U.S. NEWS - The pesky insects may be attracted to a chemical cocktail of odors emanating from the skin, according to a new study. The draw is a combination of carbon dioxide plus two chemicals, 2-ketoglutaric and lactic acid, researchers said. The chemical cocktail not only causes a mosquito to locate and land on its...
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...
SPACE.COM - A shift in Jupiter's orbit could make Earth's surface even more hospitable to life than it already is, new research suggests. 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...
FORBES - Of all known planets, Earth is as friendly to life as any planet could possibly be—or is it? If Jupiter's orbit changes, a new study shows Earth could be more hospitable than it is today. When a planet has a perfectly circular orbit around its star, the distance between the star and the...
LOS ANGELES TIMES - The cheerleader for Public Enemy No. 1 greeted me at the gates to UC Riverside’s Agricultural Experiment Station with a smile and some choice words. “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...
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”...
VICE - Oxygen is one of the key ingredients for life as we know it on Earth, and its abundance or scarcity hugely influences the types of creatures that can survive in any given environment. Marine animals, for instance, are dependent on ocean currents to circulate dissolved oxygen into their habitats; whole ecosystems can get...
THE ATLANTIC - By the time a cell senses that it’s been infected by a virus, it generally knows it is doomed. Soon, it will be busted up by the body’s immunological patrol or detonated by the invader itself. So the moribund cell plays its trump card: It bleats out microscopic shrieks that danger is...
THE DAILY MAIL - A research team believes that they may have found a cure for baldness by preventing chemical buildups that can cause it to occur in the first place — and even use it to regenerate a person's hair after it is lost. Modelling at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), found that...
POPULAR SCIENCE - Saturn boasts the most iconic rings in our solar system, but it is not the only planet to have them. Images released earlier this month from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) gave the world a glimpse of Jupiter’s rings, though they are much darker and fainter than Saturn’s. Until now, astronomers...
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. The...
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...
CNET - It's made of gas, yet more than twice as massive as every other planet in our solar system combined. It's surrounded by 79 separate moon companions, one of which is the leading candidate in the quest to find extraterrestrial life. It's even named after the king of the ancient Roman gods. Jupiter seems...
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...
SLATE - In a sunlit backyard somewhere in northeast Los Angeles, a homegrown citrus tree blossoms. A stranger stands a few meters back in contemplation. She scans the tree’s billowing foliage. She moves in, grabs a fruit, and turns it over in her hands, looking for the telltale green flush at the navel. It’s the...
LOS ANGELES TIMES - Attention, art lovers of Southern California: There’s a new museum in town. Earlier this month, the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture of the Riverside Art Museum officially opened its doors to the public. The center is already making history as the only permanent art space to exclusively showcase...
SLASHGEAR - The search for alien life may get easier thanks to something that has been right here on Earth for a long time. Some scientists believe studying ancient bacteria may provide clues on how to find life elsewhere in the universe. UC Riverside astrobiologist Edward Schwieterman, who co-authored the study, believes the differences between...
THE DAILY BEAST - Cast your mind back to your fifth grade biology class when you first learned about photosynthesis, the process where plants use energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose for food. Lose the sunlight, and the tomatoes you planted this spring aren’t likely going to last very long...
GIZMODO - Some of California’s most crucial insects seem to have gone missing. A new study suggests that populations of once-abundant bumble bee species in California may have experienced serious decline, after researchers conducted the first statewide survey of bumble bee species in 40 years. Unlike their popular cousins, bumble bees don’t create honey for...
RESEARCH OUTREACH - Wound healing is highly regulated, but oxidative stress (OS) can disturb this healing process in chronic wounds. To better understand the process of initiating chronicity, Dr Manuela Martins-Green and her colleagues at the University of California investigated the impact of increased OS levels on wound healing by stimulating chronic wound development in...
