Scientists predict global water shortage
Global warming will cause severe water shortages when high temperatures melt glaciers and large packs of snow around the world, researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Washington argued in a new paper published in the scientific journal Nature.
The study’s authors mapped out several scenarios, one in which Tim Barnett, an SIO researcher, found that manmade greenhouse gases lead to warmer climates. Those rising temperatures will negatively influence heavy ice and snow regions, affecting water supply worldwide, the researchers found. Because of the impending crisis, nations will have to retool their resource management systems, Barnett said.
Report: Online education on the rise
An annual study of education on the Internet, titled “Growing by Degrees,” found that online teaching has become a major part of the mainstream environment in higher education.
The study reported that 65 percent of schools offering graduate face-to-face courses also offer graduate courses online, while 63 percent of schools offering in-person undergraduate instruction also offer undergraduate courses online. In addition, the study’s authors found that about 50 percent of all institutions plan to use online education as an important component of their long-term teaching strategy. However, the study also reported that smaller, private and nonprofit universities were less likely to emphasize online education. Across all universities, overall online enrollment increased from 1.98 million in 2003 to 2.35 million in 2004.
UCSD, Egypt partner in disability project
The UCSD School of Medicine, in conjunction with an Egyptian research institute, is exploring the causes of mental disability in children. The Human Genetics and Genome Research Division at the National Research Center in Cairo is tackling a genetic disorder prominent in Egypt caused by the large number of first-cousin marriages throughout the region. The in-breeding leads to an abnormally large number of autosomal recessive mental retardation among children.
Joseph Gleeson, assistant professor of neurosciences and director of the UCSD Center for Cerebellar Malformations, will lead a team in the diagnosis and study of families of children with inherited brain development disorders.
Gleeson and fellow researchers visited the Egyptian institute in January. The first stage of the project is expected to be complete by 2006, after Egyptian researchers visit UCSD to study methods of genetic analysis for use on their patients.
College survey shows low approval of Bush
College students have the same sentiment concerning President George W. Bush as the rest of the nation, according to a survey conducted by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.
The poll showed a historically low approval rating for the president, with 41 percent of college students saying they are pleased with Bush’s performance, down six points from seven months ago.
In addition, 52 percent of college students said they trust the United Nations to do the right thing all or most of the time, while only 39 percent said the same about the president.
Students’ skepticism stretches to other political figures as well, the study found. Almost 25 percent of college students said that the ethical conduct of members of Congress has declined in recent years. Meanwhile, 70 percent of those surveyed said that they believe elected officials are motivated by selfish reasons, which is a 12-point increase from last year.
In the same vein, 72 percent of college students surveyed said that modern politics have become too partisan, and 64 percent said that the political tone in the nation’s capital has become too negative.
