USC Media and Public Relations

Featured Stories

The New York Times featured research by Veronica Setiawan of the Keck School of USC finding that women who give birth at age 40 or older have a decreased risk of endometrial cancer compared with those who give birth to their last child before 25. The risk begins to decrease after age 30. "There is some protective mechanism here, at least for this type of cancer," Setiawan said. The study was also covered by U.S. News & World Report, RT (Russia) and La Stampa (Italy).

The New York Times ran an op-ed by John Monterosso of the USC Dornsife College and a colleague, about research on how people view the link between the brain and moral culpability. They wrote that many research subjects thought of the brain as "causing" violent behavior. "As science advances, there will be more and more 'causal' alternatives to intentional explanations, and we will be faced with more decisions about when to hold people responsible for their behavior," Monterosso and colleague wrote. "It's important that we don't succumb to the allure of neuroscientific explanations and let everyone off the hook."

The New York Times ran a remembrance by Howard Rodman of the USC School of Cinematic Arts about screenwriter Frank Pierson, who wrote "Dog Day Afternoon" and formerly taught at USC. "Frank's screenplays were impeccably crafted," Rodman wrote. "But the craft was never at the expense of the wild, uncontainable character."

The Wall Street Journal highlighted research by Peter Gordon of the USC Price School and a colleague, indicating that there are two types of urban density. "Crude" density refers to the literal density of buildings and living spaces. "Jacobs density" maximizes "potential informal contact of the average person in a given public space at any given time"; it helps residents innovate because they are able to share ideas and cross cultural and ethnic boundaries.

Los Angeles Times highlighted "Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox" by Lois Banner of the USC Dornsife College, which delves into Marilyn Monroe's popular image as a "dumb blonde." Banner said that while fascination with Monroe increased in the mid-'70s, the last 12 years have seen an exceptional explosion in interest. "The paradox is she was many, many things at the same time ... some of that was in her nature, some of that was constructed," Banner told BBC Radio (U.K.). "She was in fact very, very intelligent." The book was also covered by Current TV's "The Young Turks" and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

ABC Radio (Australia) featured Daniel Lidar of the USC Viterbi School and his research on quantum computing. The story highlighted a quantum computer housed at the Viterbi School's Information Sciences Institute. Lidar said that one potential use of quantum computing is page rank analysis, which is currently used by Google to perform Internet searches. "A couple colleagues of mine and I have recently read a paper suggesting it's likely we'll be able to search the web faster through quantum computing by implementing a version of pagerank," Lidar said.

The Huffington Post ran a video produced by the USC Annenberg School's Norman Lear Center. "Norman Lear Turns 90: Celebrate 90 Years in 90 Seconds" chronicles the life of TV pioneer Norman Lear, the center's benefactor. Lear wrote and produced many of the most popular sitcoms of the 1970s, including "All in the Family," "Sanford and Son" and "The Jeffersons."

California Watch highlighted USC research finding that children in areas with high ozone levels are more likely to have school absences. Andrea Hricko of the Keck School of USC said that the health analyses in California's environmental impact reports can be confusing. "The draft [environmental impact report] for the I-710 corridor has thousands of pages, and Caltrans does not always make its underlying assumptions easy to understand," Hricko added.

KPCC-FM's "Patt Morrison" reported that USC and the L.A. Metro plan to jointly promote the use of public transit on USC football game days. The story noted that the games, which each draw roughly 80,000 people, are an opportunity to market public rail and bus lines to those who don't routinely use them.