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:

Conservation biologist Mark Schwartz was one of the first experts to publicly float the idea of "assisted migration" of animals in danger from global warming. A Jan. 23 New York Times article quoted Schwartz: "These species haven't seen an Earth as warm as this one's going to be in a long, long time."

William Reisen, an entomologist, commented on the dangers of heat waves in a Contra Costa Times article on Jan. 26. Reisen said California may be at an even greater risk of increased mortality rates due to global warming than originally anticipated. The weather could have indirect impacts on health as well — for example, lengthening the warm season and giving mosquitoes more time to reproduce and infect people. "If you increase the temperature in the spring and fall, it will elongate the transmission season," he said.

According to chemist Alyson Mitchell, the increasingly popular trend of organic food may not be as healthy to humans as some think. The Jan. 16 Wall Street Journal quoted Mitchell as saying that it is not clear that organic foods offer nutritional benefits beyond increased antioxidants.

Daniel Sumner, an economics professor, commented in the Jan. 31 Sacramento Bee on U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns' expected proposal of a policy that would benefit California's produce industry. While Johanns' proposals will set the stage for debate, Sumner said, the true power in crafting the farm bill ultimately resides in the Congressional agricultural committees.

Entomologist Arthur Shapiro has a standing offer that if someone brings him the first cabbage white butterfly of the year outdoors, he will buy them a pitcher of beer, reported a Jan. 17 San Francisco Chronicle. But you have to drink it with him. Shapiro has been monitoring the behavior of these butterflies for more than three decades.

Research engineer Steven Cliff was mentioned in the Jan. 22 issue of the German publication Der Spiegel. Cliff is analyzing dirt particles in the air traveling from Asia over the Pacific to discern the global effects of Chinese pollution.

James Grieshop, a faculty member in human and community development, was quoted in a Jan. 15 San Jose Mercury news article on the prosperity of Mexican towns that are benefiting from the money sent back by immigrants to the U.S. "Most of the money (sent back) in most communities has gone to individuals," said Grieshop, adding that some communities have channeled the money to profit the entire area.

The Associated Press on Jan. 16 reported that San Joaquin County farms have consistently found high levels of E. coli bacteria in their surface water. Extension specialist Rob Atwill said that the E. coli found is typically the nontoxic "background" bacteria rather than the deadly strain that contaminated spinach from the Salinas Valley last year.

Clare Hasler, an expert on functional foods and executive director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, told Consumer Reports on Health for its Feb. 2 issue that foods designed to have particular health benefits "simply provide another option for people trying to manage their health."

Rahim Reed, associate executive vice chancellor for campus community relations, told The Chronicle of Higher Education on Feb. 1 that California's 1996 voter-approved ban on affirmative action preferences had forced his institution to restructure its diversity programs in ways that may have made them less vulnerable to attacks on their spending. UC Davis, he said, has incorporated diversity into its basic mission and broadened its diversity programs to include a wide range of populations.

Engineering professor Jay Lund commented in a Feb. 1 San Francisco Chronicle article on the governor's new plan to spend $4 billion in bond funds on new water projects. "People will use climate change to advocate for whatever they advocated for without climate change," said Lund, who specializes in reservoir operations theory. "There's fairly little value for expanding surface storage relative to expanding conveyance capacity." Lund is the lead author of an 86-page study of the effect of climate change and population growth on California's water supply over the next 93 years.

Haley Davis is a News Service student intern.