Top Chef at UCLA ’Science and Food’ Event

The Eater blog on Thursday highlighted this year’s first UCLA “Science and Food” event, which featured Brazilian chef Alex Atala. Organized by Amy Rowat, UCLA assistant professor of integrative biology and physiology, the events are presented in conjunction with Rowat’s academic course “Science and Food: The Physical and Molecular Origins of What We Eat.”

Adriana Galván selected a William T. Grant Scholar

Adriana Galván, assistant professor of Psychology, has been selected a William T. Grant Scholar by the William T. Grant Foundation. The award is given to exceptional researchers early in their careers. Galván’s laboratory studies brain development in children, adolescents and adults using behavioral and neuroimaging techniques.

Adoptees Do Equally Well in Gay, Straight Families

Social-science research on same-sex families highlighted a study by Jill Waterman, UCLA adjunct professor of psychology; Letitia Anne Peplau, UCLA distinguished research professor of psychology; and Justin Lavner, a UCLA doctoral candidate in psychology, showing that high-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when they are placed with gay, lesbian or heterosexual parents.

Blue flies, deterioration of the intestinal barrier, and age-related death

Aging is marked by the accumulation of wear and tear on the body’s organs and tissues, but the specific kinds of damage that usher in death are still unknown. David Walker and his colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, suspected that the intestines may play a key role. In previous studies, when energy metabolism in the intestines was boosted, the flies’ lifespan increased.