Thomas A. Fudge

Featured in: Favicon

wiley.com

flipboard.com Favicon

christianitytoday.com Favicon

jacobin.com Favicon

kpbs.org

newsbreak.com Favicon

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Articles

Growing plants with the power to heal

2 weeks ago | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge |Tom Fudge

Ephedra. Artemisia. Yerba santa. Opium poppy. A lot of well-known drugs start with roots in the ground. The San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas is leading an effort to make curative plants even better by exploring their genomes. The Medicinal Plants Initiative began three years ago by the botanic garden. During that time, their collection of medicinal plants has quadrupled, according to Benjamin Naman, director of medicinal plants research.
South Bay campground to reopen despite pollution concerns

3 weeks ago | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge |Tom Fudge

A campground at the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park is set to reopen as planned on Tuesday after being closed for more than a year, despite a push by a local union to keep it closed. The SEIU Local 221, which represents park rangers, argued the area was so polluted it posed a danger to the health of people using the park or working there. The campground is home to a cluster of yurts that offer a temporary home to visiting campers.
Discover the fascinating world of dung beetles

1 month ago | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge |Tom Fudge

Our most familiar image of the dung beetle shows one of them rolling a finely shaped ball of dung to a hiding place where it digs a hole and lays its eggs. Along with the dung ball rollers, there are the “dwellers” that move into a dung pile and set up housekeeping. “And there’s a third group that are called tunnelers. And they tunnel underneath cow pats, and create little brood chambers in these tunnels.
San Diego hosts career fair for Promise Zone residents

1 month ago | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge |Tom Fudge

Employers ranging from SeaWorld to the military arrived Tuesday morning at the Balboa Park Club to make a pitch for their chosen careers. Young people, ages 16 to 24, were also invited from San Diego’s Promise Zone to hear their pitches. The Promise Zone ranges from Barrio Logan to Encanto, and it’s a federally defined area of historic underinvestment. “There are 22 Promise Zones throughout the country. They are urban, rural and tribal.
General Atomics sees an end to the long road toward nuclear fusion

2 months ago | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge |Tom Fudge

In October last year the control room at General Atomics had something to celebrate. A room full of scientists stood by their computers, took cell phone photos and cheered as their nuclear reactor generated “plasma shot” number 200,000. Each plasma shot is an experimental fusion of hydrogen atoms you smash together to generate the heat that’s needed to produce energy.
Is aging caused by gene expression or mutations? The answer is key to treatment

2 months ago | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge |Tom Fudge

All people have a genome and an epigenome. The first refers to the DNA that makes you who you are. The second, epigenetics, is the expression of those genes, or which genes get turned on and off. A hot topic in life science today is the question of what causes aging. Is it damage caused by gene mutation or by gene expression? Trey Ideker, a professor of health sciences at UC San Diego, said you can think of genes and gene expression as being hardware and software.
San Diego scientists say human cells offer some protection from bird flu

Jan 3, 2025 | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge

As the so-called bird flu, which is officially known as H5N1, continues to decimate poultry and dairy farms nationwide, worries persist that it could eventually spread among humans. Scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology consider that a distinct possibility. “In humans there have been to date about 66, I believe, confirmed cases of avian flu, H5N1,” said Alessandro Sette, a researcher at the Institute. He said so far humans are catching it only from animals.
San Diego will install new barriers on Sunset Cliffs

Dec 31, 2024 | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge

Sunset Cliffs is a favorite place for locals and tourists to see the wild ocean crash against the shore. But the edge of those cliffs is moving inland and getting more dangerous. What was once a parking lot is now the very edge of the cliff. The eroding coastline has forced the city to constantly find new ways to keep people away from the dangerous blufftop.
UCSD neuroeconomist explains what goes on in the brain as we shop

Dec 20, 2024 | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge

The UC San Diego bookstore sells a lot more than books. Here you also find office supplies, electronic devices and lots of hats and sweaters emblazoned with "UCSD."This is where I met neuroeconomist and professor at UCSD’s Rady School of Management, Uma Karmarkar. “So if I’m thinking about what someone might be doing when they’re browsing I could come across a display like this,” Karmarkar said, randomly selecting one part of the store.
Immune systems can stop cancer if their cells have the right diet

Dec 17, 2024 | kpbs.org | Thomas A. Fudge

Imagine your immune system could fight off cancer just like it fights off a cold or a flu. Some scientists are working hard to find ways to shift the immune system into a higher gear to stop cancer, using those little pathogen killers called T cells. “One of the biggest revolutions in cancer treatment right now are new drugs aimed at stimulating and rejuvenating our T cell response against cancer.