Science & Technology

Researchers discover47-million-year-old fossil A remarkably complete47-million-year-old skeleton of a creature the size of a small cat found in Germany was unveiled yesterday at New York’s Museum of Natural History.

Isaac Kinney is a UC Davis seniorNative American studies major and Yurok Tribal member; Hailey Chevelle Ferroni is a sophomorepsychology major and of the Pomo people; Jeremy Little Fox Bill is a sophomore English and Native American studies double major and Mono, Waksachi and Tachi California Native.

When Dr.Koen Van Rompay is not researching drugs for HIV andAIDS,he is actively participating in educating peopleindeveloping countries on HIV preventative measures. What is your occupation? I’m basically a scientist.My official title is associate researcher,but I’m being promoted to full-researcher in July.

Students might have more of an incentive to lower their carbon footprint if they were given cash prizes of$10,000.America’s Greenest Campus competition is doing just that. America’s Greenest Campus is a nationwide competition sponsored by the organization Climate Change to get students,faculty and staff from universities across the U.S.to become more aware of their impact on the environment.

UC Davis researchers made a surprising discovery while exploring the unusual electronic properties of a multi-layered nanoscopic structure.Depending on which way its electrons move,the material either behaves like a typical semiconductor or exhibits peculiar features unique to a single-layer carbon material that is now touted for its promising potential in electronic applications.

You know the slogan “milk does a body good.” But amid new research,scientists might soon be able to tell you how and why– then produce better milk. Researchers at UC Davis,among others around the country,published a study onApr.24thatmarks the end of an initial18-month scientificeffort,but the beginning of what some believe might lead to healthier,cheaper and more ecologically friendly milk.

Popular nutrition professor Liz Applegate hasn’t left UC Davis since she came here as a student in the1970s. Born in a nunnery in South Africa,Applegate’s family of nine children moved around a lot for her father’s chemistry researchbefore finally settling in the Bay Area.She attended UC Davis for both undergraduate and graduate school,received her Ph.D.in nutrition science in1983and started teaching right after.

Reminders of old age may negatively impact memory When combating memory loss,the key may be to think young. A new study indicates that older people who believe that old age and memory loss go together may be undermining their own performance.

As researchers scramble to make sense of the new H1N1influenza virus that is spreading across the globe,the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported encouraging signs last Sunday on the outbreak’s severity,but kept a wary stance on how the virus will behave in the future.

High energy physicists at Fermilab in Illinois,with the help of the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator,are racing to discover the universe’s best kept secret.They smash protons and antiprotons together at nearly the speed of light to find what some call the “Holy Grail of physics” while others just consider it the essential ingredientfor life.

As we move deeper into the digital age,some of us may wonder how much faster our cameras can process images while others may rue the carbon footprint left by constantly recharging ourcell phone and iPod batteries.The good news,it seems,is that high speed processing and green technology can go hand in hand to power everyday electronics.

Peter Richerson has traveled the world learning about ecology and biology.Since his time as a UC Davis undergraduate and graduate student in the1960s,he has written two books and hashelped pioneer the field ofcultural ecology.After returning to UC Davis as a faculty member in1971he has done research on topics ranging from plankton populations in Lake Tahoe to the role of culture in human evolution.