A science historian studying the complex history of sociogenomics, a historian revealing the lives of Chilean children during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, and a researcher chronicling the performances of contemporary Black women poets are among this year’s UC Davis recipients of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
To crack the code of whale communication, scientists rely on underwater microphones called hydrophones to gain access to the animals’ soundscapes. In aqueous environments, sound travels about five times faster than it does in air. What’s more, acoustic waves face less dissipation in water, traveling farther and differently than in air. New advances in hydrophone technology spearheaded by a UC Davis scientist are giving us an unprecedented view into the lives of whales.
For decades, UC Davis anthropology professor Suad Joseph has studied media representations of Muslim women, work that led to her founding an award-winning encyclopedia on Islam and women that today is the only reference of its kind in the world.
For the past five years, Goabaone Jaqueline Ramatlapeng, a National Geographic Explorer and UC Davis earth and planetary sciences doctoral candidate, has studied the water chemistry of the Okavango Delta, the largest freshwater wetland in southern Africa. Recently, she received $100,000 from the National Geographic Society to further her research.
Stanford University professor Robert Pogue Harrison gives this year’s Eugene Lunn
Memorial Lecture “What is a River? Nature, Culture, and the Human Psyche” at the
Jan and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art on Jan. 31.
While so much of the ocean is still a mystery to us, the beauty and life within it are being affected by our choices as a species. In some ways, its' changing faster than we can study them. In the book “At Every Depth,” UC Davis scientist Tessa Hill and writer Eric Simons chronicle those changes through the eyes of the community members closest to the shores. But the book is not a passive volume. Instead, it’s a call to action.
Sometimes serendipity plays a pivotal role in research. For Tobias Warner, an associate professor in the UC Davis Department of French and Italian, such a circumstance was integral to uncovering a forgotten poem written by foundational Senegalese author and feminist Mariama Bâ, an important figure in African literature despite leaving behind only a handful of published works.
A research team led from the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain found that adolescent girls
who have a stronger tendency to ruminate show different patterns of brain activity when
faced with social rejection.
The College of Letters and Science is investing $5 million in its instructional equipment and facilities to improve the educational experiences of students in L&S and across UC Davis. These investments have already transformed learning opportunities.
Created over 10 years ago by Professor of Chemistry Jared Shaw, the Davis Science Café provides an avenue for the community to learn about the current state of science across its many disciplines. Learn more about the Davis Science Café in the above video.
The meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month at G Street WunderBar in Davis at 5:30 p.m.