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.

Profile: Amy Rowat

A profile on Amy Rowat, UCLA assistant professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, highlighting her annual “Science and Food” public events, which feature top chefs and are presented in conjunction with her UCLA academic course, “Science and Food: The Physical and Molecular Origins of What We Eat.”

Predicting hotspots for future flu outbreaks

Thomas Smith, director of the UCLA Center for Tropical Research and professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Trevon Fuller, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Tropical Research have developed a technique that allows us to predict sites where human and bird viruses could mix and generate a future pandemic.