Researchers at UC Davis recently published a study on the short-term “working memory.” Professor of psychology Steven Luck and postdoctoral researcher Weiwei Zhang at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain found that adults store a limited number of high resolution images in the “working memory.” The brain uses working memory to piece together sensory information and store it. Instead of storing many fuzzy images, Luck and Zhang found that the working memory stores a fixed number of high resolution images for a few seconds. “The capacity of working memory is so limited, you have to be careful what is stored in working memory,” Luck said. They found that this system of limited storage cuts down on useless information, or visual “noise.” Easily compared to a digital camera, the “working memory” uses up valuable space when saving these high resolution images, but unlike a camera, the visual memory cannot be set to save a greater number of fuzzier images. Zhang designed the experiment used to test the working memory of adults. The researchers showed subjects a pattern of colored squares for one-tenth of a second. The subjects were then asked to click the colors of the squares by clicking on areas of a color wheel. The accuracy of the colors showed the precision of the test subject’s working memory. “High resolution would mean how precise the colors are,” Zhang said.

On Mar. 31, three out of four UC Davis nominees were awarded the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for excellence in the fields of science, mathematics and engineering. Helen Craig, Scott Himmelberger and Alexander Sutherland were three of 18 California residents to be awarded the scholarship. Of the UCs, Davis had the most awarded, with UC Santa Barbara boasting two recipients and UC Berkeley and Santa Cruz trailing behind with one recipient each. “The one- and two-year scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year,” said Gerald Smith, president and a founding member of the institution. “The scholarship is a steppingstone to very prestigious fellowship programs,” Smith said. “Of the approximately 6,000 Goldwater scholar recipients, 67 went on to earn Rhodes scholarships and close to 90 have earned Marshall scholarships,” Smith said. “It is nice to be recognized for all of the effort I have been putting into my studies,” said Himmelberger, a sophomore chemical engineering major.

Event: Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational Host: UCLA Where: Drake Stadium – Los Angeles When: Today, Friday and Saturday; all day Who to watch: Senior distance runner Kim Conley will take her record-breaking momentum to Los Angeles after clocking in at a school-record 16:30.22 in the 5,000-meter run at the Stanford Track and Field Invitational on Friday. The previous record of 16:34.87, held by Patty Gray, was established back in 1985. Did you know? UC Davis’ performance at the Stanford Invitational shook up three chapters in the school record books. A day after Conley’s record-setter, junior distance runner Kaitlin Gregg made it into fourth place all-time in the same 5,000-meter run category with a 16:44.15 time. In the relays, the Aggie women went 46.94 in the 4×100 to place fifth on the all-time list. Preview: After a successful record-breaking weekend in Stanford, the Aggies will look to make a mark in Los Angeles this week at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational.

Elliot Spitzer is an idiot. But not because the former governor of New York paid upwards of $4,000 for two hours of “relaxation therapy” with a 22-year-old failed musician. That makes him a selfish prick. No, Elliot Spitzer is an idiot because he got caught. That said, I don’t think what Mr. Spitzer and Miss Swallows did was inherently wrong. I’ve used a loaded word there: wrong. Right and wrong are brought up in politics far too often for my liking. Rather than evaluate things on their effects, many people simply denote things as right and wrong, entirely disregarding context. But context matters. Is smoking pot right or wrong? Well, is the person in question a doctor on call, a patient on chemotherapy or a kid on a couch with a bag of Funyuns and the complete first season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force? What about paying for sex? Well, is the prostitute safe? Are both people disease free? Does the John have a family? The point is that context determines if an action is good, bad or neutral for those involved. That’s why I don’t buy the whole morality bid; it’s based on the premise that context is irrelevant.

Editor’s note: In the first half of this two-part series about female egg donation, the pros and cons of giving eggs are weighed against each other and the process itself is discussed. The second part of this series, where an individual’s firsthand accounts of going through the procedure are presented, will be in The Aggie next Wednesday. For college students, the “help wanted” section in newspapers screams easy money. Sometimes, the offer is enough to afford a movie, but on rare instances, it can pay for the majority of a year’s worth of college tuition. If you open up Friday’s copy of The California Aggie, there will be a posting that says “compensation $5,000-8,000” for female egg donors. It seems like a pot of gold, but how easily attainable is it?

As most fans of quality television programs know, “The Office” returns to its weekly spot on NBC tonight to resume its fourth season. For Office fanatics like myself, this requires some preparation. Surprisingly, I don’t follow this show religiously just for the priceless puppy face Jim (John Krasinski) makes into the camera after Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) says something outlandish and illogical. The main appeal of this cleverly written sitcom is its ordinary-meets-wtf style of humor, and personally speaking, its quaint similarity to my work life in The Aggie newsroom. There are many ways in which the staff here at this fine student-run publication brings the spirit of “The Office” to our everyday life. White tape clearly shows the boundaries of the “water cooler talk” region, where all the juicy gossip goes down. We have our Jim Halperts, our Angelas (which is played by me on stressful days),but unfortunately, there’s no one over 50 to play the role of Creed. We have yet to hold any office Olympics, and the Dundees are in store for June 2008, but we do hold an ongoing office competition of foosball. They really need to get a foosball table at the Dunder-Mifflin office to add a new competitive and silly pastime to their repertoire. We have two here at The Aggie, and I can assure you they create a very productive work environment, among other things. So as I’ve explained, we here at The Aggie have been patiently waiting it out. Since the writers’ strike, this has been enough for me and my fellow Office-ites, but we all miss weekly unveilings of new episodes. A writer myself, obviously, I understand and am not resentful about the long halt between season four episodes. But I do have some expectations, predictions and hopes that the show’s writers will fulfill as they close out the season:

