Author: University of California, Riverside

  • Genetic Changes Help Mosquitoes Survive Pesticide Attacks

    For decades, chemical pesticides have been the most important way of controlling insects like the Anopheles mosquito species that spreads malaria to humans. Unfortunately, the bugs have fought back, evolving genetic shields to protect themselves and their offspring from future attacks.

  • Water Conservation Can Have Unintended Consequences

    Conventional wisdom dictates water conservation can only benefit communities affected by drought. But researchers at the University of California, Riverside have deduced that indoor residential conservation can have unintended consequences in places where systems of wastewater reuse have already been implemented, diminishing both the quantity and quality of influent available for treatment.

  • New dust sources resulting from a shrinking Salton Sea have negative ecological and health impacts

    Scientists at the University of California, Riverside investigating the composition of particulate matter(PM) and its sources at the Salton Sea have found that this shrinking lake in Southern California is exposing large areas of dry lakebed, called playa, that are acting as new dust sources with the potential to impact human health.“Playas have a high potential to act…

  • Infected Insects Cause a Stink

    Tiny eel-like creatures called nematodes are surrounding us. While they can be free-living (a cup of soil or seawater contains thousands), the most well-known nematodes are the parasitic kind that wreak havoc in people, animals and plants.

  • How Insects Decide to Grow Up

    Scientists discover key mechanism that controls when fruit flies sexually matureLike humans, insects go through puberty. The process is known as metamorphosis. Examples include caterpillars turning into butterflies and maggots turning into flies.But, it has been a long-standing mystery as to what internal mechanisms control how insects go through metamorphosis and why it is irreversible.