Leigh Hopper

Writer and teacher and adventurer

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Not new news, but I've never seen this. My gosh, what a thing.

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I’m totally eating up these animations from UC Research. The Tumblr archive can be found here.

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“We’re using online platforms as shelf space. It’s where we can put images, video, background information, etc.—essentially anything we need to tell a story (or sell a story).”

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Your experiences today will influence the molecular composition of your body for the next two to three months, or perhaps for the rest of your life. Plan your day accordingly.

UCLA’s Steve Cole from The Social Life of Genes.

Your DNA is not a blueprint. Day by day, week by week, your genes are in a conversation with your surroundings. Your neighbors, your family, your feelings of loneliness: They don’t just get under your skin, they get into the control rooms of your cells. 

(via ucresearch)

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A new gel helps wounds heal

Researchers from UCLA have developed an injectable hydrogel that helps skin wounds heal faster. 

The new synthetic polymer material creates an instant scaffold, sort of like stacked gumballs, that allows new tissue to latch on and grow within the cavities formed between linked spheres of gel.

Conventionally, ointments and other hydrogel dressings have been used to fill in wounds to keep the areas moist and accelerate healing. But none of the materials used now provide a scaffold to allow new tissue to grow while the dressing itself degrades. As a result, the new tissue growth is relatively slow and fragile.

So bringing about an injectable biomaterial that promotes rapid regeneration of tissue has been a “holy grail” in the field of tissue engineering, said co-principal investigator Dino Di Carlo.

They envision the material being useful for a wide variety of wound application, including lacerations to large-area burns.

UC Berkeley researchers have also been developing new approaches to tissue engineering. Last March, their advancement in “herding cells” marked a new direction for smart bandages.

Learn more about how this new gel works

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This is your brain experiencing a concussion

It may look like this model brain is made of Jell-O, but it’s the same consistency as a real brain.

As Dr. Christopher Giza from UCLA demonstrates, the brain is made of soft tissue and floats in fluid inside of the skull. When the skull moves quickly, the brain can jostle around a lot, which can lead to neurological symptoms.

“Most concussions are recoverable,” Giza said.

But concussions can be difficult to identify and some people suffer more serious symptoms, particularly after multiple concussions.

Lab studies have shown a “window of vulnerability” after a first concussion, Giza said. Concussed athletes are three to six times more likely to get another concussion. If they rush back to play, their reflexes, reaction time and thinking may be slower, putting them at risk of a second concussion and longer recovery period.

Six things parents and athletes need to know about concussions.

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The New Yorker

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Meningitis Outbreaks Among Gay Men Baffle Health Officials

Via Governing

Also,

(Orange) County Takes More Steps to Combat Largest Meningitis Outbreak in U.S. History

[coolthingoftheday]

Aegagropila linnaei, also known as moss balls in English (or ‘marimo’ in Japan, where they are a protected national treasure and are particularly popular for use in aquariums), are a species of green algae with the ability to grow into velveteen spheres up to 30 cm (11 in) across. Oddly, although this species is found all across the globe, colonies of this algae grow into balls only in the cold northern lakes of Iceland, Scotland, Japan, and Estonia. 

(Source)

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The teeny tiny supply of family-sized housing in cities

(T)he supply of affordable, family-sized housing varies greatly. (In) Los Angeles and San Francisco, ...  barely 1 in 10 homes with three or more bedrooms is affordable at 30 percent of the area’s monthly median family income.

In Boston, the problem takes a somewhat different form: An adequate supply of large homes exists, but these homes are not housing families with children. Instead, because there’s a shortage of studio and one-bedroom apartments, groups of singles are pooling their resources and outbidding families for desirable larger units.

Building in sought-after urban cores poses challenges for developers. For one, land acquisition typically accounts for 20 to 25 percent of project costs in urban areas, compared to just 10 percent in the suburbs, according to NMHC’s Dave Borsos. Labor expenses also tend to run higher in the city. With demand for smaller-size rentals as high as it currently is, there’s not much incentive for developers to build anything but studios, one-bedrooms and a limited number of two-bedroom units. Data compiled for Governing by the real estate analysis firm Axiometrics indicates that, on average, only 5 percent of market-rate rentals in larger cities have three or more bedrooms.

One mixed-use development in line with the mayor’s plan, set to occupy prime real estate near Boston’s North Station and TD Garden sports arena, is being hailed as the most significant downtown workforce housing project in decades. Incomes of eligible renters in the 239-unit residential complex will range between 30 and 165 percent of the area median, and 10 percent of the units will have three bedrooms.

To help pay for the development, Massachusetts is providing a 4 percent tax credit and an affordable housing development award. Developers worked with the city on a long-term tax stabilization plan tied to a fixed percentage of the development’s annual gross income that increases over time. This was key to securing lenders to underwrite the development.