The arrival of spring goes hand in hand with images apt to inspire the nearest lounging poet. How fitting, then, that National Poetry Month should fall on this time of year. In Yolo County the celebration has already begun, but with readings on the way at both The Avid Reader and Bistro 33, the coming weeks promise to be eventful. The Sacramento Poetry Center, located on 25th St., held its annual poetry conference Apr. 4and 5, featuring readings, workshops and lectures by local and visiting poets. Among its participants was Sacramento State English professor, Joshua McKinney, who read with fellow poets Camille Norton and Jane Hershfield on Friday evening. The following morning he held a workshop with approximately 10 participants. “What I liked most was the camaraderie, the spirit of sharing a mutual endeavor that I experienced,” McKinney said. “There were some fine writers in attendance.”

If you’ve always wanted to learn a percussion instrument or brush up on your current skills, now’s your chance. Tonight, Saturday and Monday, the UC Davis Percussion Festival will commence, complete with workshops and concerts from both students and masters, featuring Brazilian beats, merry marimbas and more. The UC Davis department of music began doing music festivals four years ago, with each year celebrating a different particular instrument. Last year was the cello festival, and this year will mark the first percussion festival to be held on campus with percussion lecturer and performer Chris Froh at the helm as the festival’s director. “To be given free range, and to basically do whatever I’d like to do, has been ideal,” said Froh. Today’s performance in Mondavi’s Grand Lobby will feature both the percussion students and the samba school, a newer and relatively unheard of addition to the course catalog. The class is open to all levels of experience and performs every quarter, which made participating in the percussion festival a natural flow of events, Froh said.

Stop-Loss Directed by Kimberly Peirce Paramount Picture Rating: 3 Stop-Loss isn’t a political movie, per se. It’s not meant to sway the audience in any particular way about the political ideologies. It’s not necessarily an anti-war movie, nor does it preach “Support Your Troops” messages into every scene. At heart, Stop-Loss is a drama that focuses on the effects of war – not the war itself. Rather than concentrating on the merits of war, director Kimberly Peirce focuses on the storytelling of human drama, an area that seems to suit her better, based on her directorial debut in 1999 with Boys Don’t Cry. Stop-Loss is about a group of soldiers returning from duty in Iraq. Undoubtedly, it’s been a tough gig: On their last tour, Sergeant Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) and his men are ambushed, leaving one man in their group killed and another permanently disfigured. Friends, family and a cheering town greet the soldiers at home in Texas, but life doesn’t get any easier for them once they return. Duty and combat has permanently changed them; one soldier is in rehabilitation after losing an arm, a leg and his eyesight after the ambush, and he is unable to visit his family in Mexico. The effects are more than physical for other soldiers: Brandon suffers from nightmares about the ambush that he feels responsible for. After their homecoming party, Sergeant Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum) suddenly snaps, and Brandon finds Steve at home in a drunken fit, digging a trench hole in his front yard in his underwear.

On Apr. 1, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors commenced Child Abuse Prevention Month with Yolo County’s participation in the statewide campaign against child abuse. Prevent Child Abuse California’s “It Only Takes a Minute – to Make a Difference in a Child’s Life” campaign aims to raise awareness about child abuse in the Yolo County area. Child abuse, including neglect, is the third highest issue statewide behind education and health care, said Danielle Mole, program manager for Legislative Affairs at Prevent Child Abuse California. “The point of this is to raise awareness of child abuse issues at each county level,” Mole said. First 5 Yolo is a sponsor of “It Only Takes a Minute.” Statewide polling results from their 2007 Community Needs Assessment report found child abuse is a high priority issue, but few know how they can help. Child abuse was closely related to parents who were substance abusers and involved in the welfare system.

Christi Raycraft has figured it out. For the third year in a row, the senior leads the UC Davis women’s water polo team (21-8) in goals scored and total points. This year, for the first time, she leads the Aggies in exclusions drawn and broke the season record previously held by assistant coach Katherine O’Rourke. She has led her Aggies to an 11-1 conference record, and with a win over Santa Clara this Saturday, UC Davis will have clinched the first seed in the conference championships later this month. With the team riding an eight-game winning streak and still on a high from a Saturday win over defending league champion Loyola Marymount, Aggie Sports Writer SAMMY BRASCH sat down with the Davis native to discuss everything from her head coach to what makes the team – ranked 10th in the nation – so successful.

Editor’s note: MUSE offers a monthly feature to review specific exhibits from art galleries on campus and throughout the Davis/Sacramento area. This month’s “Gallery Review” is of the exhibit ‘American Folk Art’ by various artists. The exhibit will be on display until Apr. 19 at the John Natsoulas Gallery. The gallery experience can be an overwhelming one. However enlightening the creations, a plaguing stiffness can be in the air. That sense of heightened formality, a need to whisper and the rule to keep a respectable distance from the work on display. This prim decorum is not the case with “American Folk Art.” It’s a welcome unpretentiousness: Folk art is created by those with little or no formal training in art, and most of the works on display in the exhibit are marked by a naivety, a certain inexperience that lends itself to an unstudied aesthetic. Many of the paintings are have a childlike quality – bright colors, flat images, a simplified, almost archaic approach to light and perspective – pieces that would seem more at home on a refrigerator door held up by a kitchen magnet than on a gallery wall.