SCIENCE ALERT - One of the driest regions in the world is being transformed into a carbon sink through a long-term, large-scale tree planting program, absorbing more greenhouse gases than it emits. It's the result of almost five decades of work around the edges of the Taklamakan Desert in northwestern China, and evidence that with...
FUTURA - These substances are known as plasticisers. They are chemical compounds added to materials to make them softer, more flexible and easier to use. While that might sound harmless, their widespread presence in everyday objects means our exposure is constant. You can find plasticisers in many common household items. Food storage containers, shower curtains...
QUANTA MAGAZINE - I’ve spent a long time exploring the crystalline beauty of traditional mathematics, but now I’m feeling an urge to study something slightly more earthy,” John Baez wrote on his blog in 2011. An influential mathematical physicist who splits his time between the University of California, Riverside and the University of Edinburgh, Baez...
Panel and dinner conversations highlight the breadth of opportunities available to science graduates. Students, alumni and campus partners gathered Feb. 18 at the UC Riverside Alumni and Visitors Center for “Dinner with Alumni: Science Careers Beyond Healthcare,” an evening designed to broaden career exploration and strengthen connections across the Highlander network. Hosted by the Student...
On February 27, CNAS Science Ambassadors served as volunteer judges at the Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair at the Riverside Convention Center, joining educators, industry professionals, and community partners in supporting the region’s next generation of scientists. Hosted by the Riverside County Office of Education, the fair represents the culmination of months of student...
GIZMODO - Despite their tiny size, bed bugs are perhaps the scariest thing a person can realistically encounter in their home. But what do these blood-sucking fiends fear most? The answer, recent research shows, is apparently water. Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, tracked how bed bugs behaved around water. The insects avoided wet...
EARTH.COM - Have you ever wondered if bed bugs are afraid of anything? These tiny blood-sucking insects cause stress in homes around the world. Once bed bugs enter a room, getting rid of them can feel almost impossible. But new research from the University of California, Riverside has revealed something surprising. Bed bugs fear water...
EARTH.COM - After a wildfire tears through a landscape, the destruction looks absolute. Hillsides turn black, trees collapse into ash, wildlife scatters, and the soil itself seems lifeless. Then something unexpected happens. Within days or weeks, life creeps back. Not trees. Not deer. Fungi. Some of these fungi were barely there before the fire. You...
IFLSCIENCE - China has a new Great Wall, but this one isn't built of stone and mortar to repel marauding invaders from the north. Instead, the “Great Green Wall” is a vast belt of trees and shrubs lining the bottom of its northern deserts, designed to halt the steady creep of desertification. New research suggests...
The UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences (CNAS) strengthened its presence in the agricultural community at the 2026 World Ag Expo (WAE), held February 10–13 in Tulare, California, building on last year’s successful debut with an expanded slate of faculty seminars and, for the first time, an interactive pavilion booth. Over three days...
For more than a decade, UC Riverside has been advancing turfgrass research through a revitalized breeding program focused on performance, resilience, and environmental efficiency. One of its most significant outcomes is Coachella Bermudagrass — a new cultivar developed through collaborative research led by UCR Professor and Turfgrass Specialist, James H. Baird, and UCR Professor and...
The University of California, Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences celebrated young scientific achievement on Friday, January 30, 2026, hosting awards ceremonies for both the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) and the Val Verde Unified School District Science and Engineering Fairs. The events marked the culmination of weeks — and in many cases months...
THE WEATHER NETWORK - Scientists may have solved a mystery of how Earth recycles its carbon, and what it could mean for the future. The general understanding of how Earth's climate is regulated is that it happens through the climate-sensitive reaction of carbon dioxide (CO2) removal by the weathering of silicate rocks on land. As...
BIG BIOLOGY PODCAST - What are eco‑evolutionary dynamics and how can we study them in the wild? Why do some fish evolve placentas? In this episode, we talk with David Reznick , Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of California, Riverside. David has spent much of his career studying Trinidadian guppies to understand adaptation...
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - As the world shuttered in 2020 amid Covid-19 lockdowns, scientists expected to see one silver lining to the pandemic: a decrease in air pollution. With fewer cars on the roads and a drop in industrial activity, researchers did notice a dip in daily carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants. But methane, the...
On January 29, 2026, UC Riverside's HUB 302 was filled with an uncommon mix of people: high school students seeing a research campus for the first time, undergraduates imagining what might come next, graduate students reflecting on how far they’ve come, and faculty and campus leaders eager to meet them where they are. The occasion...
Students looking to take the next step in their academic journeys had the opportunity to connect directly with faculty, graduate students, and campus partners during the R’STEM Find Your Research Match event, held on February 3, 2026, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in HUB 302. A collaborative effort between the College of Natural and...
NEWSWEEK - Breathing in lingering, secondhand e-cigarette vapors has the potential to damage lung tissues. This is the warning of a new study by researchers from the University of California Riverside, who found that aged vape aerosols contain fine particles bearing metals and highly reactive compounds that can combine to produce harmful radical particles. "Our...
On January 27, 2026, HUB 302 at the University of California, Riverside was filled with poster boards, lab notebooks, and a steady hum of scientific curiosity as students from across the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) gathered for the district’s annual Science and Engineering Fair. For a few hours, the room became a hub of...
DISCOVER MAGAZINE - Although wildfires are a natural and recurring phenomenon in certain regions, climate change is intensifying their impact. Each year, fires now swallow around four percent of Earth’s land surface, leaving behind vast, unrecognizable charred landscapes. While most living organisms succumb to the flames, certain plants need regular fires to help bring life...