While the project -- built on deed-restricted land -- can’t be replicated in its entirety, the attention to working families could serve as a model for future developments. “A lot of developers are reactionary and will wait for things to come out and plan within the rules given to them,” Lubitz says. “We need to impress upon the development community that they need to be more proactive to help the city and state solve this issue.”

Via an article in Governing by Mike Maciag

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An eco-village for the ‘burbs?

In an earlier post, I wondered whether a BedZED-like project might work in, say, Long Beach. Long Beach isn’t a suburb of L.A. (or is it?), but this Wall Street Journal article suggests higher-density housing in lower-density areas (like suburbs) might succeed.

A growing body of survey research suggests millennials intend to gravitate to suburbs just like earlier generations did, but that they prefer a higher-density, more walkable version than the cul-de-sac communities of their parents.

Of the top 10 cities with populations over 250,000 that showed the fastest growth between 2014 and 2015, more than half, including Austin, Fort Worth, Texas and Charlotte, N.C., are more suburban than urban in terms of population density, according to census data analyzed by economist Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. Population growth in higher-density suburban counties has outpaced urban counties each year since 2012, his analysis found.

Via Suburbs Trying to Attract Millennials Diverge on Development Patterns - WSJ

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Infection-suicidality link found in Danish study

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Amy Norton, HealthDay Reporter     

People hospitalized for serious infections may face an increased risk of dying by suicide, and researchers suspect there's a biological reason for it.In a study of over 7 million people, Danish researchers found that those who'd been hospitalized for infections were 42 percent more likely to die of suicide compared to people with no history of serious infection.

Read the entire article.

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Can families live in downtown L.A.?

Rozanna Leo-Fields, her husband and 11-year-old son live in an Arts District loft and spent a recent afternoon enjoying their city with a visit to The Broad and the historic Bradbury Building, followed by refreshments at Perch, the rooftop bistro on South Hill St.

     “Our friends thought we were crazy,” says Fields, who moved to downtown Los Angeles three years ago. “Except now, they all want to come visit us and live downtown. I love that my son is growing up downtown.”

    For the moment, she’s an anomaly. Of the individuals and couples flocking to downtowns across the nation, most are childless. Typically, once couples have kids, they move.

    But a growing number of families are calling this environment home, and couples who live there now want to stay after adding a kid to two. A Facebook group, Downtown LA Families, has residents trading information about schools and apartments coming up for rent. Indeed, advocates of urbanism say the high-density urban areas must attract families if they are to achieve truly sustainable status.

   “We’re trying to keep the people who have their first baby and maybe their second,” said Patti Berman, a 16-year resident of downtown Los Angeles’ Historic Core, who improvised with curtains to make space when she adopted her daughter. “You can’t build a community with single people. It’s not a community without families.”

    Talk to families in downtown L.A. and you get an idea of what they yearn for: Additional rooms. More storage. More community, or shared spaces. One resident who lives in The Eastern Standard with her husband and two small children, says they added two bedrooms to their 1,700-square-foot loft. She wishes for a kid-friendly lobby with a restroom on the first floor – for quick pit stops in between excursions.

    A recent list of the top family-friendly buildings in New York City describes other family-centric features: Close-by shopping, extra storage for bicycles and empty luggage, a lounge with a catering kitchen opening onto a garden plaza, swimming lessons, sunny playgrounds and units with three or more bedrooms.

   Clever design and products can also create a sense of more space. Sliding walls can hide a bed or desk. Hide-away Murphy beds or wall beds boast better hardware and mattresses than ever. Home offices and homework stations can be tucked at the top of or beneath stairs.

    All of these innovations appeal to Eric Garcia, a patent attorney who’s lived in the Historic Core since 2011. A shared splash pad, a rooftop sandbox – those would be nice. His wife joined him in his 1,200-square-foot loft in 2014 and six months ago they had a son. Despite a strict one-in, one-out policy – for every new item of clothing, one has to be disposed of – Garcia sees the kid-related possessions mounting. That single-family home with a garage is looking better and better.

    “Going from one bedroom to two bedrooms (downtown) has a huge price differential,” he says. “We’re priced out. We may just have to move out.”

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Case study: BedZED

BedZED is the UK's first large-scale, mixed use sustainable community with 100 homes, office space, a college and community facilities. Completed in 2002, this pioneering eco-village in south London suburbia remains an inspiration for sustainable neighbourhoods and our One Planet Living Communities across the world.

BedZED is a mixed-tenure development. It is built on reclaimed land owned by the London Borough of Sutton, sold to Peabody at below market value due to the planned environmental initiatives. Peabody Trust, a London housing association and charity is the main investor of the project with the help of local authorities. The residential homes were sold at standard market prices.

Want to live here? I do! People make close friends here; kids ride bikes on no-traffic streets in the interior of the development; everybody has a garden.

It’s hard to see such a thing working for developers in our high-density urban spaces. But could it work in a place like Katy, Texas, a satellite city outside Houston, where land is cheaper? Are there people in suburbs dominated by single-family homes who might be attracted a project like this?

