Scientists

Scientists have invented a new material that is so lightweight it can sit atop a fluffy dandelion without crushing the little fuzzy seeds. It's so lightweight, Styrofoam is 100 times heavier. It is so lightweight, in fact, that the research team consisting of scientists at UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech say in the peer-reviewed Nov. 18 issue of Science that it is the lightest material on Earth, and no one has asked them to run a correction yet. That's light! The material has been dubbed "ultralight metallic microlattice," and according to a news release sent out by UCI, it consists of 99.99% air thanks to its "microlattice" cellular architecture.

Deepa Bharath NEWPORT BEACH -- Three Caltech scientists trying to collect water samples Tuesday on a boat off Newport Harbor got a lot more of the ocean than they anticipated. Giant waves and powerful winds toppled their 24-foot powerboat and left the researchers flailing in the frigid water for close to half an hour, officials said. The men suffered from mild hypothermia but were not injured, officials said. Newport Beach harbor patrol officers got a mayday call from the men's boat about 1 p.m. They were able to give an exact location because they had a global positioning system on board.

While scientists have long understood information passes between brain cells researchers at UC Irvine have discovered the information is also processed on the road in between, also known as the axon. The discovery adds a new wrinkle to understanding cognitive processes and treating psychological disorders. As assistant project scientist, Hideki Kawai explained, first imagine a tree. Nutrients in the ground (the information) are sent through the roots (dendrites). From there, the nutrients move up the tree trunk (axon)

In June, scientists managed to replace the genetic identity of one bacterium with that of a second microbe. Other scientists are working to construct life from scratch. These and other recent scientific advances have ethicists asking themselves one of civilization’s most eternal questions: What is life? The Daily Pilot, though, merely wants to ask, How do you think science’s rapidly growing ability to alter and create life after the mapping of the human genome will change religion in the 21st Century?

They won’t be invited to Stockholm, but that’s OK with the nine UC Irvine scientists who have contributed to the environmental reports that won the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change its share of a Nobel Peace Prize. They were never really after the glory, just the work. Michael Prather, a UCI earth system science professor, researcher and a lead author for the panel’s reports dating back to 1995, said he appreciated how the Nobel committee named the entire organization as the beneficiary of the award.

Scientists have made a discovery that could help them better treat cancer and cholesterol, according to a new UCI study. Polyketides, organic compounds used in top selling drugs to treat cholesterol problems and cancer, have been a mystery to scientists for years. But UCI scientists have discovered how polyketides form their ringlike shape, which may allow for easier manipulation and drug creation, according to a study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The next time someone says they have no recollection of a particular incident, you may want to ask them to rephrase that, because a new study out of UC Irvine suggests otherwise. According to Jeff Johnson of UCI’s Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, scientists discovered that a person’s brain activity when they remember something is very similar to the brain activity when they’re first experiencing it. This means that when you can’t clearly recollect something, it’s not a matter of not having an actual physical memory of the event, but a failure of your brain to retrieve it. If the details are still in the brain, that means scientists just have to figure out a way to get people to access them again, Johnson said.

UC Irvine, which has netted a number of grants and donations in recent years for its stem cell research program, got another one Tuesday, as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded the school $3.9 million to upgrade facilities and train scientists. With the latest grant, the institute has given a total of $17.5 million to UCI's Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center. The center, run by Hans Keirstead and Peter Donovan, is considered one of the finest of its kind in America.

UCI chemists have concluded that a common termite insecticide is a powerful greenhouse gas that lasts for decades in the atmosphere — far longer than originally thought. Sulfuryl fluoride lasts at least 30 or 40 years in the atmosphere, if not 100, according to a paper published by UCI scientists Mads Sulbaek Andersen, Donald Blake and Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Rowland in the journal “Environmental Science and Technology.” Scientists put the chemical in a Pyrex chamber along with well-understood gases, then simulated sunlight with lamps to watch those chemicals break down.

Alicia Robinson After working together for nine years, UC Irvine and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cemented their relationship on Wednesday with a formal pact. A friendly footing and the FDA's high-tech facility, which opened in June, will allow the two to work together on research and training and to share resources. Officials with the university and the government agency said they are thrilled with the partnership. "We're really excited to have the facility -- and more important, the people, as immediate neighbors of the campus," said William Parker, UC Irvine's vice-chancellor for research.

