Science

Study of Sugar Pines Reveals Urgent Issue in Protecting Forests from Climate Change

November 20, 2024

Sugar pines are the tallest pine species in the world, and they only grow along the West Coast of North America. They are a valued source of timber with cones as large as an adult’s forearm. But they face several problems that a new paper argues should be quickly addressed. The sugar pine...

Researcher Illuminates the Olfactory Life of Crabs

If you want to know what the ocean really smells like, you’ll have to ask a crab. Yes, crabs have a sense of smell. In humans, chemicals in the air flow into our nasal cavities toward specialized...

Raindrops, Red Wine Inspire Solar Tech Advancements

In recent publications, Professor Vincent Tung proves that inspiration for advancements in materials science can come from anywhere — even the merging of raindrops on a windshield or the sheeting of...

New UC Grant Enables Deeper, Broader Valley Fever Research

Researchers at UC Merced are playing key roles in the new UC Valley Fever Research Initiative, studying how the Valley fever fungus, Coccidioides immitis, causes disease in its mammalian hosts, and...

‘Diverse’ Magazine Names Groundbreaking Professor an Emerging Scholar

The magazine Diverse: Issues in Higher Education has named UC Merced Professor Ala Qattawi an Emerging Scholar of the Year in its first issue of 2017. Qattawi, with the School of Engineering, is the...

Bird Researcher Expands Knowledge About Reserve’s Kestrels

Kestrels are a fixture among the birds on the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve adjacent to campus. Though they are not endangered, the small falcons’ population has declined by...

Genetic Changes Made Native Americans Susceptible to Smallpox, Study Shows

A new study identifies genetic changes in Native Americans that came about when Europeans settled in the Pacific Northwest and might have played a major role in why so many natives died of infectious...

Cognitive Scientist Earns Early Career Impact Award

UC Merced Professor Rick Dale is a recipient of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS) Early Career Impact Award from the Society for Computers in Psychology. Dale...

Students Building Living Machines Out of Engineered Tissues

There are many labs at UC Merced where visitors can see students huddled over microscopes and petri dishes, using tweezers to extract and examine different items. But no one at UC Merced has ever...

Scientists Build Synthetic Cell-Sized Membranes Out of Paper

Scientists have been synthesizing lipid membranes from a variety of materials, making them as lifelike as possible to learn more about how cells work and how they can be manipulated. UC Merced...