Most of the students from the Class of 2023 started this journey in fall 2019 — the last quarter of pandemic-free existence. Just months after they stepped onto UC Riverside’s campus, they exchanged classroom numbers for Zoom links and ventured through their first year of higher education without traditional support...

University of California, Riverside, chemical and environmental engineering scientists have identified two species of bacteria found in soil that break down a class of stubborn “forever chemicals,” giving hope for low-cost biological cleanup of industrial pollutants. These bacteria destroy a subgroup of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that have...