UC Davis Young Scholars Program, a summer research program that introduces about 40 high school students to the world of research in the natural sciences. While SRRC outreaches to the commu-nity, ETS and EAOP is a program students need to apply for. Everything, including ap-plication, is free, but students have to meet low-income requirements and must be ec-onomically disadvantaged. Students ap-plying for ETS must also have higher than a 2.0 GPA. For more information, visit ets.ucdavis.edu for ETS, eaop.ucdavis.edu for EAOP and thecenter.ucdavis.edu for SRRC. “At every one of our huge events, we al-ways do evaluations [afterward],” Ocampo said. “The evaluations we get from stu-dents are always positive, very validating. We’ve had a lot of good responses.”

JOYCE BERTHELSEN can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

with their significant other. However, simi-lar studies have found that the physiological bond can be found in people who are relat-ed or simply have known one another for a long period of time. Phillip R. Shaver, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Psychology, dis-cussed how people often unconsciously mimic each other for underlying reasons regarding the attachment theory. According to Shaver, humans are social creatures and naturally seek acceptance on many levels. Even if a previous connec-tion does not exist, individuals can sync with people other than romantic partners when a strong connection is desired. More research into this area could lead to answers regarding phenomena such as “takotsubo cardiomyopathy,” also known as “broken heart syndrome.” While most people consider the ailment a myth, re-

search has shown that couples who have been together for 20 to 50 years can sud-denly be affected by improper muscu-lar movement in the heart, and in some cases, die shortly after a loved one passes away. A study in 2008 showed women who lost their partners were more than twice as likely to die and men were six times more likely. Helm discussed the syndrome and its relation to his work. “It’s hard to make a strong statement about the two phenomena, but there is the-ory to support a connection. Attachment theory suggests that we use partners (moth-er, fathers, sisters, brothers, romantic oth-ers, etc.) to help regulate physiology,” Helm said. “A simpler way of saying this [is that] the presence of close others promotes phys-iological homeostasis. Hence, we naturally seek the company of those [close to us] be-cause they make our world more pleasant, both emotionally and physiologically.”

NICOLE NOGA can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

The more open shape makes it an easi-er target for potential drug therapies, and since p53 is already in an active form in normal cells, the drug would only really affect the cancerous cells. After finding the pocket, Kaiser’s team went on the hunt for something that could fit in it. They looked at a database of 2,298 molecules and pulled out the 45 most promising ones. Of these 45 mole-

cules, only a single one successfully reac-tivated p53: stictic acid. So why isn’t cancer cured? “Stictic acid is chemically not very ac-cessible. Its synthesis is very difficult and chemical modifications are hard to make,” Kaiser said. “It will be easier for us to iden-tify other compounds with similar activity but better chemical accessibility.” This study represents a major break-through in the hunt for a cure, but a lot of work still has to be done before cancer is a disease of the past.

KYLE SCROGGINS can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

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or some parts of it, can be transferred to other crops.” In the future, this can lead to a great number of improvements for the spe-cies and understanding how to apply this

strategy to other crops. According to Berry, a sequenced ge-nome is like a treasure chest of future dis-coveries. The precise information about every gene of an organism can open doors to understanding fundamental questions about life.

KELLY MITCHELL can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

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