Here’s another thought. Might people who love L.A. be interested in raising families in a BedZED-like community in, say, Long Beach?

After all, though BedZED is known as a London project, it is in reality a 45-minute train ride from the center of London.

Similarly, Long Beach is a 54-minute train ride from downtown Los Angeles.

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Who is moving downtown? And where?

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Educated, relatively high-earning workers (are) flocking to many American cities at a rate not seen since the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking such data in the 1970s. The shift began last decade and accelerated during the housing bust.

The movement is injecting new life into tired urban cores, prompting renovation of older residential and commercial buildings while spurring new real estate developments as well as upgrades to transit systems, parks and cultural institutions.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the WSJ’s information comes from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Here’s what the Terner Center says about its own research:

Headlines about educated young adults flocking to Brooklyn and San Francisco aren’t wrong – but they are far from the whole story and are unrepresentative of broader trends. Other demographic groups are suburbanizing faster than the young and rich are piling in to cities…. Urban neighborhoods are increasingly young, rich, childless, and white.

As always, the same research can tell a positive or negative story, depending on how you look at it.

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The best cities for children are the best cities for everyone

I’ve been researching the question of how to make downtown Los Angeles - or any city, for that matter -- more liveable for families. The DTLA sky is filled with cranes building evermore residential units - most of which will be occupied by young professionals without children. Typically, once these professionals decide to start families, they move to single-family homes. What would it take for them to stay?

(Photo by Chris Bruntlett of Modacitylife)

The most compelling answer I’ve come across is the idea of making cities child-friendly. As architect Jason F. McLennan writes in Yes! magazine:

The best cities in the world have a walkable, relatable scale that children and adults alike can relate to. They tend to be safer, more accessible, and more culturally rich. They give us greater opportunities for social interaction as well as chance encounters and educational opportunities.

McLennan, a prominent figure in the green building movement and a winner of the Buckminster Fuller Award, goes on to describe how by designing and planning for children - those among us who have the least control -- we would all be better for it.

Think about what makes a place great for kids: a focus on found learning, serendipitous personal interactions with others, opportunities to interact with nature and natural systems (water in particular), right-sized designs that aren’t intimidating and automobile-based, a city with an all-around gentle touch. Now consider a city that extended such considerations to everybody.

Doesn’t that sound nice?

(Photo of Japanese manhole cover.)

So, what would a children’s city look like? For one thing, it would pay attention to the small details. Eric Feldman, a Washington, D.C. urban planner, had his eyes opened when he began exploring his urban environs with his toddler daughter. In fact, he coined a new metric: the Toddler Walkshed.

(The Toddler Walkshed is) the distance that a curious and perpetually-distracted toddler can navigate city streets on foot in 10-20 minutes, all the while insisting that her parent pushes an empty stroller. More seriously, a viable toddler walkshed can be identified by answering the following question: can a neighborhood provide a range of destinations and diverse experiences within a toddler’s walking distance, without requiring access to an automobile?

We regularly stop to inspect and stomp on the grates and manhole covers concealing the tantalizing secrets of underground infrastructure. We expand our color palette by admiring the painted sidewalk markings of utility workers ... the street and its micro-landmarks are already as much her playground as the playground itself.

(W)hat if we were to pay more attention to the experience at 34 inches and celebrated our micro-landmarks to make them more intentionally playful and distinct? The Japanese appreciation for artistic manhole covers hints at some of the possibilities.

Big picture-wise, we can look to McLennan again. I’ve paraphrased:

1) A child-centered city provides a diversity of housing typologies that suits every variation of family.

2) Prices are manageable across all types of units so that people from a mix of economic backgrounds can afford to rent or own, even when they house multiple generations under one roof.

3) Multi-unit structures that achieve ideal urban density must offer adequate acoustic separation as well as outdoor play spaces.

4) Families need restaurants, markets, playgrounds, and daycare centers closer to home.

5) A child-centric city must offer an abundance of nature—features that give children easy access to clean water, climbable trees, and fresh air.

6) Lastly, child-friendly cities don’t expect children to thrive in high-rises.

McLennan:

Nobody can truly believe that a skyscraper is an acceptable setting in which to raise children. How can they experience a sense of community when they dwell so high off the ground? How can they connect with nature when they spend more time with potted plants than with wilderness? Children’s cities should offer a saner level of density, in which people interact with the natural world as frequently as they interact with one another. There is a density sweet spot, and it remains closer to the ground.

A “density sweet spot” -- “closer to the ground”? Hmmm. That could be a sticking point.

“Many people have a hard time believing that we can redesign our cities within the span of a few decades,” McLennan writes, urging idealists to take heart. “But the truth is, it will happen, regardless of our intentions.”

(Berlin’s Kolle 37 Adventure Playground, via Playscapes.)