Egghead Content

Can Corals Be Saved?

Andy Fell — November 04, 2024 - 4:13pm

It takes a strong constitution to be a coral researcher these days. These vibrant underwater ecosystems are beset by all manner of challenges in the 21st century, from bleaching events and pollution to storm surges and overfishing. But there’s good news on the way for coral conservation.

Buried Alive: Carbon Dioxide Release From Magma Deep Beneath Ancient Volcanoes a Hidden Driver of Earth’s Past Climate

Andy Fell — October 30, 2024 - 2:34pm

An international team of geoscientists led by a volcanologist at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and including Maxwell Rudolph, associate professor in the �ٺ��Ƶ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has discovered that, contrary to present scientific understanding, ancient volcanoes continued to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from deep within the Earth long past their period of eruptions.

Exploring the Psychedelics Within Us

Andy Fell — October 21, 2024 - 3:00pm

Our bodies are pharmaceutical factories. From the hormones that regulate our blood sugar to the neurotransmitters that act as the body’s natural painkillers, these endogenous — produced within the body — chemicals ensure our functionality and survival.

But did you know that our bodies also naturally produce psychedelics?

In the 1950s, researchers found chemical signatures of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in mammalian bodies, including in humans.

Laser Purified Silica

Andy Fell — October 14, 2024 - 11:51am

Materials science and engineering researchers at the University of California, Davis, and materials company Homerun Resources, Inc., have developed a groundbreaking one-step laser-pulse technique to purify raw silica sand to over 99.99% purity. The method is the first phase in a collaborative effort to create a pathway to a carbon-neutral process of deriving silicon from silica sand.

Charging, Not Range, is Becoming a Top Concern For Electric Car Drivers

Andy Fell — October 10, 2024 - 9:16am

The Biden administration is using tax credits, regulations and federal investments to shift drivers toward electric vehicles.

AI: A Tectonic Shift in Human Society

Andy Fell — October 08, 2024 - 3:59pm

The first time most people could communicate with a computer that responded like a real person was in 2022 when OpenAI publicly launched ChatGPT. Just two months later, the app set the record for the fastest-growing user base with 100 million monthly active users.

From Viruses to Galaxies, How Machine Learning Helps Scientific Discovery

Andy Fell — October 03, 2024 - 3:52pm

Peruse any news media outlet and you’ll probably find an article touting or warning about the potential impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on society. With the advent of publicly accessible generative AI models like ChatGPT, the field is having its moment in the sun like never before.

(W)ringing in the New California Water Year

Andy Fell — October 01, 2024 - 2:19pm

Oct. 1 marks the start of a new water year in California, as we head into the cooler, rainier months. In a new blog post, Jay Lund and Alvar Escriva-Bou at the �ٺ��Ƶ Center for Watershed Sciences and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering reflect on the year just ending and what might be ahead for WY2025.

Taking the Earth’s Temperature Over the Past 485 Million Years

Andy Fell — September 19, 2024 - 10:36am

Palm trees in Alaska, crocodiles in Wyoming: Fossils show that Earth’s temperature has changed over hundreds of millions of years. Now a new study co-led by the Smithsonian and the University of Arizona, with Professor Isabel Montañez of the �ٺ��Ƶ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has produced a curve of global mean surface temperatures over the past 485 million years. The new curve, published Sept. 19 in Science, reveals that Earth’s temperature has varied more than previously thought as life has diversified, populated land and endured multiple mass extinctions.

Recent Volcanoes on the Moon?

Andy Fell — September 04, 2024 - 3:09pm

New results from China’s Chang’e 5 lunar samples returned to Earth provide evidence for active volcanoes on the Moon as recently as 120 million years ago. Previously, scientists had thought that any activity with magma (molten rock) rising to the Moon’s surface ended billions of years ago.