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News Archive - Kim McDonald

Tiny Parasite May Contribute to Declines in Honey Bee Colonies by Infecting Larvae

May 27, 2015

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that a tiny single-celled parasite may have a greater-than expected impact on honey bee colonies, which have been undergoing mysterious declines worldwide for the past decade.

Biology Students Join Hundreds of Undergraduates Across Nation to Co-Author Genomics Research Paper

May 14, 2015

An unusual genomics research paper published this month by 940 students at 63 universities around the nation provided 16 undergraduate biology students at UC San Diego with an opportunity to conduct original research in a classroom setting, while becoming co-authors in a peer‐reviewed scientific journal.

New Genetic Method Promises to Advance Gene Research and Control Insect Pests

March 19, 2015

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a new method for generating mutations in both copies of a gene in a single generation that could rapidly accelerate genetic research on diverse species and provide scientists with a powerful new tool to control insect borne diseases such as malaria as well as animal and plant pests.

Meeting on ‘Green Revolution 2.0’ Draws Researchers and New Ideas

March 19, 2015

When students ask Stephen Mayfield what to do when they graduate—what sort of career would provide them with a decent income, expanding professional opportunities and a chance to give back to society—the UC San Diego biology professor is quick to respond.

A Blind Date with Science

January 15, 2015

We’ve all seen them. The senior scientist with his back turned away from the audience, trying to explain a data-filled slide to a puzzled group of nonscientists that has long ago tuned him out. Or the junior professor, head down, reading a lecture word for word in a monotone voice from behind the podium.

Study Sheds Light on What Causes Cells to Divide

December 24, 2014

When a rapidly-growing cell divides into two smaller cells, what triggers the split? Is it the size the growing cell eventually reaches? Or is the real trigger the time period over which the cell keeps growing ever larger? A novel study published online today in the journal Current Biology has finally provided an answer to this long unsolved conundrum. And it’s not what many biologists expected.

York Hall Science Labs Get $6.5 Million Makeover to Help Students Graduate in Four Years

October 30, 2014

Four undergraduate teaching laboratories for biology and chemistry students have undergone a $6.5 million makeover as part of implementation of the UC San Diego Strategic Plan. The renovated labs in York Hall will eliminate a key barrier to students accessing impacted laboratory science courses—making it easier for them to graduate in four years.

Physicists Solve Longstanding Puzzle of How Moths Find Distant Mates

October 20, 2014

Physicists have come up have with a mathematical explanation for moths’ remarkable ability to find mates in the dark hundreds of meters away.

Moderate Levels of ‘Free Radicals’ Found Beneficial to Healing Wounds

October 13, 2014

Long assumed to be destructive to tissues and cells, “free radicals” generated by the cell’s mitochondria—the energy producing structures in the cell—are actually beneficial to healing wounds. That’s the conclusion of biologists at UC San Diego who discovered that “reactive oxygen species”—chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen, such as peroxides, commonly referred to as free radicals—are necessary for the proper healing of skin wounds in the laboratory roundworm C. elegans.

Brain Trust

October 9, 2014

President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative, a federal research effort designed to help researchers answer fundamental questions about how the brain works, has in recent months awarded scientists at UC San Diego with more than $10 million in grants, cementing the campus’s reputation as one of the world’s top centers for neuroscience research.
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