UCLA engineers recycle old method in new application to cool powerful transistors

A team of UCLA engineers have taken an old spray-cooling method and applied it to silicon-based transistors. The result is a new method to cool down powerful transistors like those found in electric cars, aircraft, radar stations and personal computers. Transistors work by amplifying electric current in various types of electronic devices, from household items […]

Altruism is evolutionary instinct says UCLA professor in new book

Greedy corporate executives, greedy athletes, and greedy politicians have loomed large in popular culture and the national news over the past few months. But the apparently natural human instinct to be selfish has been over-emphasized for too long, according to UCLA professor Shelley Taylor in her new book. In “The Tending Instinct: How Nurturing Is […]

UCLA pediatric unit to try laughter as part of treatment

“Take two Charlie Chaplins and a small dose of the Simpsons and call me in the morning.” This is the kind of prescription UCLA doctors hope to one day prescribe. Hollywood and UCLA Jonsson Cancer center researchers have come together in an unusual partnership to conduct the first project ever to use humor as a […]

Number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains up due to improper use, prescription

Medicine has come a long way since the 1940s. Back then, even a simple infected cut could be life-threatening. Then the discovery of penicillin and a number of other antibiotics changed this. Today, from ear infections to anthrax, antibiotics are now routinely prescribed to treat various medical conditions caused by bacteria. While these “miracle drugs” […]

UCLA study reveals leptin’s effect on human health and development

Since its discovery almost a decade ago, the believed benefits of the “anti-obesity hormone” called leptin has fluctuated back and forth. The hormone first caused a stir when scientists announced they could cause fat mice to lose weight by injecting them with the weight-regulating hormone. But then, as a panacea for human obesity, it failed. […]