Driven by Curiosity Content

Fish Evolution Accelerated After Adapting to Eat off Hard Surfaces

Andy Fell — April 28, 2026 - 1:47pm

Why are there so many species of coral reef fish? According to a new study, it’s because about 50 million years ago, some fish figured out how to bite food from hard surfaces.

Evolution doesn’t proceed at an even pace: Species evolve in jumps and spurts, followed by lulls. These periods of rapid diversification usually occur after a dramatic environmental change or upheaval, or when a lineage develops a new “innovation” that allows them to use a previously inaccessible resource. For fish, the ability to feed from a hard surface was one such innovation.

UC STEM Fest to Inspire Kids with Science and Engineering

Andy Fell — April 27, 2026 - 3:19pm

Hundreds of local schoolchildren will get hands-on exposure to science, technology, engineering and math at the 2026 UC STEM Fest, to be held Saturday, May 2 from 9 a.m. to noon at Rex & Margaret Fortune Early College High School in Elk Grove.

Egghead Weekend Basket for April 24

Andy Fell — April 24, 2026 - 12:22pm

This week's round up of research ranges from plant clones to wildfires with a detour into helping families in poverty. Also, geese.

Propagating plants without mutations

A cool thing about plants is that you can generally grown an entire new copy of a plant from any small piece of it. People have been doing this for centuries by growing plants from cuttings.

Not All Clones Are Created Equal

Andy Fell — April 24, 2026 - 11:12am

Plant scientists use clones for their research, but they’re different from the kind people grow from cuttings. Scientists grow these clones in Petri dishes by the thousands, along with a potential headache: The resulting little plants can carry loads of mutations that must be culled out for research to continue.

Egghead Weekend Basket for April 17

Andy Fell — April 17, 2026 - 2:56pm

It's the 112th UC Davis Picnic Day tomorrow (April 18) and whether your tastes run to cockroach races or fashion, there's something for every taste on campus. A rundown from Dateline and highlights of arts activities here.

And in research news from the past couple of weeks:

Shields Up! Cosmic Rays a Challenge for Deep Space Travel

Andy Fell — April 09, 2026 - 10:38am

One of the big challenges with traveling to the Moon and beyond is protecting both human bodies and the electronics that support them in space against the onslaught of radiation from the sun and the rest of the universe.

Egghead Weekend Basket for April 3

Andy Fell — April 03, 2026 - 2:50pm

Back from Spring Break, here's a roundup of UC Davis research news from the past week.

Light Bends Perovskite Crystal Lattice, Opening Way to New Devices

Andy Fell — March 31, 2026 - 4:08pm

New types of semiconductor devices that respond to light could be possible using materials called perovskites, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The work, published March 3 in Advanced Materials, shows that halide perovskite crystals reversibly change shape when exposed to light.

No, They Don’t Eat Mosquitoes

Andy Fell — March 30, 2026 - 3:38pm

Some folks call them "Mosquito Hawks" or "Daddy Long Legs" or "Skeeter Eaters." But they're not hawks, they're not arachnids, and they don't eat mosquitoes. They are crane flies, members of the family Tipulidae of the order Diptera (flies).

With the temperatures rising, crane flies are everywhere right now, looking for mates. They are landing on your plants, bumping into walls and windows, and getting tangled (and eaten) in spider webs.

Where Do Sturgeon Go?

Andy Fell — March 24, 2026 - 10:56am

White sturgeon can grow to 12 feet long and live for a hundred years. Despite this, not a great deal is known about the lives of these ancient fish as they move between rivers, estuaries and the ocean. Recently, UC Davis researchers published a study of how white sturgeon move around the San Francisco Estuary and Sacramento river system as they grow and mature. The research shows how white sturgeon face environmental hazards, fishing and other threats over their lives.