Media Watch Archives
Source of near-indestructible beetle’s toughness discovered
BBC Science Focus -
“The ironclad is a terrestrial beetle, so it’s not lightweight and fast but built more like a little tank,” said David Kisailus, professor of materials science & engineering at UCI and principal investigator on the study. “That’s its adaptation: It can’t fly away, so it just stays put and lets its specially designed armour take the abuse until the predator gives up.” Read More
Meet the diabolical ironclad beetle. It’s almost uncrushable
The New York Times -
In 2015, Jesus Rivera filmed a very unusual science experiment for posterity. On the asphalt of a sun-soaked parking lot, he placed a mottled black beetle on a pillow of dirt and had a colleague run it over with a Toyota Camry. Twice. Just about any other bug would have died. This one, a species called Phloeodes diabolicus, did not. … “That would jellify a human,” said David Kisailus, an engineer at the University of California, Irvine, who mentored Dr. Rivera’s work. [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: AccessNYT.com] Read More
To batteries and beyond: With seasonal storage potential, hydrogen offers 'a different ballgame entirely'
Utility Dive -
Jack Brouwer started thinking about the potential of using hydrogen to store massive amounts of energy around 12 years ago. … Brouwer, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine, took the idea to the U.S. Department of Energy … But the agency didn’t move forward with the idea so Brouwer and a group of his students began researching the issue. In 2013, they published a paper … That paper caught the attention of some people at Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) — the nation’s largest gas utility …. The discussion led to a demonstration project that was set up at UC Irvine’s campus in 2016, Brouwer said, that made renewable hydrogen from solar power using an electrolyzer. Read More
New lab-on-a-chip can help reduce resistance to cancer therapies
AZoNano -
“Our work has potential applications in single-cell studies, in tumor heterogeneity studies and, perhaps, in point-of-care cancer diagnostics—especially in developing nations where cost, constrained infrastructure and limited access to medical technologies are of the utmost importance,” says co-author Rahim Esfandyarpour, UCI assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science as well as biomedical engineering. Read More
Meet the other kind of electric car: Hydrogen fuel cell EVs
Spectrum News1 -
Hydrogen gas is charged in kilograms, rather than gallons. It currently costs about $12 per kilogram. The equivalent gasoline cost is about $6 per gallon. University of California, Irvine researchers project that hydrogen will be cost-competitive with gasoline by 2030. Read More
Biochip innovation combines AI and nanoparticle printing for cancer cell analysis
Phys.org -
Electrical engineers, computer scientists and biomedical engineers at the University of California, Irvine have created a new lab-on-a-chip that can help study tumor heterogeneity to reduce resistance to cancer therapies. … "Cancer cell and tumor heterogeneity can lead to increased therapeutic resistance and inconsistent outcomes for different patients," said lead author Kushal Joshi, a former UCI graduate student in biomedical engineering. The team's novel biochip addresses this problem by allowing precise characterization of a variety of cancer cells from a sample. Read More
Can the US catch up in the green hydrogen economy?
Green Tech Media -
Hydrogen to power fuel cells will also augment battery-powered vehicles in decarbonizing the transportation sector, particularly for vehicles requiring long range and fast refueling times such as long-haul trucks, Jack Brouwer, a professor at the University of California at Irvine and associate director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC), said in a Monday webinar introducing the report. Read More
UCI Advanced Power and Energy Program to research making steel with renewable resources
Technology.org -
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded UCI’s Advanced Power and Energy Program $5.7 million to lead an effort to develop novel processes for manufacturing steel without greenhouse gas emissions. … The UCI team is led by APEP director Jack Brouwer, professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering …. Along with its partners, the UCI team will demonstrate that its hydrogen production technology is more efficient and produces lower emissions than current technology. Read More
Population distribution can greatly impact COVID-19 spread, study finds
Medical Xpress -
"Social networks aren't smooth and tidy. They're rough and irregular, so diseases like COVID-19 that are transmitted through intensive contact can spread very unevenly," said co-author Carter Butts, UCI professor of sociology. "This results in some communities getting hit much earlier and a lot harder than others, even within the same area. Those different experiences can shape individuals' understanding of infection risk, impact their willingness to take protective actions, and potentially stress healthcare delivery systems in ways that are not captured well by standard epidemiological projections." Read More
The United States has become a disaster area
The Atlantic -
Researchers who study this tangled web of crises call them “cascading disasters”—disasters that trigger other disasters like falling dominoes. As the climate warms, they are becoming increasingly common. Many risk analysts, though, still treat each disaster as a discrete event, according to Amir AghaKouchak at UC Irvine and Farshid Vahedifard at Mississippi State University. Read More