A team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine has found that negative pressure rooms, which are used in hospitals and laboratories to prevent the spread of deadly pathogens, can be compromised by an attacker using a smartphone. … “Someone could play a piece of music loaded on their smartphone or get it to transmit from a television or other audio device in or near a negative pressure room,” said senior co-author Mohammad Al Faruque, UCI professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have identified the atomic-scale mechanisms that improve superconductivity in an iron-based material.

The next series of storms will build an even deeper snowpack that is now more than 200% of normal. As it melts into streams, water managers are hoping the water can be captured. However, others are worried that weather extremes caused by climate change could quickly melt the snow and cause devastating consequences. "Snow is like a natural reservoir," said UC Irvine engineering professor Amir Aghakouchak.

Just how much beach has been lost at Bolsa Chica through the years? UCI lead researcher [graduate student] Daniel Kahl analyzed satellite data for The Orange County Register to give a sense of how severe the erosion has been in recently flooded areas. He said the Bolsa Chica beach had been losing 2 feet of width per year, on average, since 1985, but that rate increased to 14.8 feet per year in 2020 and 2021, the latest data available.

David Kisailus is a professor of materials science and engineering at UC Irvine and a co-author of the study. He said: ‘This process achieves two goals at the same time. ‘On the one hand, it helps remove human urine from wastewater streams, mitigating environmental pollution and the buildup of unwanted nutrients. On the other hand, it produces a material that can be commercially marketed for use in a variety of settings.’ Read More

For University of California, Irvine, materials scientist David Kisailus, the diabolical ironclad beetle isn’t just a curiosity—it’s inspiration. … Namely, natural selection has invented an ingenious structure that keeps the insect from flattening, a structure that Kisailus has begun to mine for inspiration to engineer new super-strong materials. “We're pretty stoked, because we think we can go to aircraft, automotive, sporting goods industries with this kind of design,” says Kisailus.

But with snow from the last storm still piled high in the mountains, concerns are growing about the rain combining with snowmelt to generate flooding, especially in the mountain canyons with creeks that could overflow. "Those collector creeks that are capturing all that snowmelt and rainfall at the same time are going to be seeing some of the highest flows we've seen in some time," said [Professor] Brett Sanders, a climate engineering expert at University of California, Irvine.