Research
Our bodies, with all their different features and variations, are the result of well-orchestrated processes that dictate what and how cells develop into the organs and tissues that comprise our anatomy. Much of the information is genetic — the result of DNA — and biochemical signals also play a role. Yet another, and still somewhat mysterious, mechanism for embryonic development exists in the tiny mechanical forces that cells exert on each other in the process.
A marine bivalve inspires researchers to find a new way to make stronger, more stretchy polymers
The Department is excited to announce that our graduate student Simone Stewart has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship!
UCSB’s experiment, from the Luzzatto-Fegiz Laboratory, has been included in the first 8k video filmed in space, which showcases the broad range of research aboard the ISS. The experiment appears around the 1:30 mark. Below you can find a video and the full article from NASA or check out the NASA website: https://www.nasa.gov/8k-science.
It’s summertime at the Dead Sea, and for locals and visitors alike enjoying the large saltwater lake shared by Israel, Jordan and Palestine, that means sun, sand and … snow?
Gravity affects everything on Earth at all times, from tiny particles binding and bubbles rising to how flames spread. But there are other forces at work as well – and one important way to study them is to eliminate gravity as a factor. That’s why NSF partners to send research projects into orbit with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, manager of the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory, under a cooperative agreement with NASA.
In work that has appeared in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Paolo, Yangying and collaborators have shown that SARS-CoV-2 is inactivated by sunlight at a rate that is an order of magnitude faster than predicted by established theories.
In 2017, UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineer Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz and colleagues published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explaining that they had solved a mystery in fluid flow. Now, he has been awarded a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to develop a theory of the phenomenon. In addition, he and UCSB mechanical engineer Frederic Gibou, along with collaborators at the University of Manchester, have received a joint US-UK grant to extend their work to high-speed, turbulent flows.