Media Watch

Makani Science is developing a wearable respiration monitor using a popular children’s toy. The Irvine-based medtech startup’s product is a bandage-sized patch made from plastic sheets that shrink when heated. The company says the product provides continuous monitoring to help detect disruptions in someone’s breathing. ... Makani is an accumulation of over 10 years of research done by University of California, Irvine biomedical engineering professor Michelle Khine. Khine co-founded the company alongside one of her past doctoral students Michael Chu, who is now chief technology office ... Read More

California’s current energy mix would result in 11 kilograms of carbon emissions for every kilogram of hydrogen produced ... The Treasury Department’s solution to such problems is to offer tax credits to hydrogen producers who ensure that their electricity comes from clean sources that adds to existing clean electricity already on the grid. That would prevent producers from monopolizing the grid’s renewable power. They would also have to confirm that the clean power goes to electrolyzers as it is generated. Such requirements could “delay the advancement of clean renewable hydrogen production in California,” said Jack Brouwer, director of the Clean Energy Institute at UC Irvine, at the hearing in Sacramento. He was heavily involved in preparing California’s hydrogen hub application. Read More

Researchers have uncovered a new remarkable metal alloy that doesn’t crack at extreme temperatures due to kinking, or bending, of crystals in the alloy at the atomic level. Unlike most materials, the new alloy displays impressive strength and toughness at extremely hot and cold temperatures, a combination that seemed nearly impossible to achieve until now. … The research was carried out by a team led by Robert Ritchie at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley, in collaboration with the groups led by professors Diran Apelian at UC Irvine and Enrique Lavernia at Texas A&M University. Read More

“Our research sheds light on a previously unrecognized aspect of deep sleep brain activity,” says lead author Mengke Wang, formerly an undergraduate student in biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine, who is now a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University (Wang conducted the study while at UC Irvine). “We’ve discovered that the hippocampus, typically associated with memory formation, plays a crucial role in generating slow waves and sleep spindles, offering new insights into how these brain waves support memory processing during sleep.” Read More