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NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Expedition 24 flight engineer, looks through a window in the Cupola of the International Space Station.

Aggie Alum and Astronaut Tracy C. Dyson to Travel to Space for Third Time

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Campus Invests in Data Science, Immigration Research

  • by Becky Oskin
The University of California, Davis, is investing $4 million over three years to launch four new research centers that align campus strengths with unique opportunities for global impact. Two of the four centers are led by faculty in the College of Letters and Science.
Angela Willetts (M.F.A., art, '16) with her Slant Step.

A New Look at the Slant Step

  • by Jeffrey A Day
Published in 1969, the Slant Step Book celebrated a thrift store find that became, and remains, a part of UC Davis art department lore. The Slant Step is a green linoleum-covered plywood stool with a slanted – and seemingly nonfunctional – step that has inspired artists for decades.
Illustration: The dollar bill's eye and pyramid and the words State of Conspiracy, a Crooked Mini

Historian's Podcasts Examine Conspiracy Theories

  • by Kathleen Holder
Delve into popular conspiracy theories this month with a new podcast from Kathryn Olmsted, professor of history in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. Olmsted has launched a four-episode “State of Conspiracy” series on the site Crooked Media.
main image of hand holding pole upright by Tim Hyde

Projects Connect Art and Science in Paris and Davis

  • by Jeffrey A Day
 

Artists and scientists led by UC Davis College of Letters and Science faculty will merge their talents and techniques, both physical and mental, to challenge themselves during a weeklong symposium in Paris.

Xiaodong Li

Xiaodong Li Wins NSF Career Award

  • by Becky Oskin

Xiaodong Li, assistant professor of statistics in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science, has received a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program supports junior faculty who perform outstanding research, are excellent educators, and integrate outreach in their work.

Artist's image of planetary impact

Understanding How Pressures in Planets Evolve

  • by Becky Oskin

A new study from Caltech and the UC Davis College of Letters and Science shows that giant impacts can dramatically lower the internal pressure of planets, a finding that could significantly change the current model of planetary formation.

Portrait photo of vervet monkey

Asked and Answered: Why Haven’t All Primates Evolved Into Humans?

  • by Kathleen Holder
Many people mistakenly think of evolution as progress. But humans, despite their ability to manipulate objects and change their environment, are not “on top” of the world’s species. Research by Lynn Isbell, chair of the UC Davis Department of Anthropology, suggests that ancestral humans and other primates developed different strategies to find food and avoid predators.
Heat flow image

New Unified Theory of Heat Transport Enables Materials Design

  • by Becky Oskin

A new theory of heat transport will make it easier to simulate properties of materials, with implications for technology, energy systems and planetary sciences.

Heat flows from warm areas to cool just as time flows from past to future and is a defining feature of physics. Yet scientists have found it surprisingly hard to build a theory of heat transport that works for both glasses and crystalline solids. That makes it difficult to model heat flow through materials, such as electronic components or the Earth’s mantle.

photo of team sorbit award-winning student biodesigners

Students’ Biodegradable Diaper Project Continues to Grow

  • by Jeffrey A Day
Excitement for a biodegradable diaper designed by UC Davis students just keeps growing, like the bacterial cellulose the diaper is made from. The student group, dubbed Team Sorbit, was motivated to create the diaper by data showing about 4 million tons of disposable diapers end up in landfills, and the plastic and tree-pulp derived cellulose used in most diapers isn’t environmentally friendly.
Two rhesus macaque monkeys on a log, one examining grass in a lawn.

Brain Molecule Identified as Key in Anxiety Model

Boosting a single molecule in the brain can change “dispositional anxiety,” the tendency to perceive many situations as threatening, in nonhuman primates, researchers from UC Davis, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found. The molecule, neurotrophin-3, stimulates neurons to grow and make new connections. The finding provides hope for new strategies focused on intervening early in life to treat people at risk for anxiety disorders, depression and related substance abuse. Current treatments work for only a subset of people and often only partially relieve symptoms. 
Women, one holding a colorful wrap, and another carrying a baby on her back, line up at a health clinic in Tanzania.

In Difficult Times, Having Multiple Husbands Can Be an Advantage

It is well known that men benefit reproductively from having multiple spouses, but the reasons why women might benefit from multiple marriages are not as clear. Women, as a result of pregnancy and lactation, can’t reproduce as fast as males. But new research by UC Davis challenges evolutionary-derived sexual stereotypes about men and women, finding that multiple spouses can be good for women too.
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