Science / Technology

Supercomputing improves biomass fuel conversion

Researchers combine supercomputing with nano-imaging to reveal how to efficiently break down plant biomass and transform it into transportation fuels

By Holly Ober | August 1, 2019 | Science / Technology

Grant to physicist gives study of strongly interacting systems a boost

A physicist at the University of California, Riverside, has received a grant of about $523,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to study the possible emergent behavior of “strongly interacting systems,” an important area of focus in solid-state physics. Specifically, when the repulsive Coulomb force between electrons in a solid...

By Iqbal Pittalwala | July 30, 2019 | Science / Technology

Publishing company Wiley acquires zyBooks

The web-based, interactive textbook replacements were invented by a UC Riverside computer scientist and commercialized by the startup he co-founded, Zyante Inc

By Holly Ober | July 30, 2019 | Science / Technology

NASA's TESS exoplanet discovery satellite

NASA’s TESS mission finds ‘missing link’ planets

NASA’s newest planet-hunting satellite has discovered a type of planet missing from our own solar system. Launched in 2018 , the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, has found three new worlds around a neighboring star. Stephen Kane, a UC Riverside associate professor of planetary astrophysics, says the new star...

By Jules Bernstein | July 29, 2019 | Science / Technology

Ladies’ choice: What drives faster, flashier formation of new animal species

Evolution is actually a Sadie Hawkins dance, as new research shows females not only determine whether male animals develop bright colors, but also how fast new species develop. Research led by David Reznick, a UC Riverside biology professor, used fish often seen in pet stores, like guppies and swordtails, to...

By Jules Bernstein | July 26, 2019 | Science / Technology

In sexual conflict, ant queens prevail in evolutionary arms race

It’s hidden from sight, but there’s an epic battle of the sexes raging in the leafcutter ant species Atta colombica. Competing males deliver sperm in a fluid that’s toxic to rivals’ sperm, while females quash their efforts in order to ensure their own reproductive success. For the first time, a...

By Sarah Nightingale | July 23, 2019 | Science / Technology

Australia enables UCR to dig into Earth’s wild past

Australian officials signed an agreement last night allowing UC Riverside to continue its pioneering research on a government-owned goldmine for unusual fossils. Nilpena Station is a city-sized plot of land in the Australian Outback. It harbors the richest collection on Earth of animal species around 550 million years old. Some...

By Jules Bernstein | July 23, 2019 | Science / Technology

Boundary of a cat inserted into an image

This deep neural network fights deepfakes

Artificial intelligence to accurately detect altered photos is getting smarter

By Holly Ober | July 18, 2019 | Science / Technology

Screenshot of an interactive map on UCR STAR

Free dataset archive helps researchers quickly find a needle in a haystack

UCR STAR visualizes public spatio-temporal datasets through an interactive map

By Holly Ober | July 17, 2019 | Science / Technology

UC Riverside Engineering hosts summer coding camp to address diversity shortfall in computer science careers

The University of California, Riverside’s Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering (BCOE) will embark on two sessions of CS 4 ALL CODE CAMP, a free one-week intensive program that introduces coding and computer science to high school students from the Inland Empire region. Code Camp, created by the college’s...

By Katharine Hall | July 16, 2019 | Science / Technology

Joshua Trees facing extinction

They outlived mammoths and saber-toothed tigers. But without dramatic action to reduce climate change, new research shows Joshua trees won’t survive much past this century.

By Jules Bernstein | July 16, 2019 | Science / Technology

Steering into the future of connected and automated vehicles

More than 1 billion motor vehicles travel roadways worldwide and that number is expected to double within one or two decades. The rise in automobiles and trucks have led to increased social, economic, and safety issues, such as the more than 30,000 deaths from car related accidents on US highways...

By Katharine Hall | July 10, 2019 | Science / Technology

Physicists’ finding could revolutionize information transmission

UC Riverside-led team identifies dark trions as the next carrier of quantum information

By Iqbal Pittalwala | July 9, 2019 | Science / Technology

Scientists decode DNA secrets of world’s toughest bean

UCR scientists have decoded the genome of black-eyed peas, offering hope for feeding Earth's expanding population, especially as the climate changes.

By Jules Bernstein | July 9, 2019 | Science / Technology

Campus to celebrate 50th anniversary of historic Moon landing

Free event at UC Riverside includes hands-on activities, lecture, and telescope viewings

By Iqbal Pittalwala | July 8, 2019 | Science / Technology

For UC Riverside Bioengineering Professor Immune System Research was Personal

Dimitrios Morikis, UC Riverside Professor of Bioengineering, passed away May 27, 2019. Professor Morikis is well known for his work in immunophysics and immunoengineering, where he used physics and engineering approaches to understand molecular mechanisms of immunology, develop disease models, and design new drugs and molecular sensors for autoimmune and...

By Angela Meluski | July 3, 2019 | Science / Technology

Study finds electronic cigarettes damage brain stem cells

A research team at the University of California, Riverside, has found that electronic cigarettes, often targeted to youth and pregnant women, produce a stress response in neural stem cells, which are critical cells in the brain. Present throughout life, stem cells become specialized cells with more specific functions, such as...

By Iqbal Pittalwala | July 1, 2019 | Science / Technology, Health