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The Latest in Cosmetic Surgery

We’re all bronzed out after learning that four UCSD-TV produced programs have received Bronze Telly Awards, a competition honoring the very best film and video productions, groundbreaking online video content, and outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs.

Our arts producer, John Menier, has his hands full with three of the stunning statues in three different categories:

“La Jolla Symphony & Chorus: Color” took home the bronze in Live Events;

“San Diego Opera Spotlight: Faust” won in Documentary;

and “Star Struck,” a preview of artist Do Ho Suh’s new Stuart Collection installation,“Fallen Star,” took home the bronze in the Cultural category.

Jennifer Ford, our prolific health producer, also nabbed herself a bronze Telly in the Health and Fitness category for her moving documentary, “Parkinson’s Disease: A Dose of Hope.”

Congratulations to Jennifer, John and the entire UCSD-TV team!

Later this month, San Diego Opera will kick off its 2012 season with Richard Strauss’ masterpiece “Salome” and heads will roll. UCSD-TV will be there for all the action with two programs that take you behind the scenes of the production, capturing rehearsals and conversations with the talent on stage and off.

First up is “San Diego Opera Stars in the Salon,” premiering January 23 at 7pm, followed by “San Diego Opera Spotlight” on January 27 at 9pm, the night before the first performance. By the time the curtains rise on January 28, you’ll be ready for the adventure and artistry that awaits you.

For now, feast your eyes on this trailer put together by our producer, John Menier.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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EXPLORING ETHICS: THE HENRIETTA LACKS SERIES

CMS data showing mass range excluded and possible for the Higgs boson, December 2011

CMS data showing detail of lower mass range excluded and possible for the Higgs boson, December 2011

Here it is, the latest interpretation of the largest dataset from the CMS that was officially released this morning.

After weeks of leaks, rumors and speculation it has been officially announced that the Higgs boson has been further cornered into a very narrow sliver of mass around 125GeV by independent results from both the CMS and ATLAS detectors. This is consistent with the Standard Model and previous postulates made before the acquisition of humanity’s most powerful particle accelerator.

Is this the first evidence of the Higgs boson? It could well be, perhaps. But it is still not yet a discovery.

Why?

What do these mean?

What do they show?

And how did thousands of scientists get to this point in the search for the Higgs boson?

In this UCSD-TV video exclusive,  UC San Diego Physics Professor Vivek Sharma, director of Higgs research for the CMS detector, explains the massive efforts to discover the Higgs Boson using the LHC at CERN.

Since the search began in March 2010, I have been fortunate (very fortunate) to be able to conduct an unprecedented series of exclusive interviews with Vivek Sharma; UC San Diego Professor of Physics and director of Higgs research for the CMS, or Compact Muon Solenoid detector.He is also one of two people responsible for combining all results from both the CMS and ATLAS detectors – both involving teams of University of California physicists.

In excerpts from some of these interviews Professor Sharma, ok, Vivek, shares his insights from his unique perspective as one of the key figures at the very heart of this gargantuan effort. He provides a detailed, comprehensive but clear and accessible layman’s guide to how this massive team of researchers conducted the science and produced these results, what they look for, what they see, how they (may have) cornered the Higgs, and why they do what they do.

You will be able to understand what this shows, and why it is no longer evidence for the Higgs boson

Not the Higgs. Why?

And you will be able to understand why this could be evidence for the Higgs boson.

Evidence of the Higgs boson?

You will also understand what the seemingly all-too-complex “Brazilian Flag” (above, apologies to Brazil) states so eloquently about hundreds of trillions of proton-proton collision events, putting them all in terms of the chances that what we are seeing might finally be evidence of the “God Particle”.

But more importantly, you will get a sense of why Vivek, and collectively, we, sift through this chatter and noise to find the signal of the Higgs boson, a signal that speaks to something that has always been, and will always remain, at the core of each of us.

