UC San Diego researchers and their colleagues have discovered that spontaneous impulses of dopamine, the neurological messenger known as the brain’s “feel good” chemical, occur in the brain of mice. The study found that mice can willfully manipulate these random dopamine pulses for reward.
Is there a "CalExodus"? A UC San Diego survey finds no increase, over 2019, in residents who say they plan to leave. A companion report analyzing Google trends data suggests they aren’t secretly searching for move-related terms either.
Renee Bowen, the Pastor Faculty Fellow at the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Department of Economics, has been selected to serve in the Biden administration as the senior economist for Trade with the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).
Research reveals that phage viruses that undergo special evolutionary training increase their capacity to subdue bacteria. The results provide hope for the antibiotic resistance crisis, a rising threat as deadly bacteria continue to evolve to render many modern drugs ineffective.
A coordinated conservation effort that removed rats from Hawadax Island, formerly known as “Rat Island,” has become a new example of how ecosystems can fully recover to their natural state in little more than a decade. The results are described in a report led by a UC San Diego scientist.
New research published in two papers by UC San Diego scientists describes novel achievements designed to make the implementation of gene drives safer and more controllable. The new split drive and home-and-rescue systems address concerns about the release of gene drives in wild populations.
UC San Diego scientists have created new brain maps with unprecedented detail. The insights provided by the new maps are helping answer questions about blood supply and how more active parts of the brain are kept nourished versus less demanding areas.
Researchers have produced a groundbreaking new reference genome for the Asian malaria vector mosquito Anopheles stephensi. The achievement will help scientists engineer advanced forms of defense against malaria transmission, including targeted CRISPR and gene drive-based strategies.
Thanks to NSF-funded supercomputers including Comet at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego, the research community has been making progress on developing more reliable and efficient batteries that may power tomorrow's electric vehicles and other products.
As mandates prevented gatherings over the holiday season, crowds in Chile and Argentina donned masks and eye shields to view some a two-minute solar eclipse on December 14. A week before, researchers at PSI used SDSC's Expanse supercomputer to see how closely they could simulate the event.