Science & Technology

The bright orange plumes of water scientists first noticed billowing across a river in Alaska’s Brooks Range in 2018 were even more acidic and metallic than water leached from metal mines, despite their pristine surroundings. That is according to a new study from the University of California, Davis, of six of the impacted watersheds.

The study, published in the journal AGU Advances, found that these metals can travel far and become more toxic as they go. Metal concentrations were about 70 times higher as much as 60 miles downstream from where they entered the river.

Two new studies examining gray wolves in California paint a complex picture of life on California’s ranching landscapes: Wolves eat cattle more than anything else, and the presence of the predators causes significant stress among livestock.

Scientists are detecting nanoplastics nearly everywhere, from Antarctica to the human brain, but lack established methods for understanding how they affect human health. University of California, Davis, researchers have received a nearly $4 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop the world’s first standardized method for measuring and describing the neurotoxicity of airborne nanoplastics.

Crisp, clean, bright — all words that come to mind when thinking about white wine. Hazy? Not so much. 

White and rosé wines can become cloudy when transported in shipping containers or stored on supermarket shelves due to protein denaturation. While they are perfectly safe to drink, those murky wines tend to turn off consumers. 

Once fallow tomato fields on the UC Davis campus are now home to irrigated corn fields growing silage that will help feed dairy cows.

The project is part of a new initiative bolstering sustainability and research efforts in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences by bringing dormant fields back in action in support of campus research and facilities.  

California’s processing tomato industry, for the first time this past harvest season, agreed to voluntary equipment cleaning and notification guidelines to prevent the spread of broomrape, a parasitic weed that attaches to roots and sucks out key nutrients. 

What does the world look like to a cow and why do goats spook so easily? New tools are helping people experience how livestock perceive and respond to their surroundings—leading to safer, lower-stress handling for animals and the people who raise them. UC Davis researchers and veterinarians are bringing these tools to ranchers and others, showing how understanding animal behavior improves welfare in real-world settings. In this episode of Unfold, we explore where science meets the herd.

On a sunny day in early April, young wheat plants stood waist-high, their heads full of still-green grain. A walk along some furrows left pants and boots covered with a fine, orange dust. These plants in test fields near the UC Davis campus were bred to fight a stubborn pathogen that threatens the world’s wheat: stripe rust.

What can the world’s longest living individual teach us about longevity? A team of scientists coordinated by the University of California, Davis, sequenced the Great Basin bristlecone pine genome, which could help unlock the secrets of this tree’s exceptionally long life and provide insights for other species.

With a rising global population and environmental instability, global scientists are working diligently toward a more food-secure future. One avenue many are investigating is how engineered biomaterials can influence food production, creating a path toward sustainability.