Driven by Curiosity Content

Recent Volcanoes on the Moon?

Andy Fell — September 04, 2024 - 3:09pm

New results from China’s Chang’e 5 lunar samples returned to Earth provide evidence for active volcanoes on the Moon as recently as 120 million years ago. Previously, scientists had thought that any activity with magma (molten rock) rising to the Moon’s surface ended billions of years ago.

LZ Experiment Sets New Record in Search for Dark Matter

Andy Fell — August 26, 2024 - 3:43pm

Figuring out the nature of dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most of the mass in our universe, is one of the greatest puzzles in physics. New results from the world’s most sensitive dark matter detector, LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), have narrowed down possibilities for one of the leading dark matter candidates: weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs.

Physicist Receives $1.25 Million Grant to Investigate Superconductivity

Andy Fell — August 22, 2024 - 2:09pm

��ϲʿ��ͼ physicist Inna Vishik is among the third annual cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Vishik, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, joins 18 other researchers nationwide who will each receive a five-year, $1.25 million grant to pursue new research goals and explore uncharted, innovative ideas.

No Evidence of a Common Set of Regeneration Genes

Andy Fell — August 19, 2024 - 2:57pm

Some animals, especially those that have been around for a long time in evolutionary terms, possess extraordinary abilities to regenerate lost limbs or organs. These animals, such as flatworms, salamanders and zebrafish, are not at all closely related, suggesting that the ability to regenerate goes far back in evolutionary time. Is it possible to find a common set of genes for regeneration, that could unlock a new understanding of this process?

Can Autonomous Vehicles Dream of Electric Traffic?

Andy Fell — August 08, 2024 - 2:10pm

An engineering professor at the University of California, Davis, is striving to make autonomous vehicles, or AVs, safer by changing how researchers train them.

According to Professor Junshan Zhang of the ��ϲʿ��ͼ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, AVs struggle when confronted with unforeseen events, such as a car driving on the wrong side of the road.

How Plants Become Bushy, or Not

Andy Fell — August 06, 2024 - 3:50pm

For many plants, more branches means more fruit. But what causes a plant to grow branches? New research from the University of California, Davis shows how plants break down the hormone strigolactone, which suppresses branching, to become more “bushy.” Understanding how strigolactone is regulated could have big implications for many crop plants.

The study was published August 1 in Nature Communications.

Humans are Born to Run

Andy Fell — July 30, 2024 - 3:24pm

The 2024 Summer Olympics are in full swing. One of the marquee events is of course the marathon, a grueling test of fitness and athleticism.

When it comes to endurance running, humans are among the very top mammals in their athletic prowess. While we may not be the best sprinters in the animal kingdom, we can run steadily for long distances, even in hot weather. Our locomotor muscles are dominated by slow-twitch, fatigue-resistant fibers and our unique ability to sweat allows our bodies to effectively dissipate heat.

How Uncertainty Builds Anxiety

Andy Fell — June 25, 2024 - 11:45am

Alfred Hitchcock observed that “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” A common way to build suspense in a movie scene is for the audience to know something bad is going to happen, but not when it is going to happen. But how does uncertainty work to ratchet up our anxiety? In a recent paper in the journal Computational Psychiatry, researchers at the University of California, Davis, Department of Psychology take a deeper look into what builds fear.

The Conversation: After the Trump Trial, What Comes Next?

Karen Michele Nikos — June 20, 2024 - 3:41pm

After the May 30, 2024, conviction of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York, what comes next?

Physicists Measure the Very, Very, Very Small

Andy Fell — June 04, 2024 - 10:38am

��ϲʿ��ͼ physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, recently completed a measurement that sets an upper limit on the size of one of the smallest particles known, the tau lepton.