Science & Tech

May 17, 2011

UCSB Professor Returns from Gulf Spill Trip

By Will Kincannon

On April 20, 2010, the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded, spewing almost five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This was the largest marine spill in history. David Valentine, a UCSB earth sci...

May 17, 2011

UC Briefs

By Nader Heidari, Tiare Hoegerman

Scientists Find New Treatment for Kidney Disease Two researchers at UCSB, associate professor Thomas Weimbs and graduate student Jeffery Talbot, recently published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academ...

May 17, 2011

A Glass a Day May Keep Doctor Away

By Kiyan Rajabi

Researchers in France have discovered that resveratrol and polyphenols — two organic compounds commonly found in grapes — may aid in the prevention of type II diabetes.

May 10, 2011

Brain Reacts Similarly to Unhealthy Foods and Addictive Drugs

By Kiyan Rajabi

When someone says that a certain brand of candy is as addictive as crack, they might not be as far off as one might think. In a recent study published by Yale University in the Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers...

May 10, 2011

Scientists Research Impact of Household Energy Use in Cities

By Brittany Avila

Two UCSB geography professors have completed a study of household environmental effects on urban ecosystems, which was published in the April issue of the journal Ecological Applications. Professors Joe McFadden and Jenn...

May 3, 2011

Flexible Brains Bring Better Learning Skills

By Daily Nexus Staff

A recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences may provide researchers with a framework to help determine a person’s learning capacity for motor activities. Scientists from ...

April 25, 2011

Mollusk Sees World Through Mineral Eyes

By Tiare Hoegerman

A recent study co-authored by Daniel Speiser, a postdoctoral fellow at UCSB’s Dept. of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology, provides strong evidence that the chiton, a simple mollusk, has developed eyes essentially ma...

April 19, 2011

Species Variance Helps Remove Water Pollutants

By Tiare Hoegerman

A study completed and authored by former UCSB biologist Bradley J. Cardinale confirms biodiversity as the driver of nutrient uptake in streams — a process which acts as the ecosystem’s natural cleaning system. Perfor...

April 12, 2011

UC Science Briefs

By Tiare Hoegerman

Researchers Help Henhouses By Fighting Pests With Pests Researchers from UC Riverside have found that when it comes to parasites found on chickens, two wrongs just may make a right. According to the researchers, another ...

April 12, 2011

Study Makes Top 40 List to Help Focus Research

By Daily Nexus Staff

A plethora of scientists have released a set of 40 questions that they believe will help guide collaboration between scientific researchers and policy makers on conservation issues in the U.S. The compilation of inquirie...

March 29, 2011

Biocontrol Beetle Beats Back Problematic Plant Species

By Tiare Hoegerman

According to a recent study, in which two UCSB scientists were collaborating authors, the troublesome invasion of the tamarisk — a non-native tree which has overrun rivers in the western U.S. — can be controlled thro...

March 1, 2011

Open Source Community Convenes for Southern California Linux Expo

By Nader Heidari

Casual users, software developers, hardware manufacturers and open-source all-arounders met in the Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel for the ninth Southern California Linux Expo, or SCALE 9x.

March 1, 2011

Siberian Lake Ecology Linked to Atmosphere

By Brittany Avila

UCSB’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis has analyzed data collected from Lake Baikal in Siberia and found relations between atmospheric pressures and seasonality of the lake, which affect its overa...

February 22, 2011

Spectrometry Method Reveals Self-Assembly Process of Peptides

By Nader Heidari

Scientists at UCSB have used a new spectroscopic method to observe the assembly of amyloid fibrils — long-chain proteins that form in patients with certain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes.

February 15, 2011

CNN To Broadcast Documentary About UCSB Researchers

By Internexus

UCSB professor Kenneth Kosik’s research on Alzheimer’s disease in Colombia was featured in the documentary “Filling the Blank,” which will air Feb. 19 on CNN. The program follows the work of Kosik and other resea...

February 15, 2011

Kepler Mission Identifies Possibly Habitable Planets

By Brittany Avila

UCSB scientists Tim Brown and Avi Shporer are involved in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Kepler mission, which has recently added 54 new planet candidates in the habitable zone of a star, bringing ...