Research

Alberto Carranza pointed to the graph he made on spreadsheet indicating the population of rainbow trout dating from 1950 to 2005. Alberto's graph showed a sharp decline of the trout species in the 1970s. "The trout is being fished so much that the population is decreasing," the 17-year-old said. Alberto and other biology students at Clark Magnet High School did research projects on commercial fisheries and used graphs to show the increase or decrease of edible fish species.

Lucy Abramyan spent her senior year -- 459 hours of it, to be exact -- coming up with one conclusion: The federal government should spend more money on space travel. On Saturday, Lucy and about 210 other Clark Magnet High School seniors presented their senior projects during the school's Oral Boards Day event. "I learned so much, by taking [Glendale Community College] classes, going to military bases, volunteering and doing research," said Lucy, 17. "I think we need more federal money for space travel because one day, the sun will cool down and we have to find alternative ways to survive."

When Clark Magnet High School student Saro Meguerdijian learned last spring about the presence of hexavalent chromium in local groundwater, he began mentally working through a solution. Hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing carcinogen also known as chromium 6, cannot be removed from water with a traditional filter. "I realized that while standard filtration might fail to remove miniscule hexavalent chromium ions, a negatively charged surface, which would be sticky to positive ions, could remove hexavalent chromium ions," Saro said.

Stem cell research generates more misinformation than any other single issue in the current public debate. The debate is usually cast in terms of being pro- or anti-science and progress. The truth is you can be concerned about the direction of some of the research and still promote scientific progress. The major source of confusion is that there are two distinctly different types of stem cell research. The first -- human somatic stem cell research (SSC)

The costs keep piling up as a project to study chromium 6 removal becomes a bigger expense than expected for Glendale, which has been trudging through nine years of research to strip the cancer-causing contaminant from groundwater. Although the City Council on Tuesday approved spending another $400,000 to continue research at two testing facilities - just two months after they gave the green light to spend $550,000 in grant and state funding on more research - some city officials are getting antsy.

Last week the Crescenta Valley High School Science Research class had its second annual poster session in the library of the school. Throughout the year, students have been volunteering at various research labs working one-on-one with professionals in their chosen field of study. The students covered research projects from the transmission of AIDS from infected mothers' breast milk to their babies to the discovery of Ice Age fossils at the La Brea Tar Pits. This is the second year the class has been offered to advanced placement students.

The nation’s Catholic bishops followed through on their desire to put forward an initial statement opposing embryonic stem cell research. They voted almost unanimously — 191 to 1 — to approve the statement at their annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. The seven-page policy statement from the Committee on Pro-Life Activities calls embryonic stem cell research “a gravely immoral act” that crosses a “fundamental moral line” by treating human beings as mere objects of research.

Rosemont Middle School Principal Michele Doll has a new name plate on her office door. It now reads “Dr. M. Doll.” School faculty and staff congratulated Dr. Doll with cake, coffee and a little bubbly (non-alcoholic, of course) early Thursday morning, Feb. 12 on earning her doctorate from USC. The school lounge sported maroon and gold in honor of Doll’s alma mater. Doll, 37, is married with two daughters – Taney, almost 8, and Kade, 5 – and has been working on her doctorate for three years.

What does it take for students to succeed in today's tough academic world of high stakes testing and increased competition to get into the best colleges? The answer can be found in Ron Dietel's new book "Get Smart! Nine Sure Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in School." On Saturday, Sept. 9, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Ron Dietel will be signing "Get Smart!" at La Cañada Books and Toys, 653 Foothill Boulevard in La Cañada. Ten percent of all net sales of "Get Smart!" will be donated to the La Cañada High School PTSA.

The three daughters didn't see it coming, nor did the entire family. But when it happened, their whole lives changed forever. When Ann Dobbie died on Christmas Day, 1999, of ovarian cancer, Kim Beaudette, Cathy Greinke and Lori Hunter vowed that this shouldn't happen to other families, if possible. And in January 2000, the Queen of Hearts Foundation was born, the brainchild of the three sisters, all daughters of Ann Dobbie. The objective of the foundation is to support a current research project directly focused on factors thought to be associated with the early detection of ovarian cancer.

