News Archive

July 17, 2024 — When it comes to diatoms that live in the ocean, new research suggests that photosynthesis is not the only strategy for accumulating carbon. Instead, these single-celled plankton are also building biomass by feeding directly on organic carbon in wide swaths of the ocean. These new findings from a team led by UC San Diego researchers could lead to reduced estimates regarding how much carbon dioxide diatoms pull out of the air via photosynthesis, which in turn, could alter our understanding of the global carbon cycle, which is especially relevant given the changing climate.

July 16, 2024 — A dozen buildings on the University of California San Diego campus. All of the campus’ solar panels. All the chargers for electric vehicles. More than 2,400 light fixtures. More than 800 smart plugs. These are some of the assets that DERConnect, a NSF-funded testbed for the powergrid, will be able to control on the UC San Diego campus.

July 9, 2024 — Drawing from the expertise of the UC San Diego community, UC San Diego Today presents a list of seven ways that heat impacts health. Through collaboration and innovation, these insights can help pave the way for a healthier future for all.

June 25, 2024 — The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) approved the preliminary design of a first-of-its-kind hydrogen-hybrid research vessel that will join the fleet at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography when completed.

June 18, 2024 — It has become axiomatic in Washington that America must get tough on China. This is evident in clean energy, an industry that is critical to the future, where Chinese suppliers are treated as existential threats rather than vital to America’s success.

June 17, 2024 — New research led by the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy reveals a crucial disparity in how climate change is reported across different types of news outlets and locations.

June 12, 2024 — Emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide or methane – continued unabated between 1980 and 2020, a year when more than 10 million metric tons were released into the atmosphere primarily through farming practices, according to a new report to which researchers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography contributed.

June 7, 2024 — A new study from researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that a poorly understood, highly toxic form of mercury, called dimethylmercury, may be a significant source of monomethylmercury off the California coast. Monomethylmercury is the form known to accumulate in seafood and sicken people. The findings, published June 7 in Environmental Science and Technology, are an essential step toward mapping the sources of monomethylmercury in the oceans.

June 6, 2024 — Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than ever — accelerating on a steep rise to levels far above any experienced during human existence, scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego announced today.

May 16, 2024 — Now funded with a new state grant, a team at UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute is developing “The Climate Games,” an educational video game set in locations already experiencing the impact of a changing climate.