La Jolla researchers create synthetic cell In an announcement that has sparked mixed commentary from scientists, ethicists and Vatican officials, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute said May 20 they have succeeded in creating the world’s first self-renewing artificial life form. The cell’s genetic material was first designed on a computer, then chemically produced in a laboratory and finally injected in a recipient cell that replicated itself in a traditional fashion. The announcement comes after 15 years of research, and marks an important milestone for genetic engineering. Synthetic Genomics Inc., which J. Craig Venter founded, funded the research and owns all associated intellectual property rights. Bird Rock Elementary is ‘distinguished school’?Bird Rock Elementary has earned the title of “distinguished school” by the state of California, and it plans to celebrate by inviting local residents and merchants to its community open house on Thursday, May 27. Participants are asked to meet in the auditorium at 5:30 p.m. and will then tour all classrooms, including the science and computer labs, art room and library. The event will also feature an art walk and celebratory popsicles in the Lunch Arbor. The award, which several other San Diego district schools have also received in years past, assesses a school’s progress during a three-year period and selects winners after a process of visiting and filing reports. Criteria include high performance on standardized tests and narrowing the achievement gap, or performance levels of students from varied socioeconomic backgrounds and language abilities. UCSD professor searches for Genghis Khan’s tomb?Albert Lin, a University of California, San Diego alumnus and researcher, will embark on his second trek to the steppes of Mongolia this summer to search for the tomb of Genghis Khan. Named National Geographic Adventure magazine’s “Adventurer of the Year,” Lin will recount his adventures at UCSD’s fifth annual talk “Near You,” presented by the campus’s Alumni Association. The series gathers nationally-recognized faculty and alumni to locations throughout the country to share discoveries and insights with alumni, parents, and friends. The talk will take place Tuesday, June 1 at 5:30 p.m. in the Calit2 Auditorium at UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive. For more information or to register for events, call (858) 534-3900. Children’s School wins spirit award Marking its second annual victory, The Children’s School won the La Jolla Kiwanis Club Junior Olympics Spirit Award for having the highest turnout at the event. Nearly half of The Children’s School’s eligible attendees arrived in powder blue mascot T-shirts and competed against other students in track events, softball throws and an obstacle course. The Children’s School, an independent school in La Jolla, serves toddler-age children through grade seven. It will expand to include eighth grade in the 2010-11 school year. Environmental groups awarded grants In an effort to support environmental preservation, the San Diego Women’s Foundation (SDWF) will award $152,700 to local programs that educate the public about nature. The grants will be presented at a June 1 gala from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive. Grant recipients include Camp Stevens’ Environmental Stewardship Program, the Torrey Pines Docent Society, San Diego Coastkeeper’s Marine Debris Program and the Ocean Discovery Institute’s Canyon Community Connection Project. This year’s event marks SDWF’s 10th year of awarding grants to community organizations in areas that include arts and culture, civil society, economic and employment development, and health and human services. To date, SDWF has awarded $1.9 million to 53 nonprofit community programs. For more information, call (619) 235-2300 or visit sdwomensfoundation.org. Curie Elementary registration now open Parents of children who will attend Curie Elementary School may register students for kindergarten and grades one through five from now until June 22, and again from Aug. 25 to Sept. 3. Parents must provide their child’s birth certificate or passport, immunization records, and proof of residency in the form of a utilities or phone bill, escrow papers or a rental agreement. Call (858) 453-4184 for more information. LJHS seeks hair donation world record Why spend money on a haircut when you can get one for free, all while contributing to a good cause and potential world record? La Jolla High School’s (LJHS) Model United Nations club, along with stylists from the Paul Mitchell School of Hair Design, invites residents throughout San Diego to donate hair for Pantene Beautiful Lengths, a national program that makes free wigs for cancer patients. The event will attempt to break the world record for “most hair donated to charity in 24 hours,” currently held by a group in Mississippi who gathered 107.4 pounds of hair from 881 donors in 2007. Donors are asked to donate at least eight inches of hair that is less than five percent gray and not bleached or permanently dyed. LJHS sophomore and Model United Nations club member Ardis Zhong will be the first to donate eight inches of hair at the event, which will take place in the LJHS small gym, 750 Nautilus St., on June 2 from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.sdhairdonation.tum-blr.com. Oceanography library goes digital The University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) Scripps Institute of Oceanography Library, the largest of its kind in the world, has digitally archived about 100,000 volumes as part of a partnership between Google, the University of California (UC) and the UCSD Libraries. The digital volumes will be accessible to the public, and they join more than two million UC library books that have been digitized since the UC system joined the Google Book Search Project in 2006. UCSD was the first Southern California university to join the project in 2008. The library faculty believes this project will make information more efficiently searchable for researchers, students, and historians who seek knowledge about the evolution of ideas throughout history. More than 73,000 people visit the university’s nine libraries each day, and the UCSD Libraries website receives more than 87,500 visits each day. Town Council seeks inspiration from Little Italy The La Jolla Town Council hopes to adapt some of the concepts used to revitalize the downtown community of Little Italy to improving its own Village. On May 21, board members toured the area with Marco Li Mandri, CEO of New City America, a nationwide corporation that helps neighborhoods facilitate positive growth and prosperity. Promote La Jolla president Rick Wildman said the group gained valuable insight from the tour, and hopes to develop a steering committee that will investigate whether the La Jolla community is interested in applying some of the same initiatives. “We were so impressed with the way the streets and the sidewalks were maintained, how prosperous the businesses were, how clean it was, and how the whole community just really worked together to keep it in great shape,” Wildman said. The goal of the tour, Wildman said, was to determine how the community initiated revitalization and what the results were. “This process has been done all over the country, and I know it’s possible here,” he added. The first order of business would be to select a president for the potential Steering Committee, then consult with the community to plan its goals and procedures.