Latest CNAS in the Media

Ice Melting Could Slow Vital Ocean Current - Which Could Slightly Slow Melting

IFL SCIENCE - Complementary studies by separate teams have explored the interactions between melting ice in the North Atlantic and the flow of a crucial ocean current. One intensifies the alarm many oceanographers have already expressed: that more rapid melting will cause a crucial part of the Gulf Stream system to slow or even stop...
By Stephen Luntz | IFL Science |

The Arctic is melting fast, but a slowing ocean current could help

EARTH.COM - Under the unforgiving Arctic sun, the wintry landscape swarms with shivers and whispers that tell tales of an unrelenting rise in temperatures. This icy expanse, our last bastion of frost, is experiencing a warming spree that outpaces the global average by three to four times. But here’s a twist: new research suggests that...
By Sanjana Gajbhiye | Earth.com |

Half-a-billion-year-old 'marine Roomba' is earliest known asymmetrical animal

LIVE SCIENCE - The earliest known animal to show evidence of an asymmetrical body lived over half a billion years ago in what is now the Australian outback, a new study reports. The 555 million-year-old creature, dubbed Quaestio simpsonorum in a study published Sept. 3 in the journal Evolution and Development, was able to move...
By Sierra Bouchér | Live Science |

Carbon Dioxide May Have Squelched E.T.’s Evolution In The Milky Way

FORBES - Carbon Dioxide is often vilified as a bugaboo greenhouse gas. But its presence here on early earth is likely one of the reasons we are here to talk about it. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, was likely needed in large quantities in earth’s early atmosphere to raise temperatures sufficiently to enable the onset of...
By Bruce Dorminey | Forbes |

Skin tone may affect how drugs work, including those designed to help people stop smoking

BLOOMBERG - Many factors can affect how well a drug works: age, whether you’ve eaten, your weight and even drinking grapefruit juice. Recently, I learned skin color can also play a role. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, highlighted this last week in the journal Human Genomics and called for drugmakers to take steps...
By Anna Edney | Bloomberg |

Bumblebee Queens Prefer to Live in a Toxic Home

THE NEW YORK TIMES - North-facing, sloping ground with loose, sandy soil — if you’re a bumblebee queen on the market for a winter home, these features will have you racing to make an offer. But scientists were recently stunned to find there’s something else these monarchs like in a place to hibernate: pesticides. In...
By Darren Incorvaia | The New York Times |

Researchers Shocked at Daily Level of Plasticizers in California's Air

SCIENCE ALERT - We live in a world where it is virtually impossible to escape plastics and their associated chemicals. New evidence suggests that in southern California, the average urban resident's exposure to plasticizers – the substances used to soften plastics and make them more flexible – is "through the roof". "No matter who you...
By Carly Cassella | Science Alert |

UC Riverside's Botanic Gardens: the Inland Empire’s Oasis

KVCR - KVCR's Allison Wang interviews Director of the UCR Botanic Gardens, Jodie Holt. The UCR Botanic Gardens is a 40-acre living museum nestled in the foothills of the Box Springs Mountains. Allison Wang: With 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Allison Wang. As a UC Riverside student, I have the opportunity to live and study next...
By Allison Wang | KVCR |

Yep, you’re probably breathing in plastic chemicals, study finds

LAIST - Chances are you’re inhaling the toxic chemicals used to make plastics more flexible, according to a new study by UC Riverside and Duke researchers. Plasticizers are used in a variety of everyday products like lunch boxes, shower curtains, and garden hoses. The chemicals in this study — known as phthalates — have been...
By Elly Yu | LAist |

Sex, radiation and mummies: How farms are fighting a pesky almond moth without pesticides

LOS ANGELES TIMES - In a windowless shack on the far outskirts of Fresno, an ominous red glow illuminates a lab filled with X-ray machines, shelves of glowing boxes, a quietly humming incubator and a miniature wind tunnel. While the scene looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, its actually part of an...
By Noah Haggerty | LA Times |

