Science & Technology

Want to read the classics without shelling out the cash? Project Gutenberg has you covered. As the largest online collection of free e-books, Project Gutenberg has everything from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. How does Project Gutenberg work? Is it legal? The website is easy to use; it provides […]

A fallen meteorite in Coloma, Calif. could tell us about the origins of our solar system, according to a talk given by UC Davis associate professor of geology Qing-Zhu Yin last Sunday. “If confirmed, what we have in hand is perhaps the most primitive materials, preserved in pristine condition in cold storage (never been heated […]

Our technological prowess is increasing every day, but the machines we use are still limited by the knowledge that the designers put into them. Researchers have started experimenting with a branch of computer science called “machine learning,” where computers can learn and adapt. The name evokes sinister Terminator imagery, but researchers at UC San Diego […]

Last July a NASA-sponsored spacecraft called “Dawn” slipped into orbit about the first of its planned destinations — the asteroid Vesta, which is the second-largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. About 5 percent of meteorites recovered after falling to earth are believed to have come from Vesta’s surface. The Asteroid Belt […]

A new study by UC San Francisco researchers indicates that the drug varenicline, a drug used to help stop smoking, can be used to reduce drinking. Varenicline, commonly known by the brand name Chantix, has been FDA-approved since 2006 for helping people to stop smoking, but only recently did the researchers theorize that the drug […]

Imagine that a fire has just devastated a small area of forest. Trees have burned to the ground, leaving stumps and cracked trunks. All of the small bushes or grasses are completely blackened. What’s left? Tiny seeds. The healing of the forest is partially accomplished by these seeds that only germinate after a fire. When […]

Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, will be giving a talk on evolution in public schools today in Haring Hall. The talk, titled “Defending the Teaching of Evolution in Public Schools: After Kitzmiller — What?” will take place in 2205 Haring Hall from 7 to 9 p.m. The talk was […]

A simple but effective method of flash-heating breast milk can inactivate the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), according to a new study led by UC Davis researchers. The study looks at the feasibility of reducing the transmission of the AIDS-causing virus from HIV-infected mothers to their infants in sub-Saharan Africa, a limited-resource area. Though the World […]

A new start-up company has emerged from UC Davis and is looking to make a name for itself in the world of consumer technology. The company’s name is Dysonics, and it is the result of work done by a UC Davis professor and an alumnus of the College of Engineering. The product the company is […]

Last Saturday, I was one of the about 10 million people who saw The Avengers in theater in its second weekend. I won’t go into a review of the movie here, though I will say that I thought it was a lot of fun and if you have the time and money, go see it. […]

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A cow in central California was recently discovered to have a rare degenerative neurological disease. Tests showed that the cow had a “sporadic” form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The discovery caused concern after the initial, unconfirmed tests were reported because there is a “classical” form of BSE, which has killed over 200 people worldwide […]