Monthly Archives: November 2008
A gas tax to save the auto industry, possibly the planet
In last Sunday’s New York Times, Dan Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute for Transportation Studies, and transportation policy consultant Deborah Gordon propose using a variable gasoline tax to set a minimum price of $3.50 for a gallon of …
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California salmon, trout in collapse
Two-thirds of California’s salmon and trout species could go extinct in the next 100 years, warns a new report from California Trout. Lead author of the report was UC Davis fisheries biologist Peter Moyle. “The fish don’t lie, and they …
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Chemical car places ninth
A chemical-powered model car built by UC Davis students finished ninth from a field of 29 at the national Chem-E-Car competition sponsored by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and held in Philadelphia recently. The teams had to build …
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Oxygen levels tied to sudden death from seizures
Significant drops in blood oxygen levels are more common than previously thought in patients undergoing an epileptic seizure, and may be linked to sudden, unexplained death in epilepsy, according to a report from UC Davis neurologist Masud Seyal and colleagues …
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Lunar science: a to-do list
Spaceprobes from three countries are currently orbiting the Moon, and there are plans to send robotic rovers back to our nearest neighbor. A recent paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, co-authored by UC Davis geologist Qing-zhu Yin, …
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A conversation with Freeman Dyson
Thinker, physicist and author Freeman Dyson spent two weeks at the end of October, 2008 on the UC Davis campus. His visit was sponsored by the Department of Physics as part of their Centennial Speaker Series. Dyson was born in …
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Spotty dogs with bladder stones
Dalmatian dogs might be aw-shucks cute, but they universally suffer from high levels of uric acid in their blood, making them prone to develop bladder stones. Now researchers at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine have identified the genetic …
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Post-election roundup
The Obama/Palin ticket: Law professor Vikram David Amar asks, why not have separate votes for President and Vice President? Dancing in the streets: Professor emeritus of history Ruth Rosen writes that the last time Americans danced in the streets was …
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Campus resists rampaging squirrels
If you think there are a lot of squirrels on campus this year, you’re right. That’s because the eastern fox squirrels arrived a couple of years ago and their numbers have boomed, pushing out native squirrels, damaging trees and potentially …
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