School of Natural Sciences

Professor Dives with Crocs, Displays Megalodon Expertise During Shark Week

July 17, 2025

Professor Sora Kim swam with a Nile crocodile for this year's Shark Week special, which focuses of sharks versus prehistoric reptiles. Photo courtesy of Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Shark Week starts Sunday and Professor Sora Kim will be featured again this year in a special airing at 9 p.m. Monday, titled “Jaws vs. Mega Croc,” and the filming allowed her to swim with a Nile crocodile. “I flew to Florida and learned about crocodiles – their evolution...

Researchers Melt Snow to See Climate Change Impacts

In a megadrought like the one California is experiencing, people tend to look at how much rainfall has come along. But it also matters when the snowmelt releases its cache, because the snowpack is...

Professor’s Paper in Nature Communications Indicates Deep Sea Changes

Large, naturally occurring low-oxygen zones in the Pacific appear to be expanding, and there is a sharp change in the number of bacteria that produce and consume different forms of toxic sulfur,...

Students Continue Their Acting Careers at UC Merced

TaNayiah Bryels didn’t get the lead role of Mary in her first-grade Christmas pageant, but it did spark a lifelong interest in theater. The UC Merced student has been acting ever since, landing parts...

Valley Fever Lecture Series to Bring Attention to ‘Silent Epidemic’

Valley fever, described as a “silent epidemic” by the Centers for Disease Control, will be explored through a series of wide-ranging talks at the University of California, Merced. Twelve lectures...

Campus Spirit Encouraged Alumna to Pursue Fungi Research

Graduate school is a constant state of discovery, something UC Merced alumna Jackie Shay credits for her current passion: fungus. Shay just returned home from a month in the humid climes of...

Grad Student Crunches Data for Viticulture Lab

Katherine Amrine knows a few things about data analysis. As a UC Merced graduate student, her dissertation described a new way of classifying living things from bits of data gleaned from whole...

Professor Discovers How to Rein in Power of Tiny Particles with Potentially Big Effect

The heat generated by smartphones and other electronic devices could be harnessed to also power them, according to compelling research out of the University of California, Merced. Physics Professor...

Professor Helps Transform Carbon Monoxide into Sickle Cell Treatment

You probably know that carbon monoxide can be lethal. But one UC Merced professor is working to harness its health benefits to treat people with sickle cell disease. Henry Forman, a professor of...

UC Merced Wraps Another Record Year

Between record enrollment and research expenditures, a massive economic impact on the San Joaquin Valley, new buildings and a visit from the new UC president, the University of California, Merced,...