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College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

Latest CNAS in the Media

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 |

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 |

Exotic 'Einstein ring' suggests that mysterious dark matter interacts with itself

SPACE.COM - A fresh analysis of a remarkably massive yet compact galaxy from the early universe suggests that dark matter interacts with itself. The galaxy, JWST-ER1, which formed just 3.4 billion years after the Big Bang, was first spotted last October in images snapped by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). At over 17 billion...

By Sharmila Kuthunur | SPACE.COM |

Universal vaccine may be effective against any variant of any virus

EARTH.COM - Scientists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has recently developed a revolutionary RNA-based strategy for a universal vaccine capable of combating any virus strain effectively and safely – even in infants and the immunocompromised. This innovative approach could transform how vaccines are developed and administered across the globe. Traditionally, vaccines are designed...
By Andrei Ionescu | Earth.com |

New ‘One-And-Done’ Vaccine Method Could Protect Infants—From Covid, Flu—With Just A Single Shot, Study Suggests

FORBES - Researchers are pitching a new vaccine method for infants that offers continued protection with just a single dose, even if the virus mutates, according to a new study that could set the stage for “universal vaccines.” The research team from the University of California, Riverside, believes because this strategy doesn’t rely on the...
By Arianna Johnson | Forbes |

‘Solar-powered vacuum cleaners’: the native plants that could clean toxic soil

THE GUARDIAN - It almost looked like a garden. In Taylor Yard, a former railyard near downtown Los Angeles, volunteers knelt down to tend to scrubby plants growing in neat rows under the sweltering sun. But beneath the concrete of the 60-acre site overlooking the Los Angeles River, the soils were soaked with an assortment...
By Doug Bierend | The Guardian |

Dark matter and Einstein rings solve ancient galaxy mystery

EARTH.COM - A team of researchers led by Hai-Bo Yu, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, has shed new light on the enigmatic nature of dark matter through the lens of an ancient galaxy. The study focuses on JWST-ER1g, a massive ancient galaxy discovered by the James Webb Space...
By Eric Ralls | Earth.com |

Insecticide Spraying Of Trees Shuts Down Crystal Lake Recreation Area

LAIST.COM - If you had plans to visit the Crystal Lake recreation area in the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest this week, you should change them. Officials closed the area Tuesday to spray insecticide on pine trees to protect them from a tree-colonizing beetle. The western pine beetle is small, about 3 to...
By Nate Perez | LAist |

A Virus May Help Save The World’s Amphibians From Extinction

FORBES - A deadly fungus that is devastating frogs and toads around the world may in fact be vulnerable to a virus that can infect it. The fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis also known as Bd or the amphibian chytrid fungus, causes chytridiomycosis in amphibians. This fungus is a pathogen that infects and destroys the skin of...
By GrrlScientist | Forbes |

Could a new virus put an end to the global amphibian pandemic?

EARTH.COM - A team of scientists led by the University of California, Riverside (UCR) may have found a potential weak point in the fight against a fungus decimating frog and toad populations across the globe. The study focused on a virus that infects the fungus responsible for the global amphibian pandemic, offering a possible avenue...
By Andrei Ionescu | Earth.com |

New virus found lurking in the genome of deadly chytrid fungus

COSMOS - There’s new hope today for the future of the globe’s amphibians which are being wiped out by a devastating disease. The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, causes the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis. Now, the first discovery of a virus that infects Bd has been described in a paper in the journal Current Biology, which...
By Imma Perfetto | Cosmos Magazine |
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