Comments by UC Davis community members and references to the campus regularly appear in a wide variety of media outlets around the country. Among the recent citings in prominent publications:

Neurophysiologist Dorothy Gietzel's study on rats' ability to detect amino-acid deficiencies in their diets was covered in several publications, including the March 21 San Francisco Chronicle and the March 18 issues of The New Scientist and Newsday. Gietzel and postdoctoral fellow Shuzhen Hao found that rats altered their food intake after receiving injections of alcohol derivatives of amino acids. Gietzel a professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine, suggested the findings could explain why people crave certain foods. "There is no reason to believe the human brain doesn't have the same system in place," she said. (For more about Gietzel's research, see page 5.) …

Rick Roush, director of the Integrated Pest Management program, responded in the March 31 Sacramento Bee to a documentary that was critical of genetically modified foods. Roush discounted many of filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia's points, saying that genetically modified crops are indeed safe to eat. "I made, like, four pages of notes when I watched it," he said of the documentary. "There are so many things that are misleading about it." Roush did agree with Garcia on one issue though. "We should be putting a lot more emphasis on locally produced foods." …

Civil engineering professor Dan Sperling appeared on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on March 28 to discuss the reduction of auto emissions in California. Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies, said Detroit automakers would struggle with regulations requiring lower emissions. "They're making their most money from the vehicles that are the most gas-guzzling," he said, "so now anything that's done to push them to improve fuel economy or reduce greenhouse gases is probably going to relatively advantage the Japanese companies." …

Medical school psychologist Anthony Urquiza was quoted in a March 21 Washington Post story about the Michael Jackson molestation trial. Urquiza, who testified at the trial, said that molesters typically woo or coerce their victims into silence for months or even years. "It's really hard to tell somebody something that is embarrassing of humiliating, especially if it involves sexual activity," said Urquiza, director of mental health services for the UC Davis Child and Adolescent Abuse Resource and Evaluation Center. …

Military science professor Don Hill and associate political science professor Scott Gartner contributed to a front page Sacramento Bee story on March 20 about Americans' views toward the war in Iraq. Gartner, who studies war's impact on public opinion, said that parallels shouldn't be drawn between the current conflict and the Vietnam War. Hill agreed, citing Americans' support for the troops. "There's an appreciation that individual soldiers have a job to do, whatever the politics at the moment," he said. …

The medical center's pain medication chief Scott Fishman appeared on NBC's The Today Show on March 28 and 29 as part of the program's weeklong series on pain. Fishman, also president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, discussed the possibility of side effects from pain medications, among other things. "The thing that the public needs to understand is that when someone is in pain, there's no risk-free option," he said, "including doing nothing. So whatever we do will have risk." …

Three faculty members were quoted in a March 28 Sacramento Bee story about racial issues in the newly released film, "Guess Who." American Studies professor Eric Smoodin, associate sociology professor Bruce Haynes and assistant African and African American Studies professor Christine Acham all said that the movie treated race lightly. "Hollywood is not willing to interrogate on a deeper level," said Acham, a film and popular culture expert. "So you have more of these comedic films that are unwilling to address the pressures that interracial couples still experience on both sides of the table." …

Economics professor and dean of social sciences Steven Sheffrin was quoted on the consequences of California's Proposition 13 in the March 23 Virginian-Pilot. Sheffrin said that imposing caps on real estate assessments could lead to new, unexpected fees. "Once you walk down this road, you'll see a lot of new taxes come in a lot of different forms," he said. "There's not a free lunch here. That's the point." — By Mike Sintetos