October 11, 1999 Making the News Harry Noller, Sinsheimer Professor of Molecular Biology, was interviewed on National Public Radio's All Things Considered for a story about his laboratory's research on the structure of the ribosome (NPR story). The Noller lab's recent achievements were also covered in the London Daily Telegraph, the Santa Cruz County Sentinel, and other foreign and domestic newspapers; in various science magazines (Science, Chemical and Engineering News,, and others); and on the Web at numerous science news sites. Assistant professor of biology Ingrid Parker made an appearance on the KION Morning Show to talk about the problem of invasive plant species. Parker, a plant ecologist, studies the spread of exotic species into natural areas. Anthony Pratkanis of psychology was interviewed by Details magazine about the effects of advertising clutter on persuasion. KION is also featuring professor of earth sciences Karen McNally in a series of reports leading up to the 10th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Michael Brown of politics did a live interview on KUSP Radio, discussing his new book Race, Money, and the American Welfare State. California Wild, the magazine of the California Academy of Sciences, ran a feature story on the work of Douglas Lin, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and an expert on planet formation. Literature's Carla Freccero has a new gig doing film reviews for KUSP, and among her first titles were films from the anthropology-sponsored Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival. Tune in Fridays at 3:55 p.m. and Saturdays at 6 p.m. Brian Walton, coordinator of the Predatory Bird Research Group, was quoted in the Riverside Press Enterprise in a story about the eagle population at Silverwood Lake. During a summer visit to Australia, linguist Geoffrey Pullum was interviewed for two 15-minute nationally broadcast radio talks for ABC Radio National--one on why "bad" dialect doesn't make you a bad person but bad spelling does (at least if you're a sign-maker), and the other on what rule of word formation the Toni Braxton song Un-break My Heart violates in lines like "un-cry these tears." Pullum has done six such radio talks in Australia now, all as part of a regular program called Lingua Franca, which is devoted to language issues (transcripts of the shows).