A transatlantic flight may turn Saharan dust into a key ocean nutrient

SCIENCE NEWS - As dust from the Sahara blows thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, it becomes progressively more nutritious for marine microbes, a new study suggests. Chemical reactions in the atmosphere chew on iron minerals in the dust, making them more water soluble and creating a crucial nutrient source for the iron-starved seas...
By Douglas Fox | Science News |

DNA Reveals the Origin Stories of America’s Captive Tigers

THE NEW YORK TIMES - In 2020, the Netflix documentary series “Tiger King” introduced the world to America’s large population of captive tigers. Estimates by experts suggest there may be as many as 7,000 of the big cats in the United States today, while only around 5,500 tigers survive in the wild in other countries...
By Annie Roth | The New York Times |

Airborne plastic chemicals have reached shocking levels

EARTH.COM - Every day, we are unknowingly exposed to a multitude of chemicals. Among these are a group of toxic airborne chemicals known as plasticizers. If you think these are limited to children’s toys, beauty products, or even plastic bags, think again. These robust substances are everywhere, from your lunchbox to your shower curtain, and...
By Sanjana Gajbhiye | Earth.com |

California Airborne Toxin Levels 'Through the Roof,' Study Warns

NEWSWEEK - Toxic airborne chemicals known as plasticizers could be making their way into our nostrils on a daily basis, scientists have warned. Exposure to these chemicals has been associated with fertility issues and neurodevelopmental disorders as well as childhood asthma, despite their use in a wide variety of products. "The levels of these compounds...
By Pandora Dewan | Newsweek |

Our Atmosphere Transforms Dust From The Sahara Into Minerals That Fuel Life

SCIENCE ALERT - Dust swept from the Sahara desert provides life at the bottom of the marine food chain with a critical nutrient. Without the iron carried far and wide in this mineral cloud, oceanic phytoplankton would struggle to bloom. According to a new study led by the University of California, Riverside, the more time...
By Tessa Koumoundouros | Science Alert |

The Sun Will Destroy the Earth One Day, Right? Maybe Not.

THE NEW YORK TIMES - In six billion years the sun will expand into a red giant. That process should consume Mercury, and maybe Venus. For a long time we have thought it might incinerate Earth, too. But perhaps all is not doomed for planet Earth (although it may be a world that will have...
By Jonathan O’Callaghan | The New York Times |

House Fly Resistance to One Neonic Insecticide Doesn’t Extend to Others, Study Shows

ENTOMOLOGY TODAY - Originally from central Asia, the house fly (Musca domestica) is found pretty much anywhere humans live. In large numbers it can be a nuisance, and it is known to transmit more than 200 pathogens to humans and animals. One of the most common methods to control house flies are toxic baits, which...
By Andrew Porterfield | Entomology Today |

Oceanic life found to be thriving thanks to Saharan dust blown from thousands of kilometers away

FRONTIERS - Scientists from the US measured the relative amounts of ‘bioreactive’ iron in four sediment cores from the bottom of the Atlantic. They showed for the first time that the further dust is blown from the Sahara, the more iron in it becomes bioreactive through chemical processes in the atmosphere. These results have important...
By Michiel Dijkstra | Frontiers |

California Mountain Towns Are Too Risky for Insurers, but Residents Want to Stay

THE NEW YORK TIMES - The snow-blanketed peaks, fishing holes and cool alpine air of the San Bernardino Mountains have beckoned Southern Californians for generations. As far back as the 1880s, travelers braved a 6,000-foot climb in horse-drawn carriages to reach the pine forests that now surround the resort towns of Lake Arrowhead and Big...
By Soumya Karlamangla | The New York Times |

Cells Across the Tree of Life Exchange ‘Text Messages’ Using RNA

QUANTA MAGAZINE - For a molecule of RNA, the world is a dangerous place. Unlike DNA, which can persist for millions of years in its remarkably stable, double-stranded form, RNA isn’t built to last — not even within the cell that made it. Unless it’s protectively tethered to a larger molecule, RNA can degrade in...
By Annie Melchor | Quanta Magazine |
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