Shellfish, along with other marine organisms, are facing a crisis, one that affects the integrity of their shells. As carbon dioxide emissions increase in the atmosphere, so too does the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by our oceans, leading to ocean acidification. Graduate student Meghan Zulian has devoted her doctoral studies to understanding how ocean acidification, and more broadly climate change, affects culturally, economically and ecologically important shellfish, including abalone

New research using large-scale online experiments suggests that rewarding people to contribute to a virtual public good, such as a simulated online rating for a ferry system, increased the accuracy of the ratings and improved the overall quality of that resource.

For his contributions to the development and application of atomistic and first principle simulations to understand the physical properties of materials and nanostructures, Professor of Chemistry Davide Donadio was recently named a fellow of the American Physical Society.

For decades, Geerat Vermeij has forged an illustrious career in the sciences by studying the intricacies of ancient seashell fossils. The findings he’s gleaned from his meticulous work have yielded broader insights about evolution, humanity, biology, economics and now, the role of power. In his new book, Vermeij explores how “the history of life on Earth can be meaningfully and informatively interpreted as a history of power” with the human species representing the current apex.

Scientists at UC Davis, in partnership with the Mars Advanced Research Institute, have announced a significant breakthrough in the production of low-calorie sugar substitutes, such as allulose. This discovery could help address one of the primary obstacles to the widespread adoption of these alternatives: production costs.

For her landmark work in the development and application of shock physics techniques to explain the origin and evolution of planetary systems, Sarah Stewart has been selected as an American Physical Society Fellow, a prestigious honor that no more than half of one percent of the society’s membership (excluding student members) are nominated for each year.

New research has found that testosterone is the key hormone that drives gender-based differences in responses to social stress. The UC Davis study encompassed six separate experiments with mice to isolate what changes in the brain drive these differences between males and females.

When it comes to the architecture of the human genome, it’s only a matter of time before harmful genes — genes that could compromise future generations — arise in a population. These mutations accumulate in the gene pool, primarily affected by a population’s size and practices like marrying within a small community. New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal provides rare direct evidence showing that increased homozygosity — meaning two identical alleles in a genome — leads to negative effects on fertility in a human population.

Psychologist Ross Thompson’s new book, “The Brain Development Revolution: Science, the Media, and Public Policy” tells the story of the 1997 “I Am Your Child” campaign with an incisive analysis spanning how the campaign captured everyone’s attention, the backlash from scientists and the continuing reverberations today.

When researchers glimpsed the first images and data from the James Webb Space Telescope, humanity’s largest and most powerful space telescope, they noticed something peculiar. A large number of bright galaxies deep in the universe formed during a period called “Cosmic Dawn,” when the first stars and galaxies formed within 500 million years after the Big Bang. New research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters shows that a theoretical model produced roughly five years ago predicted these very observations and credits them to bursty star formation.

This week, Manuel Calderón de la Barca Sánchez returned to his alma mater in Mexico to host screenings of ‘Secrets of the Universe,’ an IMAX film that explores the formation of the universe through the eyes of Aggie researchers. Calderón de la Barca Sánchez, a UC Davis physics professor, hopes the film will inspire students to pursue STEM education and careers.

An economics doctoral candidate in the College of Letters & Science at UC Davis has been studying how 25 corporate mega-projects have affected local markets. Among the findings so far are that tax breaks and other incentives often don’t pay off by creating jobs as they were meant to.

A fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological Society of America, geochemist Kari Cooper, a professor of earth and planetary sciences in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis, won the American Geophysical Union’s Norman L. Bowen Award, which honors a mid-career or senior scientist for outstanding contributions to the fields of petrology, volcanology and geochemistry.

“Black mustard” is what people call the thick oil that is often visible — particularly at sunset — on the surface of Newtown Creek, which borders Queens and Brooklyn in New York City. The estimated 30 million gallons of oil is one of many toxins in the creek, an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. This would seem an unlikely place to not only inspire, but to also be the venue, for an opera, but it is. The opera "Newtown Odyssey," by UC Davis professor Kurt Rohde, visual artist Marie Lorenz and writer Dana Spiotta, is being premiered this weekend.