Lorena Anderson

A group of interdisciplinary scientists have put the practice of science itself under a microscope to begin quantifying the fundamental drivers of scientific discovery and to help develop tools and policies aimed at improving the scientific endeavor.

An article co-written by 14 researchers from various universities including UC Merced, lays out a framework that could pave the way to improving the current researcher-evaluation system. Many people say the current system stifles younger researchers, especially those working at the intersections of disciplines.

With race, immigration, rising inequality, gender discrimination and collective mobilization grabbing current headlines, the work of the UC Merced sociology unit — always relevant locally — is gaining wider recognition across the country.

Professor Laura Giuliano isn’t the only female economics faculty member at UC Merced, but she is the only faculty member who worked in the Obama administration before joining the campus.

As a senior labor economist supporting the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, Giuliano and her colleagues played a big role in policy written during the last administration.

Topics ranging from ethnobotany, public health and feminism to agriculture, urban growth and social movements are among the highlights of the Mesoamerican Studies Center’s upcoming conference at UC Merced.

If you’ve ever wondered why people stand where they do on the political spectrum, science might have at least part of the answer: People can be biologically predisposed to certain feelings toward politics and society.

A new paper lead-authored by UC Merced graduate student Chelsea Coe indicates that physiological factors can predict how someone will react when presented with political scenarios — an idea that demonstrates an emerging area of study, the intersection of biology and politics.

Jazz musicians riffing with each other, humans talking to each other and pods of killer whales all have interactive conversations that are remarkably similar to each other, new research reveals.

Archaeologists have been asking where high-elevation populations came from for decades; how they are going about answering the question, however, is new.

“Fifty years ago, I would have consulted other archaeologists,” UC Merced Professor Mark Aldenderfer said. “It used to be the one archeologist who led a dig with assistants. It was much more insulated. Now, you can’t answer interesting questions about the past without a team of scientists.”

Examining the power of gender seems like a topic built for today.

But UC Merced history Professor Susan Dwyer Amussen’s new book, “Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1640: Turning the World Upside Down” examines the cultural, social and political history of England and the ways the image of an upside-down world was used to convey the “proper” roles for men and women during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

“Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.” — William S. Burroughs

The economic and educational advantages of having a University of California campus in the San Joaquin Valley are easy to measure — just look at the thousands of alumni contributing to the region, hundreds of staff members boosting the local economy, and professors conducting research that directly and indirectly benefits society.

Two UC Merced cognitive scientists spent part of their summer in India this year, teaching neuroscience to a group of exiled Tibetan Buddhist monks.