Better solar panels and wind turbines are important to helping ensure a low-carbon future. But they are not enough. The energy from these intermittent sources must be stored, managed, converted and accessed when it’s needed most. And the cost of the battery systems that do this work needs to drop.
Hubert Staudigel, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, and his collaborators have completed two studies about fossils in volcanic rocks, and the biological activity in some of the earth’s harshest environments.
On June 15, the Qualcomm Institute will kick off its new season of nine works involving residencies and performances funded by the institute’s Initiative for Digital Exploration of Arts and Sciences (IDEAS). The interdisciplinary work, titled CrowdCAVE, will use two of the Qualcomm Institute’s key visualization spaces: the StarCAVE virtual-reality environment, where small groups of visitors are surrounded by a virtual crowd to which they are added; and the large-scale Vroom display wall next door in the Calit2 Theater, which will showcase the full breadth of the virtual group portraiture. “By using the Vroom display wall,” says UC San Diego visual arts lecturer Emily Grenader (MFA ’13), “we will be able to adequately show the ties between individuals at different locations performing in different ways.”
A binational team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission, Mexico Section has launched a new research project aimed at promoting prevention of HIV and other blood-borne infections.
Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego developed a gel filled with toxin-absorbing nanosponges that could lead to an effective treatment for skin and wound infections caused by MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), an antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This nanosponge-hydrogel minimized the growth of skin lesions on mice infected with MRSA – without the use of antibiotics. The researchers recently published their findings online in Advanced Materials.
A factor that determines the properties of clouds that help moderate the planet’s temperature may be decided in the oceans.
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