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Research

How Writing Rewires Your Brain to Face Everyday Challenges

February 11, 2026

AI-rendered of hand emerging from a box, holding a pen pressed against paper
Written words can do more than communicate. They can also unlock the writer’s ability to process distress, identify hurtful feelings and take control of personal conflict. Emily Johnston, a writing studies professor at UC Merced, has researched how the act of writing rewires the brain to...

Following a Devastating Pandemic, California’s Sea Stars are Evolving

In 2012, Environmental Systems graduate student Lauren Schiebelhut was collecting DNA from ochre sea stars living along the Northern California coast — part of an effort to study genetic...

Engaging with Spiritual Allies Increases Confidence in Conflict, Studies Show

A new Pew Research survey shows that one-third of Americans have trust in a higher power or spiritual force, whether they call it “god” or not, and two new studies show that people who...

Outstanding Student Awards Celebrate the Cream of the Crop

Verenize Arceo of Winton has represented UC Merced at the state Capitol, but her most recent achievement is closer to home. The history major is among the 20 graduates in the Class of 2018 honored...
Woman in olive shirt rests on railing in front of concrete wall.

Beaudin Named Campus’ Second Winner of Prestigious Pew Award

Biology Professor Anna Beaudin was named a member of the 2018 class of Pew Biomedical Scholars today, one of 22 early-career researchers nationwide to receive this year’s prestigious award...
Headshot of a woman in glasses in front of a shiny glass wall.

Berhe Selected by National Academies to Serve as “New Voice” for Science

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) just announced that they’ve selected Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe to serve as an inaugural member of the Academies’...
A human hand holding half of a brain.

Study Finds That Gene Transcription Can Serve as Brain’s Timekeeper

Neurons keep time. These brain cells – which are responsible for the brain’s “heavy lifting,” from information processing to memory formation – seem to "know"...

Young Artist Movement Making Room for More Art on Campus

Three enterprising Global Arts Studies Program (GASP) students saw the empty UC Merced Art Gallery on campus and, worried the space would be reallocated, wondered why they couldn’t volunteer to...

Students Discover Cannibal Lizards on Remote Aegean Island

It reads like a mashup of Greek mythology and H.G. Wells. “The Odyssey of Doctor Moreau,” perhaps. Explorers find their way to a remote Aegean island and discover it’s inhabited by...

Children’s Museum Pop-Up Arrives Friday

A team of educators, policy makers and community members are working to bring a children’s museum to Merced. To celebrate the museum’s first pop-up exhibit, Merced For Kids, museum...

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