If you weren’t able to get a seat for this special event, don’t despair. UCSD-TV’s cameras were there. We’re airing the special all month and have also made it available for viewing online at your leisure. Everything you need to know is at the link. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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The Atlantic Meets the Pacific: More on the Horizon

Exploring Technology with Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder

Exploring the Future of Gaming and Alternate Realities with Will Wright and Alexis Madrigal

Exploring Health with Ira Magaziner

And check out the series page to see what you missed in November, including interviews with Tesla founder Elon Musk, Deepak Chopra, and Pulitzer-Prize winning author Daniel Yergin, to name a few.

Think Like a Human

What’s so special about the human brain? Find out in these new programs from the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) at UC San Diego, which attempt to uncover the uniquely-human features of the brain.

CARTA: Uniquely-Human Features of the Brain

The Grand Tour

Tune in to UCSD-TV’s World Cinema Saturdays this month for films from iconic European directors who helped to transform American cinema.

December 3    Fritz Lang

December 10  Italian Neorealists

December 17  Federico Fellini

December 31  Jean Renoir

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

All programs repeat throughout the month. Visit the Program Schedule on our web site for additional air dates and times.

Health & Medicine

Research on Aging: Alzheimer’s Disease, A Moving Target

Road to Recovery: Trauma and Justice/Treatment and Recovery Through the Delivery of Behavioral Health Services

More >>

Science

The Limpet Circus: Behavioral Ecology of the Owl Limpet

Seismic Testing of Wind Turbines for Renewable Energy

More >>

Public Affairs

“Why Can’t California Fix Itself? The View from Washington” with Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA)

Economics Roundtable: “After the Fall;” with Carmen Reinhart

Osher UCSD: Almost Within Reach? Why Negotiations Have Failed To Resolve the Arab-Israeli Conflict

More >>

Humanities

World Christianity with Peter C. Phan (Burke Lecture)

More >>

Arts & Music

An Evening With Jake Heggie & Ian Campbell

More >>

Check out the latest additions to our online video archive

Financing A College Education: Tips for Families

Saving the World with Simple Pictures: How to Put an Arts Education to Work

Managing in an Ever-Changing Economy

More videos and podcasts>>

Improve your stability anywhere, anytime. Standing in line at the grocery store or sitting at your desk, engage your core muscles by pulling your abdomen (aka stomach) up and in towards your spine. Hold for a count of 8 and release. Repeat this exercise 8 times. Don’t forget to breath!

"Fallen Star" arises

No, there wasn’t a tornado throwing houses around La Jolla earlier this week. The airborne cottage spotted on the UC San Diego campus was actually the much-anticipated installation of artist Do Ho Suh’s ”Fallen Star,” the latest addition to UCSD’s acclaimed Stuart Collection.

The home was hoisted atop the Jacobs School of Engineering building on November 15, with hundreds of onlookers snapping pictures of the spectacular sight. Our arts producer, John Menier, added his own spin with this lovely video montage of the events of the day. The footage will be part of a larger documentary we’re producing for University of California Television about public art collections on the UC campuses, including the Stuart Collection, UCLA’s Murphy Sculpture Garden and UCSF’s Bishop Art Collection. Stay tuned for that in 2012!

In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful video moment and check out all of our Stuart Collection videos online.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For our latest installment of “Health Matters,” premiering tonight at 8 and online now, host David Granet talked to Dr. Jacopo Annese, director of The Brain Observatory at UC San Diego. Dr. Annese is working on a “Digital Brain Library” that uses advanced neuroimaging technologies to create digital models of the human brain at cellular resolution. Sounds like pretty standard scientific research, right? Not quite.

What makes Dr. Annese’s work unique is that he also studies — and ideally gets to know — the person behind the brain. With this information, he offers an unprecedented holistic perspective on this complex organ.

Bishop Spangler, 1932-2011

Dr. Annese’s Digital Brain Library relies on generous brain donations from community members who want to have a role in discovering how disease and aging affect the brain. San Diego resident Bishop Spangler was one of these people.

Bishop passed away on June 12, 2011 after living with GIST (gastrointestinal stromal tumor) for nine years. In the following paragraphs, his wife Bettie Spangler tells us about her husband, why he felt compelled to donate his brain to Dr. Annese, and how the donation experience profoundly affected Bishop and the entire Spangler family during his final days.

