Materials & Matter

Grant Funds Research into Fungal Structures

December 4, 2024

Photo depicts Professor Debora Lyn Porter and a blue and gold background.

Mushrooms are pretty amazing. They are light and porous yet have a high strength-to-weight ratio. They are absorbent. They can serve as filters. Manufacturing a material that mimics mushrooms and other fungal structures could provide opportunities in any number of areas, ranging from aerospace...

Photo depicts drones delivering water to crops.

Research Center Aimed at New Ways to Make Natural Rubber

Natural rubber is used in a wide range of products used throughout the globe. Lab-produced rubber works for many applications but is insufficient for vital items like airplane tires and specialty...

Physics-based Modeling Reveals Surprising Behavior of Blood Clots

A group of researchers, including physicists from UC Merced, has made discoveries about the mechanics of blood clots that could help in the development of biomaterials for tissue engineering and...

A flexible material that gets stronger the more it is hit and conducts electricity is shown.

Stretchy Material That Gets Stronger When Hit Has Exciting Potential

Much of the work Yue (Jessica) Wang does at UC Merced sounds like science fiction: She creates flexible material that gets stronger the more you hit it. And it conducts electricity. Science, yes....

Professor Ajay Gopinathan and CCBM Executive Director Carrie Kouadio

New Summer Research Opportunities for Undergraduates from Across U.S.

The National Science Foundation awarded a team, led by principal investigators Professor Ajay Gopinathan and Carrie Kouadio, funding to establish a summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (...

Professor Claire Lukens, right, and recent graduate Kolleen Peyakov measure the geochemistry of a rock using an XRF spectrometer.

Lukens’ Latest Research Tracks Sediment’s Journey in the Eastern Sierra

Rocks, from ponderous boulders to tiny grains of sand, are subject to the whims of moisture, weather and time as they tumble from surrounding slopes into rivers, pools and lakes. UC Merced...

New Partnership Offers Ph.D. Students a Path to Pedagogical Excellence

Graduate student Samuel Leventini comes from a long line of educators, and the tribology researcher thinks he might want to follow in those footsteps. Thanks to a new supplemental grant from the...

Most of the Universe Composed of Dark Energy, Researchers Show

A UC Merced researcher and her teammates around the world have succeeded in measuring the total amount of matter in the universe for the second time. A new paper in the Astrophysical Journal,...

Department of Energy Awards $37 Million to Build Research Capacity

Five faculty members from the School of Natural Sciences received grants recently from the Department of Energy (DOE) under its Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) initiative. To...

Mega-Interstellar Structure Fuels Undergraduate’s Winning Research

Big-wave surfing is a thing these days, but hardly anyone is riding a wave as big as the one Biviana Oseguera is on. The physics major is studying the 9,000-light-year long Radcliffe Wave, a...

Research