UC Davis Egghead

I can think of a campus that has a lot of ecology PhDs

February Media Mentions Every day faculty and students from the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis are highlighted in the news media, having their research featured and commenting on the most pressing issues facing the world. Check out some of these news media highligh...

From The New York Times to the Los Angeles Times and beyond, our scholars are shaping conversations on some of the world's most pressing topics.

Check out our February media mentions at the Letters and Science Magazine.

Just discovered this wonderful adaptation of our maize moving map (figshare.com/articles/fig...) by @andikur.bsky.social .

Context!

Into the Fold: New Assistant Professor Creates Soft Robots Inspired by Origami and Biology Assistant Professor Wenzhong Yan joins the UC Davis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. His research focuses on soft robots that are made of engineered materials and draw inspiration f...

Wenzhong Yan is building autonomous 'soft robots' inspired by biology and origami engineering.ucdavis.edu/news/fold-ne...

Headshot of Luca Comai against a dark blue background with white text that reads, "Without continued federal funding, people would see a decay in the success rate of agriculture in the United States" and the From Labs to Lives logo.

Prof. Luca Comai studies plate genomes to help crops grow better, faster and stronger. His federally funded research looks at how plants like potatoes, grapes and fruit trees change over time, especially plants grown from cuttings instead of seeds. Learn more: ucdav.is/FLTL. #FromLabsToLives

What Does it Mean to Remember Just About Everything? Marilu Henner can immediately remember everything she did Feb. 24, 1977. It was a Thursday. She was living in New York. She had just come back from a trip to shoot a TV pilot, and that day she was aud...

Actress Marilu Henner, one of very few people in the world with an almost perfect memory, visited Charan Ranganath's Human Memory class at UC Davis recently www.ucdavis.edu/magazine/wha...

Egghead's Weekend Basket for March 6 Another week, another roundup of UC Davis research news. Tracking bacteria in the salad bowlA series of outbreaks of E. coli illness linked to leafy greens grown on California's central coast prompted...

Egghead's weekend basket: E. coli in the salad bowl, mollusk evolution, hawks in flight, a new biochemical pathway in plants and a vital protein complex that's shared by plants and animals. Plus clock change headaches. www.ucdavis.edu/blog/egghead...

Plant Cell Structure Could Hold Key to Cancer Therapies and Improved Crops Can the bend of a banana give us insight into cancer? What does the shape of a rice grain have to do with infertility? The proteins that give plants their shape and structure are also involved in huma...

Augmin protein complex plays a key role in cell division and was once thought to exist only in animal cells. UC Davis researchers have now worked out the structure of augmin in plants - where it controls growth, shape and size www.ucdavis.edu/news/plant-c...

Study Improves Understanding of Food Safety Risks in California Central Coast Produce UC Davis researchers found harmful strains of E. coli, including types that can cause serious human illness, in animal and environmental sources in the Salinas Valley.

E. coli in the salad bowl: A five-year study led by @fda.gov and UC Davis is showing how harmful bacteria move around in California's Central Coast, where much of the nation's salad greens are grown www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/fd...

International Conference on Design Automation Celebrates Aggie Engineers for Most Influential Paper of Past Decade In 2016, Aggie Engineers set the stage with a groundbreaking paper on the methodical implementation of deep convolutional neural networks. Now, one of the world’s largest international conferences on ...

A 2016 paper by UC Davis researchers on silicon hardware to run AI has been recognized as the most influential of its field in the past decade @ucdavisengineering.bsky.social engineering.ucdavis.edu/news/interna...

Evolution of New Physical Traits in Mollusks has Declined and Grown More Predictable Over Time Paleobiologist Geerat Vermeij is enthralled with mollusks. Their shells line the surfaces and fill the cabinets and drawers in his office on the second floor of the Earth and Planetary Sciences Buildi...

Mollusks have been around for 540M years, but about half of their key traits evolved in the first 96M years and the rate of innovation has since slowed, according to a new analysis by Geerat Vermeij @ucdlands.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/blog/evoluti...

Hawk Study Shows Potential Lessons of Bird Flight Birds have an ability to fly through obstacles by shifting their shape in flight, which is difficult to reproduce in uncrewed aerial vehicles, commonly known as UAVs or drones.

Hawks can do things in the air that human-made aircraft can't. A new study by @ucdavisengineering.bsky.social and @biology.ox.ac.uk shows how we can learn from bird flight www.ucdavis.edu/news/hawk-st...

2025-26 Chancellor’s Fellows Rise to the Top They are experts in a parasitic amoeba, scientific history, the health effects of stress and more, and now these eight faculty members can add a new title: Chancellor’s Fellow.The recognition is given...

Congratulations to this year's Chancellor's Fellows! www.ucdavis.edu/news/2025-26...

Introducing the “Bloom” Cycle, or Why Plants Are Not Stupid For decades, the basics of plant growth have been taught in grade-school: Plants make their food out of water from the soil, light from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air in a process called phot...

Scientists have long puzzled over photorespiration, a seemingly wasteful metabolic process in plants. Now UC Davis plant scientist Arnold Bloom has discovered the "Bloom cycle," which plants can use for key processes @ucdavisplants.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/egghead/blog...

Egghead’s Weekend Basket for February 27 Busy week? Here's a round up of research stories from UC Davis to get you caught up.

