Katherine Connor, UC San Diego | March 5, 2021 If you are going to buy a face mask to protect yourself and others from COVID-19, make sure it’s a three-layered mask. You might have already heard this recommendation, but researchers have now found an additional reason why three-layered masks are safer than single or double-layered alternatives. While this advice was ... Continue Reading »
UC San Diego
Fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke more harmful than pollution from other sources
By Robert Monroe, UC San Diego | March 5, 2021 Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego examining 14 years of hospital admissions data conclude that the fine particles in wildfire smoke can be several times more harmful to human respiratory health than particulate matter from other sources such as car exhaust. While this distinction has been ... Continue Reading »
Sewage-handling robots help predict COVID-19 outbreaks
By Heather Buschman, UC San Diego | March 3, 2021 In earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic, before diagnostic testing was widely available, it was difficult for public health officials to keep track of the infection’s spread, or predict where outbreaks were likely to occur. Attempts to get ahead of the virus are still complicated by the fact that people can be infected and ... Continue Reading »
Novel drug prevents amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease
By Scott LaFee, UC San Diego | March 2, 2021 Amyloid plaques are pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) — clumps of misfolded proteins that accumulate in the brain, disrupting and killing neurons and resulting in the progressive cognitive impairment that is characteristic of the widespread neurological disorder. In a new study, published March 2, 2021 in ... Continue Reading »
Poorer mental health smolders after deadly, devastating wildfire
By Scott LaFee, UC San Diego | February 09, 2021 In 2018, a faulty electric transmission line ignited the Camp Fire in Northern California, ultimately consuming 239 square miles and several communities, including the town of Paradise, which was 95 percent destroyed. At least 85 people died. Structures have been rebuilt, but some things are worse. In a paper published ... Continue Reading »
Computer analyses of cough sounds reveal infection by COVID
By Doug Ramsey, Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego | February 5, 2021 Millions of people already use Fitbit and other devices to monitor and track a variety of personal health metrics. Now, a researcher at the University of California San Diego has published data indicating that analyzing voice signals can detect COVID-19 infection when compared with sample audio ... Continue Reading »
New skin patch brings us closer to wearable, all-in-one health monitor
By Liezel Labios, UC San Diego | February 18, 2021 Engineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a soft, stretchy skin patch that can be worn on the neck to continuously track blood pressure and heart rate while measuring the wearer’s levels of glucose as well as lactate, alcohol or caffeine. It is the first wearable device that monitors ... Continue Reading »
Deepfake detectors can be defeated, computer scientists show for the first time
Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego February 8, 2021—Systems designed to detect deepfakes --videos that manipulate real-life footage via artificial intelligence--can be deceived, computer scientists showed for the first time at the WACV 2021 conference, which took place online Jan. 5 to 9, 2021. Researchers showed detectors can be defeated by inserting inputs ... Continue Reading »
Breaking Bad: How Shattered Chromosomes Make Cancer Cells Drug-Resistant
Cancer is one of the world’s greatest health afflictions because, unlike some diseases, it is a moving target, constantly evolving to evade and resist treatment. In a paper published in the December 23, 2020 online issue of Nature, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the UC San Diego branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer ... Continue Reading »
Surveys Identify Relationship between Waves, Coastal Cliff Erosion
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego researchers have uncovered how rain and waves act on different parts of coastal cliffs. Following three years of cliff surveys in and near the coastal city of Del Mar, Calif., they determined that wave impacts directly affect the base, and rain mostly impacts the upper region of the cliffs. The study appears in the ... Continue Reading »