LOS ANGELES TIMES - If you care about bees — well, let’s be real: If you care about eating (since bees pollinate the plants that produce our food) — two new studies underscore two simple things home gardeners in and around Los Angeles can do to help those busy buzzers live longer, healthier lives: 1...
KVCR - The United Nations released its much anticipated report on climate change on August 9, and the consensus is that our planet is on a course to experience some irreversible changes like sea level rise and more frequent extreme weather events. There is however still time to limit some of the devastation. KVCR's Megan...
THE ATLANTIC - In the race to build the world’s first round of coronavirus vaccines, the spike protein—the thorny knobs that adorn each of the pathogen’s particles—was our MVP. Spike is a key ingredient in virtually every one of our current pandemic-fighting shots; it has been repeatedly billed as essential for tickling out any immune...
BAKERSFIELD.COM - Researchers in Riverside and Maryland may have come up with a breakthrough in the fight against a pest-borne bacterial disease threatening to wipe out California's citrus industry. A kind of virus first spotted in the 1950s, when the leaves on four limequat trees in Indio developed yellow veins, has been found to spread...
LOS ANGELES TIMES - Since the early days of the pandemic, we’ve all wanted to know when and how it will end. Many of us assumed that COVID-19 vaccines were the answer, and the U.S. government poured more than $18 billion into Operation Warp Speed to develop and test them. That research has yielded three...
SCIENCE NEWS - Fingers crossed for finding nothing: July marks the main trapping season to check for Asian giant hornets still infesting Washington state. The first of these invasive hornets found in North America in 2021, in June, was probably not from a nest made this year, scientists say. So that find doesn’t say how...
WAMU - As demand for electric vehicles heats up, there’s concern about a shortage of the key minerals needed to make them. The Biden administration has called for boosting domestic production of such minerals, including lithium for the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. And that has many hoping for big business in a desolate...
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER - “Let’s get started with the latest mid-air meltdown by an unruly air flight passenger that is raising alarms about safety in the sky,” reported Sheryl Underwood on the June 14 episode of The Talk while reading from a Teleprompter. But viewers were quick to spot an unruly passenger over Underwood’s shoulder...
WESTERN FARMPRESS - University of California scientists have discovered genetic data that will help food crops like tomatoes and rice survive longer, more intense periods of drought on our warming planet. Over the course of the last decade, the research team sought to create a molecular atlas of crop roots, where plants first detect the...
SCIENCE NEWS - May 18 (UPI) -- Scientists have identified several new genes responsible for root growth in tomato and rice plants. The discovery, described Tuesday in the journal Cell, could help scientists develop more drought-resistant crop varieties. Root networks operate like a central nervous system, allowing plants to sense their surroundings. Plants use their...
KTNV - All eyes are on COVID-19 vaccines, but researchers are still working on protection against other serious illnesses. A Southern California virologist is racing against the clock to create a vaccine for the Zika virus. Dr. Rong Hai's job is to study viruses and their virulence at the University of California, Riverside. He's also...
PCT Online - The Eastern U.S. is about to see something that hasn't happened since the final episode of Friends aired on NBC: massive swarms of Brood X cicadas. Billions of the red-eyed, black-bodied insects are taking to the skies after 17 years underground, buzzing loudly to attract mates before they die. Not only is...
SALON - Doug Yanega studies insects for a living, yet he has repeatedly missed out on one of North America's most awe-inspiring entomological events: the septdecennial (meaning once every 17 years) emergence of a swarms of cicadas known as Brood X. Part of the reason for this is that Yanega, who works as senior scientist...
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Two bobcat kittens and their mother have been exploring the grounds at UC Riverside’s Botanic Gardens this week. A brief video shared on the gardens’ social media this week shows one kitten treading carefully on the grounds. “Walk softly and you might see our newest additions,” the caption reads. The 40-acre botanical...
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) chooses its members in a process that has long discriminated against female and minority scientists, as well as those from less prestigious universities. But NAS officials have begun to tinker with that process with the goal of increasing gender, racial, and geographic diversity. And this year’s class, announced...
CAPITAL JOURNAL - University of California Riverside researchers identified a gene that allows plants to sense heat. And the discovery could help plants survive global warming, which researchers warned could reduce crop yields by one-third by 2050. Warmer temperatures signal plants that summer is on the way. And in response, plants anticipate less water and...
ALETEIA - We all know the importance of eating well and staying fit, even if it’s not easy, but a recent study really drives the point home. Research by UC Riverside has shown that a healthy childhood can pay dividends later in life. In a medical first, researchers wanted to focus on the combined long-lasting...
PBS - One day a little more than five years ago, Ely Kovetz was having lunch with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, discussing a tantalizing rumor. Like many in the physics community, Kovetz had heard the buzz about a possible signal from a newly operational US physics observatory. The observatory was designed...
California has entered another drought. But depending on whom you ask, the last one may have never really ended. Some researchers believe the region is actually more than two decades into an emerging “megadrought” — a hydrological event that is on par with the worst dry spells of the last millennium. Except this time, they...
Casaundra Caruso was nearly a straight-A student when she transferred from San Bernardino Valley College to UC Riverside in fall 2019. But that quickly — and disastrously — changed. She was overwhelmed by UC Riverside’s fast-paced quarter system and flummoxed by the process of transferring her credits to Riverside. She didn’t know how to seek...
