A virus, the simplest physical object in biology, consists of a protein shell called the capsid, which protects its nucleic acid genome — RNA or DNA.  The capsid can be cylindrical or conical in shape, but more commonly it assumes an icosahedral structure, like a soccer ball. Capsid formation is one of the most crucial…

The race is on to find manufacturing techniques capable of arranging molecular and nanoscale objects with precision. Engineers at the University of California, Riverside, have altered a virus to arrange gold atoms into spheroids measuring a few nanometers in diameter. The finding could make production of some electronic components cheaper, easier, and faster. “Nature has…

Beautiful things can happen when plants surround themselves with the right microbes. A study on Acmispon strigosus, a plant in the pea family, showed a 13-fold growth increase in plants that partnered with a highly effective strain of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria Bradyrhizobium. The ability of plants to use beneficial microbes to boost their growth is…

We’ve all heard about the search for life on other planets, but what about looking on other moons? In a paper published Wednesday (June 13) in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Southern Queensland have identified more than 100 giant planets that potentially host moons capable of…

Engineers at the University of California, Riverside, have demonstrated prototype devices made of an exotic material that can conduct a current density 50 times greater than conventional copper interconnect technology. Current density is the amount of electrical current per cross-sectional area at a given point. As transistors in integrated circuits become smaller and smaller, they…

For decades, chemical pesticides have been the most important way of controlling insects like the Anophelesmosquito species that spreads malaria to humans. Unfortunately, the bugs have fought back, evolving genetic shields to protect themselves and their offspring from future attacks. The fascinating array of genetic changes that confer pesticide resistance in Anophelesmosquitoes is reviewed in an article…

There’s a tradeoff when sprawling solar farms pop up on agricultural land: farmland disappears, perhaps forever, in return for growth in the promising renewable energy sector. But what if large solar installations could be built away from agricultural land, eliminating the competition between two important industries? In a study published today in Environmental Science and Technology,…

Physicists at the University of California, Riverside have developed a photodetector – a device that senses light – by combining two distinct inorganic materials and producing quantum mechanical processes that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected. Photodetectors are almost ubiquitous, found in cameras, cell phones, remote controls, solar cells, and even the panels…

Identical twins are similar to each other in many ways, but they have different experiences, friends, and lifestyles. This concept is played out on a cosmological scale by galaxies. Two galaxies that appear at first glance to be very similar and effectively identical can have inner regions rotating at very different rates – the galactic…

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have converted a naturally occurring fluorescent protein from corals into a biosensor that can be used to monitor the cellular thioredoxin (Trx) system, which is a promising target for cancer therapy. Their paper, titled “Monitoring thioredoxin redox with a genetically encoded red fluorescent biosensor,” was recently published in…

Seismologists at the University of California, Riverside studying earthquakes in the seismically and volcanically active Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone have found that “slow earthquakes” are occurring continuously, and could encourage damaging earthquakes. Slow earthquakes are quiet, can be as large as magnitude 7, and last days to years. Taking place mainly at the boundary between tectonic…

High performing lithium-ion batteries are a key component of laptops, smart phones, and electric vehicles. Currently, the anodes, or negative charged side of lithium ion batteries, are generally made with graphite or other carbon-based materials. But, the performance of carbon based materials is limited because of the weight and energy density, which is the amount…

Engineers at the University of California, Riverside have taken inspiration from biological evolution and the energy savings garnered by birds flying in formation to improve the efficiency of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) by more than 30 percent. Titled “Development and Evaluation of an Evolutionary Algorithm-Based Online Energy Management System for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles,”…

A team of researchers, led by University of California, Riverside astronomers, found for the first time a large population of distant dwarf galaxies that could reveal important details about a productive period of star formation in the universe billions of years ago. The findings, just published in The Astrophysical Journal, build on a growing body of knowledge about…

Controlling the flow of heat through semiconductor materials is an important challenge in developing smaller and faster computer chips, high-performance solar panels, and better lasers and biomedical devices. For the first time, an international team of scientists led by a researcher at the University of California, Riverside has modified the energy spectrum of acoustic phonons–…

Although the universe started out with a bang it quickly evolved to a relatively cool, dark place. After a few hundred thousand years the lights came back on and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Astronomers know that reionization made the universe transparent by allowing light from distant galaxies to travel almost freely…

A new study led by University of California, Riverside astronomers casts light on how young, hot stars ionize oxygen in the early universe and the effects on the evolution of galaxies through time. The study presents the first measurements of the changing strengths of oxygen emission lines from the present day and back to 12.5…

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have created a new silicon-tin nanocomposite anode that could lead to lithium-ion batteries that can be charged and discharged more times before they reach the end of their useful lives. The longer-lasting batteries could be used in everything from handheld electronic devices to electric vehicles. Titled “Tin Nanoparticles…

Preparation and good timing enabled Gareth Funning and a team of researchers to collect a unique data set following the 2014 South Napa earthquake that showed different parts of the fault, sometimes only a few kilometers apart, moved at different speeds and at different times. Aided by GPS measurements made just weeks before the earthquake and data…

Galaxies come in three main shapes – elliptical, spiral (such as the Milky Way) and irregular. They can be massive or small. To add to this mix, galaxies can also be blue or red. Blue galaxies are still actively forming stars. Red ones mostly are not currently forming stars, and are considered passive. The processes…

Graphene has emerged as one of the most promising two-dimensional crystals, but the future of electronics may include two other nanomaterials, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Georgia. In research published Monday (July 4) in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers described the integration of…