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College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

Inaugural Schrock Distinguished Lecture at UC Riverside.

From UCR to the Nobel Prize—and Back: Inaugural Schrock Distinguished Lecture Launches New Tradition in Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside marked a significant milestone on April 1, 2026, with the launch of the inaugural Richard R. Schrock Distinguished Lecture, a new series designed to bring leading voices in chemistry to campus and inspire the next generation of scientists. The lecture honors Distinguished Professor of Chemistry...

New 'unifying theory' may explain how Alzheimer's emerges in the brain

SCIENCE ALERT - The origins of Alzheimer's remain contentious, but a new study suggests the disease may emerge as two key proteins compete inside brain cells. Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, has long been associated with the build-up of two proteins in the brain: amyloid-beta and tau. This new study ties those...
By Ivan Farkas | ScienceAlert |

Vitamin B1 theory from 1958 is finally proven by scientists after being called 'crazy'

EARTH.COM - or years, one rule in chemistry class seemed simple: certain high-energy carbon species, like vitamin B1, fall apart in water. That’s why many reactions take place in specialized organic solvents instead of the most common solvent on Earth. A new study puts a crack in that rule. It shows that a reactive carbon...

By Eric Ralls | Earth.com |
Catalyst research of UCR Nobel Laureate groundbreaking ceremony

Catalyst Research of UCR Nobel Laureate is Key in Construction of Innovative New Plant

Nobel Laureate, Richard R. Schrock, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences, recently returned from Hungary where he attended a groundbreaking ceremony to build a new facility that will manufacture metathesis catalysts that enable environmentally friendly chemical processes. The production technology is based on his pioneering...

Chemical shield stops DNA damage from triggering disease–'A paradigm shift'

GOOD NEWS NETWORK - A new chemical probe protects healthy cells from DNA damage, preserving them from one of the 8 hallmarks of aging. The story of this potentially paradigmatic development begins where so much of human health begins: the mitochondria. These organelles are disrespectfully monikered as “the powerhouses” of the cell, but they do...
By Andy Corbley | Good News Network |

Chemical breakthrough shields mitochondrial DNA before damage triggers chronic disease

INTERESTING ENGINEERING - From Alzheimer’s to heart failure, many chronic diseases have been linked to damage in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Now, scientists at the University of California, Riverside, may have found a way to halt the damage before it begins. The team has developed a chemical probe that targets damage in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), a...
By Neetika Walter | Interesting Engineering |

Physicists learn to control electricity at the quantum scale

EARTH.COM - Today’s flagship processor packs more than 100 billion transistors, yet squeezing them any closer is turning design into a wrestling match with quantum physics. As the footprints of silicon switches approach the dimensions of a few dozen atoms, stray electrons tunnel across barriers that once looked rock‑solid, wasting power and scrambling signals. Physicists...
By Eric Ralls | Earth.com |

Scientists finally confirm the 'crazy' hypothesis about vitamin B1 from 1958

EARTH.COM - Scientists once dismissed a 1958 hypothesis about vitamin B1, or thiamine, as unlikely. The idea was that this vitamin, vital for basic metabolic functions, might turn into a very reactive intermediate during certain biochemical processes. Now, researchers have shown that the hunch was correct. Prof. Vincent Lavallo from the University of California, Riverside...
By Jordan Joseph | Earth.com |

Super-shielded carbene is stable in liquid water

CHEMISTRY WORLD - A new ‘super-shielded’ carbene is stable in liquid water solutions. The US team that made the carbene claims that it ‘unambiguously confirms’ that it is possible to generate carbenes in an aqueous environment – validating a hypothesis put forward almost 70 years ago by the famed organic chemist Ronald Breslow. In the...
By Jamie Durrani | Chemistry World |

Scientists just confirmed a 67-year-old hypothesis about Vitamin B1

SCIENCEALERT - You often need a lot of patience to be a scientist, and that's certainly been the case for researchers who have now found solid evidence for a hypothesis around vitamin B1 (or thiamine) that was first put forward almost 70 years ago. In 1958, Columbia University chemist Ronald Breslow proposed that vitamin B1...
By David Nield | ScienceAlert |
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