It's the 112th 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis Picnic Day tomorrow (April 18) and whether your tastes run to cockroach races or fashion, there's something for every taste on campus. A rundown from Dateline and highlights of arts activities here.
And in research news from the past couple of weeks:
A gene for Addison's disease in dogs means hope for people
51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis researchers have identified a gene variant associated with Addison's disease in Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers. The same gene is found in humans. The discovery could lead to new ways to address this disease, in which the immune system attacks the adrenal glands, in both dogs and humans.
Pasta wheat resistant to fungus
Pasta lovers rejoice: 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis scientists are creating varieties of durum wheat (used to make pasta) that are resistant to stripe rust fungus, which is threatening wheat crops worldwide. They are also working on resistance in wheat used to make bread.
Astronauts and deep space radiation
As the Artemis II crew rounded the Moon and headed back to Earth, 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis physicist Daniel Cebra gave a public talk about the hazards of cosmic radiation. Earth's atmosphere and magnetic fields protect us from most of this radiation, which can manifest for Earthlings as the aurora borealis. But this radiation, from both the Sun and from exploding stars and other highly energetic events in the distant universe, becomes a major problem for both electronics and humans traveling into deep space. Cebra's research with instruments such as the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory is helping to understand the problem.
A cosmic honor
Finally, TIME has named Distinguished Research Professor Tony Tyson to the of the most influential people of 2026.
About thirty years ago, Tyson had the inspiration for a different kind of telescope, one that could look wide, fast and deep to capture a detailed image of the universe and help astronomers understand what it is made of and how it came to be. The technology for this project, now called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, barely existed in the 1990s. As Chief Scientist of the project, Tyson has pushed it forward and the began releasing its first, stunning images last June. (I also have a personal interest in this project, having written my first story about it in 2005 after Tyson joined the faculty at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis.)
Enjoy a safe, fun and sunny Picnic Day.