Despite recent, torrential rains, most of Southern California remains in a drought. Accordingly, many residents plant trees prized for drought tolerance, but a new study shows that these trees lose this tolerance once they're watered.
EV transition will benefit most US vehicle owners, but lowest-income Americans could get left behind
More than 90% of vehicle-owning households in the United States would see a reduction in the percentage of income spent on transportation energy -- the gasoline or electricity that powers their cars, SUVs and pickups -- if they switched to electric vehicles.
An education doesn’t just make you smarter — it protects your gut, seriously
New research has found a better education has a strong genetic correlation and a protective causal association with several gut disorders.
New study puts gut microbiome at the center of Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis
New research says the gut microbiome is involved in multiple pathways in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. The findings show a wide imbalance in microbiome composition in persons with Parkinson's disease. The investigators employed metagenomics, the study of genetic material recovered directly from the stool microbiome of persons with PD...
A new tool helps map out where to develop clean energy infrastructure
An update to the Energy Zones Mapping Tool, the Geospatial Energy Mapper is an online tool with an extensive catalog of mapping data for energy planning. It can help identify areas that are suitable for clean energy infrastructure projects.
Rice breeding breakthrough to feed billions
An international team has succeeded in propagating a commercial hybrid rice strain as a clone through seeds with 95 percent efficiency. This could lower the cost of hybrid rice seed, making high-yielding, disease resistant rice strains available to low-income farmers worldwide.
Riddle Solved: Why Was Roman Concrete So Durable?
An unexpected ancient manufacturing strategy may hold the key to designing concrete that lasts for millennia.
Climate Change Could Cause “Disaster” in the World’s Oceans, Say UC Irvine Scientists
Climate-driven heating of seawater is causing a slowdown of deep circulation patterns in the Atlantic and Southern oceans, according to University of California, Irvine Earth system scientists, and if this process continues, the ocean’s ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will be severely limited, further exacerbating global warming.
Rodent extinctions in Hispaniola may have been caused by humans
Hispaniola once had among the highest diversity of rodents in the Caribbean. Today, only one rodent species remains, and its prospects for survival are uncertain. New carbon dates place the blame squarely on humans.
Coral Species That Withstand Ocean Warming Identified
A team of marine scientists studying reefs in the Pacific island of Palau have identified genetic subgroups of a common coral species that exhibit tolerance to the extreme heat associated with marine heatwaves.