Bd is a deadly fungus causing a global pandemic that has either contributed to or caused the probable extinction of 90 amphibian species. UCR microbiologists Mark Yacoub and Jason Stajich have discovered a virus that infects Bd, and they think it can be genetically engineered to control or destroy the fungal disease.
A proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill roughly half a million barred owls to protect the spotted owl has animal welfare advocates debating the moral issue of killing one species to protect another. Cameron Barrows, a retired emeritus researcher at UCR's Center for Conservation Biology, says that without a barred owl management strategy, spotted owls will disappear.
According to UCR's Eddie Schwieterman, there were no trees on Earth for most of the history of life on Earth and for most of the history of photosynthesis.
UCR's Vasileios Christopoulos and his colleagues are using functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) to visualize the spinal cord and map its response to electrical stimulation in real time, an approach that could improve treatments of chronic back pain.
UCR astrophysicist Stephen Kane comments on a new study that suggests gravitational perturbations—perhaps from rogue passing stars or by migrating gas giants—can routinely launch rocky worlds into the maws of their star, even in mature planetary systems.
