Prescribed burns encourage foul-smelling invaders

Though prescribed burns reduce wildfire threats and even improve habitat for some animals, new research shows these fires also spread stinknet, an aptly named weed currently invading superblooms across the Southwestern U.S.

Are Earth and Venus the only volcanic planets? Not anymore.

Imagine an Earth-sized planet that’s not at all Earth-like. Half this world is locked in permanent daytime, the other half in permanent night, and it’s carpeted with active volcanoes. Astronomers have discovered that planet. The planet, named LP 791-18d, orbits a small red dwarf star about 90 light years away...

Earth’s first animals had particular taste in real estate

Even without body parts that allowed for movement, new UC Riverside research shows — for the first time — that some of Earth’s earliest animals managed to be picky about where they lived.

Australian fossil goldmine opens permanently

Land where a UC Riverside paleontology professor unearthed whole communities of Earth’s oldest animals is opening today to the public as a new national park in the Australian Outback.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Not such small things: microplastics in our streams

UC Riverside scientists are taking a modern approach to studying a murky subject — the quantity, quality, and sources of microplastics in Los Angeles County’s urban streams.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Methane from megafires: more spew than we knew

Using a new detection method, UC Riverside scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires — a source not currently being accounted for by state air quality managers.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Researchers warn of tick-borne disease babesiosis

UC Riverside and Yale University team sequences and mines genome of the pathogen Babesia duncani

Manganese in Central Valley water threatens fetuses and children

Water in California’s Central Valley contains enough manganese to cause cognitive disabilities and motor control issues in children, and Parkinson’s-like symptoms in adults.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Even Sonoran Desert plants aren’t immune to climate change

In North America’s hottest, driest desert, climate change is causing the decline of plants once thought nearly immortal and replacing them with shorter shrubs that can take advantage of sporadic rainfall and warmer temperatures.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Surprise effect: Methane cools even as it heats

Most climate models do not yet account for a new UC Riverside discovery: methane traps a great deal of heat in Earth’s atmosphere, but also creates cooling clouds that offset 30% of the heat.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Without this, plants cannot respond to temperature

UC Riverside scientists have significantly advanced the race to control plant responses to temperature on a rapidly warming planet. Key to this breakthrough is miRNA, a molecule nearly 200,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Hunting Venus 2.0: Scientists sharpen their sights

With the first paper compiling all known information about planets like Venus beyond our solar system, scientists are the closest they’ve ever been to finding an analog of Earth’s “twin.”

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Humans bite back by deactivating mosquito sperm

New UC Riverside research makes it likely that proteins responsible for activating mosquito sperm can be shut down, preventing them from swimming to or fertilizing eggs.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

The planet that could end life on Earth

A terrestrial planet hovering between Mars and Jupiter would be able to push Earth out of the solar system and wipe out life on this planet, according to a UC Riverside experiment.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Breathing is going to get tougher

When global temperatures increase by 4 degrees Celsius, harmful plant emissions and dust will also increase by as much as 14 percent, according to new UC Riverside research.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Fungi and bacteria are binging on burned soil

UC Riverside researchers have identified tiny organisms that not only survive but thrive during the first year after a wildfire. The findings could help bring land back to life after fires that are increasing in both size and severity.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

California will inevitably shake like Turkey

Many in California have questions about the conditions that caused the Turkish earthquake, and wonder whether the western U.S. is likely to suffer a similar fate. UC Riverside seismologist David Oglesby weighs in with answers.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Soil tainted by air pollution expels carbon

New UC Riverside research suggests nitrogen released by gas-powered machines causes dry soil to let go of carbon and release it back into the atmosphere, where it can contribute to climate change.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Prof pours cold water on coffee pod controversy

New research from the University of Quebec declares coffee pods are “better for the planet than filtered brew.” Here to weigh in on the matter is UCR's Andrew Gray, who studies the movement of plastic pollutants through the environment.

By Jules Bernstein | | Science / Technology

Is ChatGPT a threat to education?

UC Riverside experts share thoughts on the AI-powered language model that understands and responds to natural language

By Iqbal Pittalwala | | Science / Technology