News Archive

February 5, 2018 — After the recent discovery and studies of a system of planets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star Trappist-1, a team of international astronomers, including the University of California San Diego’s Adam Burgasser, announced new information about the composition of the seven Earth-sized planets.

February 5, 2018 — In approximately 15 percent of cases where couples are unable to conceive, the underlying cause of infertility is not known. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and in the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego have identified a protein in mice that must be present in eggs for them to complete normal development. Without the protein, called ZFP36L2, the eggs appear ordinary, but they cannot be fertilized by sperm.

February 5, 2018 — The Sun might emit less radiation by mid-century, giving planet Earth a chance to warm a bit more slowly but not halt the trend of human-induced climate change. The cooldown would be the result of what scientists call a grand minimum, a periodic event during which the Sun’s magnetism diminishes, sunspots form infrequently, and less ultraviolet radiation makes it to the surface of the planet. Scientists believe that the event is triggered at irregular intervals by random fluctuations related to the Sun’s magnetic field. A team of scientists led by research physicist Dan Lubin at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego has created for the first time an estimate of how much dimmer the Sun should be when the next minimum takes place.

February 2, 2018 — On the day U.S.A. National Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nasser was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for the sexual assault of minors, researchers at the University of California San Diego were gathered for the recent Sports and Sexual Violence Researcher Think Tank -- a timely and wide-ranging discussion of sexual violence prevention in and through sport.

February 2, 2018 — The War on Drugs has been ongoing for several decades, yet its failure can be felt on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border­­­­­­­­­­­­­­. In the last sixteen years, the opioid epidemic has claimed close to 125,000 lives in the U.S., whereas in Mexico the war on drugs has produced an estimated 200,000 deaths and over 30,000 disappearances in the last decade.

February 1, 2018 — Multidisciplinary issues need multidisciplinary solutions. That's biology major and visual arts minor Anika Ullah's mantra. Ullah believes that when put together, visual media, science and community engagement can serve as powerful tools for gaining insight into current health-related issues, shaping scientific study design and increasing public agency-and she's dedicated her undergraduate career to three local, binational and global projects that accomplish that aim.

February 1, 2018 — UC San Diego will celebrate Black History Month in February with events that pay tribute to legendary figures in African American history. These individuals helped make our nation a better place through activism and service, including 2018 commencement speaker John Lewis, often called "one of the most courageous persons the civil rights movement ever produced."

February 1, 2018 — Three years ago, the campus launched a pilot program to promote interdisciplinary research among undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The idea was to partner them with faculty mentors from at least two disciplines and provide them with funds so they could conduct research with the potential to make a real impact on society.

February 1, 2018 — UC San Diego made big news recently when the campus announced it will be moving to NCAA Division I as a member of the Big West Conference. UC San Diego Athletics has invited the entire campus community—students, faculty, staff and alumni—to celebrate this historic event at Spirit Night on Friday, Feb. 9.

February 1, 2018 — The late Richard N. (“Dick”) Krupp, born in 1930 to a family of Russian Jewish ancestry and very modest means, suffered from severe asthma as a child. His doctors offered little hope of full recovery. By the time he was a young man, Krupp realized that he had no alternative but to heal himself and began reading the works of popular health and nutrition authors of that period. As a result of his research, he turned to healing approaches such as proper diet and nutrition as well as natural therapeutics including herbs, vitamins and minerals. Krupp’s health improved dramatically.