Irvine, Calif., Nov. 6, 2023 — Agriculture is one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize; people must eat, but the land-use practices associated with growing crops account for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions evaluate a new solution to this problem, one that […]
UC Irvine
National Academies report identifies ways to reduce intergenerational poverty in US
Irvine, Calif., Sept. 25, 2023 — A report released Thursday, Sept. 21, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identifies evidence-based programs and policies, such as increased K-12 spending for school districts serving low-income students, to combat intergenerational poverty in the United States. The comprehensive report – written by a committee chaired by […]
UC Irvine leads regional project to reduce climate change risks in California
Irvine, Calif., Sept. 6, 2023 — A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, in collaboration with cohorts from UC Riverside and UC San Diego, will lead a project that enables tribes and community groups to partner with universities and land managers to reduce climate change risks. A $5.5 million grant from the […]
UC Irvine biologists find what colors a butterfly’s world
Irvine, Calif., Aug. 14, 2023 —As butterflies flit among flowers, they don’t all view blossoms the same way. In a phenomenon called sexually dimorphic vision, females of some butterfly species perceive ultraviolet color while the males see light and dark. University of California, Irvine biologists have discovered that in at least one species, the variation results […]
Human-caused climate change to blame for increase in California’s wildfires
Irvine, Calif., June 12, 2023 – In the quarter century between 1996 and 2020, wildfires in California consumed five times more area than they did from 1971 to 1995. Researchers at the University of California and other international institutions have concluded that nearly all of the increase in scorched terrain can be blamed on human-caused climate change. […]
Wildfires in 2021 emitted a record-breaking amount of carbon dioxide
Irvine, Calif., — Carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires, which have been gradually increasing since 2000, spiked drastically to a record high in 2021, according to an international team of researchers led by Earth system scientists at the University of California, Irvine. Nearly half a gigaton of carbon (or 1.76 billion tons of CO2) was released from […]
UC Irvine researchers find that carbon dioxide pollution dropped on California freeways during pandemic
Irvine, Calif., Dec. 14, 2022 –The COVID-19 pandemic changed the world. One thing it changed right here in Southern California is the way people drive their cars. In a place where freeways, traffic and smog are ubiquitous, Southern Californians drove far less during the pandemic, and that change in behavior resulted in a massive decrease […]
UCI-led study finds prolonged, low-level radon exposure still a leading cause of lung cancer
Irvine, Calif., June 14, 2022 – A study led by the University of California, Irvine shows a strong relationship between prolonged exposure to low levels of radon and lung cancer, indicating a need for enhanced protection measures. Radon gas in the air decays into tiny radioactive particles which can damage lung cells and lead to […]
Human-triggered California wildfires more severe than natural blazes
Irvine, Calif., June 6, 2022 – Human-caused wildfires in California are more ferocious than blazes sparked by lightning, a team led by scientists from the University of California, Irvine reported recently in the journal Nature Communications. The research could help scientists better understand fire severity and how likely a blaze is to kill trees and inflict long-term […]
Prospects for a democratic breakdown in the U.S.
What pathways would lead most directly to democratic failure in the U.S. and why is a breakdown more plausible today than at previous points in recent history? A new essay by Bernard Grofman, Jack W. Peltason Endowed Chair of Democracy and Distinguished Professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine, argues that the […]
UCI study could explain why Parkinson’s drug improves, then diminishes quality of life
Irvine, Calif., Jan. 19, 2022 — A team of University of California, Irvine researchers has discovered a possible reason why L-dopa, the front-line drug for treating Parkinson’s disease, loses efficacy and causes dyskinesia – involuntary, erratic muscle movements of the patient’s face, arms, legs and torso – as treatment progresses. “Paradoxically, the exact therapy that improved […]
UCI-led team of physicists detects signs of neutrinos at Large Hadron Collider
Irvine, Calif., Nov. 24, 2021 — The international Forward Search Experiment team, led by physicists at the University of California, Irvine, has achieved the first-ever detection of neutrino candidates produced by the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN facility near Geneva, Switzerland. In a paper published today in the journal Physical Review D, the researchers describe how […]
Fires in the Sierra Nevada likely to grow in frequency
Irvine, Calif., Nov. 18, 2021 – Naturalist John Muir called the Sierra Nevada “the Range of Light.” But a more ominous nickname, “the Range of Fire,” may lie ahead, according to new research from the University of California, Irvine. By 2040, as humans continue to change the climate, fire-conducive heat waves will become so common that […]
Wind and solar could power the world’s major countries most of the time
Irvine, Calif., Nov. 5, 2021 — With the eyes of the world on the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, strategies for decarbonizing energy infrastructure are a trending topic. Yet critics of renewables question the dependability of systems that rely on intermittent resources. A recent study led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine tackles […]
UCI-led study finds disparities in O.C. rates of COVID-19 infection, mortality
Irvine, Calif., Aug. 19, 2021 — Socioeconomic, geographic and demographic factors all played critical roles in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 mortality among Orange County residents last year, according to a study led by the University of California, Irvine. The findings, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, show that some groups were more likely […]
Climate change is driving plant die-offs in Southern California, UCI study finds
A shift is happening in Southern California, and this time it has nothing to do with earthquakes. According to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, climate change is altering the number of plants populating the region’s deserts and mountains. Using data from the Landsat satellite mission and focusing on an […]
Greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions are lengthening and intensifying droughts
Irvine, Calif., May 17, 2021 — Greenhouse gases and aerosol pollution emitted by human activities are responsible for increases in the frequency, intensity and duration of droughts around the world, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine. In a study published recently in Nature Communications, scientists in UCI’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering showed […]
California’s wildfire season has lengthened, and its peak is now earlier in the year
Irvine, Calif., April 22, 2021 — California’s wildfire problem, fueled by a concurrence of climate change and a heightened risk of human-caused ignitions in once uninhabited areas, has been getting worse with each passing year of the 21st century. Researchers in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine have conducted a […]
UCI’s Tirtha Banerjee probes the physics behind catastrophic blazes
In southern New Jersey, deep in an isolated, desolate forest known as the Pine Barrens, a small group of men trudge through the woods, behind them a charred trail of smoldering underbrush. This is not the work of criminal arsonists but a controlled burn conducted by members of the U.S. Forest Service. Scattered throughout the […]
California schools can reopen safely, UCI pediatricians tell us how
March 3, 2021 – Many students in California have not been inside a classroom since last March. Though low-income students have been affected the most, all kids have had to adjust because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more people are vaccinated, the end of remote learning is in sight, but schools will still need to use […]