Science + Technology

For the Academy Award-winning animated film "Frozen," two UCLA mathematicians joined a team of Disney software engineers to develop an algorithm based on the material point method to create simulations of how snow behaves under various conditions.

Users of the wearable computers can take pictures of medical samples, upload them immediately to a server and receive accurate analyses in as little as eight seconds.

The device — which can be produced using a 3-D printer — would enable anyone with even minimal training to test water for toxic mercury contamination.

The UCLA researchers devised a way to produce solar cells using those materials more efficiently and cost-effectively — which could hold promise for large-scale manufacturing.

“I’ve always been interested in carrying out experiments to try to understand how things work,” said professor Richard Kaner, who knew from childhood that he wanted to become a scientist.

A $1.2 million gift from the foundation of late UCLA professor and Nobel laureate Julian Schwinger will enable UCLA to offer fellowships to the world's best physics students.

By growing larger, rangeomorphs, fern-like organisms that existed on the sea floor some 580 million years ago, were able to access nutrient-carrying ocean flows.

Professor John Villasenor, an electrical engineer in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Luskin School of Public Affairs, is a widely published writer on the intersection of technology and public policy.

The powerful Gemini Planet Imager, with an advanced spectrometer designed at UCLA, has collected its first set of images and spectra from several distant planetary systems.

A huge, historic off-campus facility gives UCLA architecture grad students the opportunity to explore how robotic technology can help design intelligent buildings.

The two-and-a-half-year UCLA study found that the protein expression of a typical gene is influenced by many more genetic variants than previously thought.

Telling a crop-fertilizing strain from its potential bioterrorist-agent cousin is tricky, said researchers whose bioinformatics analysis shed light on the Burkholderia bacteria genus.

"Many of these are the first rocks that formed anywhere in the solar system," curator John Wasson said of the gallery's 1,500 meterorite specimens.

The technique — anamorphic stretch transform — makes it possible to improve the speed and quality of data capture, and could have applications in a range of scientific research settings.

Nanomedicine has proven to be promising in fighting cancer, offering the prospect of safer and more effective imaging and drug delivery, and the ability to target tumor cells while sparing patients' healthy tissue.

Understanding the formation and loss of ultrarelativistic electrons in Earth's magnetosphere may help protect satellites, spacecraft and astronauts from the hazards these highly charged particles pose.

A scientist, together with a graduate student, used cutting-edge research tools at UCLA to help Turkish archaeologists decipher a large, neolithic mural that many believe is the world's earliest depiction of a volcanic eruption.

UC Berkeley biologist Randy Schekman, who graduated from the UCLA College of Letters and Science in 1971, received the 2013 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

To visually capture life’s unpredictability, UCLA professor Casey Reas creates stunning art using a computer language he co-created.

During a recent visit to UCLA, Schekman spoke about his passion for science, his memories of UCLA and why he's decided to donate his Nobel money to the University of California.

More than 4,000 people swarmed the Court of Sciences and Kinsey Pavilion to participate in a scientific open house where children (and adults) could learn by observing and participating in dozens of live demos and experiments.

Scientists think such jets are produced when some of the material that falls toward black holes, like our galaxy's Sagittarius A*, is redirected outward.

Flexible smartphone screens, room-illuminating curtains and nanodiamonds that deliver chemotherapy directly into tumors are among the innovations resulting from the joint work of UCLA and private industry.

For Old World primates, the variety and complexity of their facial colors and patterns play a major role in helping them identify members of their own species and communicate with one another.

The grant from the California Energy Commission will help to identify and develop new materials, methodologies and software tools for zero-net energy buildings.