The Sustainable LA Grand Challenge (SLA GC) is looking for undergraduate students ready to make a sustainable difference in Los Angeles and beyond!
The SLA GC Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) is an intensive and highly competitive interdisciplinary program that unites undergraduates in their first research experiences in the field of sustainability from a multitude of perspectives including science and engineering, arts, humanities, public policy and more.
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California had its worst wildfire season on record in 2020 — enduring seven of the 20 largest wildfires in state history and suffering more than $16 billion in property damage. This dire reality is spurring an unprecedented response in academia, government and the private sector, as outlined in a special webinar hosted by UC Center Sacramento entitled “Do we have the science, tools and policies needed to predict wildfire and its impacts in California?”
Jonathan Flint (UCLA behavioral geneticist, expert in the genetic determinants of depression and Depression Grand Challenge Executive Committee team member) shared background about the theory of the “warrior gene” in a blog post written for the Oxford University Press. Since the 1990s criminal defense lawyers have tried to argue that a mutation in the “warrior gene” mitigates responsibility for aggressive behavior. Flint highlights a 2021 New Mexico Supreme Court case which definitively ended the argument that a single gene mutation determines overall behavior.
A group of UCLA engineers has become the first university team to win the grand prize in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE global competition. By mitigating the carbon footprint of concrete, the team’s invention could eventually be a major step in the global battle against climate change.
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A new study (PDF) published by the California State Water Board and supported by UCLA research identifies a risk for failure among a significant portion of the state’s small and medium-sized public water systems. The report is the first comprehensive analysis of how clean water is provided in California, and it estimates how much it would actually cost to deliver safe water to every resident.
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