Bed bugs have re-emerged as an urban blight in the past several years, forcing people out of homes, resisting chemical pesticides and evading other removal tactics. But researchers are building bug-catchers inspired by an age-old folk remedy to this “ancient scourge”: kidney bean leaves. Their experiments, described in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, tested the home-grown solution and even made synthetic leaves that could help scientists devise an easy, environmentally friendly method of trapping bugs before they establish a full invasion.

Kelsey Liu said she didn't realize that she and Erik Cerros were about to be surprised on Feb. 26. They were among 12 seniors vying for two $10,000 scholarships issued by the Toshiba Classic. Liu of University High said she was told that she would need to stay after a meeting, along with Cerros of Estancia because their photo headshots supposedly needed to be re-shot. "I was just thinking: I guess I'm not photogenic," Liu said with a giggle. Turns out Liu and Cerros were told they were the winners of the scholarships.

A Costa Mesa resident who was active in his church and local emergency response organizations died Saturday. Paul Letterman Hill was a member of the Costa Mesa Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), an official city volunteer through the Mesa Emergency Services Amateur Communications program and president of the board at the First Church of Christ, Scientist. He was 76. Hill also taught CPR and first aid through the American Heart Assn. and served as the communications coordinator for the UCLA Alumni Band, of which he was a member for 37 years.

A team of astronomers that includes a leading UC Irvine scientist has found a missing link that shows how the universe's most active star-creating galaxies evolve into its largest and quietest ones billions of years later. UCI post-doctoral scholar Julie Wardlow and her colleagues accurately measured the invisible halo of dark matter — visible only through its gravitational effects on light and mass — that surrounds the universe's galaxies. "It's important in terms of galaxy evolution," Wardlow said.

Scientists have invented a new material that is so lightweight it can sit atop a fluffy dandelion without crushing the little fuzzy seeds. It's so lightweight, Styrofoam is 100 times heavier. It is so lightweight, in fact, that the research team consisting of scientists at UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech say in the peer-reviewed Nov. 18 issue of Science that it is the lightest material on Earth, and no one has asked them to run a correction yet. That's light! The material has been dubbed "ultralight metallic microlattice," and according to a news release sent out by UCI, it consists of 99.99% air thanks to its "microlattice" cellular architecture.

Irvine Ranch and UC Irvine researchers are undergoing a project that examines the ranch's native plant communities and its potentially threatening, non-native plant species. The research project is the first launched that's part of a five-year, $1-million grant awarded to UCI in November by the Irvine Co. and its chairman, Donald Bren. The researchers will scientifically investigate the ranch's environmental challenges and come up with solutions. Some of the ranch's non-native plants were brought over from the Mediterranean rim by California's early Spanish colonialists.

A trio of eighth-graders at Mariners Christian School in Costa Mesa knocked 'em dead at the Orange County Science Fair a few weeks ago, taking first, second and third place in the physics, microbiology and engineering categories. The three conducted highly complex projects for their grade level, including examining the potential for harmful rays in certain man-made lights, exploring the effectiveness of sandbags in soaking up water and studying bacteria levels in lemons from local restaurants.

The Orange County Chapter of the ARCS Foundation (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) presented $200,000 in scholarship funds to 20 graduate students at UC Irvine. At a recent awards ceremony and dinner at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center, the students were presented to the community, and their significant work in the fields of physical and biological sciences, medicine, and engineering was shared with the crowd that had come to support them. The formidable dinner event was chaired by Sue Alexopoulous and Diana Casey , attracting a distinguished crowd of Orange County citizens dedicated to the advancement of scientific education.

More than a dozen Costa Mesa High School students Tuesday operated high-power microscopes, checked the levels of acidity in samples of ocean water, then got their first gander at sea urchin eggs. It all took place inside an 80-year-old historic cottage that now serves as one of the premier state marine research facilities in Orange County. The students were the latest in a wave of high school marine classrooms to hit Crystal Cove State Park’s Marine Research Facility to learn about global warming’s detrimental effects on ocean life and water.