When Muslims Admired the West and Were Admired Back
Lessons on Coexistence from Jane Austen's London
Lessons on Coexistence from Jane Austen's London
We Know Very Little About Depression—Except That Talking About It Will Help
A Biologist Investigates How the Booming Demand for Microscopic Materials Could Threaten Fragile Ecosystems
Armed Conflict Between the U.S. and Pyongyang Isn't Inevitable—or Impossible
The Bard's Plays Not Only Reflect Legal Culture—They Also Shape It
Plants and Human Beings Are Profoundly Rhythmic
Gene Block has served as UCLA chancellor since Aug. 1, 2007. He previously was vice president and provost of the University of Virginia, where he was also the Alumni Council Thomas Jefferson Professor of Biology. Chancellor Block is a distinguished professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and holds a joint faculty appointment in integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College. Before taking part in a Zócalo/UCLA panel discussion titled “How Can We Reverse the Depression Epidemic?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles, he chatted in the green room about his father’s mid-life funk, why jet lag makes you tired, and what scientists learned from people living underground. ...
I Attended Law School—for One Day
While Our Favorite Handheld Companions Count Our Steps, They’re Also Triggering Obesity, Addiction, and Car Accidents
I Thought World War I Was Ancient History
American Chief Executives Have Always Tried to Act as They Wish. But Has the Practice Gone Too Far?
I Almost Moved to Peru Once
Free Trade Delivers Big Benefits, Panelists Say, but Workers Need Help and Protection
Timeless Creations Require Intensity, Vision, and Relentless Focus
There’s a Lot More Openness to New Ideas
More Than a Century After His Death, a Paris Exhibition Illuminates Both the Tawdry and the Transcendent
The French have always loved Oscar Wilde, just as he always loved them. Long before Britain sent him to jail for enjoying sex with other males in 1895, he made Paris his spiritual home. He wrote the erotic tragedy Salomé (1892) in French, but the Examiner of Plays in London banned it after deeming it “half Biblical, half pornographic.” Much later, when he left prison in May 1897, he had to escape London, since his reputation there was ruined. So he crossed the Channel to Paris, where he resided, as “Mr. Sebastian Melmoth,” for much of the next three and a half years. ...
For a UCLA Biologist, Celebrating the Lowly Marmot Could Shed Light on Global Warming
Surveillance, Government Secrecy, and an Unpredictable Political Landscape Raise Difficult Questions
Biking Lets My Mind Wander Safely
I Enjoyed the Cultural Ferment of San Francisco in the 1960s
I Have No Ties, And I Never Use Salad Dressing
Experts Say GMO Controversies Are Overblown—and Distract Us From Bigger Food Problems
The Gleaming Potty Art Isn’t Genius, But That Won’t Halt the Curious … Or the Instagram Crowd
Rebuilding L.A.'s Foster Care System to Really Care for Kids
After an Arduous Journey Emigrating from Vietnam in the ‘70s, the Author Benefitted from Both Personal Resilience and Public Assistance
Don’t Shed a Tear That the 19th-Century Construct of the American West Is Riding off Into the Sunset
I’m Half Poodle, Half Rooster
If I Knew I Was Going to Become a Performance Artist, I Wouldn’t Have Stressed About Finals
And Being "PC" Might Even Make Comedians More Creative
A Poet’s Powerful Example Inspired Immigrant Students in South L.A. to Dream Bigger
Two Assistant Principals Learned Their High School Didn’t Need a Special Status to Be Academically Rigorous and Locally Respected
Our Craving for Comfort and Our Broken Health Care System Are Fueling a Deadly Epidemic
Oprah Winfrey Was My Childhood Hero
I Wake Up to Fuzzy NPR
UCLA Is Mobilizing Its Brains and Its Muscle to Make L.A. Energy and Water Independent
Kids Need Good Teachers to Learn Healthy Online Habits—Parents Included
Active Shooter Scenario Training is Highly Imperfect But Highly Necessary
A good part of what was so distressing about this month’s active shooter episode at UCLA was the familiarity of it all.
The death of William Klug, a brilliant and affable young professor, at the hands of a mad former graduate student, was the chief tragedy. But as our campus was taken over June 1 by a veritable army of armed law enforcement personnel in helicopters, police cars, and trucks, I couldn’t help but think: Here we go again. ...
People Can’t Be Too Transparent About Who They Are—Although Sometimes I’m Too Transparent
Yalda Uhls is an award-winning child psychological researcher. Her new ...
