Human evolution is like a tightrope walker with viruses – in a delicate balance. Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), once part of ancient retroviral infections, are now permanently fixed in our genome. Most of them, including human ERVs (HERVs), like landmines buried in the past, accumulate mutations... click to read more

Vapor condensing on your mirror after a shower, molten iron cooling into solid bars, and diamonds forming under intense pressure – these are all examples of phase transitions, when a material transforms from one state to another. But while phase transitions are defined by their... click to read more

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are elongated and narrow bands of clouds and high-water vapor content which advect warm and moist air masses from the tropics toward the poles. ARs are believed to account for most of the annual moisture transport from the tropics into mid and... click to read more

Why are some communities more burdened by air pollution than others? People of color including Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans are more likely to live in neighborhoods with poor air quality. Breathing dirty air aggravates asthma and heart disease and is estimated to cause 100,000... click to read more

Quasicrystals are materials with a quasiperiodic atomic arrangement, meaning that their atoms are in an ordered structure, like normal crystals, but this structure does not repeat itself at regular intervals.  Such atomic configuration has strong impacts on the physical properties of these materials. Quasicrystals are... click to read more