Three-minute Egghead

In 2015 Zika virus emerged as a threat to pregnant women, causing birth defects and brain damage. Koen Van Rompay at the California National Primate Research Center has led the first tests of a vaccine against Zika virus in pregnant rhesus monkeys, showing that the vaccine can protect both mother and fetus from harm.

Tripods might be popular in science fiction, but there are no truly three-limbed animals, living or extinct, on Earth. Tracy Thomson has been thinking about why that may be, and the value of considering what evolution cannot do.

Ecosystems dominated by high-powered competitors are more efficient at recycling nutrients than low-powered systems, argues UC Davis paleontologist Geerat Vermeij in a new paper. The idea ties together evolution and ecology, and explains how ecosystems may have evolved to become more efficient since life appeared on Earth.

When Biswanath Mukherjee came to UC Davis in 1987, the only telephones were landlines and the internet was something for academics and scientists. Now his work on networks -- including the first network firewall, demonstrated in his lab -- has anticipated multibillion dollar industries.

UC Davis paleontologist Ryosuke Motani and Chinese colleagues recently described a new and curious fossil. The 250 million-year-old animal was a marine reptile that seems to have lived much like the modern platypus, hunting by touch in dark or muddy water with its sensitive snout.

UC Davis paleontologist Ryosuke Motani has studied marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs for most of his career. He's now looking for new fossils in what was once an ancient sea in southern China. (Image by Levi Bernardo, via Wikimedia)

Mathematics is the language of the universe, and mathematicians can use this language to help people better understand the world. I talked to some UC Davis mathematicians about the problems they work on and why they are important. From quantum computers to the movement of subatomic particles and microorganisms swimming through fluids, it’s a journey that takes in Ancient Greece, the lining of your lungs, dead ends in 19th century physics and artificial intelligence. Read more here: https://www.ucdavis.edu/curiosity/news/exploring-frontiers-mathematics

A year ago this week, a series of fires broke out in Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties, one of California’s best-known wine growing regions. While 90 percent of the grapes in Napa County had been harvested, a few vineyards still had grapes on the vine, including at the UC Davis experimental station in Oakville. Wildfire smoke can ruin wine. Anita Oberholster, a viticulture and enology extension specialist at UC Davis has been researching so-called smoke taint, in hopes of finding ways to mitigate the effects.

Traumatic experiences, such as maltreatment as children, can influence how our mind and body react to stressful situations. UC Davis psychologist Paul Hastings and colleagues at the University of Washington have shown that intensive training for parents referred to Child Protective Services can improve physiological reactions to stress in their young children.

We know that previous experience can affect how we remember things, but how does this work at a molecular level? UC Davis neuroscientist Brian Wiltgen talks about previous work showing how new memories can build on existing networks.

Spinal injuries are life changing, but research is showing that the body is better than thought at adapting to and recovering from injury. UC Davis bioengineer Karen Moxon talks about how therapies can help rats can take steps after spinal injury. More information: https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/working-around-spinal-injuries

UC Davis biologist Harris Lewin talks about the Earth BioGenome Project, an ambitious effort to sequence the DNA of all complex life on Earth. The organizers plan to make the data available for research while also making sure source countries and traditional owners benefit.

For Judy Callis, teaching is about helping students make connections, between the biochemistry they learn in her lectures, what they have learned in other classes and their own life experiences. Now Callis, a biochemist who studies the ubiquitin protein system in plants, has been awarded the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement, UC Davis top prize for teaching.

20 years ago Putah Creek near the UC Davis campus was a dry, trash-filled ditch. Then a lawsuit led to the Putah Creek Accord, which mandated year-round water flows to help protect fish and habitat. Kat Kerlin hears how restoring water has brought the creek back to life.

Glass and wine have gone together for thousands of years. A new book, "The Glass of Wine" by Jim and Penelope Shackelford, explores the science, history and artistry that goes into this perfect pairing.

When fires ripped through suburban Santa Rosa last year they may have done more than reduce homes to ashes. They could have created unknown or previously unrecognized health hazards in the smoke and ash. UC Davis graduate student Gabby Black is part of the team trying to figure out what is in the ash and air.

Studying Prozac in Monkeys by Andy Fell, UC Davis

If you’ve ever tried to untangle a pair of earbuds, you’ll understand how loops and cords can get twisted up. DNA can get tangled in the same way. UC Davis biomathematician Mariel Vazquez talks about her work on the math of how DNA can be cut and reconnected. The math involved turns out to be involved in other fields as well.

For the first time, astronomers have observed an object through both visible light and gravitational waves. UC Davis physicist Stefano Valenti, one of the astronomers whose telescopes recorded the colliding neutron stars, talks about the discovery.

Conventional wisdom says that our eyes are drawn to objects that stand out from the background. But this "magpie theory" of visual attention is wrong, says John Henderson of the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain. A new study from Henderson's lab shows that attention is drawn to areas of a scene that are "meaningful" instead.