Supporters Aren't Laughing at the Overblown, Offensive, and Powerful Presumptive Presidential Nominee, They're Laughing With Him
In the Age of the Angry Asian Man Blog, 113-year-old Japanese-American Newspaper 'The Rafu Shimpo' Reaches Out to New Readers
Long before I was the English editor of The Rafu Shimpo—the newspaper that covers Japanese-American communities up and down the Pacific Coast and other Japanese-American hubs like Denver, New York, and Chicago—I was a Japanese-American kid from San Pedro seeking out my place in the universe.
In San Pedro, a blue-collar coastal neighborhood defined by the Port of Los Angeles and its large population of Italians and Croatians, I never thought about my cultural identity. Japanese-Americans were ...
I Love My Lemon Tree
Koreans Have Struggled on Both Sides of the DMZ
As Scandal Broke Around CEO Elizabeth Holmes, Her Once-Glamorous Image Became Increasingly Unflattering
Internet Exposure Can Improve Children's Learning—but It's Still No Substitute for Real-World Experience
An 8-year-old American child has never known a world without an iPhone. For today’s kids, smartwatches, video chats, and virtual reality aren’t harbingers of the high-tech future that adults have dreamed of for decades, but the simple accessories of an always-connected present. In kids’ eyes, the future is now. The first car they drive will probably be able to drive itself.
The glue that holds this connected world together is, of course, the internet. And while many adults came of age at a time when getting onto the internet involved sitting at a desk and suffering through ...
The Incendiary Candidate’s Popularity Isn’t Surprising If You Understand the Art of Persuasion
Websites Like DraftKings and FanDuel Bear All the Hallmarks of Gambling—Including Addiction
Even If Congress Hasn’t Really Tightened Federal Firearm Laws, the NRA Has Lost Its Chokehold on the Debate
Arthur Ashe’s Struggles with Segregation and AIDS Are a Model for Championing a More Just Society
If I Had to Be a Mollusk, I’d Be an Abalone
Gene Block became chancellor of UCLA in August 2007. An expert in neuroscience, Block’s current research focuses on the effects of aging in the nervous system and how it impacts ...
A High BMI Could Increase Your Insurance Premium, but the Notorious Metric Is Only as Accurate as a Coin Flip
You’ve just returned from your morning run and you’re rustling through your snail mail when you receive some shocking news—an official memo from your employer informing you that your health insurance premium is increasing by 30 percent. You’ve been deemed a health risk, and you are being charged accordingly.
Yet you’re the picture of health: A run is part of your daily routine, you passed your last physical with flying colors, and kale is your favorite food. This must be some sort of mistake. But you read the fine ...
I'm That Rare Breed—an Angeleno Who Doesn't Drive
I’m a Classically Trained Cellist, But I Also Play in Rock Bands
Rev. Lori Koutouratsas is a palliative-care chaplain at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. Before joining a Zócalo/UCLA panel discussion on end-of-life care—“Does Medicine ...
If We Want to Think Clearly and Stay Fit, We Are the Ones Who Have to Unplug, Say UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and Other Researchers
The Arrival of the Zika Virus in the U.S. Reminds Us That the First Line of Defense Is Our Own Backyards
We Can Take a Molecular Approach to Depression
The Infamous Seducer Wasn’t Merely After Conquest. He Chased Intelligent Conversation and Passionate Affairs to Remember.
North Koreans Know They're Suffering, but They Have a Lot of Pride
Hospitals Have Gotten Better at Keeping Us Alive, But That Also Means Thornier Questions at the End of Life
UCLA Chancellor and biobehavioral scientist Gene Block explains what we can do to save ourselves from the damaging effects ...
Constant Media-Induced Anxiety Can Inflict Psychological Harm
We Understand Car Emissions, but My Team Is Just Beginning to Measure the Efficiency of Homes and Offices All Over L.A.
People Don’t Understand How Important Nurses Are
Katherine Brown-Saltzman is an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and the co-director of the university’s Health System Ethics ...
Technology Has Made Replication Easier, More Accurate, and Less Personal
Copying and syncing digital files is easy now—perhaps too easy. A mere $10 a month buys you identical copies of a digital song on every device and computer you own. Hundreds of millions of people possess billions of copies of songs and movies that are exactly the same, each 0 and 1 of the underlying binary duplicated precisely on hard drives across the world. The notes and annotations we make on our computers and iPhones now sync up, so that the note you “scribble” in the margin or the page corner you virtually turn down on one of your devices appears on the others. ...
A South L.A. Charter School Offers a Personalized Formula for Success
Options, Not Treatment, May Be What's Most Needed at the End of Life
A Child Psychologist Explains How Our Social Brain Adapts to New Technology