BEAT GOES ON: UC Irvine chemistry professor...

BEAT GOES ON: UC Irvine chemistry professor F. Sherwood Rowland was still basking in the glory Thursday after learning the day before he’d won a Nobel Prize. Says Rowland, who first discovered dangers to the ozone: “There have been many messages from people in the environmental area saying they are doubly pleased--both by our getting the prize but also by the fact that problems of the environment are being recognized.” . . . Rowland will attend the weeklong Nobel celebration in Stockholm leading up to the Dec. 10 award ceremony.

YOUNG GUNS: UC Irvine’s women’s soccer team, 8-0-2 and ranked in the top 20 for the first time ever, has a chance to make a big impact on the national rankings this weekend. The 15th-ranked Anteaters play host to University of the Pacific at 7 tonight in the first round of the Hyatt Invitational tournament and then face 10th-ranked Hartford at 1 p.m. Sunday. . . . Irvine starts four freshmen and no seniors. . . . Both games will be played at Anteater Stadium on the Irvine campus.

CRYSTAL II: The Rev. Robert H. Schuller’s name is almost synonymous with the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. But once a year--for its annual women’s conference--Arvella Schuller is center stage. . . . The producer-director of her husband’s “Hour of Power” TV ministry, she’s brought together this week more than 1,000 women for the spiritual conference. . . . Special guest at today’s session, open to the public: singer Naomi Judd.

ELEPHANT WALK: Russian emigre artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid have collaborated on some unusual projects in their thirst for satire. The results of their nationwide search to determine American’s favorite style of painting is on view at the Huntington Beach Art Center (F34). Searching for innocence and truth in art, they recently collaborated with an elephant, producing abstract Expressionist paintings. . . . “She taught us a lot,” Melamid says. “She’s a better painter than us, in this style.”