Lorena Anderson

A team of international researchers has discovered that a simple chemical treatment can enhance the strength and reliability of one of the world’s thinnest materials for use in future electronics.

The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates that treating monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) with a specialized acid not only repairs tiny defects in the material but also enhances its durability and electrical conductivity consistency.

In addition to being used recreationally, marijuana and cannabidiol, or CBD, one of the cannabinoids produced by the marijuana plant, are thought to have medical benefits such as helping with chemotherapy-induced nausea, treating epilepsy, relieving pain and helping with a variety of mental health issues.

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology Professor Chris Amemiya, former interim director of the Health Sciences Research Institute, has been honored by the Pan American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (PASEDB) with the Service Award.

Professor Andy LiWang knows what makes us tick, at least at a cellular level.

His research into the mechanisms of the oldest biological clock known to humankind has led him to understand how proteins — and hence cells — can tell time.

It has also led the UC Merced biochemist to become this year's recipient of the prestigious Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin award, sponsored by the Rigaku Corporation and given by The Protein Society (TPS).

An average of more than 1 million acres of idled farmland a year is a significant contributor to a growing dust problem in California that has implications for millions of residents’ health and the state’s climate.

A group of researchers at UC Merced has found that climate change means it takes about three months longer for California to recover from drought, and probably longer.

“Climate change has fundamentally changed the odds of getting out of drought. It has weighted the dice,” said Emily Williams, a postdoctoral scholar with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute. “This is happening because of warming in summer months, and a good portion of it is because of human-caused climate change.”