EXTREME TECH - Until someone invents warp drive, the only way we can inspect distant exoplanets is with a powerful telescope. However, even the most capable telescopes can only catch faint glimmers from exoplanets. In a new study, scientists from the University of California, Riverside, lay out a method of detecting potential alien activity, and...
EARTH.COM - The search for extraterrestrial life has captivated our imaginations for centuries. Now, a study from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) suggests a tantalizing possibility: we may be able to detect alien activity and civilizations by identifying artificial greenhouse gases they use to terraform planets. What is terraforming? Terraforming, a concept popular in...
THE INDEPENDENT UK - Scientists have identified a set of greenhouse gasses which could be used as a marker to look for advanced alien civilizations with the potential to transform entire planets to make them habitable. While greenhouse gasses cause global warming and must be controlled on Earth, they may be used intentionally to make...
IFLSCIENCE - There may come a point (perhaps for humans, perhaps not) where a civilization may wish to terraform a planet in their Solar System or beyond. Perhaps an environmental disaster was looming on their planet, or they spotted a nearby neighbor planet that looked like – with a few finishing touches – it could...
NAUTILUS - Hold a grain of sand up to the night sky at arm’s length. There are thousands of galaxies in that miniscule fraction of the heavens. Galaxies like ours hold hundreds of billions of stars—a good portion of which host planets. And a number of these are in the “habitable zone,” that just-right distance...
THE DAILY MAIL - Alien life has yet to be found in space, but a new study has uncovered 'telltale' signs of an inhabited planet. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) discovered that greenhouse gases, like those emitted on Earth, would mean a distant world had been terraformed - or artificially altered. Signatures...
BBC SCIENCE FOCUS - Our search for extraterrestrial life might have just got a whole lot easier. Now, if aliens so much as modify a planet in their solar system to make it warmer, we would be able to tell. That's thanks to a new study from The University of California, Riverside, which has identified...
STUDYFINDS - Could aliens be changing their planet’s climate in the same way we are? If so, scientists believe it could make finding intelligent life much easier than we thought. A groundbreaking new study suggests that greenhouse gases could be a telltale sign that aliens are hard at work changing their world’s climate — for...
EARTHSKY - Many studies have demonstrated links between global warming and longer and more active fire seasons. But a team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside, looked at a kind of reverse: how wildfires can influence local weather. On June 18, 2024, the researchers said large fires create hotter and drier weather than...
EOS - Thallium, one of the most toxic heavy metals on Earth, is more abundant in the Baltic Sea than in waters with otherwise similar chemistry. A new study in Environmental Science and Technology finds that human activity—particularly since the 1940s—is likely behind these elevated levels. The Baltic Sea is euxinic, meaning the water both...
ENTOMOLOGY TODAY - The Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) has been identified on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. It is known for spreading the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, which causes citrus greening disease (also known as Huanglongbing). Citrus greening is one of the most serious citrus diseases in the world. Infected trees produce immature...
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - You are what you eat, the old saying goes, and that holds true for many animals that regularly ingest poison. For certain species that feed on toxic fare like plants and insects, not only do the poisonous meals do these creatures no harm, but the consumers actually co-opt the toxins. They become...
SCI.NEWS - “Since its discovery in 2016, there have been many attempts to reproduce Crater II’s unusual properties, but it has proved very challenging,” said University of California, Riverside’s Professor Hai-Bo Yu. Dark matter makes up 85% of the Universe’s matter, and it can form a spherical structure under the influence of gravity called a...
NEW FOOD - According to a new study from the University of California, advanced technologies that allow for the precise delivery of medicine to specific cells in the body could also benefit agriculture. Scientists have now proposed that these technologies are crucial for growers to meet the increasing global food demands. The study was published...
ZME SCIENCE - Modern sharks, those apex predators of the open ocean, might have actually evolved from bottom-dwellers during a significant episode of global warming millions of years ago. A new University of California, Riverside (UCR) study published in Current Biology has unveiled the adaptive fin morphology of sharks in response to historical climate changes...
ANTHROPOCENE - It’s hard to fathom that there’s an upside to air pollution. But it’s becoming clear that, paradoxically, cleaning up tailpipes and smokestacks comes with a price for the planet. As pollution controls cut emissions of aerosols such as sulfur dioxide, scientists are uncovering the myriad ways these tiny, sunlight-reflecting particles have been taking...
EARTH.COM - The quest for cleaner air is a noble, shared aspiration for a healthier planet and happier lungs. But what if this pursuit to improve air quality by reducing aerosol pollution, however well-intentioned, inadvertently fuels a different kind of environmental disaster? A study from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) reveals a startling paradox...
NEWSWEEK - Ancient underwater volcanic eruptions may have made modern day sharks more fierce then their predecessors, a new study has found. The infamous shark species we know of today evolved from stubby bottom dwellers around 93 million years ago when a spew of lava poured into the ocean, the study reported. This caused carbon...
INVERSE - Nobody likes smog. Aerosol pollution, a mucky particulate cocktail of soot, dust, chemical fumes, and other compounds that linger in the atmosphere, is a worldwide problem. It’s unsightly, triggers environmental harms like acid rain, and is terrible for the health of humans and wildlife alike. Scientists and environmental advocates generally agree: We want...
ABC 7 - Who would think something so small could be so devastating? Nevertheless, entomologists continue to sound the alarm about the goldspotted oak borer, an invasive insect that some experts believe has killed more than 80,000 oak trees across Southern California. "It's just fascinating how this insect has been around for 50 million years...