As California's toxic Salton Sea shrinks, it's raising health alarms for the surrounding community

David Lo, a UCR professor of biomedical sciences, led a study last year that determined the Salton Sea itself is responsible for the high incidence of asthma for those who live near it. It found that the contaminants in the sea could be causing lung inflammation in surrounding residents.
CBS News | September 21, 2023

Hyped up alien claims risk undermining future ET discoveries

Unscientific claims of alien life and far-from-confirmed findings risk undermining the possible moment when life somewhere in the universe is discovered. "There should be a lot of value assigned to that finding," said Eddie Schwieterman, a UCR astrobiologist.
Axios | September 19, 2023

Scientists discover COVID's weakness

UCR scientists Jiayu Liao and Quanqing Zhang have identified what may be considered as COVID's ultimate weakness: the virus's reliance on essential human proteins to replicate and, subsequently, its ability to make individuals ill.
MSN / Earth.com | September 16, 2023

COVID’s – and other viruses’ – Achilles' heel identified

UCR bioengineer Jiayu Liao and analytical chemist Quanqing Zhang have identified how the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 takes advantage of our cellular machinery to replicate and spread in the body, and, importantly, a way to stop it.
New Atlas | September 14, 2023

Alien atmospheres are helping scientists search for life

UCR astrobiologist Eddie Schwieterman and biogeochemistry professor Timothy Lyons discuss the complexity of identifying life on planets around other stars, called exoplanets.
Axios | September 14, 2023

How scientists are using artificial intelligence

Miguel Arratia, a UCR physicist, has therefore proposed using AI to integrate measurements from multiple fundamental physics experiments (and even cosmological observations) so that theoretical physicists can quickly explore, combine and re-use the data in their own work.
The Economist | September 13, 2023

Scientists are trying to teach AI how to smell

Article features the research of Anandasankar Ray, a professor in UCR's Molecular Cell & Systems Biology Department, who has predicted how compounds smell based on which of the approximately 400 human odorant receptors they activate.
Popular Science | September 11, 2023

Artificial Intelligence Can Make Companies Greener, but It Also Guzzles Energy

AI is very thirsty, according to research from Shaolei Ren, a UCR professor of electrical and computer engineering. His work shows ChatGPT-3 needs to “drink” a 500-milliliter bottle of water for a basic conversation of 20 to 50 inquiries, depending on where the electricity is generated. 
The Wall Street Journal | September 11, 2023

'Society is changing': Ramaswamy praises the 'nuclear family,' but single parents say his comments hurt

David Brady, a UCR public policy professor, told USA TODAY that it is true that there are modest advantages to being in a two-parent family versus a single-parent family. However, he believes that having adequate financial resources is more important than having two parents. 
USA Today | September 6, 2023

UC Riverside researchers build a better avocado tree

A new kind of avocado — created by UC Riverside researchers — may be appearing in grocery stores in coming years. The Luna UCR avocado will soon be marketed to growers worldwide, though it will be a little longer before you can buy it at the supermarket.
The Press Enterprise | September 3, 2023

Exposing deepfake imagery

Amit Roy-Chowdhury, a professor in the University of California, Riverside’s Video Computing Group, has trained computers to spot unnatural patterns of pixels in order to spot deepfakes.
SPIE | September 1, 2023

Most Governing Boards Don’t Reflect Student Diversity

UC Riverside School of Education Professor Raquel Rall's report "Does Your Board of Trustees Reflect Your Student Body?" is referenced in an analysis. 
Inside Higher Ed | August 31, 2023

Move over Haas — there's a new, more sustainable avocado in town

Mary Lu Arpaia is a horticultural specialist with UC Riverside’s cooperative extension and she’s one of the inventors of the new Luna variety of avocado. Her name is on the pending patent, and The Show spoke with her about it.
KJZZ Phoenix | August 29, 2023

Banking California desert plant seeds for the future

Lynn Sweet, a research ecologist at UCR, talks about how climate change could affect Joshua Tree National Park's namesake species.
Spectrum News | August 28, 2023

Some community college students may live on UC Riverside campus

Some future Riverside Community College District students will have the chance to live on the UC Riverside campus in a “first-of-its-kind housing project.” In addition to creating more housing, officials hope it will introduce students in the district — which includes Riverside City, Moreno Valley and Norco colleges — to life at a four-year university and potentially encourage transfers.
The Press Enterprise | August 27, 2023

Opinion: Luis Rubiales must resign. Spain’s women soccer champions deserve better

Jennifer Doyle, UCR English professor, writes about how the best way to honor the Spanish team that just won the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is for the president of Spain's football federation to resign. The president, Luis Rubiales, is dogged by corruption scandals, complaints about the federation’s treatment of the national team and anger at the way he and his federation undermine women’s leagues in Spain.
The Los Angeles Times | August 25, 2023

Toward a More Equitable Research Enterprise

Sharing the wealth in terms of federal research dollars would improve the quality of education for many students and increase U.S. competitiveness, wrote UCR Chancellor Kim Wilcox.
Inside Higher Ed | August 23, 2023

The underappreciated benefits of wild bees

Many people don’t know the difference between wild and domestic bees, further obscuring both the troubles faced by many wild species and their value, says Hollis Woodard, a UCR entomologist.
Knowable Magazine | August 21, 2023

Why you should divide your life into semesters, even when you’re not in school

Dividing the future into “semesters” — traditionally 15 to 17 weeks long at American colleges — can help people plan incremental objectives in service of a larger goal, according to Rachel Wu, an associate UCR professor of psychology. It can also help older people feel younger by remembering their college years. 
Vox | August 21, 2023

Why you should divide your life into semesters, even when you’re not in school

Time-management lessons learned in school can help you with setting goals, according to UCR psychologist Rachel Wu.
Vox | August 21, 2023