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.

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.

Shiva Ahmadi, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Art and Art History, has an upcoming exhibition of 19 paintings in “Shiva Ahmadi: Strands of Resilience” at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art Jan. 28 – May 6.

Earlier this year, a team of researchers from the UC Davis Institute for Psychedelic and Neurotherapeutics revealed in Science that psychedelics spur cortical neuron growth by activating intracellular pools of 5-HT2A receptors. This neuroplasticity combats withering dendritic spines, a characteristic of several neuropsychiatric disorders.

Focusing on the Lake Titicaca Basin in the Andes mountains, a team of anthropologists led by UC Davis anthropology graduate student Luis Flores-Blanco, found through analysis of 1,179 projectile points that the rise of archery technology dates to around 5,000 years ago.

L&S psychology major Jeevan Mann is already working to help others with his rare genetic condition that has made completing his studies a battle. He graduates this fall having also established a charitable organization and studied for a career as a medical researcher and clinician.

You don't have to be a student at UC Davis to learn from these professors. Their knowledge about Earth and its environment is woven throughout these new books, including two from College of Letters and Science faculty, that came out in 2023 or are about to be published.