News

Hello Aggies!

She is sweet, sassy, nearly 300 pounds and very into sheep.

Meet the llama who moved into the Department of Animal Science’s sheep barn in July to help guard the flock of 150 from predators.

“She wants to be their friend but they aren’t too sure yet,” Matt Hayes, sheep facilities manager, said. “She’s the new kid trying to make friends on the playground.”

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, used artificial intelligence to help plants recognize a wider range of bacterial threats — which may lead to new ways to protect crops like tomatoes and potatoes from devastating diseases. The study was published in Nature Plants.

Five faculty members have been selected for a 2025 Chancellor’s Fellowship recognizing their work to, in the words of the organizers, “foster a learning environment where all students can develop the skills to be successful.”

Chancellor Gary S. May told recipients he was proud to highlight their “commitment to reducing opportunity gaps for underrepresented students and/or students from underserved communities.”

The recipients, as named by Chancellor Gary S. May and the Academic Senate, are:

Retail gasoline prices in California have been consistently higher than the U.S. average, but the gap may continue to grow with the upcoming closure of two gasoline refineries. A new article by University of California, Davis, economists examines the impact of these closures on California gas prices. The authors find that, by August 2026, when the full effect of the closures is realized, California prices could rise by $1.21 if no further significant changes happen in the market.

As climate change drives up temperatures around the clock, warmer nights may be especially dangerous for caterpillars – causing them to grow fast but die young. University of California, Davis, researchers used hand warmers, a novel approach to warm field plots, to test the effects of higher temperatures at night.

Kenneth W. Tate, a University of California, Davis, professor and UC Cooperative Extension specialist, died unexpectedly on June 5, 2025, while traveling in Oregon. He was 58.

Over a decade ago, researchers at UC Davis noticed something unusual while studying yeast: tiny oil droplets sinking to the bottom of a flask. The strain of yeast was producing a natural compound with soap-like properties, and now it’s being developed as an ingredient in cleaning products that are gentle on skin and environmentally friendly.

A vitamin deficiency likely killed as many as half of newly hatched fry of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River in 2020 and 2021. These  findings were published June 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They may look like travel shampoo bottles and smell like bubblegum, but after a few hundred puffs, some disposable, electronic cigarettes and vape pods release higher amounts of toxic metals than older e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. For example, one of the disposable e-cigarettes studied released more lead during a day’s use than nearly 20 packs of traditional cigarettes.