Skip to main content

College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

Latest CNAS in the Media

Here’s a great new tool to help protect butterflies in your area

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - A look at our local Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species and share some tips on how to protect them. New conservation tool One of the ways you could help butterflies and moths in your local area is by creating a space with plants they are attracted to. Chris Cosma, a recent Ph.D...
By Kurt Snibbe | The Press-Enterprise |

RFK Jr. revealed he had a parasitic brain worm. Here’s what to know.

THE WASHINGTON POST - Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed that he was diagnosed with mercury poisoning around the same time doctors discovered a parasitic worm in his brain, adding to questions about cognitive fitness that have roiled the 2024 campaign. “It’s not necessarily a problem right away to have this infection, but it’s...
By Fenit Nirappil | The Washington Post |

Turns out JWST hasn’t found life in another planet…yet

COSMOS MAGAZINE: In 2023, an exoplanet made international headlines because James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations suggested that the planet has a “biosignature” – signs of gas in its atmosphere produced by “life.” A new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters pricks a hole in this hypothesis. K2-18b is a planet orbiting a star...
By Evrim Yazgin | Cosmos Magazine |

Did the James Webb Space Telescope really find life beyond Earth? Scientists aren't so sure

SPACE.COM - Recent reports of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) detecting signs of life of a distant planet outside the solar system are, unfortunately, somewhat premature. That's the conclusion of research conducted by scientists from the University of California Riverside (UCR). While likely to disappoint all of us eager for the confirmation of extraterrestrial...
By Robert Lea | Space.com |

JWST’s detection of life on alien planet could be a premature claim

INTERESTING ENGINEERING - Earlier this year, reports emerged that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had likely found signs of life on a distant alien planet. Celebrations were premature, according to a new study on the findings. Not all hope is lost, though, as the new paper also outlines how the telescope might still verify...
By Chris Young | Interesting Engineering |

No, the James Webb Space Telescope probably didn't detect signs of alien life — but it soon could

LIVE SCIENCE - The contentious exoplanet, called K2-18b, is a warm, watery world with a hydrogen-based atmosphere. Located about 120 light-years from Earth, it sits in the habitable zone around its home star, where liquid water (and, therefore, potentially life) is possible. The distant world made headlines last year after observations with JWST's Near Infrared...
By Brandon Specktor | Live Science |

Scientists discover $540 billion worth of 'white gold' sitting beneath giant lake

UNILAD - Scientists have discovered $540 billion worth of 'white gold' sitting underneath a huge lake. Located in southern California, Salton Sea is the largest in the state and sits on a lithium reservoir. While scientists knew that the chemical element was there, they didn't know just how much lithium was beneath the lake -...
By Lucy Devine | UNILAD |

Medium-sized dogs have a greater risk of developing cancer

EARTH.COM - Medium-sized dog breeds are more prone to cancer than both the smallest and the largest breeds, according to a recent study led by the University of California, Riverside. These findings challenge the multistage model of cancer, which associates increased size within a single species to a heightened risk of cancer due to more...
By Andrei Ionescu | Earth.com |

Why alien life might look purple

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - When inspecting the cosmos for potentially habitable worlds, scientists have long looked for the color green. Green is the fundamental color of life on Earth, after all. But what if life on faraway planets wasn’t green at all? In fact, what if it were purple? Signatures of habitable worlds Astronomers look for...

By Alice Sun | National Geographic |

Inhospitable Venus could hold clues to finding extraterrestrial life

COSMOS MAGAZINE - A new paper argues that the search for life outside our planet could be aided by looking in an unexpected place: the extremely hot, toxic planet Venus. Venus is uninhabitable. It’s like our planet’s evil twin, with a diameter only 5% smaller than Earth’s. But the average surface temperature on Venus is...
By Evrim Yazgin | Cosmos Magazine |

How the ‘hellish’ planet Venus can help us find alien life

EARTH.COM - Despite its extreme conditions, featuring surface temperatures that can melt lead, volcanoes that spew lava, and thick clouds of sulfuric acid, Venus provides invaluable insights into the search for life on other planets, according to a new study from UC Riverside. “We often assume that Earth is the model of habitability, but if...
By Andrei Ionescu | Earth.com |

UC Riverside to honor Nobel laureate and physicist Barry Barish

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - UC Riverside will salute physicist and Nobel laureate Barry Barish for winning the 2023 National Medal of Science in October. Barish, a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at UCR, joined the university in 2018. The National Medal of Science is the highest recognition in the nation for scientists and engineers. The...
By Staff Report | The Press-Enterprise |

Venus Exploration Remains Key To Understanding Exo-Earths, Says Paper

FORBES - To paraphrase Winston Churchill, our sister planet Venus remains a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Remarkably similar in size, mass, and bulk makeup, today, Earth and Venus couldn't be more different. Earth is an ecological utopia while Venus is a poster child for planetary desolation. The conventional view is that...
By Bruce Dorminey | Forbes |

Tall flowers, dead shrubs, ephemeral lake: Death Valley has become a picture of climate whiplash

NBC NEWS - In California’s boom-and-bust climate, Death Valley has offered some of the strangest scenes over the past few years. Some of the area’s perennial creosote bushes died back during a severe drought that hampered the region through 2022. Then torrential downpours — from the remnants of Hurricane Hilary and subsequent storms — revived...
By Evan Bush | NBC News |

Radiating exoplanet discovered in “perfect tidal storm”

UNIVERSE TODAY - Can tidal forces cause an exoplanet’s surface to radiate heat? This is what a recent study accepted to The Astronomical Journal hopes to address as a team of international researchers used data collected from ground-based instruments to confirm the existence of a second exoplanet residing within the exoplanetary system, HD 104067, along...
By Laurence Tognetti | Universe Today |

A one-shot vaccine for COVID, flu and future viruses? Researchers say it's coming

SALON - But what if it were possible to protect against COVID and the flu, and other unknown viruses that haven't yet emerged, with just one shot? If that became reality, seasonal or annual boosters would be part of the past. And what if such vaccinations didn't even require a needle? While those possibilities may...
By Nicole Karlis | Salon |

Researchers solve mystery of inexplicably dense galaxy at the heart of perfect 'Einstein ring' snapped by James Webb telescope

LIVE SCIENCE - Researchers may have solved the mystery of why a distant galaxy surrounded by an eerily perfect "Einstein ring" is denser than it should be: The hefty galaxy, which was discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is being compressed by a massive halo of dark matter. In a new study, published...
By Harry Baker | Live Science |

Dangerous bacterial disease reported in multiple dogs in Southern California

KTLA 5 LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control has issued an animal health advisory after four dogs tested positive for a potentially deadly bacterial disease. The advisory was issued earlier this month after four infected dogs arrived at an emergency veterinary center in Pasadena between June 2023 to...
By Travis Schlepp | KTLA 5 |

Increased CO2 is making wildfires more frequent by making plants grow faster

EARTH.COM - We tend to think of wildfires as being caused by hot weather and drought. And for good reason – those weather conditions make plants tinder-dry. But a new study from the University of California, Riverside is flipping that idea on its head. Turns out, the biggest culprit in mega wildfires might be something...
By Sanjana Gajbhiye | Earth.com |

'One and Done': Scientists Develop Vaccine That May Fight Any Viral Strain

U.S. NEWS - Genetics-based “one-and-done” vaccines for the flu and COVID could prove more effective and easier to craft than current jabs, researchers report. These new vaccines would target viruses using a different response to infection than what is prompted by current vaccines, researchers said. “What I want to emphasize about this vaccine strategy is...
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter | U.S. News & World Report |
Let us help you with your search