February 20, 2019
February 20, 2019 —
UC San Diego assistant professor in math is one of 126 Sloan Research Fellows in the U.S. and Canada recognized as among the most promising scientific researchers in her field.
February 19, 2019
February 19, 2019 —
A relaunch of the project involving citizen scientists coincides with an Astrophysical Journal Letters publication of an exciting new discovery that challenges the way astronomers think about the long-term evolution of planetary systems.
February 8, 2019
February 8, 2019 —
Combining the biomolecules DNA and RNA, UC San Diego’s Thomas Hermann and his graduate students Alba Monferrer and Douglas Zhang created robust modules that facilitate the self-assembly of polygonal nanoshapes—really tiny triangles, squares, pentagons and hexagons measured at the nanometer scale.
January 30, 2019
January 30, 2019 —
Organic compounds from perfume, food, fabrics and soaps coat indoor surfaces. The film commonly found in our homes can impact the air we breathe and our health. Yet the details of how these compounds interact microscopically with indoor surfaces are not fully known. Researchers are learning more.
November 9, 2018
November 9, 2018 —
An organic chemist who specializes in synthesis, catalysis and developing experimental methods, Valerie Schmidt, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego, recently published an article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society outlining her team’s work on developing a new, low-cost method for chemical syntheses involving the use of ammonia.
November 7, 2018
November 7, 2018 —
After eight years of study, a team of researchers from the University of California San Diego and Johns Hopkins University published new findings about how to read the body’s histone code in the Nov. 7 issue of Science Advances. The findings answer a key question in the dynamic research area of epigenetics—adding chemical tags to DNA and histone proteins to alter cell functions without changing DNA sequence. Understanding the fundamental principles of how epigenetic information is transduced in the cell eventually could lead to developing new drugs for fighting diseases like cancer.
October 16, 2018
October 16, 2018 —
A consortium of nine University of California (UC), including UC San Diego, and 15 California State University (CSU) campuses recently received a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to dramatically increase diversity in physics and astronomy through the Cal-Bridge program. Launched four years ago, Cal-Bridge creates a pathway for underrepresented minority (URM) students from multiple CSU campuses to attend PhD programs in physics and astronomy at UCs across the state. The new NSF grant allows Cal-Bridge to expand from about a dozen URM scholars per year, to as many as 50 statewide, who will benefit from substantial financial support, research opportunities and various workshops.
October 11, 2018
October 11, 2018 —
The American Physical Society (APS) recently announced its 2018 fellowship class with a 77 percent increase in the number of women compared to last year’s class. According to the APS, this is the most women elected as fellows since tracking the number of females nominated and elected began in 2015, when just 13 percent of fellows were women.
September 25, 2018
September 25, 2018 —
Like consumers investing in a pair of body-shaping jeans, the National Science Foundation (NSF) invests in basic research and people to mold the future. So, the government agency awarded more than $500,000 to the University of California San Diego and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) to study, for the first time, the exploration of the electronic and magnetic behavior of one-dimensional (1D) metallic chains. In this case, these are ultra-short chains of atoms that can be fabricated using organic molecules called metallo-phthalocyanine (MPc)—flat molecules with a metal atom at the center commonly used in dyes present in the color of blue denim. The findings could lead to the development of new, smaller and faster electronic devices that can be used in computer memories, as well as to promising careers for future scientists.
September 19, 2018
September 19, 2018 —
The words “fly like an eagle” are famously part of a song, but they may also be words that make some scientists scratch their heads. Especially when it comes to soaring birds like eagles, falcons and hawks, who seem to ascend to great heights over hills, canyons and mountain tops with ease. Scientists realize that upward currents of warm air assist the birds in their flight, but they don’t how the birds find and navigate these thermal plumes.
