Latest CNAS in the Media

California’s Salton Sea is shrinking because of Colorado River water shortage, research finds

THE HILL - In a study recently published in the journal Water Resources Research, a team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside argue that the lake’s shorelines are receding due to a decrease in water flow from the Colorado River. The Colorado River, which supplies 40 million people with drinking water and irrigates...
By Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech | The Hill |

Laughing gas in space could be a sign of aliens: Scientists says nitrous oxide could be a biosignature for life

THE DAILY MAIL - Astrobiologists believe the presence of laughing gas in a distant planet's atmosphere could indicate life. Dr Eddie Schwieterman, an astrobiologist in UCR’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences said: 'Fewer researchers have seriously considered nitrous oxide, but we think that may be a mistake.' READ THE ARTICLE
By Cassidy Morrison | DailyMail.com |

Looking for life beyond our solar system? Laughing gas could be a sign, new study suggests

USA TODAY - In a study published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers from the University of California, Riverside, Purdue University, American University, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center outline how N2O is a "compelling exoplanet biosignature gas." READ THE ARTICLE
By Wyatte Grantham-Philips | USA TODAY |

Laughing Gas Could Be a Sign of Life on Distant Planets

CNET - "There's been a lot of thought put into oxygen and methane as biosignatures. Fewer researchers have seriously considered nitrous oxide, but we think that may be a mistake," said astrobiologist Eddie Schwieterman in a University of California, Riverside statement on Tuesday. Schwieterman is lead author of a paper on the topic published in...
By Amanda Kooser | CNET |

Jupiter Could Make Earth A Paradise Or A Frozen Wasteland, Say Scientists

FORBES - Our planet contains an estimated 8.7 million species, but vast swathes of its polar regions are lightly inhabited. “If Jupiter’s position remained the same, but the shape of its orbit changed, it could actually increase this planet’s habitability,” said Pam Vervoort, UCR Earth and planetary scientist and lead author of the study, which...
By Jamie Carter | Forbes |

Scent of a Human: What Draws Mosquitoes to People's Skin

U.S. NEWS - "Though others have identified compounds that attract mosquitoes, many of them don't elicit a strong, rapid effect. This one does," said study co-author Ring Cardé, a professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside. Skin odors appear to be the most important for mosquitoes when locating someone to bite, but other...
By Cara Murez | HealthDay Reporter |

Scientists surprised to learn Mexico mangroves have trapped carbon for millennia

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL - According to new research, Mexican mangroves are playing a helpful role in fighting climate change because they have been trapping carbon for thousands of years. Researchers from the University of California, Riverside and University of California, San Diego began the study because they wanted to understand how the mangroves absorb and...
By Doug Cunningham | UPI |

A change in Jupiter's orbit could make Earth even friendlier to life

SPACE.COM - University of California-Riverside (UCR) scientists simulated alternative arrangements of our solar system, finding that when Jupiter's orbit was more flattened — or 'eccentric' — it would cause major changes in our planet's orbit too. And this change caused by the orbit of Jupiter — the solar system's most massive planet by far —...
By Robert Lea | Space.com |

Life On Earth Is Good, But It Can Be Better

FORBES - Using detailed models based on data from the solar system as it is known today, University of California researchers created an alternative solar system. In this theoretical system, they found that if gigantic Jupiter's orbit were to become more eccentric, it would in turn induce big changes in the shape of Earth's orbit...
By David Bressan, Contributor | Forbes |

Has a UC Riverside researcher created the Holy Grail of drought-tolerant lawns?

LOS ANGELES TIMES - “Every time there’s a serious drought, I’m in the L.A. Times,” Jim Baird said, only half-jokingly. “Why is it always a knee-jerk reaction? When it’s not a drought, I don’t hear from you guys. I don’t hear from the water agencies. Then we go through our wasteful ways. ‘Lawns, you’re the...
By Gustavo Arellano | Los Angeles Times |

Weevil pheromones could save California’s avocado orchards

EARTH.COM - Avocado weevils are small beetles with long snouts that drill through fruit to lay their eggs, with their grubs or larvae boring into avocado seeds to feed, and rendering these fruits inedible. Now, a team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has set to find ways of preventing the “evil”...
By Andrei Ionescu | Earth.com |

Scientists Discover New Trigger for Mass Extinction of All Deep Ocean Life

VICE - “We’d need a higher resolution climate model to predict a mass extinction event,” said Andy Ridgwell, a geologist at the University of California Riverside who co-authored the study, in a statement. “That said, we do already have concerns about water circulation in the North Atlantic today, and there is evidence that the flow...
By Becky Ferreira | VICE |

The Coronavirus Has One Strategy We Can’t Vaccinate Against

THE ATLANTIC - These intercellular messages, ferried about by molecules called interferons, serve as a warning signal to nearby cells—“‘You are about to be infected; it’s time for you to set up an antiviral state,’” says Juliet Morrison, an immunologist at UC Riverside. Recipient cells start battening down the hatches, switching on hundreds of genes...
By Katherine J. Wu | The Atlantic |

Is THIS the cure for baldness?

THE DAILY MAIL - Modelling at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), found that when the chemical is in high concentrations it kills hair follicles. But that when the levels are 'just right' it causes them to grow new hairs. Dr. Qixuan Wang, the mathematical biologist at UCR who led the paper, said her research...
By Luke Andrews | DailyMail.com |

Jupiter formed dinky little rings, and there’s a convincing explanation why

POPULAR SCIENCE - “If Jupiter did have them, they’d appear even brighter to us, because the planet is so much closer than Saturn,” Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside and lead author of the study, said in a university press release. When Jupiter is closest to Earth, astronomers estimate it’s about...
By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira | Popular Science |

Corpse flower blooms for first time at UC Riverside

The Press-Enterprise - “Little Miss Stinky,” the corpse flower on display at the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens, has bloomed. At least 1,500 people — a couple wearing homemade “Little Miss Stinky” shirts — lined up outside the botanic gardens’ greenhouse Sunday, July 24 to see the Amorphophallus titanum, the rare corpse plant, in bloom. To...
By Allyson Vargara | The Press-Enterprise |

This will stink: Rare corpse flower ready to bloom at UC Riverside

The Press Enterprise - This rare, beautiful flower is gigantic, other-worldly — and stinky. The amorphophallus titanum, known as a corpse flower plant, is on display in the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens and getting ready to bloom, a UCR news release announced. Affectionately called “Little Miss Stinky” by the gardens staff, the tropical flower blooms...
By Allyson Vergara | The Press-Enterprise |

Scientists Might've Solved the Mystery of Jupiter's Frail Rings

CNET - "We found that the Galilean moons of Jupiter, one of which is the largest moon in our solar system, would very quickly destroy any large rings that might form," Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist from the University of California, Riverside, who led the research, said in a statement. "As a result, it is unlikely...
By Monisha Ravisetti | CNET |

Plants produce aspirin in response to environmental stress

EARTH.COM - A new study led by the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has found that plants are able to protect themselves from environmental hazards such as insects, heat, and drought by producing salicylic acid, which is the main ingredient in aspirin. Better understanding this process could help scientists make plants more resilient to the...
By Andrei Ionescu | Earth.com |

There’s a Citrus Pandemic Lurking in California Backyards

SLATE - Fortunately, researchers in academia and industry are searching for a more permanent fix. A few years ago, Hailing Jin, a plant molecular geneticist at University of California, Riverside, isolated a peptide from the citrus greening–tolerant finger lime tree that confers tolerance in other citrus trees. The peptide can be injected directly into the...
By Casey Rentz | Slate |
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