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News Archive - Physical Sciences

A Sea Change for Plastic Pollution: New Material Biodegrades in Ocean Water

September 22, 2022

Seeking solutions to counteract a rapid rise in plastic trash, scientists at UC San Diego have developed biodegradable material that is designed to replace conventionally used plastic. In a new study, an interdisciplinary team of researchers has shown that the material biodegrades in seawater.

UC San Diego Receives $1.3M from W. M. Keck Foundation to Study Origins of Dementia

August 16, 2022

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have received a $1.3 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation for a project that could help scientists better understand the role misfolded tau proteins play in causing neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, which may lead to more effective

Best New Dean of Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science

August 5, 2022

Brookie Best, PharmD, has been named the next dean of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego, succeeding James McKerrow, PhD, MD, who stepped down June 30, 2022.

Giant Viruses Build a Cell Nucleus Surprisingly Like Our Own

August 3, 2022

Scientists are using new technologies to obtain unprecedented looks inside viruses and their unique abilities to infect and destroy bacteria. Using cryo-EM and other technologies, they found that jumbo phage cells feature a compartment that is surprisingly similar to the nucleus of human cells.

Researchers Take First-Ever Cryo-EM Images of Nitrogenase in Action

July 28, 2022

For the first time, researchers at UC San Diego report near-atomic-resolution snapshots of nitrogenase during catalysis using cryoEM. The results were published in the journal Science.

The Outer Limits: Future Economic Growth in the Face of Diminishing Resources

July 21, 2022

In the face of diminishing finite resources, UC San Diego Professor of Physics Thomas Murphy believes our current trajectory of economic growth is unable to continue much longer.

Evolve… Innovate… Repeat: Scientists Peel Back the Layers of Virus-Host Evolution and Innovation

July 12, 2022

Scientists have uncovered an intriguing new understanding of how viruses and the hosts they infect evolve new innovations to outcompete each other. Culminating a 10-year research effort, the researchers tracked the way fitness landscapes constantly change in the ongoing struggle for survival.

Awash in Potential: Wastewater Provides Early Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Virus

July 7, 2022

Scientists and physicians at UC San Diego and Scripps Research describe how wastewater sequencing provided dramatic new insights into levels and variants of SARS-CoV-2 on campus and in the broader community — a key step to public health interventions in advance of COVID-19 case surges.

Olga Dudko Receives Prestigious Simons Investigator Award

July 5, 2022

UC San Diego Professor of Physics Olga Dudko has been named a 2022 Simons Investigator, one of the most prestigious awards for a theoretical research scientist. Dudko is a theoretical physicist whose work seeks to establish unifying physical principles in biology.

UC San Diego Atmospheric Chemist Kim Prather Elected to American Philosophical Society

June 14, 2022

Kimberly Prather has been elected to the American Philosophical Society. She is Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry and Distinguished Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego.
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