December 1999
Taking readers on a mission to Mars
While NASA contemplates its next move after losing contact with the Mars Polar Lander, UCI Physics and Astronomy Professor Gregory Benford has already provided a glimpse into the Red Planet. In his new novel, "The Martian Race," Benford uses his scientific knowledge of Mars to create a realistic portrayal of what it would be like to explore our most mysterious planetary neighbor. Benford, an award-winning author of more than 20 science-fiction novels and short-story collections, tells of a race to Mars between two astronaut crews. While both teams reach the planet, they become trapped due to mechanical breakdowns and must endure the harsh Martian environment. Benford uses his expertise as both a scientist and an advisor to NASA's Mars Outpost Committee-which is preparing for a manned-expedition to Mars around the year 2018-to paint a realistic portrait of the Martian terrain while detailing the rich scientific data these wayward astronauts find.
Contact: Tom Vasich, (949) 824-6455, [email protected]
Exploring the gulf between Islam and the West
Lina Haddad Kreidie has watched with interest the controversy surrounding a prayer uttered by a copilot seconds before EgyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. The dispute over the prayer's possible significance strained relations between the United States and Egypt-and Haddad Kreidei says the controversy is largely due to the West's historical misunderstanding of the Islamic world view. "Even an utterance of a few words in prayer leads to a crime allegation," says Haddad Kreidei, a graduate researcher in UCI's School of Social Sciences. Haddad Kreidei is an authority on what she calls the "collision" between the West and Islam, in particular the underlying causes of the deep distrust between the two worlds. Unlike many scholars, who focus on religious and cultural divides, Haddad Kreidie studies how Islamic fundamentalists perceive themselves and, as a result, how they react to world events such as the EgyptAir crash. Even the West's softening of its initial call for a crime investigation of the crash won't ease tensions, she says. "What is needed is a clear commitment from the West to understand the Islamic people, and eventually a better dialogue will be established that will help resolve conflicts."
Contact: Tracy Childs, (949) 824-5484, [email protected]
New web program improves access to medical information
Physicians often have to make patient-care decisions by relying on research information found on the MEDLINE database of medical journal articles. But because the database contains more than 8.6 million entries, accessing the exact information in an efficient manner can be difficult when faced with an extensive list of search results. To simplify this search process, Wanda Pratt, an assistant professor in UCI's Department of Information and Computer Science who focuses on medical informatics, has developed a web-based software prototype called DynaCat that retrieves, organizes and displays MEDLINE articles to address a physician's specific needs. "DynaCat provides a new way to organize documents from a search," Pratt said. "It significantly cuts down on the amount of time it takes to find what you need." She is now working on making DynaCat applicable to other web document search engines while expanding its visual qualities and categorization capabilities.
Contact: Tom Vasich, (949) 824-6455, [email protected]
Research revives lost literature of Civil War
It ended more than 130 years ago, but the Civil War continues to capture Americans' imaginations, from Ken Burns' PBS saga to the recent film "Ride With the Devil." As it turns out, the war was a huge part of popular culture while it was being fought-judging by the diverse array of war-inspired literature produced at the time. In her research for a forthcoming book, Alice Fahs, a historian in UCI's School of Humanities, is uncovering a little-known side of the war, the outpouring of popular war literature that greeted the conflict. The vast library of Civil War literature covers predictable ground-war poems and songs, children's stories and romances-but offers plenty of surprises, too. How many of us knew that the war inspired stories about cross-dressing female soldiers and the conflict's ravaging effects on white women, as well as poems celebrating black manhood in the wake of emancipation? Fahs' research explores this lost literary world, adding new insight into a war whose history continues to unfold.
Contact: Karen Morris, (949) 824-7913, [email protected]
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