Alexander Stanton

"The UC Davis cosmological physics department discovered post-collision galaxy clusters 5 million light years away which may hold the potential to illuminate many mysteries of the universe.

The Musket Ball Cluster, so named because it is older and slower moving than the Bullet Cluster, represents the aftermath of two galaxy clusters which moved through each other, pulled by gravity. This particular system is important largely because it is one of few known collisions and, of those known, it is the farthest along its collision path..."

"This last Sunday, UC Davis hosted its first Biodiversity Museum Day.

'We haven’t had a turn out like this since Picnic Day,' said Lynn Kimsley, professor and director for the Bohart Museum of Entomology, 'I would like to make this an annual event.'

UC Davis opened up four of its biological collections to public exhibition. The Bohart Museum of Entomology and the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology was in Academic Surge. The Center for Plant Diversity was in the Sciences Laboratory Building. The Botanical Conservatory was in the greenhouses..."

"A team of researchers at UC Davis led by Stephen McSorley, in conjunction with collaborators at UC Irvine, identified antigens on salmonella bacteria. This new discovery could lead to salmonella prevention.

Salmonella is a bacterial infection that is carried through food. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 400,000 cases of salmonella are reported in the United States alone.

Most salmonella infections are mild. Diarrhea, fever and cramps develop within three days of initial infection. These symptoms typically persist for around a week and abate without need for medical aid. However, there do exist more severe cases of salmonella in less fortunate individuals in which the infection spreads to the blood, which is often fatal..."

"Since its establishment in 1968, the Body Donation Program at the UC Davis Medical Center has promoted the education of medical students and research.

'Of the bodies donated, about half go toward anatomical education and the other half go toward research,' said Charlotte Wacker, the director of the Body Donation Program.

Donated cadavers are used at the Medical Center, the Medical School, other UC institutions and for surgical development. On the UC Davis campus, the cadavers are used primarily for graduate classes in medical gross anatomy and graduate human anatomy, but are also used in undergraduate human anatomy.

Outside of the classroom, medical residents and advanced students use the cadavers to better hone their understanding of anatomy. Similarly, surgeons learn and practice new surgical techniques that help to save lives..."

"Just about everyone has heard the saying 'Don’t go to sleep angry,' but how much truth is there behind this adage? Recent studies have shown that the sentiment is not merely an old wives’ tale.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst conducted studies that modeled exposure to negative stimuli that could make people sad or angry prior to sleep.

Patients in this study were aged between 18 and 30, consisting of 68 females and 38 males. The patients were shown a series of images and asked to rate them as happy or sad on a 1 to 9 scale, and their personal reaction as excited or calm on a 1 to 9 scale. Different groups then slept immediately after the priming or were allowed to remain awake. The next day, the patients were shown images and asked to repeat the same process of ranking..."

"I’ve often heard students swear by the warming effects of alcohol in the winter cold. Even though college always seems to be booze season, can it really help you stave off the flu and cold season?

Those of you who abide by the preachings of ethanol, I have some bad news. Alcohol actually lowers core body temperature, even though it makes you feel warmer.

That drink of hooch you sip to banish the cold acts as a vasodilator — meaning that it widens the blood vessels. This mechanism allows blood to flow closer to the skin where the nerves that perceive temperature reside. When this happens the body feels like it’s warm because it senses the warmth of the blood."