Science & Technology

An article published in Nature Materials features a new theory to explain how minerals and glass interact with water. The paper was co-authored by James Rustad, a UC Davis Geology Department emeritus professor, and William Casey, a professor in the UC Davis Chemistry Department. Existing models “could explain anything and predict nothing,” Casey said. “Environmental […]

Every now and then, I like to take a break from looking at the beauty of nature to look at the weirder, more terrifying things. For all the beautiful creativity that nature shows in the world around us, a close look can also find creatures that we find horrifying. The most likely kind of creature […]

Chris Fassnacht, a professor in the UC Davis Physics department, has co-authored a paper appearing in Nature, which provides evidence to corroborate a theory of how galaxies form in a process that involves dark matter by detecting a faint satellite galaxy 10 billion light years away. Fassnacht is currently visiting his alma mater, the California […]

Society continues to consume an increasing amount of its media in more interactive ways, in terms of music, videos and games. The medical community is also taking steps to provide its students with the tools to make learning more engaging and convenient. More specifically, medical students are gaining a new way to learn how to […]

The fight against cancer has been long and arduous. Researchers have made the occasional advance in treatment, but as of yet, cancer is still at large. However, a group of researchers based at UC Davis has made a major advance in cancer treatment that will dramatically augment our ability to fight cancerous tumors. This advance […]

Frank Osterloh, a UC Davis chemistry professor, is a major contributor of a national research team trying to find a more efficient and economical way to use solar energy. The team was recently awarded a national grant of $100,000 from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA). “I have been working on solar energy conversion […]

Our brains are making a million decisions a minute, most of which we are only minimally aware of. But in order for us to function efficiently, our brains must also make decisions about what is most important at any particular moment. A study by UC Davis researchers has found that the brain determines importance based […]

In 2007, the San Francisco Bay area fell victim to an event called the Cosco Busan oil spill. While the amount of oil spilled was relatively small, the effects on the marine life were anything but minor. Researchers from UC Davis and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducted experiments to see the effects that […]

It was three in the morning, and once again I couldn’t sleep. As I usually do when I can’t sleep, I turned on the TV and flipped to the most boring program I could find. Since it was three in the morning, I ended up watching infomercials. “Are you ready for the INSANITY challenge?!?” “I […]

The UC Davis cosmological physics department discovered post-collision galaxy clusters 5 million light years away which may hold the potential to illuminate many mysteries of the universe. The Musket Ball Cluster, so named because it is older and slower moving than the Bullet Cluster, represents the aftermath of two galaxy clusters which moved through each […]

UC Davis colleagues are involved in a new joint project with an agency in Japan to explore new ways of creating biofuels for regular use, especially for use by automobiles, trucks and jets. “Oil reserves won’t last forever,” said Oliver Fiehn, the director of the Metabolomics Research and Core Laboratories in the UC Davis Genome […]

The Research Works Act, a bill introduced to the House of Representatives by Congressman Darrell Issa (CA-49), proposes to keep federal agencies from distributing privately or publicly funded scientific research without the consent of the publishers. The bill, formally called HR-3699, states, “No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any […]