Latest University of California Stories

University of California - Santa Barbara Scientists have discovered that breaking a biological signaling system in an embryo allows them to change the destiny of a cell. The findings could lead to new ways of making replacement organs. The discovery was made in the laboratory of Joel H. Rothman, a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at UC Santa Barbara. The studies were reported in the interdisciplinary journal Genes and Development, and were...

University of California - Berkeley The more time it takes for an earthquake fault to heal, the faster the shake it will produce when it finally ruptures, according to a new study by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, who conducted their work using a tabletop model of a quake fault. "The high frequency waves of an earthquake — the kind that produces the rapid jolts — are not well understood because they are more difficult to measure and more difficult to model,"...

University of California - Santa Barbara Predation by otters keeps urchin populations in check, allowing kelp –– a favorite food of urchins –– to flourish. But what if otters were harvested to near extinction for their fur? The resulting overabundance of urchins would decimate the kelp forest, leaving little food or shelter for fish and invertebrates. And so it may go, as declines in these species are likely to affect others. Such is the potential trickle-down effect on the food...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online In their search for larger homes, land-based hermit crabs will socialize with their fellow decapods only to force them out of their shells and claim it for their own, researchers from the University of California-Berkeley have discovered. While all types of hermit crabs will claim abandoned snail shells as their own, only the terrestrial types of these crustaceans hollow them out and remodel the shells. This allows them to...

MERCED, Calif., Oct. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), in collaboration with the University of California, Merced, joins American Institute of Architects, San Francisco chapter (AIA SF) today to announce the following award winners. Honor Awards were given to: Loisos & Ubbelohde Associates for "Silver Streak" and Ren Ito Arq. for "Cactus." Merit Awards were given to: Archassist for "Cotton Farm" and team Wei Yan and Edward Clark for...

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2012 season of the "Sneak Previews with Michael Berlin," film and interview series of the University of California, Irvine Extension, will give Orange County film enthusiasts a first look at six films before their public release. The program, held on six Monday evenings beginning October 29 and continuing through December 10, will be held at the Edwards University Center Six theater in Irvine. Registration is now open at...

[ Watch the Video: In Vitro Fertilization Linked To Birth Defects ] Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online While in vitro fertilization (IVF) can be a blessing for those couples struggling to conceive a child, there may be added risk of birth defects associated with IVF procedures, according to a study from researchers at the University of California. The researchers said birth defects involving the heart, eyes, reproductive system and urinary system were more likely...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A National Science Foundation (NSF) supported research team retrieved data from a sensor in Antarctic waters that they hope will provide critical baseline data for the acidification, or chemical changes, in those remote seas. Led by Gretchen Hofmann – professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) – the all female team retrieved the sensor earlier this month following the...

NEWPORT BEACH, and IRVINE Calif., Oct. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader announced today that researchers at the University of California, Irvine's (UCI's) Nanoscale Communication Integrated Circuits (NCIC) Labs have built a W-band (80-100GHz) 2×2 focal-plane array (FPA) integrated system with record NETD (noise equivalent temperature difference) performance for passive millimeter-wave imaging using TowerJazz's advanced SiGe BiCMOS process...

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Rates of diagnosed diabetes are much higher among some Asian subgroups than is apparent when aggregating all Asians as a whole, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and the University of California, San Francisco which appears in the current online issue of Diabetes Care. In this first study to look at Asian subgroup differences in a population with uniform access to health care,...