Feature Stories
Apr 7, 2020
Widespread testing, even of those not showing symptoms, is one of the most effective ways to track the prevalence of coronavirus infections in communities.
Apr 7, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life as we know it with tremendous impact to our work, our homes, families and everything in between. With so many changes, staying motivated and connected to research interests is hard! Through the Physical Sciences #UCIReignite campaign we hope to spur our research community to reconnect with their passion for science.
Apr 2, 2020
When Katy Rodriguez Wimberly came to UCI in the fall of 2016 to start her PhD in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, she came straight from a summer program offered by the university called “Competitive Edge.” The program gave her six weeks to get to know UCI, and to meet faculty and fellow grad students who gave her tips on how to do well in the years to come. The connections she made that summer helped her feel like she belonged in grad school, and that she was a part of the UCI…
Mar 31, 2020
Professor Rachel Martin’s March 13 chemical biology class was the last one she held in person during the 2020 winter quarter. The subject that day was the coronavirus, the very thing that forced her and other UCI faculty to move courses online and start shutting down “nonessential” research projects in their labs.
Mar 26, 2020
We know it’s there, but we don’t know what it is: this invisible stuff is dark matter. Scientists are fairly certain it dominates the cosmos, yet its ingredients are unclear. For a while astrophysicists have been excited by two potential signals of dark matter in space: an unexplained excess of gamma-ray light in the center of the Milky Way and a mysterious spike in x-ray light spotted in some other galaxies and galaxy clusters.
Mar 18, 2020
Rebecca Riley remembers feeling drawn to the stars since she was less than three years old,
when she — and this is her first memory — would go outside with her grandparents in Clay
County, Alabama and lay on a blanket and watch the night sky.
Mar 10, 2020
In February, Virginia Trimble, an astronomer in the UCI Department of Physics and Astronomy, became a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This is the first time in its 121-year history that the AAS has given fellowships of any kind to its members, and, through its Legacy Fellows, the society is shining a light on members who sculpted astronomy into the field it is today.
Mar 1, 2020
In February, Virginia Trimble, an astronomer in the UCI Department of Physics and Astronomy, became a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This is the first time in its 121-year history that the AAS has given fellowships of any kind to its members, and, through its Legacy Fellows, the society is shining a light on members who sculpted astronomy into the field it is today.
Dec 17, 2019
Eight new faculty members join the School of Physical Sciences from universities across the world, bringing new research right from their Ph.D. programs and others bringing their established research ready to revamp. Here are the new faculty members:
Oct 30, 2019
Imagine you’re an astronaut on a spacewalk. You’re doing your job when suddenly you get an alert: Your suit is leaking oxygen. Somewhere there’s a hole in your suit, a hole so tiny you can’t find it.
Sep 17, 2019
An interdisciplinary team of scientists at the University of California, Irvine has developed a new technique for predicting the final size of a wildfire from the moment of ignition.
Sep 16, 2019
Valley fever is endemic to hot and dry regions such as the southwestern United States and California’s San Joaquin Valley, but scientists at the University of California, Irvine predict that climate change will cause the fungal infection’s range to more than double in size this century, reaching previously unaffected areas across the western U.S.