Can you tell us a little bit about your husband?
Bishop Spangler was born in 1932 in a rural area of Southwest Virginia into a farming family of seven children. His family had a proud, rich history of helping settle a community named Meadows of Dan. Growing up, he learned about integrity, helping your neighbors, working as a team, doing deals with a “hand shake,” making your own music, barn dancing, and church. He learned about determination if you wanted to accomplish anything, and the importance of the environment for raising crops and live stock. After high school he found a college in Kentucky where he could go and work his way through and, four years later, he graduated from Berea College with his B.A. degree majoring in physics. He went on to the University of Pittsburgh on a teaching assistant program and earned a Masters in Mathematics, and later his PhD also in Mathematics. He married and later moved to San Diego where he worked in the aerospace industry and raised a family. Eventually, Bishop left the aerospace industry and became an entrepreneur. He loved to “wheel and deal” so he became a real estate broker where he could use many of his gifts/talents/passions. His goal was to always try to help people “stretch in order to obtain their dreams.”

How did your family become involved in the brain library project?
Bishop read an article in the newspaper toward the end of May about the Brain Observatory and the work that Dr. Annese was doing. He showed me the article after he had made the phone call to the paper asking for someone to call him, as he would like to be a donor. He told me that he wanted to give his brain to this project after he died and would I make sure it happened? I said that I did not want to do that for myself, but if that is what he wanted to do, then I would do all I could do to make it happen. He told his children about his decision and they supported him, as we all recognized this as a Bishop thing.

Can you tell us about the experience?
On May 25, 2011 I received a call from Dr. Annese giving me some information about the project. I told him he would need to talk to my husband and he offered to come to our home the next day. Bishop insisted on getting dressed and coming downstairs to meet Dr. Annese, along with our daughter and son. He was ready to sign whatever papers necessary as he knew his time was short and he wanted to take care of business. He was now a brain donor! Dr. Annese was always kind and considerate about not adding pressure or pushing Bishop for more. He would always tell him what was happening during the MRI studies and asking if he felt like doing more. When Bishop got tired he would tell him…no more. At one time the whole family came into the bedroom where Bishop was talking about his early history and the grandchildren asked to sit in. It was fine with Dr. Annese as long as we were quiet. He looked around the room with some on the bed and others on the floor spread out and said, “It looks like camping,” and everyone felt at ease. One of our granddaughters said, “Witnessing Gampa relive key moments of his life through Jacopo’s interviews and knowing that it would be used in support of something he deeply cared about was one of the most powerful experiences of my life.”

Why did your husband want to donate his brain?
Bishop wanted to leave something he could be remembered by—a kind of legacy. He also wanted to leave something that might help humanity in the future. One of our granddaughters said it best, “It made perfect sense since he marked his life with a desire to make a difference and an ongoing quest for deeper understanding about the mysteries of earth and spirituality.”

How did his decision to participate impact his end-of-life experience?
A few days before he died, we were all sitting around in the bedroom listening to him and Dr. Annese talk, when our friend and minister and his wife came in. Introductions were made and then Bishop pointed to Dr. Annese and told our minister, “This man saved my life.” Meaning, he had given him hope that he would live on into the future through this project, and he would be able to contribute something that might help humanity and the scientific community. He lived to accomplish whatever he could give to Dr. Annese for his program.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Dr. Annese kept all of the promises he had made. He told me he would be with Bishop at the end and he would arrange everything needed to accomplish what Bishop indicated he wanted to do with his brain after he died. He was very clear in describing the project to us and to share the goals and objectives that he hoped to accomplish. He never pushed us in making any decisions or to keep appointments if it was not convenient. He also came to the Celebration Of Life service and gave support to all the family. By this time, we all considered him part of our family. We still are in contact. He has a kindness and a bedside manner that many do not have today. Bishop loved Jacopo and trusted him with the end of his life.

To learn more about Dr. Annese’s brain library project and research, watch “Health Matters: Your Own Personal Brain Map.” Thank you to Bettie Spangler for sharing her husband’s inspiring story with us.