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Rising Simultaneous Fire Weather Threatens International Firefighting Efforts

February 18, 2026

Depicted is a scene of burned-out trees and ash in the wake of the Caldor Fire.
High-risk conditions for fires are increasingly happening across countries at the same time, making wildfires even more challenging to tackle, new research reveals. Scientists from UC Merced and the University of East Anglia found this synchronized extreme fire weather — characterized by...

Leafhopper Insects Enlighten Researchers About Complex Bacterial Relationships

All complex life evolves in alliance with, in defense of or in reaction to bacteria. A new paper by UC Merced Professor Gordon Bennett demonstrates one of the novel ways the relationship can...

Master Arts Plan Will Play on Campus’s Beautiful Spaces

In some ways UC Merced is still a blank canvas, even 13 years after opening. But that just gives this year’s artist in residence Otto Rigan more room to dream as he helps devise a master...

Anthropology Book Examines Early California and its Native Communities

A new book co-edited by Professor Kathleen Hull highlights nine studies exploring how Native people retained or reimagined their communities in California between 1769 and 1834. “Forging...

New Consortium Seeks to Expose Students to a Galaxy of Opportunities

Imagine exploring the cores of stars to understand — and ultimately control — the type of fusion that’s taking place. High-energy density (HED) science is the study of properties...

Ancient Genomes from the Andes Highlands Reveal Novel Adaptations

The genomes of ancient Andean settlers reveal a complex picture of human adaptation, including when they became able to digest starches and how evolutionary modifications allowed them to live at such...

Psychologists Look to Partner with Merced Babies, Moms for National Study

Psychology Professor Eric Walle ’s Interpersonal Development Lab will recruit local infants and mothers as an important and unique part of a large-scale study focusing on the development of...

Health Communication Researcher Working to Improve Internet-based Medical Information

If you’re an American with Internet access, you’ve probably done it. You get a headache, a sniffle or a mystery bruise, and instead of seeing your doctor, you consult “Dr. Google....

Fundamental Fuel Cell Research Earns Engineer a CAREER Award

To further his fundamental research into solid oxide fuel cells and other high-temperature electrochemical energy systems, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Professor Min Hwan Lee its...

Emergence, Extinction of Massive Ancient Shark to be Explored with NSF Grant

Forty million years after dinosaurs went extinct, one of the largest predators that ever prowled Earth’s oceans emerged, feeding the imaginations of modern scientists and the nightmares of...

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