This week at UC Davis: Bird research takes off, Lonely teens and later troubles, H5N1 in California elephant seals, keeping smoke taint out of wine, success for stem cells in spina bifida www.ucdavis.edu/egghead/blog...

One less thing to worry about

Short Films Explore Quantum Physics The Department of Physics and Astronomy will hold a screening March 13 of “What is Real? Six Short Films About Quantum Physics.” The screening will take place at 7 p.m. in 1002 Cruess Hall, followed b...

What is real? Six short films to explain quantum physics, screening sponsored by UC Davis Physics & Astronomy, Friday March 13 at 7 p.m. at UC Davis www.ucdavis.edu/egghead/blog...

A view from inside a large circular medical or research device shows two people standing outside it, looking into the opening. On the left side of the image, bold white text reads “Real Research. Real People. Real Impact.” Below the text is a blue square graphic with the words “From Labs to Lives,” alongside the UC Davis logo.

A year after its launch, the "From Labs to Lives" campaign is spotlighting the researchers who are working to improve lives through their work across @ucdavis.bsky.social and UC Davis Health. Image: A view from inside a PET scan shows two people. Text reads “Real Research. Real People. Real Impact.”

A Discovery Enabled by Federal Funding: Scientists Identify Hormones That May Offer Hope for Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis Patients - Office of Research Osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, two common degenerative musculoskeletal diseases affecting roughly 33 million adults in the United States, leave millions coping with fragile bones, fractures, and wor...

Enabled by federal funding, scientists @ucdavishealth.bsky.social and @ucsfhealth.bsky.social have identified a molecule that could open the door to treatments for conditions that weaken both bone and cartilage. Learn more.
bit.ly/4l0YnQW
#FromLabsToLives

Can a Simple Calcium Spray Protect Grapes from Wildfire Smoke? Smoke from wildfires can alter grapes and affect the taste and sensory experience of wine, threatening California’s $88 billion industry as it faces an increase in fires on the horizon. Researchers fr...

Wildfire smoke has become a big problem for California winegrowers. UC Davis scientists have been experimenting with a calcium spray to protect grapes from 'smoke taint'
@ucdaviscaes.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/egghead/blog...

a woman kneeling among grapevines in a vineyard under a hooped shade with smoke

Can a simple spray protect grapes from wildfire smoke?

UCDavis & USDA researchers applied a calcium spray to grapes to see if it would protect the fruit from smoke exposure. The spray could offer a way to protect the state’s $88B wine industry from wildfires.

caes.ucdavis.edu/news/can-sim...

Bird Flight Research Advances Drone Technology and Wild Raptor Care UC Davis’ new Center for Animal Flight and Innovation studies raptor flight. Researchers use high-speed cameras to improve drone technology and help injured birds.

So cool: UC Davis engineers and vets are working together to study bird flight, with potential benefits in drone development and rehabbing birds www.ucdavis.edu/curiosity/ne...

Egghead Weekend Basket: Beetles and frogs find love; bacteria trick their way inside your greens; CRISPR, but for plants; decoding incredibubbles; it's packed inside this worm cell @ucdaviscaes.bsky.social @ucdavisplants.bsky.social @ucdavisengineering.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/blog/egghead...

A Gene Editor That's a Better Fit for Plants Gene editing has enormous potential to help feed the world’s growing population, but it’s currently difficult, time-consuming, and only works in some plant species. A big part of the problem is CRISPR...

Gene editing has huge potential for improving crops, but CRISPR/Cas9 does not play well with plant cells. A new, smaller gene editor developed by scientists at UC Davis and the Innovative Genomics Institute allows plant gene editing in one step www.ucdavis.edu/egghead/blog...

$2 million grant fuels UC Davis fight against pancreatic cancer UC Davis received a $2 million research grant to detect pancreatic cancer earlier, giving patients hope and better chances for survival.

As part of a new national coalition, @ucdaviscancer.bsky.social
researchers will work to uncover early warning signs of one of the deadliest cancers. @ucdavishealth.bsky.social
health.ucdavis.edu/cancer/news/...

Incredibubbles: Researchers Cracking the Code of Body's Message System Biomedical engineers at the University of California, Davis, are cracking the code of the body’s message system.

Incredibubble: Extracellular vesicles are tiny bubbles with potential for drug delivery. UC Davis researchers are developing tools to understand how they work @ucdavisengineering.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/egghead/blog...

Mirror Image Pheromones Help Beetles Swipe Right There are many ways to communicate with prospective romantic partners: If you are a Japanese scarab beetle, it’s a matter of distinguishing left from right. New work from U.S. and Chinese scientists, ...

Japanese beetles can distinguish mirror versions of mating hormones to attract the right mate. Now researchers have identified the receptors that allow them to do this, opening new ways to monitor and control invasive pests www.ucdavis.edu/news/mirror-...

What is Gut Health? An international panel led by UC Davis professor Maria Marco defines “gut health” for the first time, offering a scientific framework for medicine, research and consumer claims.

The term "gut health" is being used to market foods, but what does it mean? An international panel of scientists now has a definition www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/...

How Did the Milky Way Galaxy Form? At the February 2026 Astronomy on Tap event at Sudwerk Brewing Co., Andrew Wetzel used supercomputer simulations to take the audience through the 13.8-billion-year history of the Milky Way galaxy.

How did our Milky Way, our own home galaxy, form? @ucdlands.bsky.social lettersandsciencemag.ucdavis.edu/science-tech...