AXIOS - Meet the "Luna," a new variety of avocado grown on a smaller tree and easier to harvest than the dominant Hass breed. Why it matters: The Hass, with its creamy texture and wonderful taste, has fueled our love affair with guacamole and avocado toast. A competitive alternative could make supplies of the fruit...
CBS 8 NEWS - Seventeen people have died so far this year in Baja California from a disease carried by ticks, according to the state’s health secretary Adrian Medina Amarillas. Eight of the deaths were reported in Tijuana. Ticks can transmit Rickettsia, which can lead to serious illness if it goes untreated. “In a worst-case...
CIVIL EATS - As drought dries up the shallow sea, near a half-million farmable acres in the Imperial Valley, farmworkers living nearby are exposed to toxic dust and airborne pollution from algae blooms. Asthma, allergies, and other health impacts are rising at alarming rates. There are no EPA regulatory air quality monitors in the region...
FORBES - 3.5 billion people. That’s how many of us are alive today thanks to an innovation many people have probably never heard of: the Haber-Bosch process. Invented back in the early twentieth century, the chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch figured out how to cheaply turn atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, a nitrogen-rich compound that...
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - UC Riverside entomology students have a new place to do their fieldwork — next door to the campus entomology museum. The Entomology Teaching Garden, which is open to the public, will serve as an “outdoor classroom and living laboratory for faculty and students,” a UCR news release states. The plant-filled garden is...
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Murals have been flourishing across Riverside in recent years. And David Eastmond is tracking them down. Eastmond, a professor emeritus in UC Riverside’s Department of Molecular, Cell & Systems Biology, said he had more time on his hands after retiring in 2020, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic began. So the longtime Riverside...
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Hummingbirds are a reminder to appreciate and discover the wonder of nature. Throughout my time studying hummingbirds they have taught me many lessons. I have learned about the sounds they make, where they live, what they eat, where they nest and about the incredible feats of athleticism they display. Hummingbirds have also...
ENTOMOLOGY TODAY - During his Ph.D. work at the University of California, Riverside, Jake Cecala, Ph.D., conducted a project looking at the effects of irrigation and pesticide use in ornamental plants on solitary bee reproduction. The project comprised 20 mesh flight cages set up in a field at the campus agricultural station. Each cage had...
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - More than 7,000 UC Riverside graduates are celebrating their accomplishments, many at commencements this week. Most ceremonies had a change of venue this year. For the first time, many UCR graduations are being staged at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, rather than on campus, because of amenities such as air conditioning and...
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Jacaranda trees are hard to miss. The trees that bloom lavender-blue flowers and can be seen in front yards and parks appear to be blooming late this year. So why are jacaranda trees late to bloom? Andrew C. Sanders, UC Riverside’s Herbarium curator and museum scientist, said the blooms seems normal to...
EARTH.COM - In an unprecedented machine learning study, the most effective drug combinations to prevent COVID-19 from returning, following initial infection, have been discovered. However, these combinations are not universally effective, but vary between patients. The research was led by experts at the University of California, Riverside, utilizing real-world data from a Chinese hospital. “That...
EARTH.COM - We often find ourselves racing against the clock to squeeze all our tasks into a 24-hour day. However, had we been residents of Earth billions of years ago, the struggle would have been even more pronounced. Surprisingly, our planet’s day length wasn’t always this long. A study led by Ross Mitchell, a geophysicist...
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN - A few weeks ago, I arrived hungry to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City, ready for a unique culinary experience. Finalists of NASA and the Canadian Space Agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge had come from all across the planet to demonstrate how future astronauts might grow their own food. I...
SCIENCE - For the first astronauts to visit Mars, what to eat on their 3-year mission will be one of the most critical questions. It’s not just a matter of taste. According to one recent estimate, a crew of six would require an estimated 10,000 kilograms of food for the trip. NASA—which plans to send...
INTERESTING ENGINEERING - Northwestern scientists have discovered a new method for helping aging hair regrow in mice. The method relies on hair follicle stem cells getting stiff as they age, making it harder for them to grow hair. But if the hair follicle’s stem cells are softened, they are more likely to produce hair. Northwestern...
By Loukia Papadopoulos | Interesting Engineering |
NBC 7 - The Salton Sea was once a famed desert oasis. Southern Californians would flock to the Imperial Valley to soak up the sun and spend time with family and friends. Now it could see renewed prosperity. “I’m optimistic of the outcome,” UC Riverside Professor Michael McKibben, Ph.D. said. Companies like Energy Source Minerals...
CNN - Is it the new California Goldrush? This time lithium though - a critical metal set to be extracted from underneath California's Salton Sea. Lithium is key for electric car batteries. As demand skyrockets for electric vehicles, a new lithium rush could save the dying Salton Sea and supercharge America's EV industry. Michael McKibben...
THE DAILY MAIL - In an industrial wasteland in Los Angeles, Kreigh Hampel is uprooting California buckwheat with a pitchfork to find out how much lead it has absorbed. The plant's delicate white and pink flowers belie an astonishing cleaning power, which scientists think could be harnessed to get rid of dangerous pollutants -- and...
ABC 7 - It's something a lot of people have noticed around Southern California lately: bugs. Bugs, bugs and more bugs, everywhere you look. "All of those rains have resulted in more water, specifically more stagnant water in areas throughout the state and Southern California," said Dr. Alec Gerry, an entomologist at the University of...
FORBES - Thousands of honey bees leave a cluster of wooden boxes and rush towards a vast grove of almond trees bursting with white flowers. It’s sweet-smelling springtime in California’s Central Valley, and the bees are about to cross-pollinate one of the country’s top cash crops. The bee colony, and the orchard, are owned by...