A Glendale Community College faculty member who specializes in English-as-a-second-language instruction has been named a Fulbright Scholar, a prestigious appointment reserved for the brightest minds in American academia. Deborah Robiglio, who teaches English to non-native speakers at the college's Garfield campus, will travel to Santiago, Chile in spring 2013 where she will work as a teacher trainer and researcher at a major university for one semester. “It is a mental exercise as much as it is a physical one,” Robiglio said.

The costs keep piling up as a project to study chromium 6 removal becomes a bigger expense than expected for Glendale, which has been trudging through nine years of research to strip the cancer-causing contaminant from groundwater. Although the City Council on Tuesday approved spending another $400,000 to continue research at two testing facilities - just two months after they gave the green light to spend $550,000 in grant and state funding on more research - some city officials are getting antsy.

Reece LoCicero, the 5-year-old La Crescenta Elementary School kindergarten student suffering from an undiagnosed illness, has been accepted into an elite research program at the National Institutes of Health, officials confirmed Friday. The child and his immediate family members will travel to the center’s Undiagnosed Disease Program in Bethesda, Md. where they will undergo a battery of tests, examinations and consultations in an effort to diagnosis his symptoms, said Dr. Cyndi Tifft, director of the pediatric portion of the program.

Poverty, broken families and rough neighborhoods litter the paths of Dr. Emil Bogenmann's students, making higher education seem like a hazy dream. But five years after launching the Latino & African-American High School Program, or LA-HIP — a rigorous science research immersion program for low-income students at Children's Hospital Los Angeles — Bogenmann is helping to bring their academic aspirations into sharper focus. While dropout rates within the Los Angeles Unified School District, from which LA-HIP participants are drawn, hover around 50%, Bogenmann has never lost a student.

When Clark Magnet High School student Saro Meguerdijian learned last spring about the presence of hexavalent chromium in local groundwater, he began mentally working through a solution. Hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing carcinogen also known as chromium 6, cannot be removed from water with a traditional filter. "I realized that while standard filtration might fail to remove miniscule hexavalent chromium ions, a negatively charged surface, which would be sticky to positive ions, could remove hexavalent chromium ions," Saro said.

MONTROSE SHOPPING PARK — More than 40 years after the Vietnam War Memorial here was first dedicated, community members learned that five local servicemen had been left off the plaques. First dedicated in 1968, the memorial at the corner of Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue currently lists 14 names of men from Montrose, La Crescenta, La Cañada Flintridge and Tujunga that were killed while serving in Vietnam. The missing names were discovered when retired Glendale firefighter Bill Dodson, who has maintained the memorial for decades, asked a friend to research the history behind the names on the memorial.

The proposed 2011 budget for NASA, which includes a $6-billion boost for earth science and related projects, could bode well for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, despite massive spending and personnel cuts to manned space missions via facilities in Alabama, Texas and Florida. The proposal would increase spending over the next five years for earth-science-related research and robotic precursor programs to the moon, Mars and beyond. It also suggests restoring NASA’s technology program, a division dedicated to finding new ways of exploring space, which had been cut by previous budget plans.

CITY HALL — The City Council on Tuesday began wading through what had turned out to be an arduous review of city codes for window replacements. City officials presented the council with enforcement options to alleviate the significant number of illegal window replacements that have been completed throughout the city. But council members were hesitant to fully back any of the potential moves — including a citywide survey of windows to find potential offenders and an inspection program for illegal work at the time of sale — without additional information and public outreach.

Bonzo, the chimpanzee who played opposite Ronald Reagan in ?Bedtime For Bonzo? in 1951, came to Glendale after his death that same year. In the movie, Reagan played a professor who takes a chimpanzee into his home to prove to his colleagues that environment is stronger than heredity. Reagan got top billing, but it turns out the real star of the movie was Bonzo. ?In Reagan?s own words: ?I fought a losing battle with a scene-stealer with a built-in edge, he was a chimpanzee,?

CITY HALL —The City Council in January is expected to discuss a wide-ranging report on the city’s quality of life, three months after the figures were first posted online. A hearing on the Quality of Life Indicators Report, which includes the highest reported rate of adult marijuana and cocaine use in Los Angeles County and a dismal ratio of parkland in south Glendale, was postponed so authors could compare the information with more cities, city officials said. The report culled data from a number of sources, including Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the U.S. Census Bureau and the city’s own statistics and compared those figures to surrounding cities, the state and Los Angeles County.