UCR nematologist Adler Dillman's laboratory discovers a new species of tiny worm, a nematode, that can kill insects. Potentially it could be used to control crop pests in places that currently rely on pesticides.
Chow-Yang Lee, UCR entomologist, said most bed bug control products were developed for the common bed bug, with the assumption that they would also work on the tropical bed bug. However, biological differences between the species are being discovered that have implications for the management of [the tropical bed bug.
It's still too early in the year for most mosquito species to thrive, despite all the recent record-setting rain that the pesky insects thrive on. However, UC Riverside biologist Anandasankar Ray said he couldn't rule out the possibility that some mosquitoes are using the wet weather to breed. He offered tips to keep them away when the season fully begins in March.
Hay bales are appearing in large numbers around the Salton Sea. Charlie Diamond, a researcher with the Salton Sea Task Force at UCR, said it’s a “dust suppression project” aimed to “break up the flow of air right at the ground level.” The goal, Diamond said, is for the hay bales to “suppress the dust production or emission," which is causing serious respiratory distress for area residents.
Phoenix Alexander, Jay Kay and Doris Klein, science fiction librarian speak to KQED about the Eaton Collection’s newest acquisition, the original cover illustration of Le Guin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness.”
A plan to extract lithium — the lustrous, white metal used in electric vehicle batteries — is adding to an anxiety familiar in the arid American West: how the project could affect water from the Colorado River. But geologists and Earth scientists including UCR geologist Michael McKibben, said it’s unclear how water-intensive direct lithium extraction really is.
Water experts say conditions from recent storms haven’t been ideal for bolstering the state’s water supply. That’s because so much rain fell so quickly that agencies controlling dams and reservoirs have to prioritize flood management over water recovery. That means releasing lots of water into the ocean.
Agency efforts to capture more stormwater in storage and groundwater recharge basins have improved in recent years, said Medhi Nemati, an environmental policy professor at UCR who studies water infrastructure. But when parts of Los Angeles get 75% of their annual rainfall in just two days, Nemati said there’s only so much water agencies can do to keep up.
Andy Gray, associate professor of watershed hydrology, talks to the Wall Street Journal about the danger of mudslides from the current rains in Southern California.
A recently published study by associate professor Brandon A. Robinson at the University of California, Riverside, and Trinity University underscores the importance of aunts, aunties and tías, whether related by blood or bonds, in supporting LGBTQ youth who don’t necessarily feel supported by their parents.
Phillip Sternes, UCR doctoral student in biology, led a massive team of international researchers in a study that changes our understanding of Megalodons - what they looked like and how they likely went extinct.
UCR biology graduate student Phillip Sternes led a team of 26 international scientists in a study that found the ancient Megalodon, though still a fierce predator, was likely thinner and longer than previously believed.
Heeseung Choi, botany researcher and Katie Dehesh, professor of molecular biochemistry at UCR, have discovered a new contender in the quest to hack the human aging process. It’s a little-studied protein within a cell structure that also doesn’t get a lot of airtime in research despite being one of the first organelles identified more than a century ago.
Brandon Andrew Robinson, chair and associate professor of the Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, is interviewed by NBC News regarding their research on the critical role aunts play in supporting lgbtq youth relatives.
UCR’s Shao-Hung Lee, Ph.D., Dong-Hwan Choe, Ph.D., Michael Rust, Ph.D., and Chow-Yang Lee found that sucralose-water solutions were effective in reducing survival of German cockroaches via effects on their gastrointestinal system. A fortunate discovery, because the same research team has also found widespread resistance to many commonly used insecticides among German cockroaches in California.
"No matter where you live you need to be prepared for a damaging earthquake, before the earthquake. And we think the San Andreas fault and many other faults are close to producing large, damaging earthquakes," warns Abhijit Ghosh, associate professor of geophysics at UCR.
In 5 billion years, our sun will balloon into a red giant star. Recent research by Stephen Kane, a UCR astrophysicist, suggests there is a chance Earth could survive.
There are more benefits to following a healthy low-fat diet than shedding pounds and dropping a few pant sizes. Now, UCR scientists Frances Sladek, Poonamjot Deol and Jose Martinez-Lomeli have discovered eating less fat could also help protect you against infectious diseases like Covid-19.
Brandon Robinson, chair of UCR's Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, Javania Michelle Webb, a UCR postdoctoral student, and Amy L. Stone, a professor at Trinity University, co-authored a study showing aunts, whether they’re blood relatives or people who have chosen this role, provide significant support to LGBTQ+ youth
Sonja Lyubomirsky, UCR professor of psychology, recommends creating gratitude collages, drawings or a photography collection of things for which you are grateful, if writing isn't for you. "I don't want people to think like, ‘If I don't like gratitude journaling, I'm doomed,’ … because there’s other ways to express gratitude,” she said.