Like consumers investing in a pair of body-shaping jeans, the National Science Foundation (NSF) invests in basic research and people to mold the future. So, the government agency awarded more than $500,000 to the University of California San Diego and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) to…
The words “fly like an eagle” are famously part of a song, but they may also be words that make some scientists scratch their heads. Especially when it comes to soaring birds like eagles, falcons and hawks, who seem to ascend to great heights over hills, canyons and mountain tops with ease. Scientists…
When it comes to fundamental physics, things can get spooky. At least that’s what Albert Einstein said when describing the phenomenon of quantum entanglement—the linkage of particles in such a way that measurements performed on one particle seem to affect the other, even when separated by great distances.…
Early Earth was a hot, gaseous, dusty and dynamic planet with an atmosphere and an ocean. Then its surface cooled and stabilized enough for clouds, landmasses and early life to form about four billion years ago, during what’s called the isotopic age of rocks, or the Archean Period. Atmospheric chemical…
Like small-scale Legos clicking into place, nature autonomously puts together microscopic building blocks. Living systems are biochemical machines that excel at building and moving their parts. Just as machines need energy in some form to operate, living systems are energized by consuming “fuel”—substances…
Currently, information-processing tools like computers and cell phones rely on electron charge to operate. A team of UC San Diego physicists, however, seek alternative systems of faster, more energy-efficient signal processing. They do this by using “excitons,” electrically neutral quasiparticles…
The stuff the universe is made of. The origins of life. Dreams. Consciousness. Multiple universes. These are among the biggest questions in science. University of California San Diego Professor of Physics Kenneth Intriligator addresses challenging topics like these, and his theoretic efforts gained the…
Many insects and animals have special proteins that act like car antifreeze to prevent ice from forming and spreading in their bodies amidst harsh winter temperatures. Scientists know about these antifreeze proteins (AFPs), but not so much about the mechanisms that make them work. Chemistry researchers…
Ceramides—waxy, oily lipid molecules that affect biological function like insulin resistance, gene regulation and tumor suppression—could be applied to new cancer treatments…if only scientists could study them directly in living organisms. Tackling this task with a brand of chemistry that addresses…
Scientists have long pondered how non-living materials coalesced into the earliest life forms on Earth. Nearly 60 years ago Stanley Miller and Harold Urey, founding professors of the physical sciences at the University of California San Diego, established a tradition of working to answer questions about…