Latest Blog Posts

What Can I Do With a Global Disease Biology Degree?

Tatiana Muniz — February 03, 2025

Interested in learning about health and disease in humans, animals and the environment on a global scale? Then consider a degree in global disease biology.

Long-Term Study on Health Impacts of Los Angeles Wildfires Launched

Katherine E Kerlin — January 31, 2025

In an unprecedented collective scientific effort to understand the short- and long-term health impacts of wildfires, researchers from four universities have launched a 10-year study of the Los Angeles fires. The wildfires that began in early January 2025 killed 29 people, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and exposed millions to toxic smoke.

The research aims to evaluate which pollutants are present, at what levels, and where, and to assess the respiratory, neurological, cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune system impacts of the wildfires.

Keeping the band together

Isabella E Beristain — January 30, 2025

Missing your friends and family is a normal part of the college experience. Here are ways to keep in touch with your loved ones when you’re feeling homesick.

Weekender: Ruby Neri and Her Art, Thiebaud Endowed Lecture, New Art Coming to Gorman

Jamie Sara Gelfond — January 30, 2025

Welcome to the weekend (almost)

In this week’s Arts Blog, you can catch artist Ruby Neri talking about her art at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art and an opera at The Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. (Tickets are almost out for the opera though). Also, the annual Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed lecture features Mexican American painter Enrique Chagoya. All these events are free. And there’s much more.

First Opera by Black American — Brought to Light by UC Davis Historian — Gets Its Due

Karen Michele Nikos — January 30, 2025

Digitized version of original opera by Edmond Dédé uncovered in historian Sally McKee's research.

Creating Nanoislands for Better Platinum Catalysts

Andy Fell — January 28, 2025

Noble metals such as platinum can make useful catalysts to accelerate chemical reactions, particularly hydrogenation (adding hydrogen atoms to a molecule). The research team led by Professor Bruce Gates at the UC Davis Department of Chemical Engineering is interested in making platinum catalysts that are highly efficient and stable during chemical reactions.

New Angle Etching Technique for Making Quantum Devices

Andy Fell — January 24, 2025

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have demonstrated an angle etching method for fabricating quantum photonic devices at the wafer scale in silicon carbide.

Color centers are the essential hub for photons (particles of light) in quantum devices. They are the components that emit and maintain photons, functioning as a quantum memory bank. However, they are challenging to fabricate, particularly for the industrial development of quantum technology.

Weekender: 10th Annual Tea Colloquium; New Exhibits Opening

Jamie Sara Gelfond — January 23, 2025

This year’s annual Valente Lecture features Emily Zazulia on Medieval Music

Thursday, Jan. 23, 4-5:30 p.m., Everson Hall Room 266

Developing Molecular Windows to Advance Health

Andy Fell — January 16, 2025

The image is like an abstract stained-glass window. Set against a black background, a nexus of fluorescent greens, yellows and blues mushrooms out into purples and deep reds. It’s striking — the beauty of cells when viewed through the lens of mass spectrometry.

How Does Kumbh Mela Connect India's Present to its Past?

Karen Michele Nikos — January 16, 2025

People from all walks of life in India are now gathering for the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Ganges River where it meets and mixes with the water of the Yamuna and Sarasvati. The Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, which takes place every 12 years, and is the largest, pulls together multiple strands of India’s deep cultural past and its status today as the second-most populous nation in the world with international influence and ambition to reach for the stars.

Weekender: Exciting Art Lectures, Music, More

Jamie Sara Gelfond — January 16, 2025

Experience Dvořák Wind Serenade for this week’s noon concert

Thursday, Jan. 16, 12:05 p.m., Shinkoskey Noon Concert, Recital Hall at Ann E. Pitzer Center, free

Program

Antonín Dvořák: Serenade in D Minor, op. 44, B. 77

Robert Schumann: Selections from Six Studies in Canon Form, op. 56
with Cindy Behmer, oboe, Susan Lamb Cook, cello, and I-Hui Chen, piano

Ongoing Art in Davis: Winter 2025

Jamie Sara Gelfond — January 16, 2025

Warm up from the winter cold at the Gorman Museum of Native American Art through Jan. 26

Brenda Mallory’s exhibit, including the red mixed media piece you see here, will be on display at the Gorman Museum of Native American Art until Jan. 26.

Is This Universe Tuned to Support Life?

Andy Fell — January 10, 2025

For life to flourish, the universe had to meet a nesting doll of conditions. The quantum fluctuations that led to the Big Bang had to be just right to kickstart the cosmological chemistry necessary for star, galaxy and planetary formation. Eventually, conditions on one of these planets — Earth — were just right to support the rise of organic matter, leading to the evolution of life. Leading to us.

Was the universe tuned to support life? Or was it cosmological happenstance?

Weekender: New Year, New Art

Jamie Sara Gelfond — January 09, 2025

Welcome to the new year

This month, the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art will open two new exhibitions focusing on women artists, including Ruby Neri, a Los Angeles artist who is the daughter of the late Manuel Neri, UC Davis professor emeritus and sculptor. You will have to wait until next month for the Gorman Museum of Native American Art's mid-winter exhibition, but enjoy now beautiful mixed media in Brenda Mallory: In the Absence of Instruction until Jan. 26.

Postcards from the Edge (of Davis) and Cookbooks through the Ages at Library

Jamie Sara Gelfond — January 07, 2025

Shields Library at UC Davis has incorporated two new exhibits onto its main floor, allowing students, faculty and staff to take a break to learn about the history of Davis through postcards as well as how cultures preserve their histories through cooking. If you want to have a peek at how life was like before social media and recipe web sites, have a look. It's worth a visit.

A Legacy of Jimmy Carter: Craft Beer

Andy Fell — January 06, 2025

With the passing of Jimmy Carter, it is perhaps worth mentioning one small legacy from his presidency: the legalization of homebrewing and the craft beer revolution.

The Conversation: Why Does Red Wine Cause Headaches?

Karen Michele Nikos — December 18, 2024

Medical accounts of red wine headaches go back to Roman times, but the experience is likely as old as winemaking – something like 10,000 years. As chemists specializing in winemaking, we wanted to try to figure out the source of these headaches.

How to relax while you wait for admission decisions

Isabella E Beristain — December 18, 2024

Dear students,

Congratulations! You submitted your college applications. This marks a major milestone in your academic journey. Feel proud of the effort, time and dedication you put in over the last couple of months. Now comes the dreaded waiting period — a time filled with both anticipation and nerves.

This holiday season I want to share some advice to help you navigate this time with a sense of calm and balance.

Solving the Moving Sofa Problem

Andy Fell — December 13, 2024

Korean mathematician Jineon Baek may have come up with a proof for a long-standing problem: What is the largest object that can fit around a corner of a certain size?

Weekender: A Last Look at Exhibits; Film Screening

Jamie Sara Gelfond — December 12, 2024

Get 'Last Look' at fall quarter exhibits at Manetti Shrem; check out art, gifts at Gorman

In addition to regular hours through Dec. 22, special hours are Saturday, Dec. 28 and Sunday, Dec. 29, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, 254 Old Davis Road

Gorman Museum of Native American Art: exhibition and gift shop hours until Dec. 22, 181 Old Davis Road